Meal Plan Monday March 23rd Edition

Last week's meal went as planned except for Friday. We ended up not having the Fish & Coconut Rice. And Sat.'s leftovers plan was thwarted as we barely had any leftovers last week! The eating machines, er....teens ate nearly EVERY SCRAP OF FOOD I cooked! That's gratifying, except when you plan on having leftovers for 1 night's meal.

Here's what is on the Menu at Sluggy's house this week.

MONDAY-Chicken, Rice & Broccoli Casserole

TUESDAY-Pretzel Dogs, Corn-On-The-Cob, Potato Salad

WEDNESDAY-Lasagna, Salad

THURSDAY-Pork Chops, Mixed Beans, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Applesauce

FRIDAY-Pizza

SATURDAY-Leftovers or Club Sandwiches

SUNDAY-Crabcakes, Harvard Beets, Leftover Potato Salad

Desserts for the Week-Grapes, Cantaloupe, Carrot Cake

My shopping list for this week's menu(besides milk & bread)is 3 items long.....salad greens & ricotta cheese(for Wed. meal) & 1 tomato(for the club sandwiches). Everything else is on hand.

I'll be posting a recipe for my Chicken, Rice & Broccoli Casserole, later today or Tuesday, so check back. This dish is a homemade cheaper version of a Schwan's Readymade Dinner-Chicken & Broccoli with Cheesy Rice Meal Kit. I use to buy this, back when I wasn't as careful with my money. My family loved it! 1 bag of it wasn't enough for our 5 mouths, so I had to buy 2 bags at a time, at a cost of $10.50 a bag, so $21 for 1 meal! (This same item is now up to $11.49 a bag!) My cost analysis for the homemade version(using my actual costs for the ingredients that go into this batch of the recipe) is $10.08 for 8 generous servings or $1.26 a serving. That's less than 1/2 what the Schwan's item cost, is very easy to make AND it tastes just as good, if not better!

Organizing Junkie is the home to Menu Plan Monday. Go see what's on her and many other Home Cooks' Menus for the week at Organizing Junkie's website.

Sluggy

Make Your Own Virtual Movie Theater

Returning Merchandise leads to Saving More Money!

So I was out & about on Thursday, and needed to pop into WAGS to return some Body Wash I had purchased on Monday. Hubby doesn't like that kind so back it had to go!

After getting my refund, I just HAD to check the clearance section.....I found some bags of Lifesavers marked down to $1.00. Then I remembered I had a couple of Hershey BOGO Qs in the envelope in my purse and WAGS had that Wag Q for 49¢ candy bars that I could stack on it, so I had to grab those. While in the candy aisle, I saw that 1 flavor of 5 Gum was marked down to 75¢ so I picked up some for my #2 son's Easter basket as it's his favorite kind of gum(sshhhh, don't tell him!).

Once I looked in my envie for the Hershey's Q, I found the Glucerna Q(wasn't Glucerna producing a RR this week?), then the Reach/Listerine Qs.....Colgate Qs.......at that point we were off to the races again, on a full fledged Hound!lolol


Here's what I picked up......just a quickie!


I have put in RED next to the item what it actually cost me out of pocket after coupons. And as always, it's all consumable goods(except the toothbrushes which fall under buying new for sanitary health reasons)so I am keeping to my COMPACT pledge.

TRANSACTION #1

3 x Duncan Hines Brownie Mix @$1=$3.00 $2/3 or .66¢ ea.
4 x 5 Gum @ .75¢ ea.=$3.00 $3 no Q just clearance
2 x Lifesavers @ $1.00=$2.00 $2 no Q just clearance
1 Glucerna Cereal @ $4.99=$4.99 FREE
1 Glucerna Bars @ $5.49=$5.49 .48¢
2 Hershey's @ .79¢ ea.=$1.58 FREE
2 Hershey's @ .80¢ ea.=$1.60 .98¢
2 Listerine @ $3.00 ea.=$6.00 $3.34 before RRs/Made .66¢ after RRs
1 Reach Toothbrushes @ $3.00=$3.00 $1.67 before RRs/Made .34¢ after RRs
2 x Colgate Total Toothpaste @ $3.49 ea.=$6.98 FREE
1 Axe Shampoo @ $5.99=$5.99 FREE after ESR rebate
SUBTOTAL.....$43.63

Coupons Used
$1/3 Duncan Hines Mixes MQ=$1
$10/2 Glucerna Products IP Q=$10
2 x BOGO Hershey's Candy Bars .49¢/2 MQ=.98¢
4 x .49¢ Hershey's Bars WAG Q(stacked with previous MQ)=$1.22
$3/2 Listerine/Reach Products MQ=$3
$1/1 Listerine/Reach Product MQ=$1
2 x $1/1 Colgate MQ=$2
2 x $2.50/1 WAG Q from ESR book(stacked with previous MQ)=$5
SUBTOTAL....-$24.20

WAGS RR Used
$10 from Dove Deal
$5 don't remember what this one was from
$2 from Vaseline a couple of weeks ago
Total.....$17.00

$43.63-$24.20-$17.00+$.72tax=$3.15 OOP
Earned $8.50 in RRs($2.50 Glucerna & $6 Reach/Listerine)

TRANSACTION #2

Samy Conditioner $5.99 FREE after SAMY Rebate
Samy Treatment $1.99 clearanced FREE after SAMY Rebate
SUBTOTAL $8.46 w/tax

Used $6RR from Reach/Listerine deal earlier in the week
$7.98+.46tax-$6=$2.46 OOP

I found the Conditioning Treatment on the clearance endcap. I can send for a full refund/rebate on both, so I'm out of pocket just the tax on this. The rebate is why I had to do this in a separate transaction. I need the other receipt to send away for the rebate on the Glucerna to the Caregivers Marketplace.

GRAND TOTAL NUMBERS....
$64.53 Savings (coupons, rrs, sales)
$5.61 OOP
$8.50 RR earned for Glucerna(2.50)& Reach/Listerine(6)
$15.97 Cash refunded for Glucerna(2 at Caregivers Mrktpl.), Axe(5.99 in ESR) & Samy Products(7.98)

After I send for & receive the Rebates, I am OOP MINUS $18.86!
Can you say MONEYMAKER!?!? 8-)

Don't you love going into a store & walking out with FREE stuff and having them send you money for taking the stuff?

Basically this store said, "Give us $3 now and take all this stuff home and then we & our products' manufacturers will send you a total of about $19 cash in about 6 weeks".

Sluggy

A Busy Friday on my 2 Good Feet

Not much time for playing on the computer today. I have been to the dr. this morning and my foot is aok again....yah!
Since the foot is on the mend, I have a list of things to get accomplished today.

1. Packing up items to take to the Salvation Army & sorting the recycling to drop off tomorrow. It will feel good to get all this stuff done and gone! The clutter it caused was driving me bonkers.

2. I also need to put back all the stuff back under the kitchen sink that was pulled out & boxed almost 2 WEEKS AGO from when my favorite Countertop Installer was here putting in my new Countertops.
Have I mentioned lately how in love I am with my new Countertops?? ;-))

3. After that chore, I need to go through the toiletries box from the upstairs linen closet. I have a box on the floor of that closet up there with my spare toiletries. Since beginning the hounding, my box runneth over....literally!lol

I need to find a storage method for my ever-expanding stockpile of HBA. I think I'll keep the small box upstairs in the linen closet where I'll keep an immediate supply of restocking supplies(ie, 1 tube of toothpaste, 1 shampoo, 2 bars of soap, a package of razors, t.p., etc.)
I need to find a much larger area for the bulk of the stockpile....the garage perhaps?

4. After I get all of the HBA Stockpile cleared off my dining room table, I can get more items listed on eBay. I actually got a phone call from eBay yesterday!lol They really miss me....er, that is to say, they really miss the money I pay out in fees over there.
I really need to get back to selling stuff. I just let the eBay thing slide this month while I concentrated on bringing my Food/HBA Budget down, and now my March Savings Challenge totals will suffer for it. Well, yes and no....the food savings will help keep more of our income but the lack of selling will not grow additional income. In a perfect world, I need the discipline to achieve both.

Ok, I am off to get some things done now that I am cleared to use the foot again. If I have time leftover I may hit the store to return a couple of things.
I figured I'm going to be wiped out by day's end, so all bets are off for the Friday Menu Plan today. I'll see what creative meal I can pull out of the pantry tonight or just say the Heck-With-It and order a pizza. That's so not like me but change is good, right?lol

Here's a funny photo I snapped the other day. #1 son has become addicted to those Mickey D's Shamrock Shakes they sell every March. He drank one and left the cup in the wastebasket by my computer desk. That's a big no-no with 3 dogs who love to get into food garbage. I came into the room and found the chihuahua had jammed her head so far into the cup trying to lick that minty green goodness left in the bottom of said cup, that she had gotten the cup stuck on her face & couldn't extract herself!LOL

(I did take it off her face after taking the photo.)

There is always a new hilarious moment around every bend at our house....

Sluggy

GREEN & THRIFTY THURSDAY-Being Frugal AND Green

I'm starting a Series of Thursday Posts here on "Don't Read This; It's Boring!", called GREEN & THRIFTY THURSDAY.

It will be a Post with a small tip on things you can do to save money AND help the environment. After all, being frugal is great but saving money & time is not so good, at the expense of our Planet!

The 1st Tip is about ink, paper and waste.

Since I've been printing coupons from the Internet, I found that I've had ALOT of paper waste and I run through ink like I'm bathing in it sometimes. I do use recycled printer paper as that's better for our world, or the Green Option, but it's NOT the Thrifty Option. Not having to use as much paper & ink IS both the Green & Thrifty thing to do.

Some sites print 1 coupon per page, some sites fill up the page with recipes or ads for the product below the coupon, & some sites will print multiple coupons on each sheet of paper. I like the last kind of coupon site, not so much the first two. But sometimes you just don't have a choice if you want certain coupons.

Here's what I do to save some paper and ink.

Most coupons/sites let you hit the back button and print each coupon twice. If I am only printing 1 coupon on a sheet of paper, after it prints, I put the sheet back in the printer turned upside down, so I can print another coupon on the blank bottom of the page. That way, I get 2 coupons on 1 page.

I also watch as the coupon is printing. If the printing process gets to the point where you can tell that the actual coupon has finished printing, but the printer is still now printing an ad(using all your expen$ive colored ink!)below the coupon or a recipe you have no desire for, hit the CANCEL PRINTING button to stop the printer. Your paper should immediately come out and you've saved both the bottom of the page to print another coupon and you've saved all that precious ink!

If all else fails and you find you can't avoid ads or recipes & waste of partial sheets of paper when printing coupons, don't throw those scraps of paper away after cutting the coupons out.

Here are some ideas for reusing those leftover paper pieces.

*Tear or shred paper scraps to compost with your kitchen scraps.
*Use it to make homemade paper if you are crafty. Google 'making homemade paper' to find some instructions.
*Shred it and use for small pet bedding(like hamsters, mice, etc.)
*Cut the paper scraps into notepad size sheets and use the clean backside for writing notes.
*Give paper scraps to your small kids for coloring or doodling.
*Any other ideas? Please leave them in the comments section below.

Sluggy