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Monday: Pasta Salad
Wednesday: Tacos
Thursday: Creamy Beef Over Noodles
Friday: Grilled Chicken
Sunday: Kale, Sweet Potatoes, Salad, and Watermelon
I plan 2-3 servings of fruits/vegetables with each dinner, but most often I throw these together at the last minute, rather than planning them up front.
Breakfast Ideas for this week: Baked Oatmeal, French Toast Sticks, Bagels, Whole Wheat Banana Muffins, Cold Cereal, Feta and Spinach Omelets
Who says you have to give million dollar endowments to be philanthropic? Start where you are!
Here is a great deal that you can pick up at Publix from now through Tuesday:
Beneful Dog or Puppy Food 3.5 or 4lb pkg ($5.49/2)
$3.50 off any Purina Dog or Cat Food here
Take the quiz, choose a shelter, enter an email address and the coupon will show up. This is a great opportunity for 3 reasons:
1. When you purchase the food, Purina will make a donation to the shelter of your choice.
2. You will receive overage for using this coupon!
3. You can take the food to Happy Tales Humane Shelter in the Factory.
Some other items you could share from your stockpile include laundry detergent and antibacterial hand soap!
I pray that someone blesses you with a small act of kindness this week.
I thought you might like to see our first CSA box of the year. It contained:
1 Lg. Head of Green Leaf Lettuce
1 Lg. Bunch of Kale
1 Lg. Bunch of Collard Greens
2 Med. Heads of Broccoli
4 White Onions w/ tops
1 Qt. of Strawberries
This is a lot for the first box of the year. They tend to get heavier as the year goes on. Stop by later in the week to see what I did with the Collard Greens. (My 13 yr. old went back for seconds!)
Need a little help on the road to Tightwad? Stop by every Tuesday for a quick tip to help you on your way.
When I had my first child, my sister gave us a baby food mill as a gift. I had no idea what a gift it would be! That same $10 baby food mill lasted us through all 3 of our children.
A lot of modern moms are not familiar with baby food mills. Essentially, it's a little hand cranked tool that grinds "real" food into a puree so that babies can eat it. It will not puree food to a "stage one" consistency. For that, I recommend a blender. But once your baby is eating food with a little consistency to eat, this is all you need to turn your grown up dinner and lunchtime leftovers into cheap babyfood.
Bonuses: Your baby will develop a taste for your cooking early on. And, think of all the glass jars and metal tops you won't have to recycle.
Curious what a baby food mill looks like? Check out this one.
I received these two notes from readers this week. I thought I would share them with you as encouragement. Sometimes, it can seem like it's not possible for the ordinary mom to save so much on groceries. But it is possible! Both of these mom's have been patient and watched their receipt totals drop over months of practice. You can do it too!
"Last night, some friends and I got together and did a "receipt
brag" where we showed our receipts and talked about the deals we
got. It was inspiring…"
-K
"So, I have to share my awesome week at Publix. I only spent $30.44 on groceries there, my total savings according to the receipt was $213.61. My Publix allowed me to use the HG Hills coupon and the Whole Foods coupon. This was my best week ever since beginning to coupon. I had been holding steady at $75, maybe I can finally drop to $50 going forward."
-S
Congratulations to everyone whose saving more and sharing more!
HG Hill
2 8oz. Container of Cool Whip .88 ea
-$1/2 MQ made them .38 ea
19 Oscar Mayer Wieners .99 ea.
(9) -$1/2 OM MQs made them .49 ea
-$1/1 MQ (made 1 pkg. free)
2 Kraft Cheese (8oz. block) $1.88
(2) -$1/1 2% Cheese MQs made them .88 ea
Total: $13.22 (Retail Value $53.27 Saved 79%)
Publix Trip 1 (last week's ad)
4 pkgs of Yoplait Fiber One
2 Johnson & Johnson Travel First Aid Kits
1 Lysol Neutra Air Spray
3 McCormick Grill Seasonings
.58 lbs of bananas
1 can of Del Monte Tomatoes (Substitute Penny Item)
Total $1.37 (Retail Value $26.94 Savings 99%)
Publix Trip 2
This is actually two trips to Publix. At one of the Publix stores, I had a price correction from last week. An employee accidentally pointed out the wrong bag of $1.99 oranges, so they rang up at $3.99. Publix refunded the full amount. I also made the second stop so that I could pick up another Edy's ice cream.
Total $13.94 (Retail Value $134.34 Savings of 93%)
Sam's Club
3lbs. of Bananas
1 Very Lg. Seedless Watermelon
2 Gallons of Milk
Total $10.97
Grand Total for the Week $39.50 (That brings my surplus up to $27)
This is a crazy week at our house. It's the end of all the school year activities (like dance recital) and the beginning of summer activities (like swimming). We have an activity going on during the dinner hour every single night this week. I thought you might like to see what my plan looks like for a week like this. It's not glamorous, but it should get us through.
Monday: Potatoes Au Gratin with Ham
I'll be using a Betty Crocker Boxed Potato Mix and pre-cubed ham.
Tuesday: Meatball Subs
Pre-made frozen meatballs and jarred spaghetti sauce make this a 5 minute meal!
Wednesday: Stir-Fry and Rice-
Contessa makes great stir-fry. I'll add a few extra veggies to stretch it further.
Thursday: Lunchmeat Sandwiches w/ Sliced Fruit and Baby Carrots
Dress rehearsal from 4:30 to 8:30! Dinner in a bag is going to have to suffice. I'll also pull some homemade soup out of the freezer for the contingent at home.
Friday: Barbecued Chicken Sandwiches from the Crockpot
Saturday: Spaghetti w/ Sauce from a Jar
Sunday: Santa Fe Pasta Salad
Black Beans, Chicken, and Whole Grain Pasta tossed together with whatever vinaigrette I have on hand.
I plan 2-3 servings of fruits/vegetables with each dinner, but most often I throw these together at the last minute, rather than planning them up front.
Breakfast Ideas for this week: Toast w/ Peanut Butter, French Toast Sticks, Bagels, , Cold Cereal, Cinnamon Rolls and Scrambled Eggs
You can see more menu ideas here.
I love to be able to cook for families who are in need of an extra meal. Most often they have had a new baby. Other times, someone in the family is facing a chronic illness or they have had a recent loss. But every time, I struggle to plan a menu that will be manageable for my budget and my schedule. This weekend, we have the joy of moving some of our dearest friends into our neighborhood. I will be taking them dinner, and I thought you might be interested in what I have planned and how it fit into our budget.
The menu:
The ribs can go in the crockpot, and the rice can be thrown in my rice cooker. One of my kids can prep the lettuce, and the corn is the steamable frozen variety. All in all, the cake is the time consuming part, and baking is still a big treat for my daughter. She is happy to do it, and it will only require a small bit of "follow behind her" clean up.
What about the budget? After all, we will be cooking for a family of eight (several very young).
Ribs- I purchased the ribs while they were on sale last week at HG Hill for .99/lb. I will prepare about 4lbs for their family, so that's about $3.96. The barbecue sauce was a moneymaker this week at Publix, +.31). I will use onions from our CSA share, so the cost is hard to calculate.
Garlic Rice- The rice is Mahatma from Publix, .19 w/ coupon. I'll use some butter, a few chicken boullion cubes, and some green onions (in place of garlic) from the CSA.
Salad- CSA lettuce will form the base of this salad. If I had to purchase the lettuce, my target price would be about $1.69 for a head of lettuce. (About .85 worth to share) Croutons were free during triple coupon days at HT and Kroger. I'll toss in a few carrot curls for color.
Corn-Frozen veggies are easy to come by during the winter. My target price for these is .25 a bag or less.
Cake- .11 cake mix was a great deal around Easter. I have a little free icing that I picked up during triples days. The eggs my daughter used to make the cake came from our friend's chickens. My son has been chicken sitting for them this week.
The basic cost of this meal is around $5. If you count the green onions, butter, and bouillon cubes, you might be able to get the total up to $6.
I know you may not have friends with chickens or a CSA share. But, I hope you can see the possibilities that stockpiling can open up. Do you have a favorite meal you like to share? Please leave a comment and share it with the rest of us!
If you have ever had a few minutes to browse my FAQs, you will know that my food/toiletries/cleaning budget is $270 a month. Why then, do I purchase only $50 a week in groceries? Because the rest of the budget goes into an envelope for bulk wheat purchases and our annual CSA share. If you are interested in more information about our CSA, check here.
This week is the beginning of CSA season, so we will be eating more than just my usual $50 in groceries. I've debated whether to cut the food budget back during CSA season or to leave it as is. After much debate, I've decided to leave it alone. My plan is to use the surplus to prepare more meals for members of our church family in crisis. In addition, I would like to invest in some leaner cuts of meat and maybe some fish for my family.
I will still be purchasing lots of great deals for our stockpile, which I will happily post. I will also be posting about the contents of our CSA share, and how we use it. Hopefully, I'll be able to share some ideas for preparing meals for families in need. I hope you will chime in with your questions as we go along.