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

Working on Week #1 Decluttering Challenge is Nostalgic & Costly

I spent a good piece of the weekend(when I wasn't at Rite-Aid or the local grocery store)working on decluttering  my "Personal Space" for Carla's Challenge.

At some point on Sunday I found these among the piles of stuff in my bedroom.......ok, not the actual teenager but what he is holding.....

It's a pair of Osh Kosh overalls he use to fit into.
Pictoral proof that yes, he has grown a wee bit since he was born almost 16 years ago...birthday coming later this month.

And after moving many boxes and bags of stuff around and/or out of the room, this gave up the ghost.....

That's my beloved Oreck mini vacuum.  With all the hardwood floors in the house now, I can't imagine living here without one of these to get all the crud/dog hair/crap that piles up in the corners/crevices/edges of the floor.
We just wore the poor thing out so now I have to replace it.
Anybody have any recommendations on what they use/like for sucking edge cleaning?

This is one of the few times when I want an appliance that really SUCKS, if you know what I mean.lol

Doing my whole bedroom is looking like I bit off more than I can chew within 1 week at this point.
It's kicking my butt......

Sluggy

Saturday Shopping...Junk AND Real Food

Yes, sit down for this.....I actually spent actual money at Rite-Aid on Saturday!
I went in to use my expiring $6 in +Ups and then a new cashier happened to me.
I wanted to do the double dip--the Buy $15 in Game Day Snacks/Get $5 in +Ups and the Pepsi/7-Up soda deal(Buy 3 12-packs for $9.99/Get $2 in +Ups)that also qualifies toward the $15 purchase.
3 12-packs of soda, 2 bags of chips and a can of "Pringles wannabe chip like substance" gets my total to $15.28.
Sadly, no coupons were used as there are none for these items currently available.

I used my expiring $6 +Ups, so my total was then $9.28.....but new cashier said my total was $12.28.
I was fiddling with the stash of +Ups to dig out enough to pay so I didn't catch that he either didn't scan one of the $3 +Ups I had already given him OR the register scanned both but didn't subtract one of the $3 +Ups.  I used more +Ups to pay and put the .28¢ on my gift card.

After I got to the car I saw that only 6 of the 7 +Ups I gave him showed on my receipt so it was back into the store.  The only solution we(cashier, me and manager)could come up with was for me to spend $3 more(since we couldn't know which $3 +Ups scanned and which didn't and if I just took one of them back it could be the "dead" one and when I went to use it next time, it wouldn't work).
So even though I didn't plan on it, I did the Game Day Snack deal AGAIN......
This time I subbed a box of Cheez-its(I had originally planned to buy those but the store had hidden them in a different part of the store and I didn't see them until I went back into the store)for the "Pringles wannabes", so it was 3 12-packs, 2 bags of chips and a box of Cheez-its.
I rolled the $7 in +Ups I had just gotten, used the $3 +Ups plus another $1 +Up.  My only +Ups left is a $20 one from the Resolution Reward, too large to use, so I paid $4.77 OOP.  I could have put this on my gift card, but I chose not to.
Though I hated actually spending money at Rite-Aid, 6 12-packs(for #2 son, the soda addict), 4 bags of chips, a container of chip like substance and a box of Cheez-Its, all for less than $5 isn't bad.

Oh, and the BEST THING about these purchases?
Rite-Aid turned on the tracking/qualifying for the new Winter Resolution +Up Reward Deal early and everything qualified toward the Deal, which starts 2/5.  I have $31 toward the $100 in purchases I need.


Then it was over to the small independent grocer for REAL FOOD.lol

I dropped $48.69 there.

1 bunch celery on sale=$.99
6 bags of salad greens at $1.99 ea.=$11.94
3 bags of flour tortillas at $1.66 ea.(have to buy 3 to get price)=$5.00
4 cans of enchilada sauce at $1.00 ea.=$4.00
5 cans of chili at $1.00 ea.(have to buy 5 to get price)=$5.00
2 boxes taco shells at $1.25 ea.=$2.50
2 packs of pepperoni at $2.99=$5.98
2 packs of rolls at BOGO=$3.18
1+ lb. Cooper cheese at deli on sale $5.49lb.=$5.60
1 container sour cream on sale=$1.50
3 whack biscuit rolls at $1.50=$4.50
1 gallon milk=$3.50
SubTotal....$53.69

Coupons Used(They don't take IPQs so everything is a ManuQ here.)
2 x .50/1 Chi Chi's tortillas(doubled)=$2.00
1 x $1/2 Hormel pepperoni=$1.00
1 x $1/3 Grands biscuits=$1.00
1 x $1/1lb. Cooper deli cheese=$1.00(the deli girl gave me this vendor Q)
Coupon Total....$5.00

$53.69-$5.00=$48.69 OOP

Regular retail was $85.10
Savings rate of 42.79%.

Total spending for February to this point is $53.46.

Sluggy

If You Are Looking for Judy......

Go HERE.
She is back but with a new Blog Title "Finally Frugal and Happy" and URL.

Go welcome her back!

Just Something Fun on Friday

I am dedicating this to my bloggy friend SonyaAnn.  Her Fab Abs Friday is getting her down lately so I am upping things a notch!  I know she'll be dancing around and singing along with this video.

It's just something fun and funny to kicked off the weekend.  Get it?...."kick".....Super Bowl....lol

If you are easily offended by sex stuff, don't click on the video.
You have been warned.....

Hopefully I don't lose any new followers because of this, but c'mon!....it's funny!lol

Sluggy