Super Savings Saturday

I finally used some coupons! After several weeks of not buying anything with coupons, I found a few deals worth getting.

Kroger Ice cream $2.39-$1($0.65 coupon rounded up) = $1.39

Kroger Poptarts $1.49- $0.90($0.45 coupon doubled)= $0.59

Eggo Waffles $1.99-1 box Free coupon=FREE!

Pullups $9.47-$2 shortcuts-$3 coupon=$4.47 plus can send in for $0.75 from Caregiver's Marketplace=

All YouWeek 2 and Menu Plan Monday

It's been a hectic week...we did stick to our menu plan.Ok, except for one day. Joseph wanted a grilled steak so I had to go buy a couple. My goal was to clean out the freezer, and that's what we pretty much accomplished. We also seemed to plow through a bunch of milk, soda, eggs and bread this week, which added up quickly!

Budget $125, spent, $124.31

Menu

Breakfast

waffles

pancakes

eggs,

all served with fruit

Lunch

sandwiches

leftovers

spaghetti o's/ravioli

all served with veggies and fruit

Dinners

Chili, cornbread

Chef salad, crackers

BBQ beef, fries, green beans

Chicken fried rice

Pork chops, carrots and broccoli

pizza, salad

Sandwiches or leftovers

Menu Plan Monday

Thanks to alot of leftovers last week, we have a lot of carryover meals.

Here's the plan

Breakfasts

Muffins

Cold cereal

eggs

toast

all served with a fruit

Lunches

Sandwiches

Ravioli/spaghetti o's

ramen noodles

leftovers

all served with veggies and fruit

Dinners

Country pork ribs, fried mushrooms, corn

Cashew chicken with rice

Shake and bake pork chops, macaroni and cheese, mixed veggies

Grilled cheese sandwiches, veggie soup

Tacos

BBq beef sandwiches, homemade fries

Ham and beans, cornbread

Desserts

Homemade donuts using refrigerated biscuits

No bake cookies

pudding

All You week one challenge

I went grocery shopping as usual, but had to buy extra for a cookout/birthday party for our soon to be 10 year old. I spent $18.44 on 2 packs of hot dogs, a 5 lb roll of ground beef, and 4 packs of hamburger and hot dog buns. The one disadvantage to no vehicle is I pretty much have to shop in 1 place, which stinks. I know I could get stuff cheaper by shopping around, especially at stores that don't have weekly ads, but this is what I have to deal with.

Monday we had chicken wings and corn(from the freezer) for dinner. Breakfast and lunch was a free for all.

Tuesday, we had 5 less show up than what we had planned, so we ended up with a ton of leftovers. My MIL showed up with a small ham, along with the birthday cake, so Joe threw it on the grill. We only used half of the hamburger I purchased, so I froze the rest to use later. Guests left, and we still had a ton of macaroni salad, potato salad, deviled eggs, 3 hamburgers, 6 hot dogs, and a bunch of cake left.Oh, and ham. I told the crew, I'm not cooking till it's gone.

Wednesday, Guess what we ate today....leftovers. All day.

Thursday...more ham and party leftovers. Joe made a breakfast of ham, scrambled eggs, and butternut squash from our garden. Lunch was...well not sure where lunch fell in our day. I ate a banana and a piece of cheese about 2pm. My son and husband didn't eat anything until supper. The oldest was at summer school and the baby asleep. Dinner, was once again, leftovers.

Friday...if I look at anymore ham, I'm going to scream. Ok, maybe only in my head. Breakfast was waffles and bananas. Lunch consisted of sandwiches, bologna and ham ones. Dinner was Sausage and Beans with brown rice
I think the ham has graduated to "throw in the freezer for a pot of beans at a later date" status.

Saturday Breakfast was boiled eggs, the older 2 had to eat something fast in order to get to VBS. Lunch: ramen noodles, carrot sticks and bananas
Dinner: fish, broccoli with cheese
Dessert: homemade donuts made from refrigerated biscuits

Sunday: breakfast was cold cereal and grape, last day of VBS
Lunch: the older had ravioli and apples when they got home
Dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, grapes for the kids
Dessert was homemade chocolate chip cookies
　

Budget $125, spent $106.02

Menu Plan Monday

I've been so busy i almost forgot it was Monday! I signed up for the All You Grocery challenge and have to keep my bill under $125 a week for the next 4 weeks. I usually do pretty good, but slip up sometimes. I paniked because tomorrow is Thing 2's birthday and we are having a cookout. I figured my budget would be shot having to feed extra people, but had everything but hamburger, hotdogs and buns on hand(my mom is making potato salad and deviled eggs, so I'm off the hook making those) Buying the extra only tacked on $18, so far I spent $82 today that included party food and the rest of groceries we needed for the week. I did forget brown rice but I'll stop Wednesday when I need more milk.

Here's the plan

Breakfasts: Eggs, cold cereal, oatmeal, toast, sausage links, fruit(any combo)

Lunches: sandwiches(tuna, pbj, bologna), soup, ramen noodles, leftovers, with fruit

Dinners:

Chicken wings, broccoli with cheese $1.92 a serving

Sausage with beans and brown rice, crescent rollsabout $1.75 per serving with leftovers for lunch

Hot dogs and hamburgers( $13.76 for 2 packs of hot dogs and 5 lb roll of hamburger, $4 for buns) Macaroni salad(everything here) deviled eggs and potato salad(provided by my mom) and cake and ice cream from MIL-approx 12 people will be here

BBQ beef sandwiches, homemade fries(everything already on hand) with leftovers, $

2.2.20 per serving

Cashew chicken and rice approx $2.50 per serving

Baked fish, corn, potatoes(fish caught by MIL, everything else on hand)about $0.50 per serving

grilled cheese sandwiches, soup, about $1.35 per serving.

There are 5 of us, including a 12 year old, a 10 year old, and a 2 year old.

I know there will be plenty left after Tuesdays grilling, especially of the salads(great for lunches)

Checking in

I'm still here...Thing 2's birthday is coming up(Tuesday) and things around here have been busy. We are getting ready to hit the last week of summer school, I have a pile of library books to read, and dealing with day to day chaos has put a damper on computer time!

savings saturday

I finally found one of the elusive Brita Water pitchers that were only $7.94. Minus $5/1 Brita product and I paid $2.94
More walmart deals
2 A-1 steak sauces for $0.46 each
2 Smuckers ice cream toppings for $0.64 each
1 KY jelly for $0.52
4 boxes Kashi waffles for $1.04 each
3 Philly cream cheese $0.64 each
3 boxes Luzianne tea bags $0.90 each
1 canister of Pringles $0.50
1 box Fiber 1 poptarts $0.98
1 box Sun Crystals sweetner $1.47
1 bounty Papertowel $0.96
1 Pam Spray $1.48
3 4 packs of White Cloud TP $1 each
1 Kashi entree FREE
　
　
dillons
I took this opportunity to stock up on Manwich sauce and more
8 Manwich $0.70 each(when buy 10 products, had 30 mixed and match stuff) used 4 $0.40/2, $0.30 each after coupons and promotion
4 jars Ragu sauce $1.36 each used 2 $0.75/2 coupons=$0.86 each
6 cans Ravioli $0.58each, used 2 $0.35/3 coupons=$0.46 each
9 boxes brown and serve sausage links(no coupons) $0.99 each
2 Breyers ice creams $2.69 each, used 2 $1/1= $1.69 each
1 Kraft BBQ sauce $0.69 each used 1 $0.50/1= overage!
　
not part of promotion
4 Mentos gums, $1.04 each, used 4 $0.55/1= $0.04 each
1 sara lee bread $1.99, used $1/1=$0.99
2 packs Kraft American cheese $1.47 each used $1/2 coupon=$0.97 each
I bought some produce and everything came to about $35(can't find receipt, saved $48!

adding to premade foods

We love spaghetti. We could prob eat it once a week and never get tired. Joseph loves to make the sauce from scratc, but I added up the cost once and it was $20 for all the stuff he uses! Yikes! Jar sauces just don't taste fresh, event he chunky varieties come up a little short. So what I started doing was getting the plain sauce on sale(currently, $0.86 a jar) and adding to it.

A tomato that was gave to use, onions(always around) and some celery left over from another meal.I usually add mushrooms also, but we were all out.

First, I cut up the onion and sauteed it, then I added the celerly and cooked both until tender-crisp. Then I browned some Italian Sausage(fresh ground from a local store, $2 for 1 pound)

I placed everything in the pain with the sauce, then cut up the tomatoes and added them. I cooked until heated through and Voila! Our own Chunky Spaghetti sauce, that's cheap, but still better for you.

Check out Frugal Friday and The Recipe Swap for more great ideas!

June review

June review
　
It's been a fairly uneventful month, partly because we didn't have any money to do anything! I did set up a new spreadsheet to break expenses down more, with work so slim, I need to account for every penny better.
　
　
Groceries $519($19 over) Yikes! my food bill has been so high lately. The last couple months we have been trying to steer away from so many processed stuff and it's really getting expensive. I did spend $45 for Joe's birthday dinner(2 racks of ribs, corn on the cob, and a really chocolate cake that I could have made instead of spending $15 on) I guess I need to get back into the groove of better planning!
　
　
Household $89.52(budget $150) not bad, that's including adding to the stockpile, extra medicines(for Thing 2's allergies and Acid Reflux)
　
Utilities $116(that includes gas, electricity, sewer, and water) Not bad for 5 people. Unplugging everything has really helped.
　
Gas $45(budget $100). Only summer school to deal with this month. Thing 2 could walk to his but Thing 1's was way across town. We didn't go anywhere else so it all balanced out.
　
NEW-Entertainment $30.05(budget $65) this includes Netflix, Joe's online Eve game, and anything else(movies, park admissions, etc) when school starts, I will lower this budgeted amount.
NEW-Gifts $1.98(budget $20) I spent that amount on 2 video games for Thing 1's Christmas.
Categories where we didn't spend any money in this month: Clothing($25 budget) I had planned on getting underwear and socks for the Things to have for back to school, but my mom picked them up instead. Dining out:again, no money to spare so we didn't eat out. School supplies: I had planned on $10 but haven't found any lists online yet for the kids so I'll just hang on to that money.
　
totals for the month $1107.55
　
Income made
$50 on a car payment
$12.50 from Jordan Essentials
　
　

No bake cheesecake

This is a older post but it seems fitting for a dessert in the middle of a heatwave!

Who loves cheesecake? Me!Me! Who loves having to bake one in the oven for an hour or more during the summer? Not I!

Here's my recipe for Easy No Bake Cheesecake. This is just the basic, plain recipe. I love this because it can be used with a variety of toppings and mix ins.

3 packages cream cheese, softened(If I'm doing a fruit topping, I only use 2)
 
powder sugar 1/4-1/3 of a cup(enough to take the bitter taste of the cream cheese away)
 
graham cracker crust or a cookie crust

Mix the softened cream cheese and powder sugar together until creamy. Pour into a graham cracker crust(premade or homemade). Press in gently. Place in the refrigerator until firm.
 

That's it!

Get creative with your cheesecake...we have done Chocolate crust with cherry topping, drizzled in chocolate, Blueberry topping, Strawberry, and an Apple topping with walnuts and caramel sauce.

Our absolute favorite, use a chocolate cookie crust and stir in mini chocolate chips to the filling. MMMMMM!(I'm making this today!)

Joe says these freeze well(it's his recipe!) Make a few up, pop in the freezer and then thaw when you have company or a get together!

This Works for Me!