A Weis Quickie Yesterday

The sales ad was ending tonight so I made a quick trip to Weis to get 2 more whole chickens for .87¢ lb. as we never see a price that low on fresh whole chickens.
While there I picked up a few other things--more Jiffy mix, spaghetti sauce, bakery bread, a discounted meat and a cuke.  Everything I bought was at least on sale........

2 x whole Chickens=$9.67
2 x FR spaghetti sauce=$1.94
2 x Jif cornbread mix=$1.20
1 x cucumber=$1.00
1 x sourdough bread 50% off=$1.69
1.27 lb. 85% ground beef w/$3 discount sticker=$4.23
Sub Total..........$19.73

I have 2 Weis Qs to use---
.25¢/1 cuke=.25¢
.75¢/1lb. ground beef=.75¢(beef came out to $2.74 lb. after all the discounts)

$1.00 total in Qs brought my total down to $18.73
(There was no tax on anything I bought.)

I used that free $10 Weis gift card I received for that disaster transaction/cashier event earlier in the month so I paid $8.73 OOP for all this.

$38.44 worth of regular retail items.
Saved $19.71 for a 51% savings rate............

But since the gift card was FREE I saved $29.71on this order, or a savings rate of 77.29%!  8-)


New sales ad starts today at Weis so what's on my list to Buy this week, you ask?

Definitely cottage cheese(Weis brand)at $1.99 a container, 1 box of San Giorgio pasta for .67¢(as I have a .25¢ Weis Q to use for it making the price .42¢), perhaps some Hunt's tomato products if the Buy One, Get Two Free sale makes them a low price(and if I can find some Qs for them mores the better!)and a container of Half & Half for $1.99.
That's what is planned but you never know what kind of meat/produce/bakery specials will turn up when I am at the store that will loosen my grip on the wallet.  ;-)


Sluggy

This Week on the Dining Table

The "Thank Goodness Marching Band Season is Over" Edition.......

 

 

 

 

#2 Son is happy that his last season of Marching Band finished up on Sunday.  Now he just has 2 Concert Band concerts, 2 Jazz Band concerts and Pitt Orchestra for the School Musical and ALL the rehearsals for each to go before he graduates in the Spring.
The photo is of some of the band kids after a meet performance back in October that our group hosted.  #2 Son is standing on the track(behind the fence)right above the drum in this shot.

Here are the meals that were planned last week--
 

Sunday--Chinese Take-Out  Treating ourselves tonight
Monday--Mushroom Alfredo shells with leftover London Broil, Spinach Salad(Hubs is craving pasta)
Tuesday--Baked Fish(in freezer) and crab cakes(freezer), coleslaw, some veggie(freezer)
Wednesday--Lasagna(leftover-then the rest gets put into the freezer for later)
Thursday--Chicken Pot Pie(using leftover chicken, carrots, potatoes + fresh broccoli)
Friday--maybe Domino's pizza using one of my free coupons + a big salad for me
Saturday--leftovers or something scrounged around the house

Everything eaten as planned except Friday's dinner was Saturday's and vice versa.
I used the leftover Broccoli Soup from weeks ago in my pot pie instead of making a sauce/cream from scratch or opening a can of soup to use.  I am so proud of me......!

And I ended up eating too much pizza.  I hadn't had any in so long and it was so good that I just couldn't eat one slice. lol

As for food spending last week....you might want to look away as it's going to be bad(spendy).  There were 6 trips to the store and I spent $287.01 on $554.87 worth of groceries at 5 different stores.  I've spent $385.79 of my $400 November food budget so far and there are 17 days left for this month. 
bleh.
Hubs made a stop after work at a store we don't often go to.  There was the monthly trip to the Bakery/Bread Outlet and I had a 15% off discount card for Ollie's(Good Stuff Cheap!)I had to use or lose and they had some good food buys, even before that discount.  So we blew through a bit of money on foodstuffs last week.

Not to worry though as we have extra funds each month plus I am stockpiling last week and this week so we spend enough to get our Thanksgiving gift certificate at one of my stores.  Might as well buy the items that will keep now and they count toward our spending rather than buying them next month and not having them count, right?  I am hoping that my December spending will reflect these buying ahead deals and be lower than my usual.
We shall see.....

Leftovers going into this week--1/2 a large family-sized chicken pot pie and a whole pizza(but that will most likely be scarfed down between meals or as lunches).

Here's this week's meal plan---

Sunday--Burgers on Rolls, Collard Greens
Monday--Mushroom Parmesan, Salad
Tuesday--Roasted Chicken, Carrots, Stuffing
Wednesday--leftover Chicken Pot Pie
Thursday--Steak, Roasted Asparagus & Potatoes
Friday--Baked Fish, Coleslaw, Green Beans
Saturday--Chicken & Dumplings

What I need to purchase for this menu?......
I still need to spend about $55 this week to get to our Turkey Day gift certificate.
I'm going to try to keep the spending to $55 but even so, that will put us over budget in November by $40+ and that's not counting buying a turkey.
bleh again.
Oh what the hell......I am going to fly the white flag this month.
I give up. ;-)

What got fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

Food Spending Sept. Week 2, Meal Planning Sept. Week 3

       US Govt. Poster From WWII
***************************************

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

Sunday--Chicken Enchiladas, Caesar Salad

Monday--Steak Tips in Gravy over Brown Rice, Green Beans

Tuesday--Tacos

Wednesday--Pizza

Thursday--Leftovers

Friday--Salmon, Asparagus on the Grill

Saturday--Chinese take-out

The weekly food spending was  $170.02.  $130.37 in reg. grocery spending and $39.65 at Rite-Aid.

Ugh.

While I got some really good deals and accomplished a savings rate of between 45.55% and 56% at the grocery store, it's still a big chunk of money spent.

I spent the $50 on needs as planned and then I did some stock-ups/rock bottom prices on yogurt, spaghetti sauce, chicken, steak, salmon, taco shells, whack biscuits, dehydrated potatoes, pizza rolls for the teen and I bought 4 boxes of cereal.  

I had to laugh at myself buying cereal again.  Besides the casual box or two of cereal I got for free or almost free in my Rite-aid scenarios over the last few years, I haven't 'on purpose' bought cold cereal since the Fall of 2009.

That Summer and Fall I took advantage of a couple of amazing Sales Promotion by Acme markets.  Here's a couple of photos of some of what I got back then....

Let me also mention it was the last time I bought a nasty Pop-Tart....lol

One of those hauls included 19 boxes of cereal, the other one included 45 boxes.  Of course 27 of those boxes ended up going HERE, but I digress.

The point is, I haven't gone out of my way to buy cereal for us until last week, when I bought 4 boxes.  When it was here in such large quantities the kids ignored it and had to be threatened with bodily harm to get them to eat it.  Bring 4 boxes into a "cereal barren landscape" and they are fighting over who gets it first!  I guess it's basic economic theory--the scarcity of a product imbues it with magical powers and the marketplace will set it's value.

Go figure......

I've spent $249.92 of my $400 monthly food budget so far this month. 

I am going into the new week with these leftovers......a tiny bit of taco meat, which I will add to the new filling for the Enchiladas.

***********************

This week's menu.....

Sunday--Burgers on Rolls, Corn

Monday--Stuffed Shells, Green Beans

Tuesday--Beef Enchiladas, leftover Corn

Wednesday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad

Thursday--Pork Chops, Potatoes, Beets

Friday--Leftovers-only 2 home

Saturday--Leftovers

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....Ground Beef, Salad Greens.  

Milk, Fruit and some stock-ups('Crack' noodles aka Kraft boxed dinners)will also happen this week.  I'm hoping to "get by" spending $65 this week.

No wait!  There is a Catalina Deal and Hubs needs coffee.

Oh crap.....looks like I'll be going over $400 this month too.

Come back to see how badly I stray from my budget next week! ;-)

So what are you cooking at your house this week?

Sluggy

Frugal Stock Ups with Instant Discount Deals

So the stores around here don't seem to do traditional Catalinas much anymore.
They do these "Instant Discount" deals....spend $X or buy X number of items and get $X off your order instantly.
No catalinas to roll.
I'm sort of liking them actually.

Weis had a Unilever Instant Discount Deal last week which involved spending $15 in select products and getting a $5 discount on your order.

I was running low on spaghetti sauce, mayo and peanut butter so this came at the right time for me.

I bought this.....

 8 x Ragu spaghetti sauce on sale $1.50.
The regular retail is $1.99 each so the total was $15.92 shelf price so it qualified for the $5 discount.
But the sale price that week was $1.50 each, so my subtotal was $12.00.
The $5 discount brought the total down to $7.00.
And I had 2 x .50¢/1 IPQs which doubled to $1 off each jar, so I got an additional $2 off the order,, making my OOP $5 for 8 jars which is 62.5 cents per jar.
Even without the additional Qs, the per jar price would have been 87.5 cents each.
Around here, the jarred sauce buy price is $1.25, so I was very happy to get this deal.  I didn't do this deal more than once though because I got jarred sauce at the Shursave market Heinz deal last week as well.

Then I went back and did this deal....

3 x Hellman's Mayo reg. price $4.39, sale price $3.00
1 x Skippy PButter reg. price $3.29, sale price $2.50
Reg. price subtotal was $16.49, Sale price subtotal was $11.50

$11.50-$5 Instant Discount=$6.50.
I had a $1/3 Hellman's ManuQ which brought my OOP down to $5.50.

Then I downloaded 4 more Qs from the Walmart site for Skippy and Hellman's Mayo and bought this....

2 x Skippy PButter reg. price $3.29, sale price $2.50 each
2 x Hellman's Mayo reg. price $4.39, sale price $3.00 each
Subtotal reg. price $15.36, sale price $11.00 OOP
Instant Discount $5 applied, making the OOP $6.00




I had 2 x $1/1 Hellman's IPQs=$2.00 off
I had 2 x $.75/1 Skippy IPQs(which doubled to $1)=$2.00
Total Qs=$4.00


$6.00-$4.00=$2.00 OOP
This made each item .50¢.

Not bad for things I needed to stock up on, huh?

Sluggy

Food Spending for Week 2 & Meal Planning Week 3

Last week's meal plan is in the books.

SUNDAY--Burger King-Hubs was not home, #2 son had a sleepover so I used a coupon to get fast food for $9.99 + tax for the teens.  I had whatever leftovers where in the fridge.
MONDAY--Grilled Reuben Sandwiches
TUESDAY--Tacos, Corn, Refried Beans
WEDNESDAY--Hot Dogs on buns, Boston Baked Beans
THURSDAY--Pork Chops, Roasted Potatoes and Carrot/Broc./Cauliflower Medley
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--Subway since #2 son was gone to a competition until 1 am.

I spent $28.50 at the grocery stores last week.  $5.08 was for rye bread and  sauerkraut for Ruebens, $12.78 at the Bread Outlet for 10 items(the seasonal bagels-pumpkin and cranberry were in!!, rolls, bread and donuts for Hubs).  The other $10.64 was for milk, 3 bunches of celery at .99¢ ea. and to do the GM deal at the local market, by getting 8 packages of Green Giant veggies, which after $4 instant discount, sale prices and 2 x $1/3 manuQs cost me .50¢ per package.
There was also a Redner's Cat deal I could have rolled my GM Cats AND I could have done the GM deal more times at the local market but my back is still not up to snuff, so I only did the bare minimum of driving/leaving the house last week.   Which was good for my wallet but bad for getting the deals.

And what did I do with 3 bunches of celery?
I cleaned and cut them up and frozen it for later!  .99¢ doesn't come around very often, so I won't be forced to buy any this winter when it's $3.49 a bunch!  Celery is something you always need....from soups, to chowders, to making bases, to stuffings, to mire poire.  I'll probably buy more when it goes on discount again right before Thanksgiving. ;-)

My savings percentage was 61.03% last week, as the reg. retail was $73.14 on the groceries I brought home.

This week's menu.....
SUNDAY--Country Fried Steak, Roasted Potatoes, Green Bean Almondine
MONDAY--Chicken Quesadillas, leftover Green Beans
TUESDAY--Breakfast?
WEDNESDAY--Barbeque Pulled Pork, Coleslaw, Rolls
THURSDAY--Chicken Parmesan, Spaghetti, Sauteed Cabbage
FRIDAY--Chicken and Dumplings
SATURDAY--Kielbasa, Onions, Sauerkraut, Rolls

Tues. Hubs won't be home for dinner so I might just make a big plate of pancakes for #2 son's dinner, as that would please him immensely and I'll just have soup or something.
The Pulled Pork is leftovers in the freezer from this summer when I smoked a pork shoulder.
About the only item I need for this menu is a head of cabbage(for coleslaw)and I'll saute the other half up to have with the Chicken Parmesan.

There are 2 deals at the local market this week.....a Kraft Buy $20/Get instant $5 off Deal(basically a 25% savings on each item you buy)and a $10 Cat WYB $30 of baking products Deal.  I see lots of cheese, some Oreo cookies, sugar and flour in my future.lol  I need to buy at the local market anyway to get my purchases up to a level to earn a Thanksgiving check so this helps.

I have $5 Cat to spend at Weis and $10 Cat to spend at Redner's.  No Cats to roll them into but I'll find something to buy.

At present, my October food spending stands at $311.22 with 14 days left in the month.  At this point, I foresee going over $400 by the end of the month. 
I'm trying not to freak out over this, as I haven't been higher than $364.30 in any month so far this year.

How are your food expenses doing this month?

Sluggy