Menu Plan Monday: February 20th, 2012!

This week we plan to work at Joe's grandfather's house and continue to organize and clean out his basement and our flea market storage area.  I also have some shopping planned with my mom, and I want to get our new to us bookcase put together and organized.  So, our menu is going to be a simple one, filled with easy and one skillet meals...

Breakfasts: Cereal, Fruit/Yogurt/Flax Smoothies, Yogurt and Granola, and/or Toast

Lunches: Leftovers, Soup, Sandwiches, and/or Salads

Dinners Choices:

• Dinner at my Mom's Sunday night for my Dad and Sister's Birthdays!
• Steak Tips with Mushrooms, Onions, and Gravy over Egg Noodles with Salad
• Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo with Garlic Bread and Salad
• Homemade Pizza with Salad
• Fried Potatoes and Onions with Eggs and Toast
• Taco Salads
• Out!

Extras: White Chocolate Chip Cookies, and later in the week Brownies!

For more AWESOME Menu Plans, visit Org Junkie!

Sunday's Rite-Aid Trip

Second stop on Sunday was Rite-Aid.  We bought a few other things for donation, but they come from a different budget, so I won't list them here.  This is what we ended up with...

6 pks Stride Gum $1.29-$1.49 ea - $0.29 or $0.49 ea Sale - $1/2 MC x 2 (newspaper) - $1 UP+Rewards wyb 3 x 2 = 6/$2

1 pkg Cold-Eeze Drops $7.49 - $3.50 Sale - $3 UP+Rewards = $0.99

+ $0.42 Tax

- $10 UP+Rewards used to Pay

Total OOP: $2.81, Earned $5 UP+Rewards for next time!

Sunday's CVS Trip

There wasn't any thing that really interested me this week at Walgreen's, so Joe and I decided to just go to CVS and Rite-Aid.  First stop, CVS, where we picked up some cheap soup for my mom, and some free toothpaste.  Here's what we ended up with...

8 cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup $0.99 ea - $0.40 ea Sale - $0.40/4 MC (newspaper) x 2 = 8/$3.92, just $0.49 ea! (Mom paid me back for these)

1-3 ct Cream of Wheat (yummy!) $1

1 box Taster's Choice Instant Coffee $1 - $1/1 MC (from free sample pk) = FREE!

2 Colgate Total Toothpastes $3.19 ea - $0.44 ea Sale - $1/1 MC (newspaper) x 2 - $2 ECB's x 2 = 2 

FREE + $0.50 Money-maker!
1-24 pk CVS Brand Bottled H20 (not pictured) $3.99 - $1.55 Sale = $2.44 

+ $0.45 Tax

- $10 ECB's used to Pay

Total OOP: $1.31, Earned $4 ECB's and $5 cash from my mom for her soup.

Menu Plan Monday: February 20th, 2012!

Valentine's day has arrived once again, and Joe and I will be celebrating with a delicious dinner in, and some extra snuggle time!  We are also going to be trying our hand at listing/selling on Craigslist, and doing some more organizing around the house.  Here's our simple menu for this week...

Breakfasts: Cereal, Fruit/Yogurt/Flax Smoothies, and/or Toast

Lunches: Leftovers, Tuna Sandwiches, Zuppa Tuscana with Garlic Bread-sticks

Dinners:

Eggs, Fried Potatoes and Onions, and Toast

Homemade Pizza with Salad

Zuppa Tuscana (Leftovers) with Garlic Bread and Salad

Shrimp Alfredo with Salad and Garlic Bread

Grilled Steaks with Crock-pot Baked Potatoes and Salad (Valentine's Day)

Beef Tips with Onions, Mushrooms, and Gravy over Egg Noodles with a Steamed Vegetable

McDonald's :-)

Extras: White Chocolate Chip Cookies, and something sweet for Valentine's Day, TBA!

For more AWESOME Menu Plans, visit Org Junkie!

ALDI Deals, Starting 02/08/2012

Here are some of this week's deals at ALDI...

• Navel Oranges 4 lb bag $1.49 ea
• Red and Green Grapes $1.98/2 lb container
• Strawberries $1.89/lb container
• Cantaloupe $1.19 ea
• Grapefruit $0.39 ea
• Season's Choice Extra Fine Green Beans 16 oz $1.49 ea
• Grandessa Signature Cream Puffs or Mini Eclairs 22-27.4 oz $4.99 ea
• Fit and Active Non-fat Yogurt Vanilla or Plain 32 oz $1.99 ea
• Fit and Active Non-Fat Yogurt and Friendly Farms Yogurt 6 oz Asst. Varieties $0.39 ea
• Friendly Farms All-Natural Greek Yogurt Blueberry or Strawberry 6 oz $0.89 ea
• Friendly Farms Whipped Yogurt Mousse 4 oz Asst. Varieties $0.49 ea
• Belmont Cheesecake Sampler 50 oz $9.99 ea
• Millville Creamy Wheat Cereal 28 oz $1.99 ea
• Chef's Cupboard Beefy Onion Soup Mix 2.2 oz $0.99 ea
• Chef's Cupboard Cream of Celery Soup 10.5 oz $0.59 ea
• Happy Harvest Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes Regular and Salsa Style 14.5 oz $0.89 ea
• Dakota's Pride Lentils 16 oz $0.79 ea
• Cattlemen's Ranch Bacon-wrapped Beef Tenderloin 10 oz $4.99 ea

For more information about shopping at ALDI, visit their Homepage!

Weekly Spending Report: 02/05-11/2012

Here are our spending totals for this week...

• Wednesday's Shopper's Trip (no post, just a few necessities): $15.22
• Thursday's Dollar Tree Trip (no post, flowers, pie slices, baskets, hummus, and Clearasil medicine): $14.54
• Saturday's Walgreen's Trip: $0.92 oop, Earned $2 RR
• Saturday's Rite-Aid Trip: $10 oop, Earned $10 UP+Rewards
• Saturday's Wal-Mart Trip (no post, just TP and a humidifier filter, used a gift card to help pay): $5.22 oop

Total OOP: $45.90 - $12 Earned Rewards = Net OOP: $33.90, Savings of 26%!  Not a great week, but I've had much worse, so I'll take it!

Saturday's Rite-Aid Trip

Joe and I also stopped into Rite-Aid today to get my newspapers.  I wanted to get at least one more Revita-lens solution, but this was the last one, so hopefully I will be able to find some of the travel sized ones some where before the coupons expire.  Here's what we ended up with...

2 Baltimore Sun Newspapers $2 ea - $0.40 ea card discount = $1.60 ea or 2/$3.20

2 pkgs Stay-Free Maxi Pads 24 ct ea $3.99 ea - 0.99 ea Sale - BOGO Free MC (newspaper) $3 - $2 UP+Rewards x 2 = 2 FREE + $1 Money-maker!

1 pk Care-Free Pads 54 ct $3.99 - $0.99 Sale - $0.50/1 MC (newspaper) - $2 UP+Reward = $0.50

1 Revita-lens Solution $9.99 - $2 card discount - $2/1 MC (newspaper) - $4 UP+Reward = $1.99

1 Rite-Aid Mustache Scissors and Comb (to be more frugal, I have been cutting Joe's hair, these will be perfect to trim around his ears with!) $3.99 - $2 clearance = $1.99

+ $0.32 Tax

- $7 UP+Rewards used to Pay

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

Saturday's Walgreen's Trip

Today, Joe and I stopped into Walgreen's to see if any of the deals were left for this week, and there wasn't much left that I wanted, so I just rolled my RR's on the floss, and a few household essentials...

3 boxes Baking Soda $1 ea (wyb 2 or more) - $1.23 in-ad Coupon = $0.59 ea or 3/$1.77

2 bags Mixed Raw Nuts (my favorite!) $0.99 ea = 2/$1.98

1 pkg Reach Total Care Floss $2.99 on Sale - $2 RR = $0.99

+ $0.18 Tax

- $6 RR's used to Pay

Total OOP: $0.92, Earned $2 RR!

Weekly Spending Report: 01/29-02/04/2012!

Here's this week's Spending totals...

• Sunday's Walgreen's Trip: $26.37 oop, Earned $17 Cash and $6 RR's
• Sunday's CVS Trip: $12.81 oop, Earned $10.87 ECB's and $3 Cash
• Sunday's Rite-Aid Trip: $6.53 oop, Earned $7 UP+Rewards
• Wednesday's Dollar Tree Trip: $14.48 oop
• Saturday's Rite-Aid Trip (no post, just 2 newspapers): $4.24 oop
• Saturday's Amish Market Trip: $33.19 oop, Earned $5 Cash

Total OOP: $97.62 - $48.87 Earned Cash/Rewards = Net OOP: $48.75, Savings of 50% - I'll take it!

Saturday's Amish Market Trip

Saturday we had a meeting to go to, and we decided to ride with friends, which saved us both a little on gas, but on the way home we stopped into the Amish Market in Cockeysville, and even though we weren't out of our unrefined sugar yet, I went ahead and stocked back up.  This is what we ended up with (+ some soft pretzels, but that's another story, and budget)...

3 bags Unrefined Sugar (18.8 lbs) = $24.26 ($1.29/lb)

1-6 pk Sticky Buns $4.95

2 small bags Little Cheezer's Pretzels (my favorite!) $0.50 ea = 2/$1

2 tubs Chives (not pictured, for my Mom) $1.49 ea = 2/$2.98

Total OOP: $33.19 - $5 from Mom for her Chives = Net OOP: $28.19!!!