Thursday: Last night's steak dinner left us with 1.5 steaks leftover. There are bones as well that I'll trim away from the meat and put into my beef broth bag. We'll be making another meal off the leftover steak. I could do steak and onion burritos or make steak sandwiches. I think we'll be eating a Red, Black and Blue Salad though, which is nothing more than a big salad with steak, tomatoes and blue cheese crumbles.
John has competition, y'all. And who is this man that has almost turned my head? A pharmacy assistant who just saved us a ton of money today! But seriously, I was so blessed today to be waited on by a young man who was able to save us a lot of money on prescriptions in the pharmacy we use. I've always gotten good discounts and service at this particular place but today was exceptional.
I went in to pick up prescriptions that were called in yesterday for John. One was fairly high but not screech worthy. However, the young man took one look at the amount and said, "I think we have a discount code that can save you a bit on that." He went off to do his stuff and then came back and said, "It saved you a lot on that!" The cost was $50 lower. I joked that it was enough savings to cover the cost of the allergy meds I'd also picked up. He assured me that he could get those in wholesale if I could wait until tomorrow. I couldn't. Katie was on her way to meet me at the store to get some of the medication and John was wheezing in the car. I needed that allergy medicine right then. However, the cost difference to me would have been HUGE.
When I got to the car, John informed me he should have had two other prescriptions. There were only four in my hand. I called the pharmacy and discovered they had failed to fill the other two due to cost. One was high but not horribly so. The other was ridiculous. I asked her to fill the one and just to scratch the other. We headed to Aldi where I was shopping when my phone rang, and the same young pharmacist was on the line. He'd found a way to get the second prescription filled for pennies on the dollar. It was just a simple swap of bulk pills vs. a blister pack. Well please and thank you! Savings this time was in the hundreds of dollars and believe me we were super grateful for that.
At Aldi, I stuck to the outskirts of the store. My purpose was to take advantage of a great price on potatoes, onions, cabbage, corned beef, boneless skinless thighs. I also got Lactose free milk and a dozen eggs. The shopping went quickly but the wait in line took quite a while.
I am not fully done with grocery shopping for this month. We should be able to manage on what we have very well until end of the month. If I do further grocery shopping, it will be taking a separate lot of funds to do some pantry restocking. I am well stocked with meat at the moment.
It was a spendy sort of day. We had to pick up cat food today, too, but we should be good for six weeks now.
After paying bills yesterday, and today's spending, I think I want to be done with watching money go out for a while. Time to focus on how I can save without spending!
Meals: Breakfast Sandwiches
takeout fast food
Ham, Potato Salad, Butter Beans. This portion of ham was about 2 pounds with a small bone in the center. After our meal tonight, I sliced the remaining meat thinly, then put half in the freezer and half in the fridge for sandwiches over the weekend. The bone went into the broth bin in the freezer. I'll save it to cook a pot of dried beans.
Friday: I entered all the figures into the checkbook this morning. We spent a lot yesterday. So, what can I do to save today?
I made all three meals at home. John had requested a simple breakfast. I bought a better-known name brand turkey bacon than the one I prefer. I will note here that you get quite a lot of bacon in that brand name. I don't like it as well but it's three times as much product for half the price of the preferred brand. It's worth watching for this on sale, I think.
Caleb and I made cookies this morning. Mind you his 'help' was to turn the mixer on and off and help pour in the dry ingredients. He was pretty much over the helping part as soon as the beater came out of the batter. That's what he wanted, and he could have cared less about cookies, lol. I'm trying to incorporate him into kitchen tasks a little bit more.
John washed three loads of laundry today. The last load was going to be just a rug, but I walked around the house and found extra items that could help make up a load and in the end he had enough to really be a proper small load.
I washed a full load of dishes in the dishwasher.
Cut the leftover steak meat off the bones. I put the bones in the freezer to use for making broth.
Made supper using a jar of leftover spaghetti sauce, a jar of frozen homemade spaghetti sauce, and half the meat from our lunch to make supper for tonight.
Made homemade sloppy joe mix. I've wanted to replicate the old DelMonte sloppy joe sauce for years now, at least as I remember it from my childhood. Does it still taste the same? Who knows! Anyway, today I discovered that adding just 1 tablespoon of BBQ sauce with a smoky hint to it made all the difference in the flavor of the sloppy joes and seem to be closer to what I remember it tasting like.
Meals: French Toast, Turkey Bacon
Sloppy Joes, Chips, Apple
Spaghetti with Whole-Wheat Pasta, Whole-Wheat Garlic Toast. Remember that my sauce is full of vegetables already: onions, peppers, celery, carrots, zucchini, broccoli stalks, tomatoes, tomato sauce. I didn't bother with a salad tonight as I knew we were getting a plate full of vegetables already.
Saturday: The latest government figures for a family of our current size/age groups shows an increase to $904...So if you feel like you can't keep up these days there is good reason for it.
John and I went out for breakfast. Not the least expensive meal we could have gone out for, but my plan had been more fast food driven and John's idea was fast casual driven, hence the difference in what I expected we'd spend and what we actually ended up spending. At this point in time however, I am allotting us one meal out per week for the two of us as entertainment/survival. We need that uninterrupted (by other family members) time as a couple. It gives us a few hours out of the house and away from the responsibilities of childcare. Not that Katie is relying on us on the weekends but explain to a 3-year-old that sure Gramma is sitting right there and could get you juice or kiss your boo boo or fix your car but she's 'off duty'. It doesn't work like that and makes no sense to fight it. So, we take our time out of the house and enjoy that bit of time to ourselves.
My expense inside the restaurant was a gift for Caleb. He did rather well this past week with potty training, more than any other week thus far, so I found him a new Matchbox car to add to his little collection. I also saw a pack of plain old fashioned lifesavers candy and thought that would also be a good treat idea for those times he's successful. I took Lana's advice too and bought a packet of mini cookies last week, so one of those will also be a treat for him. The reward is enough for him I've found whether it's six mini-M&Ms or 2 tiny little cookies.
We had a scratch lunch. Kate and I shared the remaining Brunswick stew with the bit of leftover BBQ chicken tossed in. Made two full servings. They guys ate PB&J. We all had some of the cookies that Caleb 'made' yesterday. Clearing out leftovers is always a good way to save in my opinion.
For supper tonight we had Chinese. Homemade Chinese for the most part and what wasn't homemade was bought in bulk as a frozen food item. Yum! Again, I utilized some leftovers, this time some that had been frozen.
Meals: John and I ate out
Leftover Stew, PBJs
Chicken Fried Rice, Chinese Dumplings, Egg Rolls. I used chicken from last Sunday's Gramma's Fried Chicken dinner that I'd stripped, boned and frozen, some leftover frozen brown rice and a variety of vegetables from the fridge for the rice. The Chinese dumplings were bulk frozen. Egg rolls were homemade this week and frozen. I just reheated them in the oven until hot and crispy all over again.
Sunday: Just shhh! Don't say a word. I've been in the grocery again today and why? Milk 99c a half gallon. Sausage 2/$5. FREE sausage. 40c coupon off produce. So in I went to get milk and sausage. And out I came with more than that of course. Mind you one item was for the pantry and was well worth what I paid for it. But we'll just run quickly over my list of purchases.
Seedless lemons, 1 pound on sale. I don't care if they are seedless or have seeds, but I have tried to get into the habit of having lemon in my water at least once every morning. It's meant to help with glucose levels, etc. Asparagus that was $1.99 a bunch. I bought 2. Strawberries 99c. Bakery discount rack 1 dozen croissants for $4. Free Hillshire Farm sausage. Bulk breakfast sausage 2/$5. As I headed to the milk, I was stopped by a package of thin sliced sirloin tip steaks for $15. Six thin steaks. I figure two per meal for us. I'd likely end up slicing them into strips for kebabs, etc. 2 half gallons of milk. I recalled we were nearly out of toilet paper and headed up that aisle to get the same 36 roll packet I've been buying for the past 2 years. None there. Looking around I noted that the 'double' 12 roll packs (they are NOT double. That's all nonsense) were $5 if you bought 5 items. I didn't want to add to the food supplies any further. So, five packets of toilet paper (that's my pantry item). And in the floral department 2 Boston Ferns (I couldn't even find a fern these past two years) at the same price they were 2 years ago. I got 2 of those. And finally, flowers. I was going to skip and then noted they had discounted clearance priced blooms. $3 for 2 bunches.
I am now well over the budget. I shall truly stop at this point. I think we've a good supply of produce, dairy and necessities. We also have a good selection of snacks as well as basics in the pantry. If I do any further spending, I will be using the special funds and focusing only on the pantry items. And I will repay the overage of groceries the cost of the toilet paper. The ferns too will come from a different fund (aka my pocket). Still over budget but hey. I'm not upset at what I purchased. Now to just stay out of the store entirely unless I'm doing pantry stock ups.
When we came in today, Caleb dictated lunch. He asked for a very specific food item, and he used a full sentence asking for it. "I want..." and told me what he wanted. Well, if it's important enough to state it in full sentence, and it happens to be part of the pantry already, I was more than willing to make it for him. I added in a quick couple of items and our midday meal will likely end being our 'big meal' for the day. I'll prepare something else for supper tonight.
Meals: Bagels and Cream Cheese
Mac n Cheese, Ham Sliders, Cherry Tomatoes
Pizza, Salad
Monday: Looked over three sales sheets for this week and I have determined that there is nothing of great value on sale in any of those three stores. Nor is there anything I need. I haven't even done what I typically do and started a list anyway. I imagined myself doing so and then said "Then I'll add in the things I said I would last week..." I realized I needed nothing at present, still haven't made out a proper pantry restock list, and pictured myself writing at the top of the page, "Remaining budget: $0". That put the end to any desire to start a list just for fun or otherwise.
Made a quiche for supper. Having read the recipe of one for a 9-inch pie, I determined to half all the ingredients to go in my smallest pie pan (about 5 or 6-inches. I wasn't sure Katie would like it and I didn't want a ton of leftovers. Turns out Katie does like Quiche and so I shall try to make a plan to prepare one occasionally for the two of us.
Caleb ate it fairly well, but I had to laugh. Just like his grampa, when a food isn't quite what he wants, he chose to put a great glob of ketchup on his plate and then dipped his pie in it.
I made my crust from scratch this morning. That one pie crust recipe is absolutely delicious and never fails me. I doubled the recipe and put a crust over my frozen Beef Pot Pie filling. I also rolled out enough remaining dough to fill a regular 9-inch pie pan. Caleb also got a wee ball of dough to roll out, cut with his cookie cutter and eat as he played. I hadn't intended he'd eat it. I told Katie I should get a can of playdoh and let him 'cook' while I'm in the kitchen in the future as it kept him out from under my feet and occupied him far longer than any other game he'd played today.
Meals: Eggs, Toast/Croissant (I was emptying out the freezer of a big container and just went heated up a croissant for my breakfast bread). I don't think I mentioned I found a dozen large croissant for just $4.00 this week at Kroger on their bakery clearance shelf. I priced them later this morning at Publix and they are 2/$2.49 on sale. I'm really getting a bargain for a dozen!
Pizza leftovers.
Quiche, Asparagus, Green Salad, Banana Pudding. Caleb opened the bag of bananas when he was meant to be rolling out his pie crust and dug into one. I realized as I retrieved it from him that they were quite ripe. I have almost a dozen banana muffins in the freezer already, so I chose to make a banana pudding with the two and a half left. I didn't have enough vanilla wafers, so I used graham crackers. I made meringue to top the pudding and used the extra yolks in my Quiche mixture, reducing the whole eggs used by 1.
Tuesday: Brrr! It's chilly outdoors and breezy as well. We resorted to turning up the heater this morning as we were all shivery despite the heat not coming on. I put on a pot of water on the stove to simmer which hopefully will add much needed moisture/humidity to raise the indoor temperature, as well.
I made muffins for our breakfast this morning. I can whip up a batch of from scratch muffins without much measuring in about no time. I used one of the apples from the last five-pound bag I have on the counter and topped them with the last of the streusel topping from apple pie making last week. I ended up putting half a dozen in the freezer, which now gives me banana nut, carrot cake and apple streusel muffins in the freezer for future breakfasts. Now to come up with some other breakfast ready ideas.
For lunch, I pulled a leftover from the freezer that I warmed in the microwave and then proceeded to make sandwiches. A hot sandwich was just what we needed today for our lunch.
I slipped potatoes into the oven to bake, too. That helped warm up the kitchen once again and prevented the need of boosting the heater up still more. Every little bit of warmth is a help! I know we won't be having chilly days for much longer. Soon we'll be looking for ways to cool things down indoors, but these last few days of winter came along just to remind us that this season isn't quite over yet.
While I was in the grocery on Sunday, I looked at various types of non-dairy yogurts and I think if I switch Caleb to an almond milk yogurt, he'll get more protein. Not a lot by any means, but an increase over the coconut milk yogurt which has no protein at all. Almond milk is a bit higher than coconut milk but it's worth it for that added bit of protein, I think.
Meals: Apple Streusel Muffins, Sausage
Meatloaf Sandwiches, Chips
Alpine Chicken Casserole, Sweet potatoes, Greens, Cranberry Sauce. When I reached in the bin for potatoes, I saw the full bag of sweet potatoes. It seemed a good idea to bake some of those to go with this dish. BTW using the cooked chicken and broth that was in the crock from yesterday's slow cooking worked just fine with this dish. I cooked it on low for 3 hours, then I let it sit on warm until supper time.
Wednesday: Went through two more sales sheets for the week. One is tempting. Totted up my total for groceries thus far this month and was no longer tempted. However, I will continue to peruse the sales sheets because even though some of the stores I've included in my subscription (free online source) are not in my usual area, I get a better idea of prices overall and what I really ought to be looking for as a 'low' price when shopping.
Funds for the pantry will be in hand next week and that's the only place I'll focus on. The freezer really is quite full, and I have no need for more meat until I use some of what I have. We really do have plenty at present.
Eating seasonally is a great way to keep produce costs down but you must know what is being grown near you to eat seasonally. In our area, we can find Broccoli, Asparagus, Grapes and Strawberries in market at the best prices of the year. We should be seeing lower prices on squash, green beans and tomatoes shortly thanks to the earlier growing season in Florida.
Prices are also based on holidays. St. Patrick's Day means that Cabbage and Corned Beef are well priced this week with cabbage prices as low as 48c/pound and corned beef (at Aldi) around $2.99/pound. With Easter just ahead of us, we should see lower prices on pudding mixes, hams, eggs ($2.45/dozen at Aldi last week), canned English/Garden Peas, Mayonnaise.
I worked on my notebook with saved information and inspirations from past years and discovered that I apparently spent all of last year looking for new to me recipes which I jotted down. I have saved recipes in my online files, on Pinterest, and apparently in my inspiration files. I am going to go through the 'saved' recipes and start eliminating some of them. The online files are easier to eliminate. I find that if I let them rest a day or week, I can go back and dump them because whatever made them sound good at the time I saved them, no longer works and makes me want to keep them.
I sorted out the information I have into categories and used file folders I'd cut in half and hole punched to be my dividers between each. It made a rather pretty notebook, since the folders were pastel stripes or roses, and the plain dividers are soft pink. So pretty and not one penny spent. And then I found pink sticky tabs in my stash to use to write the different categories on each dividing page.
I feel I am doing much of nothing this week, but I know that focusing on using what I have and trying to make the most of it is savings, too.
Meals: Leftover muffins, quiche, peanut butter toast. John had an appointment and Caleb and I scrounged bits of food we had leftover.
Leftovers for us. Vegan Cream Cheese roll up, Chips, raisins and apple slices for Caleb.
Steak, Onion and Cheese Burritos, Mexican Rice, Refried Beans, Salad.
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