Menu Plan Monday: October 8, 2012

Joe and I just got back from a nice weekend away at a flea market.  We made some money, and had a great time visiting with friends and family!  This week should be a little slower in pace than last week, or at least I hope so!  Here's what's on the menu for this week...

Breakfasts: Cold or Hot Cereals, Yogurt with Granola

Lunches: Leftovers, Sandwiches, Canned Soup with Cheese and Crackers

Dinners:

• Chinese Takeout :-)
• Pizza Takeout (just getting back from our weekend away)
• French Toast with Sausage Patties
• Zuppa Tuscana with Homemade Foccacia Bread
• Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Soup
• Egg and Sausage Scrambles with Toast
• Nachos/Taco Salads

Extras: Homemade Apple Pie!

For more AWESOME Menu Plans, visit Org Junkie!

Weekly Spending Report: 09/23-29/2012!

Things have been crazy around here for the past two months.  After my mom died, it just seems that is has been one thing after the other with our families and here at the museum, so it really feels nice to be back to blogging again - I have missed it so!!!  I have been shopping, but not very often, and not for a whole lot of deals, just scraping by with the essentials.  So, without further ado, here's this week's spending totals...

• Baugher's (1/2 bushel #2 apples for pie filling, cider, and 4 peppers): $14.90 oop
• Staples (1 ream printer paper): $3.18 oop, Earned $3 Easy Rebate
• Giant (various groceries, spent $50 to get the 300 bonus gas points: $54.16, Earned 554 Bonus Gas Points!
• Rite-Aid (4 pks of FREE Stayfree Pads, 2 boxes OB Tampons, 1-4 pk Rite-Aid TP, and 2 bags and candy): $6.53 oop, Earned $3 UP+Rewards!

Grand Total OOP: $78.77 - $6 Earned Rewards = $72.77 Net OOP!  This seems like a lot for me, but I haven't really shopped for much over the past two months, so our stocked up food supply is dwindling.  I am trying to stock up on deals for things we eat/use a lot as I see them to try and get our food supplies stocked back up before winter :-)

Menu Plan Monday: 09/30/2012!

I am so glad to be back to menu planning.  Things have been hectic around here ever since my mom died the end of July.  It seems as though Joe and I barely have a minute to put our feet up before the next item on our agenda is staring us in the face!  It's been good, and bad, but we are making it through.  Here's what's cooking at the Roger's house this week...

Breakfasts: Cold or Hot Cereals, Yogurt with Fruit and Granola

Lunches: Leftovers, Canned Soup with Crackers,Sandwiches, or Frozen Meals

Dinners:

Sunday - Leftovers

Monday - McDonald's :-)

Tuesday - Nachos

Wednesday - 'Fried' Shrimp with Baked French Fries and a Veggie

Thursday - Away at a flea market!

Friday -  Away at a flea market!

Saturday - Away at a flea market!

Extras: Homemade Apple Pie with Home-canned pie filling!

For more AWESOME Menu Plans, visit Org Junkie! 

ALDI Deals, Starting 09/26/2012!

Here are some of the great deals at ALDI this week!

• Friendly Farms Low fat Yogurt Strawberry or Peach 32 oz $1.99 ea
• Gardenline Garden Bags 32 gal pop-up style $6.99 ea
• Kirkwood Frozen Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts 3 lb $5.99 ea
• Lifeway Low fat Kefir Mango or Pomegranate 32 oz $2.79 ea
• O'donnells White Chocolate Cream Liquor 750 ml $8.99 ea 
• Season's Choice Diced Onion Rings 16 oz $1.29 ea
• Onions 3 lb bag $0.99 ea
• Baby Carrots 16 oz bag $0.59 ea
• Celery $0.89 ea
• Red Potatoes 5 lb bag $1.49 ea
• Red Grapes $1.98/2 lb container
• 4 pk Pears $1.59 ea

For more information about ALDI, visit their Homepage!

ALDI Deals: Starting 08/15/2012

Here are some of the deals starting this week at ALDI...

• Garden Mums 8" Pots $2.99 ea
• Countryside Creamery Tastes Like Butter Spray 8 oz $1.49 ea
• Combos Cheddar Cheese Pretzels 7 oz $1.69 ea
• Peaches, Plums, and Nectarines $0.29 ea
• Bananas $0.39/lb
• Mangoes $0.59 ea
• Green, and Red Grapes $1.98/2 lb pkg
• Kiwis $0.99/4 pk
• Millville Raisin Bran 20 oz, or Honey Crunch 'n Oats Cereals Almond or Original 14.5 oz $1.89 ea
• Millville Old Fashion or Quick Oats 4.2 oz $2.19 ea
• Nature's Nectar 100% Tomato Juice 4.6 oz $1.29 ea

For more information about ALDI, visit their Homepage!

Weekly Spending Report: 08/05-11/2012!

Here are the shopping trips from last week, before we left for vacation.  I was able to get a LOT of great deals!

Target: 4 boxes Annie's Mac and Cheese (sale and 2 Target Coupons) for $3, 2 bags Annie's Snack Mixes @ $0.99 ea, 1 Up & Up feminine itch cream (used TC) @ $0.89, - $0.05 for bringing my own bag = $5.82 oop

CVS: 3-12 pks Coke Zero (not pictured, on sale 3/$10), 3 pkgs Snack Size Hershey's Candy (sale + ECB deal) @ 3/$1.97, 1 Aleve travel pk $1.57 - CVS C $3/1 = Money-maker!, and 1 pkg Zantac (sale, ECB deal, and MC) @ $0.99 + used ECB's to Pay

Total OOP: $4.33, Earned $4 ECB's!!!!

Rite-Aid: I actually had to stop at 2 Rite-Aids to find 2 Advil PM's.  Joe uses these often, so I wanted to make sure to get my limit.  2-80 ct Advil PM's (20% discount + MC + UP+Rewards deal = $3.59 ea) and 1 Con-air Hairbrush (20% discount + UP+Rewards deal = $0.55) + Used SCR Check and UP+Rewards to Pay

Total OOP: $3.89, Earned $10 UP+Rewards!!!

Safeway:  I haven't been to Safeway for months, but I have been hearing wonderful things about the new Just for U program, so I had to go give it a go.  I ended up with some awesome deals too!

5 Tortino's Pizzas $1 ea on sale - $1/5 load to card coupon +

6 Lean Cuisine Dinners $2 ea on sale - $0.12 ea Just for U Savings - $5 off $15 Frozen Food in-ad Coupon =  11 Items for $10.28!!!!

2-24 pk Pepsi $5 ea (Friday sale) - $2/2 MC (newspaper) = 2/$8

3 boxes Hamburger Helper $1 ea on sale - $0.75/3 doubled MC (newspaper) = 3/$1.50

Total OOP: $18.38, Savings of $31.52, 64%!

Giant: I used a LOT of coupons towards my total + $40 from Joe's Mom to be used towards our vacation food so in the end it was, $70.93 - $10.13 in Savings and Coupons - $40 from Joe's Mom = Net OOP of $20.31!

I also stopped into the Dollar Tree, Kohl's, BJ's, and Giant again, but didn't take pictures of the trips...

Dollar Tree: 5 bags of Bagel Chips and a bucket $6.06 oop

Kohl's: Used my $10 off any purchase coupon to buy 2 Simply Home Yankee Candles in Bartlett Pear on clearance, Saved $29.20, Total OOP $2.95!

BJ's: 1 lb Bag Diet Cape Cod Potato Chips and 1 pkg Apple Gate Cheese, used two coupons Total OOP $8.48

Giant: Bought 2 newspaper and 3 more boxes of Stevia pkts OOP $11.77 - $3 coupons = $8.77 oop

Grand Total OOP: $78.99 - $14 Rewards Earned = Net OOP: $64.99!!!   

For all the deals I got and all the shopping I did, I think I did AWESOME!!!

Freezer Cooking Day!

Before things got hectic around here, Joe and I harvested our onions for the season, we ended up with a huge basket full.  So I spent an afternoon before vacation processing them for the freezer.  

I ended up with 14 - 1 cup portions of diced onions 

(thanks to my mom's food processor, which will now live in my kitchen)

While I was using the food processor any way, I whipped up a batch of homemade knock-off Chili's salsa (recipe coming soon).  You have to drain the tomatoes for the salsa, so I froze the 1 cup of tomato juice as well, I figure I can use it in chili, or something like that.

But, there were still a few more onions to process, so I took the last 11 and sliced them for the freezer, and had 6 meals worth, for things like fajitas, or to saute with mushrooms for steak or sandwiches.

Lastly, I wanted to bake a batch of chocolate chip cookies to bring along to the beach and snack on, so while the mixer was already dirty, I whipped up 2 more batches of dough for the freezer - yum-o!!!

I only spent an afternoon's worth of time, and got some much accomplished, I love days like that!

8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered House Update #6

 The 5th week of decluttering was an easy one for me, mainly cause I had 2 days off!  Here's what I ended up getting rid of...

Day #21 and 22: Children's Closets
Joe and I have no children yet, so this does not apply to our household, so 2 days off for me!

Day #23 and 24: Clothing, Master Bedroom Closet and Dressers
Items Decluttered: 29

Day #25: Bathroom #1
Items Decluttered: 22

Total Items Decluttered: 46
(Still Ahead by 278 items!)

8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered House Update #5

 For the fourth week of this challenge, things were still plugging right along.

Day #16: Magazines and Newspapers
Items Decluttered: 20

Day #17: Decorative Items
Items Decluttered: 45

 Day #18 Furniture
Items Decluttered: 4

Day #19: Children's Clothing
Items Decluttered: 0
This unfortunately does not apply to our home yet, so a day of rest it was!

Day #20: Children's Clothing Day 2 or Freezer Clean Out
I did a little straightening in the freezer, but mostly used to day to put some things up in the freezer for easy meals and snacks later on (update coming soon).

 Total Items Decluttered for Days #16-20: 69
(282 Items Ahead!)

8 Weeks to a Less Cluttered House Update #4

 Well, I am way behind on giving updates, even though I have been plugging along with decluttering the house.  This has been a crazy few weeks with my mom dying, going to a steam show flea market for a week, and now Joe and I are at the Ocean for the week.  However, I really want to see this decluttering challenge through, so I am trying really hard to keep up with it, and things are flying around here.

Day #11: Children's Books Day 2 or Purse
Items Decluttered: 1

Day #12: Adult Books

Items Decluttered: 25

Here's the finished product!  (fyi this bookcase was FREE off the curb!)

Day #13: Adut Books Day 2 or Fridge Organization

Items Decluttered: 5

Day #14: First Aid and Medicine

Items Decluttered: 25

Day #15: Kids Artwork

Another day that doesn't apply to us, so no decluttering today! 

Total Items Decluttered for Days #11-15: 56

(263 Items Ahead)