March Food Spending Week 3, Meal Plan March Week 4 + More!

Onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)

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

SUNDAY--Chicken Fajitas

 MONDAY--Taco Bell
TUESDAY--Burritos, Corn
WEDNESDAY--Leftovers Fajitas
THURSDAY--Chinese Take-Out
FRIDAY--Fish, Stuffed Clams, Mixed Veggies, Kraft Mac&Cheese(aka crack)
SATURDAY--homemade Pizza

Things I used last week that I had bought the previous week.....colored bell peppers, onions, stuffed clams, Kraft mac&cheese(got for free at Rite-Aid).  This is to show you that I do use all those things I buy each week that I don't use the week I necessarily buy them. ;-)

The weekly food spending was $55.01 this past week.

I again, went to Weis "PoundYouInTheAss" Markets for groceries as I had another week of Grand Re-Opening Qs.  I got free 2ltr. soda(#2 son is happy), free bag of potato chips(hub's is happy), 1/2 price muffins(#2 son ditto), and $5 off when I spent $50(Momma is happy!lol).

There was an Instant Catalina Deal on certain Heinz products-5 off instantly WYB $20 in products(which was based on the reg. shelf price, not the sale price).  I bought 6 bottle of Log Cabin syrup-the NO HFCS kind.  On sale for $2.99 a bottle but after Instant Cat, each bottle cost me $2.16.
I also bought produce(cabbage, celery), 2 bags of cheese, rolled pie crust, whipped cream in a can, 3 boxes of pasta($1 per) and a 12-pack of soda--all store brand.  Then a big pack of ground beef with a $3 store sticker on it and a key lime pie, well, just because it was on sale and it looked good and we wanted crap.
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Not-So Brief  Deal Hunting Interlude
 
And from the Annals of "PAY ATTENTION TO STUFF WHEN YOU SHOP".......here is my deal of last week--

6 boxes of Angus Burgers.
We were perusing the frozen chicken/meats case and I spied these babies in the top corner of the case with $3 Instant Discount Qs stuck to them.
They are 2 lbs. of Angus Beef Burgers from Hormone-free, vegetarian-fed steer.
Reg. price at Weis?
$9.99 per box, each box has 6 burgers.
So $3 off makes then $6.99, which is a much better price.
I had Hubs get me 2 down to stick in my cart.
Not the sort of thing I buy(per-formed burgers), but at that price this would be a good thing to have in my freezer for #2 son, for those nights he doesn't want what I am fixing for dinner or for a weekend meal or after school snack.  It is something he can/will make for himself and I am ALL ABOUT getting teens to cook for themselves one way or another.  This would be the one way.  ;-)

So we get to the register and I notice that the 2nd box of burgers rings up as a BOGO....yes!
I paid $9.99 for 2 boxes instead of 1.
Evidently there was also a BOGO on this product but there was NO SHELF TAG.
Either that or it HAD BEEN a BOGO but whoever programs the computer, didn't change the price back after the sale.   Either way, as a customer at Weis PMITA Markets, I am entitled to the price it rings up for per their own policy.

So with 2 x $3 instant Q deducted, I got 4 lbs. of burgers for the wonderful price of $3.99.
That's $1 a pound for hoity-toity meat!!!
KA-ching Baby!!

So you KNOW what I did, don't you?
I sent Hubs back to the frozen meat case to buy 4 more boxes of this stuff.
So that's why I have 12 lbs. of pre-made burgers sitting in my freezer.

Moral of Story....you never know WHERE you will find a Deal and you won't find them unless you keep open to what is around you.
Burgers were not something I went into the store to buy, but by paying attention to what was in the store & what I was charged at the register(and a little luck) I found something I can use and that was practically free.

It's the 26th day of the month and I've already spent $400.64  my food budget for the month!   I do have $476.80 in the kitty with the $300 for this month and the leftover from Jan. and Feb.'s kitties.

I had to feed some leftover turkey to the dogs this past week, as nobody here would finish it and I'll be damned if I'll throw perfectly good food away!

So that is the end of me roasting turkeys.....well, except for 1 at Thanksgiving.  The rest of the year?....the people here are shitoutofluck. ;-)

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Going into March Week 4+ I have leftovers--a little bit of corned beef, a little more cabbage from the week before.  As of Monday, everything that was cooked this past week is gone.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers
MONDAY--Rigatoni w/meat sauce, Salad

TUESDAY--Breakfast for Dinner
WEDNESDAY--Tuna Noodle Casserole
THURSDAY--Shrimp, Cornbread, Coleslaw
FRIDAY--Leftovers
SATURDAY--?

This menu gives us 4 new meals, 2 nights of leftovers and 1 ? meal.  "? meal"= might go out to Bob Evans, might get take-out, who knows!lol

 Items needed to buy for this menu are....nothing.  I've got everything here already in the freezer or the pantry, except for the unknown meal, if we don't go out to eat that night.
We'll be buying milk as usual.

So far I don't see any stocking up opportunities, but then again, I haven't looked yet.  I do have another set of Grand Re-Opening Qs for "you know where".  Don't know yet if I'll use them.

So what is everyone else eating this week?

Sluggy

Judy!

This is getting to be like a Where's Waldo thing.
Judy's blog is missing....again!

And yes, we love her more than the Shamwow! Guy.....lol

I just shot off a second email to Judy of "Finally Frugal and Happy" blog and of the dear departed "We May Be Poor But We Are Happy" blog as well.

If you have probably noticed, Judy's blog is MIA on Blogger.
And from the people commenting on my blog looking for her, I don't know yet what happened to her.

If she doesn't answer my emails I'll send her a snail mail.  She's a bit too far for me to just drive down to Philly and show up on her doorstep.......NOT that I am not tempted to do so.....!

I'll updated when I get word so don't panic yet.

Sluggy

You Is Kind, You Is Smart, You Is Important....

A few weeks ago I rented the movie "The Help" and viewed it.  I pretty much got emotionally involved with the characters in that movie and found myself balling like a baby while watching it.  I watched it again and had the same reaction.
At first I thought the story line dealing with racism was what was behind my reaction.
But with time, I discounted that theory.

Now, if you KNOW me, you know that I am not an emotional person.  That is to say, that I don't wear my heart on my sleeve and I don't break down into tears at the sight of puppies or the thought of sad or troubling situations, like the characters in The Help were involved in.

I grew up a white daughter of a middle class family in Southern Virginia in the 1960's and 1970's.  So I am well aware of what society was like during the time period that The Help takes place in.
But my strong reaction wasn't due to the racial tolerance/acceptance issues explored in the film.
It was something else.

And I finally figured out why I had the reaction I did to the film.
It's because of this throw-away, minor character......
The little girl, Mae Mobley Leefolt.





Yes, I figured it out.....I AM Mae Mobley!

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Here is an excerpt for the book, THE HELP,  by Kathryn Stockett.......

"August 1962
Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that's what I do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning.

But I ain't never seen a baby yell like Mae Mobley Leefolt. First day I walk in the door, there she be, red-hot and hollering with the colic, fighting that bottle like it's a rotten turnip. Miss Leefolt, she look terrified a her own child. "What am I doing wrong? Why can't I stop it?"
It? That was my first hint: something is wrong with this situation.
So I took that pink, screaming baby in my arms. Bounced her on my hip to get the gas moving and it didn't take two minutes fore Baby Girl stopped her crying, got to smiling up at me like she do. But Miss Leefolt, she don't pick up her own baby for the rest a the day. I seen plenty a womens get the baby blues after they done birthing. I reckon I thought that's what it was.
Here's something about Miss Leefolt: she not just frowning all the time, she skinny. Her legs is so spindly, she look like she done growed em last week. Twenty-three years old and she lanky as a fourteen-year-old boy. Even her hair is thin, brown, see-through. She try to tease it up, but it only make it look thinner. Her face be the same shape as that red devil on the redhot candy box, pointy chin and all. Fact, her whole body be so full a sharp knobs and corners, it's no wonder she can't soothe that baby. Babies like fat. Like to bury they face up in you armpit and go to sleep. They like big fat legs too. That I know.
By the time she a year old, Mae Mobley following me around everwhere I go. Five o'clock would come round and she'd be hanging on my Dr. Scholl shoe, dragging over the floor, crying like I weren't never coming back. Miss Leefolt, she'd narrow up her eyes at me like I done something wrong, unhitch that crying baby off my foot. I reckon that's the risk you run, letting somebody else raise you chilluns.
Mae Mobley two years old now. She got big brown eyes and honey-color curls. But the bald spot in the back of her hair kind a throw things off. She get the same wrinkle between her eyebrows when she worried, like her mama. They kind a favor except Mae Mobley so fat. She ain't gone be no beauty queen. I think it bother Miss Leefolt, but Mae Mobley my special baby."

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My family wasn't "society" white people and we didn't have a maid to clean, cook and raise our family's children like the folks explored in The Help.  (It might have been better for me psychologically, in a way, if we had had a maid.)

We were lower middle class white people and my father was a social climber. He pulled himself and our family up from the echelons of the working class into the lower fringe of society in a large metropolitan city in Virginia by his sheer will and business acumen before a divorce and my parent's personal lives tore it all apart.

But in the society class or middle class, among white people in the South of this time, there was not only racism toward non-whites as a group, but there was a large festering sore called sexism toward their white women and girls.

In the South of that time, a woman was only worth her physical beauty. Meaning, women, in order to be of any value to their white society, needed to be pretty. This indoctrination started pretty much from birth.  You see this in the Skeeter character.  She voices that she is a disappointment to her mother for not being a pretty "society girl" and for going to college and working, instead of marrying, staying home, playing bridge and popping out babies.

Being smart was a bonus, but if you weren't a pretty girl, you could just forget going anywhere in life. Your place in society started with how well you married and an ugly woman was lucky to find a husband at all unless her family had a LOT of money and power.

Women were not encouraged to work but to stay home, look pretty and give her husband children and assure his standing in the community.
The only women who worked were those with a very strong will(who were also still married and worked as a "hobby" and didn't need the money), and those who were divorced or widowed or who's husband's for some reason couldn't/didn't support their family......and usually in that situation, these women would go home to their parents and let the grandparents support the children and the abandoned wife.

Though technically women in the South had had the vote since the 19th Amendment in 1917, could own land and even leave their father's home without having to be married first by 1963, a woman with no physical charms was a disappointment to her parents and a burden to unload.
And these girls who didn't measure up were told in so many ways, both directly and indirectly through the ways in which they were treated, that they were a cross to bear.

Like this Mae Mobley character was treated......she "aint gone be no beauty queen.  I think it bother Miss Leefolt."  Mae is the kind of Southern daughter I was.

I identify with her so completely, that it took my breath away and the parts of the movie she was in just made me ball.

I'll explore more how I relate to the Mae Mobley character as a young white woman growing up in the South  of the 1960's in another post at another time.

Sluggy

Musical Fun on Friday! Share the Love.....

Ok, so I really need some stress relieve after this past week.
So I am posting a bunch of tunes, some with videos, today!

First off, for ANNIE, since she gave me the idea let me steal this idea. She talked about her taste in music today and got me thinking about my own weird eclectic taste in music.   Annie posted a music clip of a Tracy Byrd song that she used in her wedding, 12 years ago.
Happy Anniversary Annie and Shane!

Here's a song for you.....




This one is for McVal.
Because combining Irish Traditional Music with a Bad Boy of Rock doesn't get any better than this!




The next one is for JANE.
She is crossing the continent on her bike......in her imagination.  Here's a song to help her....





This one is for JUDY.
Because it makes me smile and so does she. ;-)




This song is for SonyaAnn.
It's a little bit naughty and so is she.....


This song is for KIM.
Sit back and enjoy because you didn't have to work on this one! ;-)




The next one is for MARK.  He's got a big box of fun(and I'm NOT referring to Fred!)and he can appreciate this number, at least until he needs some aspirin the next morning.....



And this one?
This one is just because I LOVE it!
I hope you do too.

So what are your favorite songs or how does your taste in music run?
Share some clips on your blog!
 
Sluggy

I'm Still Here!...I Think....

This button should give you an indication of how my week is going.
Today especially has been one knot-in-the-gut inducing winner!
It is definitely my week to be the BUG!
It also explains why I have been MIA most of this week.
And it isn't anything I can share here......for now.

I'll just say that it involves college, medication(or lack thereof), death threats, authorities not taking certain things seriously, college administrators not doing their job and the District Attorney's office.
Just keep us in your thoughts.
And send me all your spare Maalox.....

And the other normal stuff I've been dealing with this week?  Well, none of it has been normal!  Everything has been a big old load of Manure this week.

I totally missed my Monday Spending Report/Menu for the Week post.
Not much point in posting it at this late date in the week, huh?
Hubs was out of town for 3 days so #2 Son and I just made it up as we went along.
I never got around to thawing anything today since I was busy working on getting my Stress Levels through the roof, so it's Breakfast for Dinner or Take-Out tonight.
Tomorrow might actually see me cook a proper meal.....but don't be taking bets on that, as it's not a sure thing! ;-)

I spent $95.00 even last week at the grocery stores, in 3 transactions.  The reg. retail was $183.12.  I 'may' have used a coupon or two but don't recall exactly.  My savings rate was a little less than 50% altogether.
My food spending for the month now stands at $345.63.  It's over my monthly budgeted amount but may still be within my budget with my leftover monies from Jan. & Feb.  I'll check on that later, IF I feel like going to that much effort. ;-)

That $95 included bags of discounted salad, eggs, cabbage, 2 gallons of milk, onions, a roasting chicken at .88¢ lb., a head of iceberg, 7 packages of sliced mushrooms(I froze 3 of them for later use), sour cream, a yogurt(I was hungry!) and 5 cans of chili.  Weis "Pound Me In The Ass" Markets is having a Grand Re-Opening of their remodeled store so they sent out a sheet of coupons-4 are good each week.
I went there to get some cheapies--corned beef briskets(3 of them at $1.49lb.), 5 packages of ground beef with store discount Qs making them less than $1.99lb., BOGO stuffed clams, $1 a bag ravioli and oranges on sale.  Since all that came to over $50, I was able to use the $5 off $50 Q they sent me.  I also used the other 3 Qs($2 off lb. of deli meats, FREE 2 ltr. Coke and FREE pkg. of cookies).

I made Chicken Fajitas on Sunday and Hubs and I had the leftover last night.  They were soooo good!
I've got a craving for them again so if red peppers go on sale again here, I may make some Beef Fajitas next time.  I am all over Veggie Fajitas too but Hubs wants meat in his so maybe next time I make chicken ones, I'll put the chicken to the side and go vegetarian for the day.

Alright back to making calls.
Dang, have I ever told y'all how much I DETEST talking on the phone??!!
Ick.

Sluggy