January $100 Grocery Budget 2021

 

I will admit that going into January 2021 with a miniscule grocery budget did make me slightly apprehensive.  For several years we have done quite nicely with a $150 a month budget, which is still miniscule by today's standards, but with one kiddo away at college and becoming much more self sufficient I figured I could cut back in this area and use that extra $50 elsewhere.

 

Loss leader sales and great coupons made this a very thrifty haul

At the beginning of the month I was very fortunate in that we didn't have any immediate needs.  I had a fully stocked pantry and both freezers were loaded to capacity.  Plus a lot of odds and ends leftover from the holidays.  I also had a $50 Albertsons gift card that I had ordered using my credit card rewards points as a little bonus to get me started off in 2021.  I am always looking for ways to get free groceries.

 

I was able to stock up on peanut butter

At the end of the year I added a few fresh produce items, all of which I found on markdown, and a half gallon of milk on sale for 77¢ (loss leader item that week).  I spent less than $15 and we were good to go for a couple of weeks.  My first official grocery shopping trip was on the 9th of the month.  I checked the ads, loaded a gob of digital coupons to my store rewards cards, made a list and checked the ads again.  Then I went over my list again.

 

With a firm plan in place my first stop was at Albertsons (with my gift card) to pick up loss leader items on sale, many of which I had amazing digital coupons for.  I picked up 4 jars of peanut butter on sale for 99¢ a jar and used a coupon I had for $2 OFF a purchase of three.  A large tub of mixed nuts (great for Keto) on sale for $11.99 and I used a 50% OFF digital coupon.  That was a super great deal.  I used my Albertson's gift card to make this purchase so no money out of pocket was required.

 

I was also able to stock up on butter

Fred Meyer had butter on sale for $1.77 with a downloaded digital coupon, limit of five.  I stopped by on the way home and picked up five plus a loaf of whole wheat bread on markdown for 69¢.  At checkout I used a $2 OFF any purchase coupon to shave even more off the total.  We should now be good on butter for the year.

 

The next loss leader item Albertson's had going a week later was canned soup for 49¢ a can.  My youngest has been on a canned soup kick lately as it makes super easy meals for her when online schooling as well as before she heads out the door to work so I decided to get some for the pantry.  I also picked up some frozen shrimp on sale for $3.99 a pound.  The only non food items I've purchased so far this year were some food storage bags on sale, buy 1 get 1 free.  I now have a year supply on hand.  I once again use my Albertson's gift card and skated out of there with no out of pocket spending.

 

Markdown produce was a huge part of our shopping and kept us quite nicely in fresh fruit and vegetables.  I always check it over real well and it is usually just fine.  We always seem to eat it up fast enough and it saves me a bundle of money too.  I will dehydrate apples, peppers, onions and any other extras I find in the markdown bin from time to time as well.  The peppers and onions work very well in recipes I cook and the apples are great for snacking.

 

NON FOOD ITEMS: Of my $25 a month budget I spent $24.11.  I picked up food storage bags on sale buy one get one free, a bottle of shampoo and a bottle of hair conditioner for $1 each at Dollar Tree, dish soap for $6.99, a four pack of canned cat food for $1.58 and a 22# bag of dry cat food.  The shampoo, conditioner and cat food all went into our long term storage.

 

A trip to Winco to fill in some pantry gaps at low prices

More loss leaders and markdown produce buys

TOTAL SPENT ON GROCERIES:  Of my $100 budgeted amount I spent $101.13, which I feel pretty good about, especially as I managed to get a lot of food this month.  I have a deficit of $1.13 to carry over in February.  I also still have $12.61 left on my Albertson's gift card to use next month.  I feel really good about my efforts to stay within budget.

 

 

Revisiting An Old Post - My 4 Season Capsule Wardrobe

 

I have been doing a four season capsule wardrobe for over six years now and I absolutely love it!  It all easily hangs in my closet and drawers, as things wear out I replace them one item at a time and I always have something to wear no matter what the occasion.  In the morning it is quick and easy to select an outfit, get dressed and get out the door.  No struggles at all.  Super easy to manage.

 

And, best of all, I don't have to swap out and store clothing with the changing seasons.  My home is small so having space designated to store boxes of off season clothing is simply not an option for me.  If you are at all interested in my four season wardrobe you can click here.  Now let's get dressed!

 

Revisiting An Old Post - Zucchini Bites

 

I haven't made these in a while and I'm not quite sure why that is because these are fantastic.  Last week I made a batch for our Saturday brunch so I thought it might be a good time to share this recipe with all of you once again.  Click here to get the recipe.  These are so good!

 

Preparing For The Next Holiday - Valentine's Day

 

Right after Christmas I did a little bit of post Christmas clearance shopping which netted me some pretty good deals one of which was to buy some Toffifay candies.  My girls love these and I thought they would make really nice gifts for them at Valentines.  The best by date is far past February 14th too so no worries about giving them stale candy.  To spruce them up a bit I used some of my die cut hearts and placed them on the center of each one.

 

Simple & cute!

The weekend after Christmas I started making Valentine's Day cards.  I will be giving one to each of my girls and sending a few out to loved ones that live far away.  I really enjoy sending out cards and keeping in touch with friends and family.

 

I plan to make my heart shaped sugar cookies and dress them up with icing and red sprinkles to take to work and of course I'll have some for my daughters as well.  I love to bake and I don't do it very often now that I do keto, but it is nice every once in a great while to indulge a little.  I have plenty of items in the pantry leftover from the holidays so I won't need to purchase anything new.

 

These are fun to make! 😊

Before I owned a die cutter for card making I used to cut my own hearts out with a pairof scissors.  You certainly don't need anything fancy to make your own cards or some gift tags with.  I encourage you to give it a whirl if you feel so inclined.  It is easy to be thrifty and give a little something to those you care about.  Do you send or give Valentines cards or do anything special?

 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

After a crazy busy week prior I was ready on Sunday for some R&R.  My daughter was home from work too so we declared it a pajama day and each did whatever we wanted to do.  Needless to say I headed off to the craft room and made some greeting cards!  It was the perfect way to decompress and get ready for the week ahead.

 

We got some good mileage out of a pot roast last week

This past week was much nicer for me, slower and less hectic.  I perused the new grocery ads that came out on Wednesday, downloaded a handful of digital coupons and made a list to prepare for my next grocery shopping trip.

 

I did a lot of financial planning and started preparing my taxes as our W-2s were ready.  I have a couple more forms to receive before I can complete and file them but it does feel good to have started the process.

 

I used some of the proceeds I have earned recently from my eBay sales and invested in a crosscut paper shredder for our home.  It is a small tabletop unit and handles six sheets at a time or a credit card.  It seems to do a good job so I am quite pleased.  I know this will help me a lot in managing paper clutter.  We recycled the cross cut paper by putting it in our chicken coop for the nests.  The hens seem to like it.

 

THINGS WE ATE LAST WEEK:  Pot roast with carrots, potatoes & broccoli spears; grilled cheese & tomato basil soup; beef vegetable soup (made from leftover pot roast & veggies), egg roll in a bowl, pork verde (from last summer's canning).

 

Neat, tidy & well stocked

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - cleaned mirror, vacuumed & mopped floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Kitchen & Dining Room -  Cleaned and reorganized the pantry & refrigerator. Vacuumed & spot mopped floors. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - Vacuumed & dusted.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - one large load of laundry.  Vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & both entryways.

 

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading to a digital programmable thermostat

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$:  I washed out a few Ziploc bags to reuse.  I knocked the thermostat down a notch to see if we could handle a lower temperature indoors and it seemed fine.  I was actually getting too warm at 70° and 71.  68° or 69° seems better to me.  I did not do any grocery shopping.

 

THINGS I DID TO EARN EXTRA $$:  I worked a little bit of overtime and sold some more items on eBay and Etsy.  Yay!

 

I felt like I was adequately productive and made some progress on a few things around the house.  How was your thrifty week?

 

 

Simple Christmas 2021 - Christmas Fund

 

This year I'm upping my game which is my theme this year.  The last few years I've operated off of a pretty miniscule $100 Christmas budget which I've saved for at $10 a month from January through October.  This year I have decided to double it.

I keep a little Christmas themed envelope in my dayplanner and I am now saving $20 a month in that envelope.  With a bigger budget I'll be able to do more, but also it means that I'll be saving more money faster so I'll be able to start working on gifts that much sooner.  That part really excites me.

 

As long as I have the funds available in my little envelope I'll be able to buy items I find while out and about or find on sale.  I love to go "treasure hunting" in thrift stores and antique shops and if you don't have the money to get things when you're there you're usually out of luck.

 

Even at $200 I know this is still a small budget for Christmas, but I will definitely be able to make it work well for us and I'm so very excited with how much more I'll be able to do this year.  Yay!

 

 

Three Day Weekends

 

Another goal that I have for 2021 is to have a minimum of one three day weekend each month, if not longer, so I can enjoy being at home more.  I love my home and I love the many, many things I like to do in my home so I want to spend more time here.  As I am nearing my retirement date I feel now is the time to start winding down and easing myself into it more.  And my boss is completely on board with my plan which is absolutely wonderful.

 

A friend of mine got me this T-shirt

Fortunately with all of the holidays factored in I will be able to schedule my longer weekends and still have plenty of vacation available if I do want to take a little trip, go camping or simply have a staycation.  I think it is really important to have time away from work to do the things we love to do.  I only wish I'd made this decision much sooner.

 

I'm super excited about this and of course I have a zillion ideas running around in my head of all the things I want to do instead of going to work.  It feels amazing to know I have this time to do some of these things now.  Me time!  I love it!!

 

We just had a three day weekend for New Years and I'm taking the last Friday of this month off so I actually get to enjoy two three day weekends off this month.  Who hoooo!  I think that is a great way to get started!

 

 

Grilled Cheese Pizza Sandwich

 

Amazing what you can come up with when you have a little bit of this and that leftover in the fridge.  One day we had a dab of spaghetti sauce left and some pepperoni slices.  I found a few sliced of Provolone cheese too.  Not enough to do much with until but it did make us want a pizza.  Then I thought, why not make a grilled cheese sandwich.  A pizza sandwich!

 

My daughter thought I was weird, but we decided to give it a try.  I smeared two pieces of bread with the sauce and laid out the slices of pepperoni and a slice of Provolone on it.  Then assembled the sandwich and buttered the outside of the bread.  Once it was grilled she gave it a try and declared it a winner.

 

Yummy, yummy, yummy!

I went ahead and made myself one using Keto bread and guess what?  I loved it.  So now we have a new sandwich to add to our repertoire and it’s a good one.  A fun one for us to come up with too.  Have you ever done anything like this before?

 

 

Our Prepper Pantry

 

In April of 2020 I started prepping.  It wasn't something I had ever planned to do but when I saw the reaction of so many of my fellow Americans when the pandemic hit in March of last year and then some subsequent manufacturing and food shortages that followed I decided it might not be a bad idea.

 

Prepping rice

I began with food by purchasing pantry staples such as rice, dry beans, flour, sugar, pastas, oats, potato flakes and many other items I knew I could store long term.  I purchased a vacuum sealer and bags off of eBay.  My youngest daughter and I sat down to determine based on serving sizes and several recipes we like to use how much of each item we should parcel out and vacuum seal.  I added nutrition facts by printing them off on copy paper and taping them to the outside of each package with clear packing tape.  We dated everything with the packing date, sizes, etc.  As much information as we felt is necessary.

 

Vacuum sealing with directions and nutrition facts added to each package

After securing dry goods I moved onto canned items such as tuna, chicken, vegetables, pasta sauces, peanut butter, condiments and spices.  I added cereal, granola bars and flavored oatmeal packets.  Once that was completed we moved onto household items such as laundry products and cleaning supplies.  Toiletries items were next as well as first aid supplies and over the counter medicines we use.  All the while we collected toilet paper too.  Lastly, we began to work on pet food and chicken feed as we feel our animals are important and need to be taken care of as well.

 

I label all of my boxes

We store everything in banker boxes with lids to keep them secure, organized and protected from light.  They are a good size, stackable and have handles so I can easily manage them.  I placed labels on each box with everything that is inside so we can easily find what we are looking for.  Our house is small and there isn't room for us to build and actual prepper pantry, however we've managed to carve out appropriate storage areas within our home with reasonable climate control.

 

These prepackaged items are a great option.  I added rice and pasta
sides so we can easily add a can of tuna or chicken to make a meal. 
We also like them for camping.

What to prep and how much is definitely a personal preference and since I am fairly new to this I hesitate to make any recommendations.  What I do recommend, however, is to have some sort of long term food storage in your home and to do a lot of research in order to help you make the right decisions for you.  What I am doing may not be the right course of action for someone else.  But what I do know is having a prepper pantry gives added stability and peace of mind.  I am very glad I made the decision to do it.

 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

 

Another week sped by and we are over halfway through the month of January!  Oh my goodness!  But, so far, so good!

 

Sunday I put a pot roast on to cook in the slow cooker, complete with potatoes and carrots.  I also added some frozen broccoli spears near the end to steam on top of everything.  Delicious! And it kept us in leftovers for a few day.  I used the last of the pot roast to make Bolognese sauce and my daughter had that over pasta while I had it over cauliflower.  Very good!  No extra cooking required until the end of the week.

 

On Monday I completed my crochet project so now I have one handmade Christmas gift completed.  I started another one and completed it on Thursday for a second handmade Christmas gift complete.  I even wrapped them and put gift tags on each one.  I'll add bows when it is time to put them under the tree but until then I've got them tucked inside the gift box in the guest room closet.

 

I did a little shop on Wednesday evening since I was going there anyway to pick up my daughter from work. They had some canned soup on for 49¢ a can as well as frozen shrimp for $3.99 a pound in two pound bags.  After the holiday meals I had prepared we were in need of some shrimp, but since I don't think of it as a necessity item I waited for a good sale.  I think I found one.

 

Friday night I made a quick trip into Cash & Carry since the Bolognese sauce had diminished what was left of my cream.  I need my Keto coffee!  I am now well stocked for the remainder of this month and next.  I need my Keto coffee!  Did I mention that?

 

New clothes for work - just under $50!

Saturday morning I went through all of my clothes and decided to sell a rayon top I never wear anymore on eBay.  Everything else I wear on a regular basis, shoes included.  I needed to replace my two pair of black work slacks as they were completely worn out and that was on my list this month as well as another pair of work shoes if I could find them at a good price.  The youngest and I headed off to the mall with my $20 OFF a $50 purchase coupon for JC Penney to see what I could find.  Fortunately the pants I was hoping to buy were on sale for $24.99 a pair, regularly $48.  I picked up two pair plus a top on clearance for $4.25 to replace the one I am going to list for sale on eBay.

 

$15 Clarks!

While I shopped for pants my youngest went to Bath & Body Works with a coupon for a free wallflower refill, no purchase required.  With as much as we spent last month it didn't bother us one bit to go in and walk out without spending any money whatsoever.  Then we headed up one level to the shoe outlet store where I was hoping to find a pair of Clarks shoes for work.  I've purchased my last two pair there at a substantial discount.  I lucked out once again and found a really nice pair on clearance for $29.99!!  I was super happy about that until I went to the register and found out I got another 50% discount on top of that!  Talk about doing a happy dance!!!  Who wouldn't love a pair of Clarks for only $15?  Whoo hoooo!!!!

 

A mini produce haul, mostly markdown items

I decided to take my daughter to lunch on our way home with the extra money I had earmarked for clothing.  We went to the Chinese restaurant we haven't been to in nearly two years.  We both had the daily special and it came to only $15.  I left a $20 and we headed across the parking lot to Fred Meyer to pick up a bag of potting soil so I could repot some house plants.  Since we were there I took a quick peek at the produce section and picked up a few things.

 

THINGS I CLEANED IN 15 MINUTES OR LESS: 

Laundry Room & Half Bathroom - scrubbed sink & toilet, vacuumed floors.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Kitchen & Dining Room - thoroughly cleaned & flushed the coffeepot & K-cup brewer, cleaned microwave.  Vacuumed & spot mopped floors. 

Bedrooms & Main Bathroom - washed all of the bedding & pillows, moved bed & vacuumed underneath.  Cleaned the bathroom drawers, tidied under the sink.  Vacuumed & dusted.  Daily swish & swipe. 

Other - three loads of laundry (while the laundry was going I worked on greeting cards and craft projects-it was rough!), vacuumed & dusted living room, hallway & entry.  

 

THINGS I DID TO SAVE A SMALL BUNDLE OF $$:  I made foaming handsoap refill solution for the dispenser in our upstairs bathroom, I handmade two Christmas presents using items I already had on hand, I brought home half a ream of scrap paper from work to use in our printer, I helped myself to a book from the free pile at work.

 

eBay sales!

THINGS I DID TO EARN EXTRA $$:  worked some overtime, sold some more items on eBay.

 

For the first half of January I am feeling uber productive and extra thrifty.  How was your thrifty week?