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The Food Program
I have been using the food program for a yr. At 1st I was like...WHAT!? I have to do all THIS!!??? OMGosh!
Then I started doing it. I found a great ...awesome website...da da da called http://www.supercook.com/
When you 1st do it...it takes some time. But in the end you have a site that has all of your food ingredients that you contain in your kitchen. So when you feel like chicken tonight but you have no idea what to cook, this handy dandy site shows you what you can make right now with the ingredients that you have. :
: LOOOVE IT! Then I also bought for $4 an app that gives me dinners that follow the food program. That's called My Family Meal Planner.
I also do a lot of crock pot cooking! And the kids get to make their own pizzas on Fridays. They get to make 1 snack each week. And I have my assistants cook too.
In the beginning....when I first started the daycare, I was so broke! It's crazy to look back on that time and see how we were living. To make the $ stretch farther I would do shopping at the Dollar Store. Now I shop at Walmart and but mostly Great Value products. The quality is good and the price is sooo worth it! Just steer clear of the frozen broccoli. Mostly hard non edible stems.
I hope that you feel better and just remember that tomorrow is another day! happyfaceComment
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I have an attendance book and keep a tally from that to track how many meals and snacks I serve. If you want you can use the reimbursements as income and still deduct your meals at the standard allowance incase you would get more that way. For me I get more off of my taxes with the standard deduction than I did from my reimbursements so it was an unneeded step that just caused me more work.
AND you don't have to do all the components- I still serve healthy meals but I don't miss racking my brain to figure out what that second veg or fruit would be at lunch
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I know it is some work but to be honest the food program is what makes being licensed worth it. With 7 full-timers and 11-13 after school for snack I am getting between $850-$950 per month. This more than pays for the food I am providing. If I was a smaller group, I don't know if it would be worth the effort.Comment
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She may have a small group but she also mentioned in another post that her rating system is 5 tier and she can only get to tier 2 unless she goes on the food program. She also mentioned when she told her families that one DCM asked her 15 times if she was serious because DCM was so excited about it. Those are pretty good reasons to participate.Comment
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Tier 3 is what I need the food program for. Yes my parents were excited but like I posted previously, about 2 weeks ago my fridge went out and we lost all of our food. It just went out again 2 days ago and lost everything we replaced. Our landlord just brought us a new fridge yesterday but we have no money to fill it and definitely no money to invest in the food program this month. All my families have understood and said it was no biggie. I did tell them that I was still planning on joining the program its just not feasible this month and of course with the holidays coming up its even worse. On top of Christmas I have DDs Bday, DBFs Bday, My aunt, my dad and my nephew. I have nothing extra. I'll try again in January or Feb. Its not necessary for me to advance that far through the system immediately any way as they just started it and I'm only 1 of 4 participating in my county. Already looks good.Comment
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If you have renter's insurance, you should be able to claim the loss of food from your fridge malfunctioning.
I'd check with your renter's policy.
Also, this is just my opinion but if I was in such financial stress, I certainly wouldn't be out buying gifts for anyone's birthday. The people with birthdays coming up are adults and probably understand that you can't afford to buy them gifts and your DD is young enough that I'm sure putting food on the table far outweighs a birthday gift/party.Last edited by Blackcat31; 10-24-2013, 12:13 PM.Comment
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Unless it was a poser outage it is not covered. We can put food on our table but we aren't stocked up and I'm certainly not going to stress about feeding kids that aren't mine. Yea I'll be reimbursed but that doesn't help me right now. I have other things to worry about right now.Comment
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Oh wow the fridge situation has got to be stressful! Have you tried to see if your landlord would help pay for part of what was lost in both outages? I don't know if any laws would apply but it was his equipment that failed not once but twice and maybe he's kindhearted enough to help? :hug:Comment
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You should really double check your insurance policy. My SIL is an agent and she said 99% of renter insurance policies cover food loss for appliance failures when the appliance is included in the rental unit.
Most tenant/landlord laws state that if your landlord KNEW about the problems with the fridge (even if he fixed it) and it happens again causing the tenant loss, HE is responsible for replacement costs of the tenant's loss.
You stated above that it went out once and then again 2 weeks later.Comment
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No. I mentioned the amount of money we had lost and he flipped out. I didn't even ask him for anything. He complained about paying the water bills (which I pay... ) and the fact that we just had a clogged main drain and he had to pay the plumber $660.00. I also had to close for that problem since sewage was spilling into my basement and nothing could go down any drain until it was fixed. We are about ready to end our lease with this guy. We are into the first year of 3 year lease. When he complained about everything and got attitude with me I was pissed. We pay 1500.00 a month in rent and pay all the utilities. If there is a problem we expect it to be fixed without complaint...Comment
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I'd put the breaks on the dog training, and any other extras for right now.
That'll give you the time and the funds to continue the food program, which will ultimately put some much needed additional income in your pocket.
The suggestions of getting help from county assistence programs and your local food banks are good ones too. That's exactly what they're there for, to help in temporary financial crunches.Comment
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