Payday.........

Once a month when the paycheck rolls in we have a special dinner. Something that everyone likes and we can customize to the varying degrees of tastes in the house...

PIZZA!

This is a tradition that I started several years ago. When payday came up, I would get pizzas. It has also been modified to adjust to the changes in income as I am now a stay-at-home-mom.

It used to be that on that one payday a month I would go and pick up some pizzas from a chain store. Whoever had the better deal, got my business.

But now I do one of 2 things, depending on my level of energy after paying all the bills and doing my monthly shopping for non-food supplies (i.e., paper towels, TP, cleaning supplies, etc.). I split my monthly shopping into 2 groups: food and non-food. Otherwise I would have no room in the shopping cart for food.

So, my options now, to save money, rather than having someone else make the pizzas given I have a perfectly capable oven, are:

1. Make our own! Pizza crust is not as hard to make as some would have you think. But if you are still worried, there are still several methods of crust available: dry mix (simply add the wet ingredients, roll and bake); pre-made shells (simply fill and bake); or refrigerator crust (usually comes in a roll like the refrigerator biscuits and sticky buns - simply unroll, shape to pan, fill and bake). My personal favorite is to make my own crust. Then the kids help spread the sauce and the cheese and the toppings of their choice. Bake and serve. YUM!

OR

2. Buy the frozen variety of pizza and just remove from the packaging, bake and serve.

Today I was helping my mom move some stuff from storage into her place. So I was very tired (my mom loves to read and many - MANY - boxes were books). I took the cheaters way out and we had previously frozen pizzas for dinner tonight.

Not that it makes a difference to the kids! They still enjoyed. And my littlest monkey (3) even helped to load the pizzas into the oven. Such a sweetie!