Meal Plan Monday.....March 22nd Edition w/Spending Breakdown & 2 Recipe Links

Last Week's Menu Postmortem...
Everything was served as planned except the Corned Beef.  Couldn't find an inexpensive deal on Corned Beef anywhere last week.  I found one on Sunday so we are on for Corned Beef this week.

Here's what I will be serving our family of 4 this Week.....our household presently consists of 2 adults and 2 teens at home.  No children under 14.

This week we'll be using 2 leftover proteins to make two new meals. Since alot of what I am serving is stockpiled, I'm adding a Cost Breakdown Section where I'll list what I paid for the ingredients that are on hand so you can see what I spend w/stockpiling & sales versus buying it weekly when it might not be on sale. If I use a leftover ingredient I won't add that cost as it was already figured into the previous meal's cost.

MONDAY--Beef Tips w/Gravy(leftover), Egg Noodles(stockpile), Broccoli(have)
TUESDAY--Lena's Lemon Pepper Chicken(freezer), Rice(stockpile), Zucchini(have)
WEDNESDAY--Haluski(have & stockpile), Kielbasi or Sausage(freezer)
THURSDAY--Creamy Potatoes and Ham(using leftover ham/need to buy potatoes) , Wax & Green Beans(freezer)
FRIDAY--Fish(freezer), Coleslaw(have & stockpile), Fries(need to buy)
SATURDAY--Ravioli with Sauce(freezer/stockpile), Spinach Salad(need to buy spinach)
SUNDAY--Eat Out


Here are the cost breakdowns...
Beef Tips in Gravy Meal--Beef is leftover(.00¢), flour and soup base for gravy(.30¢), egg noodles(.50¢), broccoli($1.50)=$2.30
Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zucchini--chicken($1.03),lemon pepper/flour(.85¢), oil(.75¢),zucchini($2.46), tomatoes(.99¢), rice($1)=$7.08
Halushki Kielbasa Dinner--Cabbage(.78¢), Egg Noodles(.50¢), Onions(.25¢), Kielbasa($3.98), Butter(.40¢), Salt/Pepper(.05¢)=$5.96
Potato & Ham Dinner--Ham leftovers(free), Potatoes($1), Butter (.60¢), Cream Cheese($1), Cheese($1), Milk(.50¢), Spices(.30¢), Green Beans($1)=$5.40
Fish Dinner--Flounder($5.99),Hush Puppy Mix for breading(.50¢), Oil for frying(.70¢), Cabbage(.78¢), Mayo, Sugar, Celery Seed & Vinegar(.75¢), Potatoes(.99¢)=$9.71
Ravioli Dinner--Ravioli($6.00), Pasta Sauce($1.25), Spinach($2.00), 2 Eggs(.15¢), Bacon(.50¢), Dressing(.09¢)=$9.99



Adding up what has already been spent and what I need to spend for this week's menu, I can serve this menu of 6 meals to a family of 4 adults/teens for a total of $40.44.

Leftover nights have no cost as they were already figured in when the meal was served the first time.  If you divide the meals' cost by 6 nights(Sunday is dining out & that's on the enterainment budget), you get an average cost per night of $6.74.  That's $1.69 per person per night.  And this is mostly a cooking from scratch menu.  The only 'processed foods' is the pasta sauce for the ravioli.   Who says you can't cook healthy on the cheap?

LAST WEEK'S FOOD SPENDING
$17.39 was spent on food/toiletries last week...all of that was on food actually.  Much better than my previous week's total of $135+.  The only stocking-up I did this past week was a few corned beef briskets and I used Catalinas to pay.  A bit over the $10 mark I tried to stay under but not bad overall.

$12.81 at Weis(for milk and cheese), $.07 at CVS(using $4 ECBs), $3.92 at Price Chopper NE  and $.59 OOP at Rite-Aid on bunches of stuff.  I got some produce & sliced cheese at the small independent grocery also but no OOP since I used that Gift Card I had won last year.

The only NEEDS for this week's menu are potatoes and fresh spinach.  I didn't get potatoes last week for the Corned Beef dinner since we had biscuits already and didn't need more carbs in that meal.  No law saying you have to have taters with corned beef, right?lol  But I have 2 meals this week that need that ingredient so a bag of potatoes is on the list.
I have a $7 Cat to use(not Cat deals at Weis this week so no rolling it) so if I get over to the Weis that takes IPQs I'll use the IP BOGO Potatoes Q and use the Cat to pay, netting me some free taters.


FOOD WASTE REPORT
Nothing wasted this week...Again! 8-))

Check out ORGANIZING JUNKIE to see what other Home Cooks are serving this week.

Sluggy

And the Pillsbury Giveaway Winner is.....

I wrote all the names/entries on slips of paper and had DH pull the winner.  This is the 'scientific method' as my buddy Marilyn calls it. ;-)

So the Winner is.....




Cheryl F. {The Lucky Ladybug}

Congratulations and you have 48 hours from the time stamp on this post to email me with your name and address Cheryl.
You can find my contact email on my profile page.

Thanks to everyone for playing and thanks again to MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury for supplying gifties for this Giveaway.

The next installment of My famous Boring Box Giveaway will begin shortly....so stay tuned!

Sluggy

HAPPY SPRING! & This Just In.....Spending Update

Most people would say that this picture is their image of Spring.

But here in PA, this is what we see in our mind's eye when we think Spring.....

 Every year on the 1st Day of Spring, Rita's Italian Ice locations give away FREE Italian Ice!
Now how cool is that?!

I remember one year after we moved here, #2 son was in Kindergarten, which was a half day affair at that time.  I took him down to one of the local Rita's after school for our free Italian ice.  It was rainy/sleety and cold as a debutante's stare, but we had to get our ice!  Heck, we could have stood in the parking lot and held our cups up and gotten our own ice thanks to Mother Nature, if you know what I mean.lol

That year even sitting in the car shivering with the heater on, we still had to get our ices.
Unfortunately, today we missed out on the free ice.  And it was the most beautiful 1st Day of Spring on which to eat an ice.  Warm as puppy dog kisses it was....


So how is everyone doing staying on budget this month?

Since we are 2/3 of the way through March, I sat down and subtotaled my receipts for food/toiletries spending for the month.
I'm at $202.59 as of 3/20.
The rebates that have come in this month so far total $150.60.....goooood rebate month!!

After the rebate money is deducted, my spending total so far for March is $51.99.
Woot!

10 more days to go.....

 Sluggy

Last Chance to Enter my Giveaway....Ends Tonight 3/20! CLOSED

My Pillsbury Sweet Rolls Giveaway ends tonight at midnight.
Today is your last chance to enter so don't dilly-dally!

Please go enter on the post located HERE.

Sluggy

The Best Laid Schemes....You were so Right Bobby Burns!

Last year I won a $50 Gift Card to a local independent grocery store in a nearby town.  I blogged about it HERE.

Well, since it's been almost a year since I got the Gift Card I figured it was about time I actually went to this store and commenced to spend the bucks.
This grocery store is part of a loosely affiliated group of independently owned/operated grocery stores.  Seems they 'share' the same loyalty card program(you can use your card at any of this brand of store)but their gift cards are store specific(meaning I can only use the gift card at this store, not the other stores in the brand).

Well the sales ad for this 'brand' of store this week was pretty decent.
There is a Buy 7 Quaker Oats products, get an instant $3 off your transaction Deal plus there is a Spend $20, Get a $5 Catalina on Heinz products(like I didn't get enough ketchup at Weis last week!lol). 
I also had 7 Qs to use with that Quaker Deal and the on sale Classico Pasta Sauce(being a Heinz product)was included in the Heinz Cat Deal, plusI had $1/2 IPQs left to pair with the deal/sale AND $1.50 off Meat WYB 2 Classico Sauces ManuQs.
Add in that the Classico sauce was part of the Heinz Cat so I'd also get a $5 Cat outta the deal too!
I was going to pay $3.50 for 7 Quaker products and $15 for 10 jars of Pasta Sauce plus get $7.50 in Meat for free and get a $5 Cat.

So I decided to venture over to this grocery store today and check it out.  It's what you might call an 'urban center market'....translation=heavy car traffic, narrow parking lot, even narrower aisles with oversized shopping carts inside an older not-very-well-kept-up building.
ick.
So I walk all the way over to the end of the building where the Customer Service is tucked away, far from the entrance and get in line to ask about the coupon policy before I start throwing products in my cart.  Always a smart thing to check on the policy at a store you haven't shopped at yet, ya know?

Then I spied the coupon policy prominently displayed(ok, this is the first thing they have done right in my book!)and began reading.
And let me say that this was NOT a good read.

Nope.
Lots of coupon rules....the list was long.
And they lost me at the first 2 rules--
1. Only doubling 3 of any 'like' coupon and only up to .50¢
2. NO computer generated coupons(aka internet coupons).

Well isn't that just ducky?
No Quaker Deal nor Pasta Deal for me today.
Crap.
This makes the 3rd local store that doesn't take IPQs.

I had a back-up plan in case the coupon policy was a dud....which it was.
So I got some on sale deli cheese, some fresh veggies on special and then went looking for a certain frozen veggie mix we love(also on sale) plus the corned beef briskets that were marked at $2.27lb.
I found fairly quickly that they don't carry the veggie mix we like either and there was not one single brisket in the entire dingy little store!
Ugh.

So I spent a whole $8 on my $50 gift card and it sure took some trying to spend that much!
At this rate the gift card will still have buckies on it by next March....

Sluggy