Food Spending August Week 3 & Meal Planning Week 4

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And here is the "meal plan" that actually happened last week.....

Sunday--Salmon with maple glaze, Stir-fried mixed veg, mashed potatoes

Monday--BLT sandwiches with tomato from our garden...slurp!

Tuesday--tuna helper, Caesar salad

Wednesday--Leftover Rigatoni, Broccoli

Thursday--Meatloaf(leftover), Mashed Taters, Snow Peas

Friday--Taco Bell

Saturday--Leftovers

 

The weekly food spending was $9.91.  I was tempted to do the Kimberely/Clark Cat Deal at Weis(which would have stocked me up on a few things but would have meant spending alot more OOP) but in the end I resisted.  I used $12 in Cats to pay last week for the few needs we had which is why I spent so little.

I didn't stay within the $8 limit I set but it was close. None of what I spent was for items needed to make dinner.....it was all milk purchases and items for the Daughter's work lunches.

I have $82.02 left of my $400 food budget for August and 11 days left in the month.  I think we can make it to the end of the month before the end of the money. ;-)

Going into the new week I have the following leftovers to use up.......a portion of snow peas(I'll polish those off for lunch one day).

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This week's menu.....

Sunday--Son's belated Birthday dinner out-Steak

Monday--Pulled Pork BBQ sandwiches, Cole Slaw, Birthday Cake

Tuesday--something Chicken, Rice, Green Beans(from garden)

Wednesday--Taco or Taco Salad

Thursday--Leftovers

Friday--burgers, baked beans, cuke salad

Saturday--Leftovers again

 

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....rolls, cukes, maybe more lettuce.

So what are you cooking at your house this week?

Sluggy

February Food Spending Week 1, Meal Plan February Week 2

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.

Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier. 

This week I have NO vintage Kitchen pictures.  Working on my Decluttering project has left me no time to search around the Interweb for more kitchen fodder for these posts.

Oh well.  Maybe next week.

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Italian Sausage Sandwiches, Cauliflower

MONDAY--Taco Bell(I'm having leftover Chicken & Dumplings)

TUESDAY--Homemade Pizza, Salad w/Fruit

WEDNESDAY--Tacos, Corn

THURSDAY--Tilapia, Sweet Potato fries, Brussel Sprouts

FRIDAY--Leftovers or Burritos
SATURDAY--Homemade Pizza(Hubs out of town)

Pretty much had what was planned, except the Lasagna, which moves to this week.  I had Hubs pick up 6 fresh pizza dough blobs at Price Chopper(as it was Buy 1/Get 2 free)and we used 3 over the course of the week and put 3 in the freezer for later.  The local grocer has Fresh Express Salad Kits for $1.99 ea. last week.  I bought 8.  I had 1 for lunch every other day.  I rather enjoy them, plus it's a healthier option for me for lunch and at $2 a pop, a good deal, so I pick those up when they are that low.

I also had a chicken breast(leftover from when I made Chicken & Dumplings)still, so I bought some grapes last week and made chicken salad.  I got 4 sandwiches from that(3 lunches for me and Hubs took a sammie to work one day).

For the week's menu I picked up salad greens and salad kits, grapes, pizza dough and milk.  As for other shopping...

*I hit the bread store, as we hadn't been since December and were out of everything bread related.

*I hit the local grocery for lots of salad greens and frozen veggies early in the week and then on Sat. for more greens(for This week) as well as a slew of Mexican type items like tortillas, taco shells and enchilada sauce, canned chili(for the menfolk to have with their burritos), whack biscuits, celery, sliced deli cheese and sour cream.

The weekly spending was $84.37(including the Rite-Aid OOP).  Pretty high week for me, huh?

1 Week in and I've spent $84.37 of my $300 February food budget.  $215.63 left for the month plus $92.32 leftover from January that didn't get spent.

Going into February Week 2, we have a little homemade pizza leftover but that's it.  All the other leftovers got eaten for lunches last weekend or on Leftover Night.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Subway Sandwiches(Hubs Super Bowl request)

MONDAY--leftover pizza or grilled cheese and soup

TUESDAY--Lasagna(with some shredded veg), Tossed Salad

WEDNESDAY--homemade Boston Baked Beans, Cornbread, Green Beans

THURSDAY--Enchiladas, Mexican Rice w/peppers

FRIDAY--Hot Dogs on rolls, Potato Salad, Carrots and Cauliflower
SATURDAY--Leftovers

This menu gives us I night of take-out, 2 night of leftovers and 4 home cooked meals this week, of which 2 are meatless.....well the beans are meatless except for the bacon in the dish.lol

Items needed for this menu are...maybe a red bell pepper as I haven't check if I have any left in the freezer yet.

I have spent $6.80 on Sunday already.  I also plan on buying on sale this week....corned beef hash(#2 son's request), apple juice, a bag of oranges and croutons(I have Qs for them).  If I get up to Price Chopper this week, I'll be doing the Full Circle Catalina Deal.  Plus milk as #2 son sucks it down during the course of the week.  I'm figuring on $40 or so for this week's goodies including what I've spent already this week.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

Weis, Redners and More Weis Shopping Last Week

Daughter went to Weis for me on Friday......

I did the $5 Pepsi Catalina Deal again by buying...
2 x 20 pack Pepsi drinks=$12
1 x Tostitos Chips=$3.00
1 x Tostitos Dip=$3.00
1 x 2 ltr. Diet Pepsi=$1.25
$19.25

I used...
$2/2 Pepsi 20 packs Q
$1/2 wyb 1 Tostitos & 1 Dip
Free Diet Pepsi wyb 1 Tostitos & 1 Dip
$5 Catalina from last deal
Coupons-$9.25

Paid $10.00 OOP and got another $5 Catalina Q

I did the GM $4 off wyb 8 instantly Deal 2 x....
4 x Green Giant Veggies=$3.00
4 x Progresso Soups=$5.00
1 x Progresso Broth=$2.00
3 x Whack Biscuits=$3.75
4 x Totino's Pizzas=$5.00
$18.75

I used....
1 x $1/4 Progresso Soups
1 x .40/1 Progresso Broth doubled=$.80
1 x $1/3 Whack Biscuits
1 x $1/4 Totinos Pizzas
2 x $4 Instant discount Q=$8.00

$18.75-$11.80=$6.95 OOP

I also bought 2 x Northland Juices for Daughter to take back to school=$6.00 OOP
With tax of .50¢ my total should have been $23.45.
The receipt says $27.21.
Hmmmmm.

Moving on to Saturdays's outing to Redner's Market....

 I had a $10 off a $50 purchase Coupon I wanted to use.  Redner's policy is that with all Catalina deals that required $XX purchase, you have to hit that $XX amount AFTER coupons.  The $10/$50 coupon is similar in that your total has to be $50 or more AFTER coupons.

There was also a General Mills $10 Catalina Deal wyb $25 in GM products.
To get to $25 with my coupons I bought....
16 x Muffin/Cookie Bar/Brownie mixes for $2 ea.=$32.00
I used $5.90 in assorted Qs on these items= $26.10 OOP. *Qualifying for the $10 Catalina Q.

I bought 3 boxes of Tuna Helper on sale for $1 a box with a $1/3 Q made it $2 OOP.

I bought 2.08lbs. of salmon for $6.98 lb.=$14.38 OOP  Regular retail around here is $11.99.  I portioned the fillets into 3 meals worth.

I bought 2 dozen eggs*not pictured* on sale for .99¢=$1.98 OOP  Reg. retail here is $1.79 dz.

I bought 15 Powerade drinks for #2 son's band practice.  They were on sale for .69¢ AND there was a coupon for Buy 10/Get 5 Free in the flyer, so I paid $6.90 OOP for $15 reg. retail on these.

I bought lunchmeat, 1.5lbs. for $9.99 OOP.  They have a deal were you can buy 3 assorted packages for $9.99.  If you stick with the meats it's a good deal as the meats are the premium deli counter brands and each package is approx. 1/2lb.  The packaged cheese is not a great deal as it's not premium brands and it's about the same size portions.  Reg. retail on premium corned beef is $8.99 lb. so this was a bit cheaper.

I also bought 4 12packs of Coke.*not pictured*   It was on sale for $11 for 3 and there was a Q in the flyer for a free 12 pack if you bought 3, so 4 12-packs for $11 OOP.  Not a stupendous deal but ok for getting and hiding in my bedroom closet until the Holidays. lol

With sales tax my subtotal was $73.65 and after the $10/$15 I paid $63.65 OOP for everything.

Regular retail on the Redner's haul is $121.31.
I paid $63.65 & got $10 in Catalinas.

So last night #2 son and I went back to Weis to do the Pepsi Catalina deal & the General Mills Instant discount deal 2 more times.
No photos for these trips, sorry.  It's just a bunch of the same old, same old as before anyway.lol

First we bought 6 bags of assorted Frito-Lay snacks.
Reg. retail was $3.49 ea or $20.94 total.
The sale prices made them $15 total.
The $5 Catalina we rolled and the $3 in additional Qs brought out total down to $7 for all 6 bags.
And we received another $5 Catalina Q to use.

Then we bought....
2 x 20 packs soda
4 x 2 liters of Sierra Mist
This was $20.54 reg. retail or $17 with sale prices.
We used the $5 Catalina and 2 x $1/2 Sierra Mist 2 liter Qs and 1 x $2/2 Pepsi 20 packs Q and bought our OOP down to $8 for all this.
and we received another $5 Catalina Q to use in the coming weeks.

We also bought...
5 x Totinos Pizzas=$6.25
4 x Progresso soups=$5.00
6 x Green Giant veggies=$4.50
1 x Green Giant veggies=$1.00*One of the types of corn was higher priced but still qualified for the $4 instant discount deal.*
This lot came to $16.75.
I used....
1 x $1.10/4 Totinos Pizzas IPQ
1 x $1/4 Progresso Soups ManuQ
1 x FREE ITEM Totinos Pizza HomemailerQ
2 x $4 Instant Discount for buying 16 qualifying items
So $11.60 off and $5.15 OOP for all 16 items.
*Except the soup that was $1.14 off on sale only rang up .20¢ off!!*  Looking back at Daughter's trip's receipt on Friday, those 4 cans only rang up .20¢ off also.

I also bought 5 bags of candy for halloween.  WYB 5 bags it's $2 a bag, so $10.
I had a $1/3 Q so the candy came to $9 OOP.

and #2 son wanted Taquitos NOT ON SALE....THE HORROR!!!lol so that was another $6.99 OOP.

Sat. Weis trips totaled $29.86 OOP and $5 in Catalinas left to spend in the coming weeks.
So I have to go up to Weis and get at least $7.52 back for being overcharged on 8 cans of soup.
I wonder how many I'll get the full price back on since they are suppose to refund fully on the 1st overcharge on a receipt on like items....it's two different trips/receipts so I *should* get back $4.78 for 2 cans of the soup and .94¢ on each of the other 6 cans of soup.  It will all depend on if some teenager is working CS today or a real fulltime management person I guess. ;-)

So at the end of my shopping week I have spent $163.19 OOP and have $15 in Catalinas to use going forward.
*Update*
I got another $2.50 off (for full refunds on 2 of the cans of soup), so my OOP is $160.69.
The regular retail is $358.90.
The savings rate is now 55.23% (not counting the $15 in Cats and any full price soup refunds).

Analysis--This is all stuff we need/want and will use.  The crap food is for #2 son primarily(except for some chips that Hubs will eat and I am known to eat a pizza and brownies now and again). 8-)  #2 son is into muffins lately and if I have a mix on hand, he will make them for himself after band practice so I stocked up on that for him.  I'd rather have him home eating muffins than fast food...a "little" better.lol
Canned veggies are for going into soups or stews, the soups and the broth are nice to have on hand, the whack biscuits are my convenience luxury item.  The eggs, salmon and lunchmeat and beef from earlier in the week HERE were needed and good prices.  The candy is for Halloween trick or treaters and the taquitos is payment for getting #2 son to come to the store to help me in my injured state. ;-)

It's already the 9th and I've spent $163.19 in one week!  I'll be blowing past my $250 monthly food budget sometimes this coming week I think. Geez....lol
But I have to take advantage of the deals when they come around, right?  Then I can stay out of the stores like I did earlier this year in FEBRUARY, MARCH and APRIL.

Sluggy

August Budget Results.....Food and Toiletries Spending

Here are my FOOD BUDGET spending totals for AUGUST 2011.

I have posted August's totals on the right side bar under Total Grocery Savings for 2011 and updated the Yearly Totals.
I am listing subtotals for each store I purchased from in August.  If you aren't interested in that much detail, just skip to the bottom for the Totals Summary.

My spending includes Food, Toiletries/HBA, Pet Supplies, Cleaning Products, Paper Goods & tax where applicable.We are a family of 5(3-6 at home this month)& 2 dogs. No kids under 15.
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BAKERY OUTLET
OOP  $4,78
Value  $22.74
Savings  79.98%

BIG LOTS
OOP  $27.72

Value  $43.97
Savings  37%

CARONE'S(small local independent store)
OOP  $71.63

Qs/Ads  $29.53
Value  $101.16
Savings  29.20%

DOLLAR STORE
OOP  $4.00
Value  $6.96
Savings  42.53%

KMART
OOP  $3.00
Qs/Ads $2.07
Value  $5.07
Savings  40.83%

MAINE SOURCE(restaurant/party supply store)
OOP  $59.30
Value  $128.03
Savings  53.68%

RITE AID
OOP  $3.13 (whole amount put on free Rite-Aid Gift Cards)=$.00 actual OOP
Qs/Ads/+Ups  $125.61
Value  $128.74
Savings  97.57% before gift cards/ 100% savings after free gift cards

ROEHNER'S PRODUCE MARKET
OOP  $4.75
Value  $9.98
Savings  52.40%

WEIS (local chain Grocery store in my town/doubles up to $1 total)
OOP  $105.22
Qs/Ads  $70.00
Value  $175.42
Savings  40.02% 

I don't track Rite-Aid's +Ups here, nor CVS's ECBs & Walgreen's RRs. They will be included when used on purchases under "Coupons".   I'll keep track of what rebates are received monthly.  Rebate money/gift cards will be considered 'income' & will go into the Food/Toiletries budget, offsetting the Out of Pocket. Cash will go immediately into the Budget kitty, while Gift Cards will be calculated in when spent.

REBATE CHECKS RECEIVED IN AUGUST
Pinecone Research....$6.00
Rite-Aid SCR...$22.38

Subtotal........$28.38

GIFT CARDS and CERTIFICATES
$0.00

TOTAL Value of Cash/Store Checks/Gift Card Rebates Received...$28.38


COUPONS and FREEBIES

Coke.....Free ITEM Q
Drumstick Ice Cream....Free ITEM Q
Pantene.....Free ITEM Q x 3

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My best 3 Store Savings Totals were from Rite-Aid at 100%,  the Bakery Outlet at 97.98% and the Maine Source at 53.68%.  I shopped at 8 different stores in August.


TOTAL Out of Pocket...............................$280.40
TOTAL Coupons & Store Sales Savings...$341.67
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$622.07
TOTAL Savings of...................................54.93%


TOTAL of CASH Rebates........................$28.38
TOTAL Out of Pocket After Rebates........$252.02
TOTAL Savings including Rebates...........$370.05
TOTAL Value of Items Purchased............$622.07
TOTAL Savings After Rebates...................59.49%

Since my Rite-Aid shopping(which contains No OOP)always skews my savings percentages, I like to figure my Totals without the Rite-Aid numbers also.
TOTAL OOP after Rebates.....$252.02
TOTAL Value of Items Purchases(w/out Rite-Aid items)....$493.33
TOTAL Savings After Rebates(w/out Rite-Aid items).....49%
My food savings percentage seems to run about 50%-60% for the strictly food items only.
Those Rite-Aid purchases always boost up my savings total about 20% points.  This month Rite-Aid purchases only boosted my Savings Percentage just over 10%.



This closes out the August spending.

THOUGHTS & COMMENTS for this month-
With the crazy busy August here, I am thankful I only went over my food budget by $2.02. I would have stayed under budget if I hadn't supplied a day of Gatorade to the kids during Marching Band Camp, but I'm glad I did that even at the expense of my food budget.

Lots of fresh product and meat were purchased in August.  But not much stocking up on good deals since there were very few deals this month.  I also didn't shop much at Rite-Aid so I don't have lots of free to me items to boost my savings total for August.


What's ahead for September.....
The freezer is exhibiting signs of passing on to the "Big Freezer Place in the Sky".   I am trying to empty it out before the day comes when it won't get cold anymore so I won't be stocking up on any frozen food or meat deals until we replace it.
I'm hoping to keep September's food spending to $250 but if I go as high as $300 I won't complain.
With the higher food prices here I may be looking at $300 as my baseline going forward.  It doesn't make me happy one bit, but it is what it is.  Having just 3 of us at home this month might let me squeeze by on $250 one more month so cross your fingers on that! ;-)

How did you do in August with your Food Budget?
What are your challenges for September?  Any family coming to stay....or are you trying to figure out a food budget for the new school year because your kids are in lots of activities and you need to eat "on the go" more? 
Please leave a comment or link to your post and let us hear about your progress!  By sharing our struggles and efforts we can help each other stick to our budgets and learn to be better guardians of our resources.


Sluggy

JUNE Food Stamp Challenge....Day Sixteen & Seventeen--Cramping My Style!

This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge located HERE.

We have been cruising along on this food budget challenge for a couple of weeks now and it's been going well, except for 1 dining out roadblock on Day Thirteen I talked about HERE.

The last 2 days, the whole premise of only purchasing foods from stores that accept EBT and cooking every meal really began to cramp my style!

Wednesday I was feeling quite ill....nothing life threatening but sick enough that I wasn't able to throw together a made-from-scratch or even a semi-homemade dinner.  Yes, we had plenty of ingredients for making a meal in the house.
But that would require some one else here to go into the kitchen and cook. 
The teen doesn't cook.  He can make grilled cheese and reheat stuff in the microwave and have I mentioned that he hates leftovers?
The DH 'can' cook....a bit.....but he chooses not to, given an opportunity(like this one)to go into the kitchen and whip up dinner.  And he won't settle for a bowl of cold cereal or a peanut butter sandwich for dinner.

So we failed the challenge on Wednesday when DH hiked up to Subway and bought subs after I took to my bed.

In the past year, I have gone from a freezer packed with tv dinners and other preprocessed/packaged 'food' to a freezer packed with meats and veggies in their natural/raw state which I use to make the dinner magic.  There is not alot of foods here anymore that are shortcuts to making a meal(outside of dehydrated milk or potatoes, canned soup, boxed mac & cheese and some Jello).

In a situation like this one above, having a couple of tv dinners or a frozen pizza would have saved us from resorting to Subway.  The processed frozen food would have taken a bigger bite out of the food stamp budget for the month compared to only buying 'real' food with the food stamps, but in the end if a dinner emergency happened we could have eaten w/out resorting to less desirable fare if we had no cash available to spend on pre-made, hot, ready-to-eat food that is not covered by EBT/food stamps.

Seems to me that if you are on food stamps and you are the lone cook in your home, it might be wise to keep a couple of spare pre-made dinners in your freezer.  Even better though, would be to make ahead a double batch when you cook/make a meal and freeze half.  This way, if you are 'indisposed' and you have someone there who can at least turn on/turn off an oven or microwave, you can have them pop that homemade 'convenience food' meal and avoid spending your precious cash on fast food.  I usually have something I pre-made in the freezer to heat and eat but I got caught without one this time.

So on Wednesday we struck out to the tune of $15.75.  I need to think about how I am going to handle this in regards to my budget.  Perhaps I need to add the cost of this fail to my donation check to the food bank.
I figure I need to have a penalty here....

Which brings us to Thursday, which was a much better day for the Food Stamp Challenge at our house.
Dinner consisted of pulled pork sandwiches on rolls and coleslaw.
I had leftover boneless pork ribs, from the cookout when the relatives were visiting, that I had cooked as  'just in case we need more food for teens that dropped in at dinnertime' food.  We hadn't eaten them, so I shredded the meat, made up a small pot of our secret family North Carolina style barbecue sauce, threw in the meat and heated thoroughly.  Spooned the 'cue out onto the leftover crustini rolls I bought last week and topped each one with the pre-made coleslaw from the grocery store that DH picked up on the way home from work.

Ok, so this isn't the actual photo of my food, but it looked pretty close to this(sans the chips and pickle).

Food budget spending for this meal....coleslaw $1.69 , rolls already figured in last week $0, meat $2.38(bought last month on sale),  ingredients to make the sauce from the pantry $.40=$4.47.

On Thursday #2 son and I also ran some errands on the way to his guitar lesson.  I had wanted to hit up the Bakery Outlet but they don't take EBT, so I had to pay almost retail for some bread and bagels.  I found a BOGO sale on both at the local market so I have 2 bags of bagels and bread to the tune of $7.98.  
This just about killed me since I could have possibly gotten all this at the bread outlet for $4.00...if I wasn't limited to only stores that accept food stamps!

We also stopped by my favorite local discount/close-outs store that carries food items.  I had found this great little product there last month & picked up 1 bottle then......

It's a cold press EVOO that's grown, harvested, pressed and bottled in the USA(California)in a GLASS BOTTLE! and at the low price of $1.99 a bottle!
Ok, it might not be the best quality of Olive Oil but PA does not have much olive growing and olive pressing going on so this is a good deal here.
I had wanted to get a quantity of these for my stockpile after trying the 1 bottle I bought.....but I can't.
Because this close-out store does NOT accept EBT....so I have not been able to buy any food items there in June!

I am hoping there are some bottles left in the store come July.
If not, I've missed out on a food opportunity, just like anyone who lives around here and has to use EBT all the time to eat would have.
I tell ya, that sucks!
And it's starting to annoy the beejeezus outta me!!

 'Spending' for Day Sixteen and Seventeen...$12.45   * +penalty of $15.75 for the Subs*

Spent to Date....$155.21
June Food Budget Left....$255.51
Days of Challenge Left....13


Sluggy