Menu Plan Monday -- We are joining the Eating from the Pantry challenge!!!!

A LOT of people in the blogging world are participating in an 'Eat from your Pantry Challenge,' so I have decided that Joe and I would too. Our goals for this challenge are:
- clean out the pantry and the freezer to make room for a good stock up trip to the Super Wal-mart and ALDI in February
- Only spend $100 this month for fruit/veggies, stock-piling, and kitty food and litter
I hope that we can meet both of these goals, as the cub boards are stuffed to the gills right now, and this is a tight month for us financially anyway.

Menu Plan for this week:
Breakfasts: Muffins, fruit, yogurt & Cereal

Lunches: Leftovers, Ham & cheese Sandwiches with Chips, PBJ

Dinners:
Sunday - Baked Pork Ribs with Scalloped Potatoes and Broccoli
Monday - Spaghetti, Garlic Bread & Salad
Tuesday - Shake & Bake Chicken, Chicken Rice-a-roni, & Broccoli
Wednesday - Cheese-Steak Sandwiches with FF's
Thursday - Cashew Chicken with added water chestnuts, Jasmine Rice & Sugar Snap Peas
Friday - Homemade Pizza
Saturday - Out with Melinda and Joel!!!

Quick New Years Walgreen's Run!

Stopped into Walgreen's on New Years as well since it is right near the Martin's. I had a few RR's to use up...
4 Christmas Gift Sacks on clearance 50% off $$0.12 ea = $0.48/4
2 Puffs Tissues $0.89 ea on Sale - $1/1 MC = $0.78/2
3 - 40 ct bottles Pepto-Bismol (these are good until 2012!) $4.99 ea - $1/2 MC - $10 RR wyb 3 = $3.97/3 -- That is an AMAZING price!)
= Tax $0.14
- Used $5 RR's to pay
Total OOP: $10.37 - received $10 RR for next time = Net OOP: $0.37!!!!!

Martin's Trip from Last Week

Stopped into Martin's on New Years to pick up a few good deals, well, actually just two...
3 Pace Salsa (Joe's Favorite!) $2.49 ea - $0.49 ea Sale = $2 ea = $6/3
3 Steam Ready Frozen Veggies $1.38 ea - $0.38 ea Sale = $1 ea = $3
Total OOP: $9.00 + I earned more gas points, only 20 more for $0.20 off per gallon on my next fill-up!!!

CVS Trip for Last Week 12/31/2009

This was the last shopping trip for 2009! Joe and I went out to CVS New Year's Eve to grab up the ECB deals that were left...
2 Pantene Shampoos 2/$7 - $3/2 MC - $2 ECB wyb 2 = $1 ea = $2
1 Martini Glass Ornament on clearance 50% off $2.99 (this is a Christmas Gift for 2010!)
1 Jewelry armoire on clearance 50% off $14.99 -- I have wanted one of these for a LONG time!
2 Olay Regenerist Cleansers $6.99 ea - $1/1 MC x 2 - $15 MIR wyb 2 = 2 FREE + $3.02 MM
2 Metamucil 160 ct Capsules $9.99 ea - $3/1 MC x 2 - $2 ECB x 2 = $9.98/2
1 Gillette Fusion Razor $8.99 - $2/1 MC - $4 ECB = $2.99
1 Head & Shoulders Ravel Size $1.29 - $1/1 CVS C = $0.29
1 - 12 ct Tums Smoothies $1.59 - $2/1 CVS C = FREE + $0.41 MM
+ Tax $2.79
Paid with Extra Care Bucks (ECB) & free prescription gift card, so NO OOP!
+ Received $10 ECB for next week!
My savings at CVS for the year: $2,738.62 -- WOW!

Our Trip to Williamsburg!

Yeah, I totally didn't get anything posted while we were on vacation, but we did have a WONDERFUL time! It was so nice to get away for a few days, when you work & live at the same place, vacations are EXTRA special!!! This is Butterscotch helping us pack. She LOVES suitcases for some strange reason...

This is Joe and the next one is of me; we are both standing outside our hotel, the Comfort Inn. We were in traffic for ever, so we checked in late, which was actually a good thing, because we got a FREE upgrade to a room with a hot tub in it! It was REALLY nice!! I highly recommend this line of hotels -- very clean, nice staff, and very affordable!

This is out lunch our second day there. We always have to stop at Red Hot & Blue for some REALLY GOOD BBQ! We actually ate there twice this trip, and it was so delicious!

This is Joe being VERY happy that we decided to eat at the BBQ place a second time, but he isn't obvious at all right? (NOT!)

This is the parking lot of our hotel, I thought it was so cute how they had the trees/bushes all lit up for the holidays.

All in all we had a WONDERFUL trip!

Total Cost for the Trip:

Hotel - $225.72 (for 5 days & 4 nights)

Gas - $80.90

Food - $80.18 (we used gift cards and the hotel's continental breakfast to keep this figure lower)

2 Colonial Williamsburg passes, 3 days each - FREE (because we are museum employees we get comp passes, if we had to pay full price it's $38 per person, per day or $228)

(Souvenirs were bought with Christmas $, so they are not out of the regular budget, but wanted to add just to let you know $64.34)

Grand Total for 5 days & 4 Nights in Williamsburg, VA: $386.80