Sunday: Brisket from freezer, corn on the cob, salad and french bread
Monday: BLT sandwiches and chips
Tuesday: Bag of pasta, chicken and veggies from freezer; about 1 1/2 cups fresh veggies from our garden thrown in; sliced french bread from freezer; surprise - needed to feed lunch to David's brother and friend who were over working on a swing set for the littles - pulled lunch meat from freezer for sandwiches, served pretzels and fruit.
Thursday: Cashew Chicken; Salad; a second lunch needed for David's brother and friend working on our swing set. Working outside in the heat, they also requested some Gatorade. I didn't have any - but after a quick Google search, whipped up a pitcher of homemade Gatorade. I had all the things on hand and they said it was tasty!
1 c. orange juice
1/2 c. and 1 Tbsp. sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
2 liters water (or 8 cups)
Stir together and chill.
Friday: Playhouse Progressive Dinner for Family Night (post coming soon!); needed cookies for the kids at the children's shelter, but found cupcakes in the freezer instead and thawed those and decorated with some icing left in the fridge! Lunch was needed again for our swing set workers - I pulled cooked and diced chicken from the freezer, cheese, tortillas and some salsa for quesadillas.
Week one - what I bought:
Store 1:
2 Kraft Ranch Dressing: $1.58 each less two $1.50/1 coupons = 0.16
Cascade Rinse: $3.47 less free coupon = 0
Bubble Bath for littles: $2.97
Graham Crackers for Samuel: $1.38
Colby Jack sliced cheese: $2.38
Yoplait Strawberry Banana Yogurt: $2.14
Kashi Frozen Waffles: $2.44 less free coupon = 0
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread: $1.97
Total spent: $11.00
Store 2:
6 Kraft BBQ Sauce: on sale for B1G1 2/$1.49 and had peelie coupons for 0.35 off; double coupons = 0.09/2 or 0.27 total
2 Ketchup: 2/$1.98 - 2 0.20 doubled coupons = 2/$1.18
2 Mustard: 2/$2.32 - 2 0.50 doubled coupons = 2/0.32
Total: $1.77 plus I got a $3 catalina coupon from Kraft products so I made $1.23 on this!
Store 3:
6 lemons at 3/$1.00 = $2.00
Tub margarine: $1.03 - 0.45 coupon = 0.58
Gala apples: $1.59 - $1.00 coupon = 0.59
Small can biscuits for Saturday morning donuts: 0.89
One dozen large eggs: 0.99 - 1.00 coupon = free
Cascade rinse aid: 3.39 - free coupon = free
Total: $4.06
Total for this week: $13.83
27 comments:
That is awesome! Can't wait to make some Gatorade!
Great job! :) Love, Mom
You got quite a bit for your $13. Great job!
Great job Monica! May & June are my clean out the freezer months too. We always do this before our meat chickens go in. We eat out of it for 2 months, then clean it out and get it ready for restocking with chicken, venison, pork and the garden harvest before the end of the year.
What a great job shopping. You are so blessed to have a grocery store that double coupons, no such luck here. I think the easiest way to save money when one is budgeting is to look at ones food bill. It can always be cut down with creative thinking and some planning. I always plan my meals by seeing what I have and then shopping the loss leaders at my stores. Don't walk into a store without a plan. Side note, I'm glad you are getting to spend some good time with your parents! Can't wait to see pics of the swing set.
Wow! What an inspiration and everything looked so delicious too!
your amazing, this is a skill I need to work on this summer. Am very grateful you have shared how you have created a menu with what you have already.
That is such a great idea, Monica! Using up your freezer items! WOW! And you didn't spend much at all!
WAY TO GO! :)
Great ideas Monica :) What deals too! I need to re-organize my pantry and freezer and do this too.
I am looking forward to trying the Homemade Gatorade recipe for my husband. I have seen others but don't want to use Kool-aid because of the artificial colors and flavors.
Thanks so much and have a beautiful day :)
~Sharon
Awesome job! We eat from the freezer and pranry in the late summer and early fall, that way we can refill it for the winter and not have to go to the store so much when the temps drop to below 0- hate to shop in winter! You did great when you did go to the store!!
Oh, thank you for the Gatorade recipe! The boys in my house drink Gatorade like it's going out of style! Good job on your freezer/pantry clear out! I'm going to work on this area of my home, too.! God bless!
Oh I LOVE it, you did such a great job!! How nice to save a chunk of change for the week, too.
Thanks for the recipe for the Gatorade!!! I will definately try that onen out!!! I have three thirsty boys, and one little princess to keep hydrated!!! Also Fantastic job on the shopping and spending under $15 buck!!!! Looks liek you should benefit in more than one way by eating from the freezer and pantry!!! One more thing..your pics are always so pretty!
where do you get all your coupons? clip coupons but they're always for .35 cents off of two or something small like that
That's pretty cool. I didn't know you could make your own Gatorade!
Okay...I think I'm hungry now. Nope...I'M STARVING!
I didn't know you could make Gatorade at home--interesting!
I recently made an inventory of everything in our freezers and am using that as I menu plan.
Homemade gatorade sounds great----we drink a lot of gatorade around here!
Can you give us the parmesan squash recipe? I'm always looking for new ways to cook my favorite veggie!
I am also cleaning out the freezers before buying anything else. Where did you go to double the coupons? Kroger?
Here is a list of my favorite sources for coupons:
http://thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/2009/02/coupon-questions.html
Publix also offers a Baby Club which is how I got the produce, meat and dairy coupons good at their store.
Happy thrifting!
Whoa!! That is amazing!! I need to do this, too, and just suppliment with milk and fruit from the store.
Elise
great job...both on the cleaning out and the shopping! :)
Wow, Monica; that is awesome! I used to do the multiple-store-coupon thingy too. Now, we only have one IGA, and all the rest of the grocery stores in town are Albertson’s, which is really weird. The others were all bought out several years ago. So, now, we just do Wal Mart and Costco, as they have the best prices. Needless to say, the coupons seem to have dwindled as well, and I don’t think that we get double coupons any more.
My husband drinks a lot of Gatorade, so I’m going to have to try your recipe.
I am impressed with your shopping trips. I am going to try the gatorade. I buy it when it's on sale for my husband but this sounds better. Thanks!
I made the Homemade Gatorade. it seems so much healthier??? Guess because of using the real oranges.It was super easy to make and I am sure a lot cheaper by the 2 litter as well. Love it. Thank you for sharing all your treasured and wonderful searched or thought out ideas. It is a blessing. Smiles, Angelia
How do you make your Saturday donuts with the biscuits? Is that what the picture is with the sprinkles?? My boys would LOVE that! :)
Hi Shelley:
The photo was of cupcakes with frosting and sprinkles that we delivered to a children's shelter.
To make the Saturday morning donuts - see this post:
http://thehomespunheart.blogspot.com/2005/06/saturday-morning-donuts.html
Enjoy!
Monica
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