Category Archives: Groceries

Thursday Thoughts

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  • Zach has been missing his two front teeth for almost 4 years, I noticed today that he has one that is grown in about half the way and a second that is starting. This is changing his appearance and I will miss my toothless wonder.
  • Lily and Kendall both had orthodontic appointments today. Kendall mouth is umm not the best. In fact, she will have a tooth pulled in September and start her first round of braces in October. We are hopefully that two sets will do the trick.
  • Lily will only need one set of braces so we will continue to wait for all her permanent teeth to come in before starting braces. Next summer is the estimate.
  • I picked up one of my two new sets of glasses today. My ordinal pair was over 2 years old and the side piece had broken. The doctor did not include bifocals on my prescription and I lasted less than 3 hours at work before calling and getting the prescription corrected. I do have a second set but of course they are on back order and will be here after my vacation.
  • Lily will officially start school on the 22nd. We are all becoming very anxious about this.
  • We have worked this month on restocking our pantry and freezers so instead of focusing on the budget, I have been focusing on eliminated waste. I have discovered several areas that I can make improvements on. First is water, I am trying to use water that we cook with instead of pouring down the drain. Second is food, we have stopped menu planning this week to focus on eating what is ripe and in our fridge that needs to be cleaned out.
  • Today was our third trip to the water park. It was a much shorter trip only four hours but we all had a blast and I am exhausted! We are hoping to squeeze one more trip in prior to public school starting.

Saving on Saturday 08/06/2016

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sos

This month we are approaching our grocery budget a little bit different. First, our summer is coming to an end. Next week is our final “slow” week of the summer followed by our beach trip. So after looking at our supplies and realizing that we are to back to school days and crazy nights. So the decision was made to go ahead and get things ready for our crazy busy life. We headed to Aldi on Wednesday night to buy some staples and make sure we had can goods. Next it was Costco on Thursday. Fortunately, Costco had an awesome sale on convenience foods and lots of things that make our lunches easy to pack in the mornings.  Zach and I also went to Walmart and grabbed 40 lunchables which were on sale for $1 each. These are awesome for the kids at the beach and also for a special lunch treat.   On Friday, I stopped at CVS to grab the laundry detergent that was on sale. This is a ton of shopping this week but I am vey happy with feeling confident for the first couple of month of fall.

Next is actually getting some things in the freezer for grab and go dinners. Matt picked up 80# of ground beef that we ordered from Zaycon on Friday afternoon.  This is some of the freshest meat we have ever received the date stamped on all the packages is July 23rd, so 2 weeks ago this was a live animal.  We decided to simple put in the freezer 20 pounds or 10 packages to use for things that call for raw meat.  Next we spent five hours, fry up and packaging the rest in one pound containers. These are also for pulling out for taco meat, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, sloppy joes, chili and stews or crock pot recipes that call for a pound of ground beef. I estimate this should last us six to nine months. This morning I made a large batch of French toast. The kids and I enjoyed some for breakfast and the rest was frozen to stick in the toaster for a quick easy breakfast.

We have a very full pantry and freezers. I plan to reduce our grocery budget to $100 in September and $300 in October. I may be able to keep it low for the rest of the year depending on how things work out with sales and how much the kids decide to eat.

July in Review

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Personal-
1. Blogging– Post 20 per month. Fail. This is post number 15. I have been working hard the last two weeks to catch up and already have some plans for the next weeks so on to better things next month.

2.Weight Loss– 175#. BLAH!

3. Spiritual– Spend at least 5 days a week, reading and studying The Bible. Nope. I am hoping to finish reading through the Bible this month and start something new.

Personal goals are a failure for the second month straight.  Not much more to say in regards to that.

Financial- 

1. Set aside money each month in every budget category. Fail

2. Establish and maintain Emergency Fund- Fail.
3. Groceries: Goal is for $550. Fail . We spent $818 in Groceries this month. I am hoping for improvements in the next 2 months but if not I will again increase the budget!

4. Gas: Spend $400 a month- Fail! We spent $424 this month including a new battery.

5. Pay off all Credit Card debit by December 2016- Fail. I am meeting bare minimal payments on everything but really was hoping to begin to get control and reduce this number.

So if you read this review you can see that we have not righted our ship yet in fact most days I think we are headed in the wrong direction. My plan PRAY!

Five Things Friday

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  1. Today is the fifth Friday of July which also means I receive my third paycheck for July. I am paid every two weeks but budget based on two checks a month. This third check will cover our trip to the beach and our grocery overages for the past couple of weeks.
  2. Tomorrow night we are planning a “girls night in” as Zach is spending the night with Amanda. Matt will be working.
  3. Tonight is the end of one of the two “quiet” weeks of the summer. Piano and cheerleading were all the activities for the week. Next week is back to busy with a trip planned to Emerald Point and the girls have sign language camp all day Friday.
  4. My best friend used the same analog yesterday to explain MPLACES as I have been thinking all along. It is like Pokémon Go, as I am always trying to “check in” places at stoplights but in two months I have earned $15 in gift cards.  MPLACES is an app on my phone, ask me more if you are interested.
  5. I have officially booked our next trip to Disney. The goal of this trip is to pay for all or as much as possible by using apps and other found money. This money will not come from our regular budget at all and does not including saving on any bills or the differences in budgeted amounts vs. amount spent.

Grocery Budget Buster

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I will be the first to admit that I don’t grocery shop like most people but I do shop in a way that over a period of a year, saves money and feeds us well.  I did excellent in the month of June of keeping cost low and even decided to reduce our monthly budget. I knew that sometime this summer, I would need to restock on meat and some other items, even last Sunday I had high hope of holding down our spending for the month. We had been to Costco twice and spent a total of $497 . But as of today that is not possible.

Last Friday, Matt texted that we were out of toilet paper so I stopped by the CVS, where I thought our preferred brand was on sale. It was on sale but not what I thought so I just grabbed one package.  The sale I was thinking about started on Sunday. Sunday night Lily and I headed back to CVS to grab the toilet paper of course and a couple of other deals. I was disappointed that I had to get a couple of rainchecks which threw off my savings. My goal is always 60% but with buying the needed toilet paper and also some additional sunscreen I ended up spending $27.25 and saving 48% or $24.71.  I did start this trip without any ECB and ended with $2 so not a complete fail.

Next, the one store in our area that doubles coupons started a super sale, which doubles coupons up to $2. I looked over the list and realized that many of items we need were available so last night we headed out. I was also able to grab drinks that we will be taking with us for our beach trip.  I did hit my 60% mark, spending $77.97 and saving 140 or 64%. I used three rainchecks that included 10 packs of hot dogs, flour and sugar, all items that I did not have coupons on but were a great deal with the rain check.

Finally, we are still following our monthly plan with lots of different items on the weekend. We decided to have Hamburger Helper on Monday since both girls had cheerleading. Matt and I realized that we were using our last pack of ground beef.  Typically we purchase between 30 and 50 pounds at a time and fry and place in one pound bags which make meals really quick and easy to fix. Zaycon Foods is where I always purchase chicken breast and I have been pleased with the ground beef in the past. I got an email this morning with a pick up for ground beef next week and an additional 12% off code. We decided to go ahead and purchase 80 pounds of ground beef. We plan to fry up 50 pounds and just freeze the other 30 pounds to use as raw meat. Total cost for 80 pounds of ground beef $215.38 or $2.69 a pound which is the cheapest I have seen this year.

Currently I have spent $818.07 so a total budget fail but it should allow us to eat well through the rest of the year. My goal will be to lower the grocery budget to $400 for both August and September to keep us on track for the year.

Saving on Saturday-7/16/2016

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I have said many time that it is the little things that save money. So after realizing how far behind I am on blogging this month, I thought I would make a list of things we are doing this summer to get our budget back under control.

  1. Menu planning- We have switched to a month long plan. One of the best parts of this is that we can switch around days without having to worry about if we have certain ingredients or not. Our menu plan is based around the meat in our freezer’s at the first of the month. Fruit and veggie are most like what we have either in cans or fresh or as in today on sale.
  2. Not shopping- This one sounds so very simple and actually makes the most sense. I know that if I go to Costco, I can always find a good deal on snacks and cereal or other foods that we don’t usually buy. Sales are great but I realized in January that we needed to consume the great deals. I have been able to reduce our food budget by over $150 by simply not shopping. I have a list that can be added to if we run out of something and my goal is to shop Costco once a month. I also have been stopping at Aldi about every other week to grab things in smaller quantities or pick up fresh items. Yesterday, I grabbed 2 containers of blueberries along with some lettuce, poptarts and sausage.
  3. Planning ahead which really goes along with menu planning. We have a pool membership that we pay yearly and this year, we purchased season passes to the water park.  I have purchased chips and cookies and other convenience foods to take with us as treats. We will usually take either a pasta salad or wraps or sandwiches for lunch. I did some research on our last visit to the water park and the best deal was $25 for a pizza and 4 drinks. I spent $24 at Aldi yesterday and grab more than enough stuff to finish out 3 meals instead of one. The kids are enjoying our special treat such as a package of cookies and we are not breaking the bank.
  4. Not eating out. This by far is our biggest down fall. We enjoy eating out. At the beginning of our budget journey we would honest eat out 3-4 times a week. When our income was reduced to one, we have been slowly decreasing the times we eat out. I was so excited to find out that we have eaten out twice in July. Once for Kendall’s birthday with my parents and once yesterday.
  5. Stockpiling- When I do shop, you will find that I don’t shop like a normal person. I shop the deals and then stock up. It is not usually for me to purchase 10 2-liters at a time or 10 bottles of ketchup if the sale is the right one. I am finding that sales are becoming fewer this year but I am still able to shop with my price list.
  6. Wasting as little as possible- This week on Wednesday evening, I saw three very wipe bananas on the cabinet. I knew we needed to use these ASAP. I was able to make banana bread and top with strawberry jam for breakfast on Thursday. We also are trying to preserve as much of our garden harvest as possible. This week alone I have made 2 batches of spaghetti sauce and a batch of frozen cucumber relish. This does requires some flexibility with our menu planning but it seems to be working for us.

How are you saving money today?

5 Things Friday

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  1. We have survived our busiest week of the Summer!  Vacation Bible School everyday in addition to swim and piano. Matt is also working tonight and tomorrow so things are different to say the least.  One of the causalities of this week is this is only my 5 or 6th blog post for the month. I am hoping to get several post out this weekend to play catch up.
  2. I had two specific yes! answers to pray today. I am so thankful and excited!
  3. Our garden tomatoes are starting to come in, slowly but surely, I have made 2 batches of spaghetti and a couple of cans of tomato sauce.
  4. We purchased a new kitchen table and finally got it assembled yesterday!  It will seat 7 regular and up to 12 with the expandable end!
  5. Today is payday so I need to sit down and work on the budget today. I am excited that both our gas and grocery budget is below for the month. In addition we have only eaten out once this month!

Menu Plan for 7/11/2016

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This is honestly one of the busiest weeks this summer. The kids and Matt have Vacation Bible School every day from 8-1pm, swim practice on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, swim meet on Tuesday and swim dinner on Friday. On Friday, we also have piano and Matt is scheduled to work both Friday and Saturday. It will be busy and just in case we get a storm on either Monday or Thursday, the girls have cheer practice. The good news is that we have been planning ahead so this week should not blow our budget.

Here is the plan:

Breakfast–  Saturday- Gravy Biscuits, Sunday- Chocolate Banana Bread.   Choices will include  cereal, toast, grits, breakfast bars, granola bars eggs or left over baked oatmeal or breakfast burritos-previously made  The focus this week is quick and simple to get everyone to church and work on time.

Lunch- Sandwhiches, left-overs, chicken nuggets.  This should be the biggest struggle of the week.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- Sandwiches.   Dinner- Pasta salad
Sunday- Lunch- Pork roast, potato salad and deviled eggs.   Dinner-nachos made with Taco Rice
Monday- Hamburger steak and French fries or left overs from Sunday.
Tuesday-Wraps during swim meet
Wednesday- Cheeseburger Pizza
Thursday- Chicken and Broccli in crockpot with rice
Friday- Baked spaghetti.

The plan for dinners this week is to prepare ahead as much as possible. I did go ahead and make the Baked spaghetti on Sunday. Each night if we can prepare the next day, we should survive this crazy week.

Bargain Brag 6/23/2016

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I continue to stand by my thoughts that saving and couponing is a lifestyle not a hobby.  I was able to purchase this today at CVS for 56 cents.

IMG_26033 12 packs of Diet Coke and 24 bottles of water.

First is Coke Points, I have been adding points and spending points for 3 or 4 years. Today I had a free 12 pack coupon.

Next is CVS sale. I was planning to use a rain check I had 3 packs for $10 but when I saw the sale, I simply put my rain check back in my pocket.

Next, 50 cent off coupon from the CVS app, it was advertised in the sale paper is the way I discovered.

Finally, a $5 gift card that was earned through MPLaces. Basically this is an app that you “check in” (click the button) for place. I usually hit most of the 25 each day at stop lights on my way to and from work.

Total out of pocket fifty six cents which breaks the items down to less than a penny each!

Prepping for the Summer!

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June 9th- 5th grade graduation was the most important thing on the schedule, however this did not occur until 1pm so there were a few more things to accomplish today. Today is the last full day of school and my last day off while school is in session. We have big plans for the summer including using our season passes for the water park and enjoying the pool as much as possible.  I am also really trying to get a good handle on our finances and eliminate/reduce significantly our spending.  Finally, we are schedule to pick up 120# of chicken breast next Tuesday, an hour prior to the beginning of our first swim meet.

Given that information,  my plan for today was to  prepping as much stuff for the summer and next week as possible. We made a trip to both Food Lion and Aldi this morning to gather needed ingredients for our chicken. I am planning a separate post with the specific details of what we are doing differently this time when we pick up the chicken. I did cook 36 cups of rice.  I separated most of this into 3 cup portions to use with the chicken next week. I also made a double batch of taco rice, of which one meal is for the beach, which  went in the freezer but the rest is fast easy meals. I made a huge batch of egg salad and started 6 mini loaves of bread for some real good sandwiches. Our garden is starting to produce so I was able to cook up 3 containers of carrot, squash and onions to use in casseroles this winter. In addition I was able to freeze another bag of dill and basil.

I am pleased with the progress today and hope next week will not be as hetic and busy as I am afraid!