My Grocery Budget 2017 - August Update

This month I concentrated on school lunch stuff and stocking up some things for our winter ahead.  I purchased meats on sale and from the markdown bin to add to what we already have in the freezer.  I also took $50 in addition to our regular grocery budget to purchase items the girls can pack in their lunch each day.  Those things include individual packages of chips, crackers, cookies, fruit cups, juice boxes, granola bars and Pop Tarts.  Yes, I stepped outside my norm and did the busy mom thing and my girls are super excited about it.

Our nonfood items were comprised of sandwich bags, cat litter, cat food, toilet paper and a bottle of laundry detergent I picked up at Walgreens on sale and with a coupon for 99¢.  I came in at $33.45 over my regular $25 budget which puts me at -$7.45 for the year so far.

Our regular groceries included lots of fresh produce, lunch meat, meat, a few extra lunch items (when my $50 ran out) and some dairy items.  I stalked up on canned goods and pastas too.  I used a lot of coupons, digital coupons downloaded to my rewards cards and shopped the sales and markdown bins as much as possible.  Here is what I got:

Groceries		$$$
Jasmine rice - 5#		3.99	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Olive oil		5.99	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Almond milk (2)		2.98	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Raspberry jam		2.99	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Green olives		1.99	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Olives (6)		4.74	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Blueberries		0.99	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Blackberries		1.49	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Angus beef hotdogs (3)		5.97	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Parmesan		1.49	Sale	Grocery Outlet
Bananas		1.14		Albertsons
Yogurt (12)		3.00	Sale	Albertsons
Spaghetti (2)		1.18	Store Coupon	Albertsons
Linquine (2)		1.18	Store Coupon	Albertsons
Sugar - 4#		1.99	Store Coupon	Albertsons
Tomato sauce (4)		1.00	Sale	Albertsons
Taco seasoning (4)		2.00	Sale	Albertsons
Cake mix (4)		3.16	Store Coupon	Albertsons
Ground beef		9.39	Sale	Albertsons
Pork ribs		6.03	Sale	Albertsons
Crab		1.99	Sale	Albertsons
Customer Appreciation		(3.00)	Digital Coupon	Albertsons
Hotdog buns		0.69	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Cheese balls		0.49	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Coleslaw mix		1.39		Fred Meyer
Salad mix		1.39	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Apples		2.74		Fred Meyer
Red onion		0.84		Fred Meyer
Plums		3.40	Sale	Fred Meyer
Bananas		1.68		Fred Meyer
Kiwi		1.00		Fred Meyer
Tuna		0.29	Digital Coupon	Fred Meyer
Whipped topping		0.64	Digital Coupon	Fred Meyer
Tater tots		1.79	Sale	Fred Meyer
French fries		1.79	Sale	Fred Meyer
Almonds		5.19	Sale	Fred Meyer
Lunch meat (2)		3.98	Sale	Fred Meyer
Milk - 1 gal (2)		3.58	Sale	Fred Meyer
Sliced cheese (2)		3.76	Sale	Fred Meyer
Chips - 32ct		6.99	Sale/Digital Coupon	Fred Meyer
Pasta (4)		2.76	Sale	Albertsons
Yogurt (12)		2.98	Sale/Digital Coupon	Albertsons
Swiss		1.00	Markdown	Albertsons
Cheddar (2)		2.50	Markdown	Albertsons
Ground turkey (2)		3.38	Sale/Coupon	Albertsons
Lunch meat (2)		2.50	Markdown	Albertsons
Bananas		0.93		Albertsons
Customer Appreciation		(3.00)	Digital Coupon	Albertsons
Onions		0.35	Sale	Fred Meyer
Mushrooms		0.99		Fred Meyer
Bananas		1.04		Fred Meyer
Bell pepper		0.99		Fred Meyer
Apples		3.70		Fred Meyer
Zucchini		0.44		Fred Meyer
Nectarines		1.48	Sale	Fred Meyer
Tomatoes		1.74		Fred Meyer
Romaine		0.99		Fred Meyer
Bread		0.49	Markdown	Fred Meyer
WW Hamburger buns		1.29		Fred Meyer
Flour - 10#		3.29		Fred Meyer
WW Flour - 5#		3.99		Fred Meyer
Ground pork		1.83		Fred Meyer
Sour cream (2)		1.00	Sale/Digital Coupon	Fred Meyer
Cottage cheese		0.75	Sale/Coupon	Fred Meyer
Cream cheese (2)		1.96	Sale/Coupon	Fred Meyer
Oat bread		1.07	Sale/Digital Coupon	Fred Meyer
Sandwich buns		0.99	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Hotdog buns		1.25		Fred Meyer
Pasta sauce		1.00	Sale	Fred Meyer
Tomato sauce (2)		0.98		Fred Meyer
Lettuce		1.44	Coupon	Fred Meyer
Cilantro		0.50		Fred Meyer
Stir fry veggies (2)		2.98	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Mushrooms		0.99	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Zucchini		0.69	Sale	Fred Meyer
Nectarines		2.13	Sale	Fred Meyer
Coleslaw mix		1.39		Fred Meyer
Bananas		0.53	Markdown	Fred Meyer
Grapes		2.32	Sale	Fred Meyer
Tortillas		1.29	Sale	Fred Meyer
Tortillas		1.49	Sale	Fred Meyer
Corn Tortillas		1.49	Sale	Fred Meyer
Kind bar		FREE	Friday Freebie	Fred Meyer
Powerbar		FREE	Friday Freebie	Fred Meyer
Tortillas		FREE	Coupon	Fred Meyer
Ice cream		1.99	Sale	Fred Meyer
Mac & cheese (4)		2.96	Sale/Coupon	Albertsons
Mac & cheese (4)		FREE	Overcharged/refunded in FULL	Albertsons
Mayonnaise (2)		3.98	Sale/Coupon	Albertsons
Cereal (2)		3.38	Sale	Albertsons
Frozen veg (5)		4.40	Sale	Albertsons
Weiners (2)		1.99	Markdown	Albertsons
Lunch meat (2)		2.00	Sale	Albertsons
Bananas		1.68		Albertsons
Corn (4)		1.00	Sale	Albertsons
Grapes		2.29	Sale	Albertsons
Lettuce		1.29		Albertsons
Total		$      192.17

$192.17 ÷ 31 days ÷3 people = $2.07 per person per day!

Still higher than I would like, but overall not bad.  How did you do last month?  Any great bargains?

This budget month runs from August 1 through August 31

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Another busy week zipped right on by.  The eclipse happened on Monday and Boise saw it at 99%.  It was pretty cool.  I was at work when it happened and everyone was really excited about it.  The girls went next door and viewed it with our neighbors.  They were super excited about it.  They took the picture of the crescent shadows on the ground.  What a neat phenomenon.

The girls started back to school on Tuesday.  They ride the bus in the morning and I pick them up after band and cheerleader practice.  Fortunately for me, the youngest gets done 30 minutes before the oldest which gives me plenty of time to get to the next school.

Freshly made pico de gallo

We successfully wrapped up our second week of meal prepping and I'll be sharing that with you on Wednesday.  The girls are seriously loving it.  They come home starving and are really happy about how quick I'm able to get dinner on the table.  They are also impressed with the variety of meals served.  I think we may have been in a bit of a rut and doing this has obviously pulled us out of that.  Anyway, they want to keep on going!

The meal prepping has been so successful I actually had time to bake!  And boy did I?  I baked a birthday cake for a friend of ours, a loaf of banana bread (took that into work) and a dozen and a half chocolate-chocolate chip banana muffins (gave half a dozen to a friend).  It is still pretty hot here so I used the toaster/convection oven in the garage.

We used the oven in the garage to bake french fries and pizza last week too.

Banana bread ready to take to work

On the way home Thursday I stopped into the dollar store to pick up a bottle of fabric softener.  I stopped at Albertsons to pick up ice cream to go with the birthday cake.  While I was there I picked up some bananas, a bag of grapes and a head of lettuce.

I did not need to do any other grocery shopping so I didn't go on Saturday.

Friday evening we took the birthday cake and ice cream over to our friends house and enjoyed a nice time celebrating.

Saturday I took the car in for its six month service.  I used a coupon good for a $19.95 oil change and they also washed the exterior and vacuumed inside.  Not a bad deal this time!

One of the techs at work gave me some foam padding that is used for shipping.  He was going to throw it out and asked me if I wanted it for any projects.  I sure did!  It is going to be perfect for adding extra insulation to the motorhome.  I am so excited to have this as I was planning to buy a roll of Reflectix and now I don't have to.  Plus, I think this stuff is going to be much better and has a higher insulating value.  He said he'll keep saving it for me.  Yipeeee!

I took three old cell phones into work and put them in the recycle bin.  I love that we can do that with any old electronics.

I composted coffee grounds, tea bags, banana peels, onion skins and egg shells.  The girls picked up fruit off the ground from our trees.  Most of it had squirrel bites out of it and it ended up in the compost bin.  We also gave some pears to the chickens.

I rinsed out of an "empty" laundry detergent bottle and had plenty of soap to run a load.

We got a crazy rainstorm Thursday that dumped a ton of water.  I didn't need to turn the sprinklers on for the rest of the week.

How was your thrifty week?

Christmas Prep 2017 - Only 4 Months To Go!

Once the summer ends, we have less than a month to go until it is officially fall, and school starts it seems like the holidays are upon us in no time.  So I've got to make some headway or else I know I'm going to be dreading it.

I did manage to complete a gift for each one of my girls by picking up a couple items on sale at JC Penney while we were out school shopping one day.  I also picked up a couple more stocking stuffers (on sale and with a coupon) at Fred Meyer.  But I am nowhere near ahead of the game.  I seriously need to get my butt in gear.

What I do have is a pretty decent game plan.  It will be a modest Christmas, as they all are.  We don't overdo the gift giving.  We are a family that enjoys the season and time spent with our loved ones more than the presents under our tree.  There are no mountains of expensive gifts piled up in our living room.  That just isn't how we do things.

But I do like to give gifts and I want them to be well thought out and useful.  No point in giving someone something they won't use or enjoy.  And I hate to give them something they feel they need to return.  In that case all you've given them is a chore to do.

Don't these look yummy!  Check out the recipe here.

We are a family of foodies and we have friends that are too, so a lot of our gifts centralize on food or food preparation.  Not a bad way to go, in my opinion.  Even still it takes some thought and a little bit of planning to get things put together.  So I really need to get my rear in gear!

How are you doing?  Making any headway?

Purging Update - What I Have Done So Far

I am really happy with the fact that I've pared down so much on the items we own.  It really does make our life simpler.  Purging the house this time around has been a great exercise to confirm that we haven't gone and filled up our home again like I had feared could happen.  So this purge is more like maintenance to keep us on track.  Love it!

I started with my bedroom closet as I hadn't done much in there.  I got rid of six shirts, three of them my girls took, one went out to the garage to become a rag and the other two into the donate pile.  I also donated two more pairs of shoes, tossed out a pair of well worn slippers and a pair sandals.  I am currently down to six pair of shoes, plus my sport sandals, two pair of flip flops and two pair of slippers.  I pared down the collection of fuzzy socks to my favorite three pair.

All my clothing and shoes

The biggest part of the closet purge was to take my grandmother's jewelry box out and go through it.  There was nothing of real value in there, but it was a lot of sentimental stuff.  The girls took what they wanted, I tossed out the broken pieces, donated a few items and what I kept now fits in a small gift box.  My youngest took the jewelry box.  Hearts strings tugged, but I feel really good about it being gone, especially since my daughter is really happy to have the jewelry box and both are happy to have a few things that belonged to their great grandmother.

Still looks like a lot of crap to me, but we do use it all

The next place I worked on was the hall closet.  I've been dreading that one and decided to just dive in and tackle it once and for all.  I was able to get rid of 50% of the crap that was being stored in there.  Why did I keep that stuff?  Who knows?!  Seemed important at the time.

Recycle bin

I filled up half of our big blue recycling bin with paper and cardboard!  I tossed out less than one shopping bag of trash, relocated a dozen items that didn't belong there in the first place.  Added a handful of items to our donate pile and took three dead cell phones into work to put in the recycle bin we have there (pulled the SIM cards first).  I also collected a nice little pile of shreddables (we plan to take care of our shredding this weekend).

Our donate pile continues to grow
We've actually added a third bag

The girls have filled up a bag each of junk from their bedrooms and put a ton of paper (schoolwork they were ready to part with) into the big blue recycle bin as well.  They have also added a few items to the donate pile which is now growing at the bottom of our stairs.  I'll drop that stuff off next week after we get through a few more places in our home over the weekend.

So that is where we are at so far.  How are things going at your home?

Meal Prep - Week #1

We finished up our trial run and it went better than expected.  The girls and I were pretty impress, not only by the fact that we enjoyed a lot of great meals, but that it didn't take a huge amount of time to get it all prepped.  I'd say it was a success and we all agreed to keep it going. This is what we did.

Friday evening I took meat out of the freezer to thaw.  A four pound pork roast, two large chicken breast halves and a pound of turkey breakfast sausage.

Saturday morning we shopped.  Our list was based on two main things.  Items we needed to round out what we already had at home to complete the menu and select items on sale to stock up on.  We meal prepped on both Saturday and Sunday to break it up.  For us this seems to work best as there are other things we need and want to do over the weekend.

Into the slow cooker for six hours

Removing the fat and getting ready to shred the roast

First thing in the morning, before we left to shop, I put the pork roast in my largest slow cooker on high to stew up in its own juices.  I added nothing to the pot at this point.  After six hours my oldest took the roast out, removed the fat and shredded the entire thing.  Half of the roast went back into the slow cooker.

Half of the pork with green chile sauce and onion

The other half of the shredded roast

Adding BBQ sauce for pulled pork sandwiches

Finished pork verde ready for the freezer

I added half a large can of green chile enchilada sauce to the slow cooker and an onion cut into chunks.  We let that cook to make pork verde.  Three hours later we put the pork into a freezer container and labeled it.  It is waiting in the freezer for a future meal.  In the meantime my daughter mixed the rest of the shredded pork with barbeque sauce.  Then it went into a bowl, was labeled and placed in the refrigerator for pulled pork sandwiches.

Mixing up the eggs for quiche

Sausage, mushrooms & cheese in the bottom of the crust

Ready for the freezer

While the pork verde was cooking my oldest made two whole wheat pie crusts.  I cooked up a pound of turkey breakfast sausage with some sliced mushrooms, whipped up a dozen eggs with some flour, milk and salt & pepper to taste.  The cooled sausage was placed in the bottom of each pie crust.  I divided a 6oz. package of grated swiss cheese between the two and then topped each one equally with the egg mixture.  Into the freezer they went.  Once frozen I put each one into a freezer bag and labeled them.  One quiche for the week and one for the future.

Sliced chicken, garlic and soy sauce

Ready to marinate in the freezer

I sliced up the chicken, put it in a bowl with a spoonful of minced garlic and some soy sauce.  Then I put it in a cool whip container, labeled it and put it in the freezer.

Meatloaf - ground beef, ground pork, oatmeal, egg, grated zucchini,
chopped onion, ketchup, horseradish, garlic powder, onion powder, salt & pepper

Sunday afternoon the youngest and I finished up the prep.  We put together a meat loaf, scrubbed up potatoes and carrots, and because I had some portabello mushrooms I'd bought on markdown, we made some filling and stuffed those too.

Meat loaf, smashed potatoes & carrots

Green beans, stuffed portabello mushrooms

Sunday dinner

Sunday - Baked meatloaf and mushrooms in oven, cooked potatoes & carrots on stove, smashed them and added milk, butter and salt & pepper to taste.  I also had a bit of leftover sour cream so I threw that into the potatoes as well.  Canned green beans were heated in the microwave.

Dinner was ready to serve by the time the fries came out of the oven

Pulled pork sandwich, fries & salad

Monday - Baked frozen french fries in the oven.  Heated pulled pork up on stove, added a little bit of water and some more BBQ sauce.  Made a quick salad.

Tuesday - Dinner with friends at their home.

Wednesday - reheated Sunday dinner in microwave.  Delicious and easy!

Chicken marinated in garlic & soy sauce with rice

My youngest made this beautiful salad while I cooked the chicken

Thursday - Made up a big batch of rice in the morning, put in refrigerator.  Took out container of chicken to thaw.  That evening I quickly cooked up the chicken while the rice heated up in the microwave.  Served it with leftover salad.  Everything was ready in 15 minutes!

The youngest & I made pizzas 

One for the freezer

One for supper

Friday - Made a batch of pizza dough in the bread machine.  The youngest and I pulled out a bunch of odds and ends in the refrigerator and managed to put a couple of pizzas together in about 30 minutes.  We baked one and put a shower hat over the other one and froze it.  One for now and one for later.

Chicken fried rice from leftovers

Saturday - Leftover rice and garlic soy chicken became chicken fried rice for dinner.  Added three eggs, some red onion and a partial bag of frozen peas & carrots.

We had plenty of leftovers each day for lunches.  The pulled pork was used in two lunches in fact.  Everything flowed smoothly Saturday's dinner was a bonus meal we hadn't counted on so it was a wonderful surprise.  We had so much food that week we never made it to the quiche, but we have it for a later date or Sunday breakfast.  The only hiccup we had was when we went to make the coleslaw we found the cabbage had soured, but we punted and just made a quick salad instead.

Friday evening my oldest decided to up the ante - chocolate chip cookie dough

She made dough balls to freeze

And some to try!  Delicious!

Getting dinner on the table each night was super quick and easy, with minimal dishes and clean up.  Not to mention, stress free and I didn't feel like I was spending a ton of time in the kitchen over the weekend getting everything ready.  I'd say it was a success!

Orthodontist Paid! I'm On Fire This Month!

My oldest got her braces off a couple weeks ago.  And this week I sent in the final payment on those puppies!  Whoooo hoooooo!

To be perfectly honest I really didn't think it was going to happen this month, but somehow it sure did.  Thank you God!  I'm ecstatic!  Two big financial goals finished up this month.  Yipeeeeee!

You may recall too, that we were blessed at the beginning of the year to learn that our insurance is covering my youngest's orthodonture at 100% as it has been deemed medically necessary.  So no more orthodontist payments.  I am all done.  Phew!

If you live in the Boise area and need a really great dentist for your kids here you go

Dr. Rogers and his staff are phenomanal

Next month it will start to sink in, I'm sure, but right now it just hasn't yet.  It will probably feel like I got a big raise or something next time I sit down to pay bills.  That would be nice!

But you have to know I'm already planning my next financial goal.  I'm not about to squander my pennies just because I happen to have some extra ones now.  So hang in there to see what I am planning to do next.

Right now I'm just going to enjoy marking this one off of my list!