Thursday: Another week of budgeting is begun. Last week I was pretty pleased that I not only saved money, I produced something from my kitchen to add to my pantry and food stores. You do realize producing can mean you put an extra casserole in the freezer when you're already making one or you buy and freeze extra produce for a future use? It all counts.
Technically, when I shopped today it might look like March spending. It isn't. Everything purchased today was bought on sale for April. It won't be used here in March at all although it was all purchased today. I needed nothing for my March meals to be complete. I was looking at sales and looking ahead when I made out my shopping list.
I was happy to see the price of eggs was even lower than on my shopping trip last week. I won't tell anyone they are cheap as of yet, but last week I bought 30 medium eggs at the mid-price market and they were over $6.50. This week I bought 30 large eggs at the higher end market (always John's choice if he's going shopping with me), and they were $5.35 or thereabouts for the store brand. So yes, those prices are falling.
What I found shocking, just as a side mention, was oxtail at $12.99 a pound. I laughed because once upon a time shank and oxtail were considered just above the organ meats when it came to selling those, so they were always cheap. I guess I missed the memo that they were now classy meats. Even steaks aren't that high.
Now my goal is not to shop again for at least two weeks. And to stick closer to my actual budget for the month of April. I'll have to make sure I take into account the groceries I will be purchasing from Amazon as well. I saved nearly $80 in choosing the sales items I did this week. I also got extra points from Fetch, Ibotta rewards and used store coupons that I'd clipped.
We ate out at Burger King today and I used a coupon for a free sandwich which cut our costs for lunch. I wish I'd remember to also use that gift card I have...John paid for lunch from his pocket money.
I finally came up with a sort of idea for supper and it was what it was. Delicious, simple and comforting.
Meals: Toast and Bacon for Caleb and I, Toast and Eggs for John
Burgers and Fries, Caleb ate chicken nuggets and half my burger.
Beef Sirloin strips with mushrooms and onions in gravy over mashed potatoes. I used a lot of mushrooms and onions. This was quite delicious and as I said, very much a comfort sort of meal.
Friday: I brought the checkbook up to date this morning. I try to do that on a daily basis, writing out checks for anything coming due, writing down receipts and totals. Bookkeeping is just as important as any other household task, if not more so.
John did laundry this morning. I think it was a total of three loads with clothing, sheets and towels. I never did get to the sheers and curtains as planned this week.
I took five minutes this morning to think ahead to the weekend. I have bread baking, just took out an apple pie. I have meat thawing for supper and an easy meal planned (provided the meat thaws!). I thought about the weekend meals and have already got those thawing or planned. I only need to make my pizza dough for the weekend pizza.
Now all work is done, except for supper and making that pizza dough. I am ready for the weekend! No plans yet except to find a book from my bookshelves and read.
Meals: I forgot to add this before and can't remember what we ate except for supper: Hamburgers, chips, 'fixings' as we call the lettuce, cheese, tomato and onion.
Saturday: We spent our morning/early afternoon rambling through a huge Antiques mall. We didn't buy a thing. We decided to eat fast food, so lunch was slightly less than we'd typically spend.
I reminded myself that it's the start of a new month and we've an extra week before we get paid this time around. No problem. We have enough foods to manage until our check arrives in another week.
Looked over the usual savings websites (and thank you to those who mentioned Krazy Coupon Lady and Coupon Mom. I now also use those sites as well) to search for deals on Amazon and at stores. This week I found only one item I felt was worthwhile adding to my pantry but that's one more item that I can't get for the same price in any of the local stores where we shop even on best sale.
I mentally reviewed our calendar for the month and realized that I have a grandchild's birthday coming up at the end of the month. I'll start looking around for something for her now. It would pay me well at the same time to start buying an extra gift to help offset all those June birthdays. It will come up far quicker than I think it will looking at it from today!
We had hot dogs tonight. I opted not to buy buns but to use sliced bread that we keep on hand.
Meals: Bagels, Croissants
everyone out at different spots
Hot Dogs, Baked Beans, Chips
Sunday: I wanted to take advantage of the sale on meat and a couple of free Ibotta items but we decided to wait until one day this coming week. The items will still be on sale then, too and we should have rent money by then to help with purchases.
For months now, my credit card keeps telling me I've earned rewards. I'd checked this out before and didn't see anything to get into a flutter about. Today when I got a notice again that I had shopping rewards, I went to see why I'd been sent an email. Sure enough, I was able to use the funds to purchase a gift card. I opted to get a Lowe's card to use for mulch, soil, flowers...my usual springtime purchases.
In clearing out John's music room I found two items I could use right away. One was a vacuum seal clothing bag that we'll use to store quilts from the top of the chifforobe in the guest room and the other was a clothes basket that just fits under the lip of the bench at the backdoor. This allowed me to shove all of Caleb and Katie's shoes into that basket. Now to find one the same size to hold mine and John's shoes. Hopefully this will help contain some of the mess at the back door. It's not the shoes that frustrate me, it's what gets tracked into the house on the shoes that frustrates me. Lots of sand, grass, leaves, etc. If most of that will drop into the bottom of the clothes basket that will suit me.
We ate leftovers tonight. Everyone had something different, but we cleared out several containers. More room in the fridge for the week ahead is helpful.
Meals: Cheese Toasts for John and I
Gramma's Fried Chicken, Mac n Cheese, leftover baked beans
We cleaned out the fridge and each ate something different
Monday: Weather determined tonight's menu and lunch plans as well.
I had two cans of Chicken Noodle Soup from Aldi. Honestly, they were a mistake. I grabbed what I thought were four cans of cream of chicken. It turned out that two were and two were chicken noodle. I tried to enhance the canned soup so that it would be more flavorful. Bland city was all it was despite the additional seasonings. As I ate, I was thinking "What would make this better?" I decided that what would be better was homemade chicken noodle soup. I could add all sorts of things to the canned soup but in the end, homemade would be less expensive. In future I'll try to remember to look at what I am putting in the buggy.
For supper, I took a solidly frozen bone in chuck roast from the freezer and tried to fit it in the slow cooker. Ha! That roast actually just fit my 13 X 9 pan. It was a big one! And frozen it barely left an inch on all sides. It truly filled that pan. I decided to cover it with foil and slow cook in the oven. I took it out at 3pm and put in carrots, potatoes and celery, then covered it and lowered the temperature a little more. At 5pm, I checked and the vegetables were nicely cooked. I cut the temperature down a bit more (now it was at about 225F) and let it rest there until Katie got home from work. Goodness but that roast tasted good!
Granny never owned a slow cooker. She used her stove to do her slow cooking, both the oven and Dutch ovens on top of the stove and this roast was worthy of her style of cooking.
Come to think of it, Grandmother never had a slow cooker either. She favored the pressure cooker and used that often as not.
Speaking of both, I noted the other morning as I reached for something in the appliance cupboard that duh, the electric canner is a slow cooker as well as a pressure cooker...and here I was wondering if I'd even replace the slow cooker if it gave up the ghost. I already have one. Gee I really need to find that booklet and use that appliance!
I wanted to 'produce' something today in the kitchen. When I took out the celery to add to the pot roast, I noted that there were lots of leaves. I typically use the leaves in soups or even in stir fry but I decided to harvest these and dry them in that slow oven. I have about 1/2 cup of dried leaves now that will be used as seasoning. That celery was so lovely and crisp and it's on sale right now. I think I'll get another when I go to the grocery later this week to get our Easter morning breakfast items.
I said that roast was huge. I have more than enough meat left to manage sandwiches and hash too from it!
Meals: Peanut Butter Toast, Banana for Caleb as well as toast. He came along later and asked for bread and butter.
Chicken Noodle Soup, Quesadillas. Caleb was excited by this meal. He loves soup as much as I do and he kept chuckling saying, "Soup!"
Tuesday: I seem to be in an either/or season. I can do outdoor work, or I can do indoor work but finding energy, not time, seems to be the issue.
This morning I made waffles, instead of pancakes. I mixed up extra with the express purpose of putting the extras in the freezer. I can eat about 3/4 of a waffle, Caleb about 1/4 and John can eat up to 1 1/2. We only need three waffles per packet at the most. I put six into the freezer this morning after we'd eaten.
I pulled muffins out of the freezer to thaw for tomorrow morning's breakfast. I believe these are banana nut muffins.
I made cupcakes for Sunday's Easter dinner. I had 18. Now I have 17. Somebody found them impossible to resist tasting.
I felt like the celery leaves could use a little more drying time. They didn't feel wet but they didn't feel fully dry. I slipped them into the oven after I took the cupcakes out. Fifteen minutes in the oven while it cooled down was just enough to make them feel fully dry.
The celery leaves crumbled nicely after that second drying period. I had an empty celery seed bottle, that I used to put the leaves in. The crumbled leaves filled it up.
I altered supper plans slightly. Instead of cutting the smoked turkey, I'm going to save it for Sunday. I pulled chicken legs out to barbecue, and we'll have sweet potato fries with that. If I can get biscuits made, I'll do it. I'll try to make extra of those and put some in the freezer for future meals.
After I'd cleared up lunch dishes, I prepped for supper. I got the Sweet Potatoes cut into fries and the chicken legs are thawing in the pan I'm cooking them in. I went outdoors and picked up two piles of limbs and tossed them into the pile for Bess or John to haul to the burn pit. Then I worked on weeding that flower bed in the corner of the back porch and the house. That was an easier job this year because last year I put down weed mat and mulched it out. Now that Maddie is gone, I find that Rufus wants to lie in the bed. I'll try to leave him space to dig and find cool dirt, but I'm going to put some more mat and mulch in that bed. Maddie was a big dog. Rufus isn't. He doesn't need as much space as the two of them together did.
Meals: Waffles, Beef Smoked Sausage
Meatloaf Sandwiches, Chips
BBQ'd Chicken Legs, Sweet Potato Fries, Green Beans, Cheese Biscuits. I didn't make a lot of extra biscuits, but I do have enough to bake for breakfast one morning this week.
Wednesday: I may be rethinking my supper plan since I came to look at my menu rather late today and obviously didn't plan ahead. Never mind. We've plenty of other quick meal options if needed that I might manage.
It's a very 'off' sort of day for me. I slept poorly. I have no energy and no desire to do anything that might vaguely be seen as an accomplishment beyond the meals I'll make today and unloading the dishwasher.
I moved two boxes of books from Katie and Caleb's room yesterday, which was one of my goals for this week. I was sorting through a stack of boxes when I came across two that were already clearly marked "For Donation". We have them stacked now at the backdoor so we can put them in the car trunk and take them with us when we drop off other items to be donated.
And so ends another week in our home.
Meals: Breakfast: Boiled Eggs, Muffins (banana nut), Orange for Caleb as well.
Lunch: Caleb: Bologna half sandwich, cheese popcorn, baby carrots, half an apple cut into slices. John: Bologna and Cheese sandwich, chips Me: leftover hamburger with chips
Supper: Egg Drop Soup, Potstickers, Broccoli, Egg Rolls (plan B meal)
8 comments:
I always seem to toss those celery leaves into my veggie scrap bag I keep in the freezer. But making dried celery leaves is another great idea for them!
I always put dried celery leaves (in addition to finely chopped celery stalks) in my tuna and chicken salads--it adds that extra "something" that celery alone just doesn't provide. I have no idea how that works, but it does!
The BK app would save you a lot of money since there are free FF every day when you order anything and you can get a large order. Here is my big savings tip for BK: order a hamburger and add lettuce, onion and tomato to make a Whopper Jr for a dollar less than the posted price. If we do that hamburger hack and the free FF we can get lunch with water for $2.03 each. They constantly give extra points too. In April if you order 3x in the app they will give you a 550 point bonus.
We have been taking advantage of the deals even if only for a few items at a store if we are passing right by. This morning we were out and passing by a Walmart Neighborhood Market and Hubby ran in for 5 White Lily pound cake mixes at 2.48 each and then $1 back on Ibotta for each. I would not have sent him in to a regular store but the smaller neighborhood store is quick and easy. Tomorrow we will be passing by Ingles so we will stop for White Lily flour on sale and Tetley tea bags for 1.25 each which have a $1/1 iBotta limit five. Yes for sure I will take 25 cent boxes of tea bags! These quick stops are keeping us stocked.
Hello. Your giant roast sounds delicious.
Jeff and I like chicken noodle soup when we are sick. Nina’s 3 littles really like it too except the first time Elizabeth ate it, she asked why it didn’t have more chicken in it. My tip to improve the flavor is use a little less than half a can of water instead of the full can suggested. We like Campbell’s and Great Value equally but never had Aldi.
I can so relate to your feelings as you try to make more space and organize better with your 2 extras.
Sue, I've typically done that too, but I often find I have too much celery, by the time I add the root ends and leaves and any stalks that look a bit iffy. So I thought I'd dry the leaves and save them that way because now and then i like a bit in slaw or potato salad. I think the dried leaves have a more pronounced celery flavor, same as the seeds, therefore it adds a little something extra in your salads.
Lana, I think yours is a great idea for stocking up. I have some ibotta deals on my Kroger receipt from today but the app refused to take the receipt. I'm assuming there was some trouble somewhere along the way and will try later. Since I have to actively plan (psych myself up) to do a grocery shop with Caleb these days, I am hitting the store that has the best sale that week and doing the best I can. It's a little upsetting though that in two weeks I can easily spend my entire month's budget and still not have amply stocked up nor have enough milk/produce to make it through a whole month. I've decided to just do what I can and consider this a season to be got through like any other.
Rhonda, yes, it's stretching me hard to fit in extra things. Katie just got Caleb a little bed and she's pushed the headboard up against the pantry door. I've had to move the bed three times already today and now I have groceries to go in when he gets up from quiet time. So that room is due a rearrange for sure. I can't work like this...I have to have it fixed. I've got some more stuff to move OUT of the room as well but need to determine exactly where they are going first.
Terri, I had problems with a receipt from Ingles a few weeks ago. I clicked the line that said proceed anyway and it went through. I hope that works for you.
Terri, I was thinking about your comment and that is a hard place to be in for sure. I don't know what I do differently except a few things which are that I rarely pay full price for anything that ever goes on sale. I buy a lot of anything that is a super price that we use. I also never browse in the grocery store. I make my list and go right to what I am buying and don't even look at anything else. I am bad for picking up impulse items and those are the things that don't get used and kill my budget. We do eat pbj for lunch at least once a week and we save meals like steak for special occasions. We have grits or potatoes with breakfast 4-5 days a week which is a cheap filler upper. I wish I had known when the kids were growing up that the calcium thing about milk is a lie. The human body cannot absorb calcium from pasteurized milk. So pouring milk down five kids was just an expensive beverage. We have quit shopping at the salvage stores because they don't have food that we eat right now. One has rows and rows of candy and the other has mostly vegan foods. We had not been shopping at Aldi much because the prices had gotten so high but we did go last week and were pleasantly surprised to find the prices had really come down. Produce is really down at our store. Anyway, those are just my thoughts.
Lana, I installed the Burger King app on my phone. Thank you so much for that tip. Caleb rarely drinks milk but I buy lactose free anyway in case he decides he does want it. Fortunately unopened it's got a longer life than regular milk. I use it whenever I'm making pudding or some sauce or bread so that he can eat it and not have that allergy of his act up.
In Kroger, I do tend to walk up and down all the aisles, looking for those elusive clearance stickers, lol. Not in Publix though. I stick strictly to the aisle that has the sale item and only go to that section because Publix adds up quickly!
I miss making those occasional runs to the so-called discount store because they do have good prices on some items but lately I haven't been able to get over there in over a month.
I'll just tighten the hatches in other places. I'm feeling very spendy of late anyway, and it's always good to just step back and wait instead of blindly spending.
I was lactose intolerant for at least twenty years. I used regular milk in any dish that was cooked because heating it made the lactose digestible.
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