Menu Plan 5-23 to 5-29

Sunday: crockpot roast, carrots, potatoes, sauteed onions, cornbread

Monday: leftovers from yesterday

Tuesday: tacos/taco salad, Spanish rice, beans

Wednesday: faculty meeting

Thursday: shrimp, corn, baked potatoes

Friday: grilled hot dogs, pasta salad, chips

Saturday: not a clue!!!

Menu Plan Monday 3-29

M: leftovers

T: hamburger helper, leftover mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower

W: faculty meeting, on your own

R: PTO meeting, on your own

F: bbq deer, white corn, cornbread, _______

S: ??

S: ??

Menu Plan Monday 3-22

M: spagetti, homemade garlic cheese bread

T: teriyaki chicken in crockpot, brown rice, broccoli-carrots-cauliflower

W: on your own - faculty meeting

R: ????

F: nachos

S: grilled chicken, mac and cheese, white corn

S: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rolls, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs

Menu Plan Monday 3-15

**I promise we don't eat the same thing every week. At the end of the week I have to go back and revise the plan to show what we really ate!



M: General Tso's chicken, brown rice, broccoli

T: fish, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes

W: on your own - FM

R: grilled pineapple soy sauce steak, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots

F: leftovers, own your own, snacky supper

S: ?
S?

Menu Plan Monday 3-8 to 3-14

M: grilled pineapple/soy sauce steak, 3 cheese potatoes, carrots homemade frappachino

T: spagetti

W: on your own

T: crockpot chicken (from freezer), carrots, potatoes

F: leftovers

S: on your own

S: ??

Menu Plan Monday 3-1 to 3-7

M: roast, 3 cheese potatoes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower (didn't have last week)

T: sausage and potato casserole (new recipe), peas, salad with almonds, cranberries, and feta cheese

W: leftovers

R: on your own PTO meeting

F: chili

S: on your own

S: homemade ham and pineapple hot pockets

Smiths Grove Salvage Grocery

I picked up some great deals this afternoon at the Smith Grove Salvage Grocery:

Libby's pumpkin .99 for a 2 pound can ( I got 2)
2 lbs thin spagetti .99
Baked Goldfish crackers 1.49

The pumpkin cans were dented, but nothing I bought was past the sell by date. If you decide to head over there, I would HIGHLY recommend that you check the dates. I saw a couple of things with 2009 expiration dates.

The pumpkin is what I'm so tickled about! I used the last of my frozen pumpkin this morning for pumpkin pancakes (YUMMY!) I would have used it long ago, but have been rationing it. There seems to be a pumpkin shortage in the US. When I looked for some back before Christmas and couldn't find any I asked about it. The manager told me that they don't expect to get any until summer!

Menu Plan Monday 2-22 thru 2-28

M: penne pasta and sauce (didn't have last week)

T: italian chicken in crockpot, white rice, green beans w/ country ham in crockpot

W: faculty meeting/ on your own

R: fish, mac and cheese, leftover green beans, leftover rice, lima beans

F: on your own

S: leftovers, on your own

S: who knows???

Menu Plan Monday 2-15-2010

M: shredded roast in crockpot with steak sauce, potato skins, carrots

T: Chicken and dumplings (still haven't gotten around to making these yet. If tomorrow is a school day then they'll get postponed once again!), mashed potatoes, mac and cheese

W: on your own/faculty meeting

R: KFC

F: leftover KFC

S: on your own

S: taco salad

Menu Plan Monday 2-08-2010

M: leftover lasagna and bread

T: farmhouse stew, homemade rye bread

W: leftover farmhouse stew, potato skins

T: crockpot chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans

F: teriyaki chicken, rice, mac and cheese

S: pinto beans, cornbread

S: snacky supper

Menu Plan Monday February 1-7, 2010

M: General Tso's Chicken, brown rice

T: chicken strips, broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes

W: roast, carrots, potatoes in crockpot, cornbread

T: leftovers, on your own, faculty meeting

F: homemade pizza

S: leftover pizza

S: lasagna, homemade italian herb and cheese bread, cherry cake

January check-in/ February plans

I ended the month of January over budget by 23.65. Not too bad. Since this is the first month of keeping month long totals, I'm not sure if this is a reasonable goal for us or not. The next couple of months should tell.

Even before MSM and FishMama started talking about freezer cooking for February, I had already made plans to do the same. I stocked up on staples (meat, flour, vegetables, milk) right before the snow and made a list of things that I could prepare ahead and freeze. As of right now, I'm starting the month off having already used a hefty amount of our budget. But, I'm hoping that by having several meals and/or partial meals pre-made in the freezer that I'll have to go to the grocery fewer times. I frequented the grocery more last month than normal. By reducing the number of times that I go to the grocery, I'm hoping to reduce the amount of money spent at the grocery.

I haven't left the house since Friday morning, so I've had 4 days ( counting today) to work on my freezer cooking plan. It's been nice to spread the cooking out over a couple of days rather than getting up early on Saturday morning and slaving away for a couple of hours. It's been very easy work, because most things I've cooked in my crock pots.

Here's what I've got so far: 2 dozen corn bread muffins
1 homemade sausage, onion, mushroom pizza
1 homemade ham, pineapple pizza
pinto beans and ham
black beans
teriyaki chicken
shredded chicken
cooked carrots
pancakes
mashed potatoes


I've got most of my cooking done for the next two weeks. I'll have to cook some sides, but that will amount to maybe 15 minutes total to get supper on the table. If we're still off for President's Day on the 15th, I plan to do more freezer cooking over that 3 day weekend.

Menu Plan Monday 1-25-2010

Keeping track of this online is sooo much easier than writing it down somewhere and then losing the paper or forgetting where I wrote it down at!

Monday : fish, broccoli and cheese, mashed potatoes

Tuesday: penne pasta, sauce, homemade garlic cheese bread

Wednesday: on your own, leftovers (faculty meeting)

Thursday: chicken strips, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes

Friday: shredded crockpot steak, sauteed onions and mushroooms, onion rolls (to eat as a sandwich), mashed potatoes, corn

Saturday: chili and crackers

Sunday: leftovers, on your own

Fun in the Kitchen

rye bread

ham and pineapple hot pocket

Our favorite pizza - ham and pineapple.

This past weekend I used the rest of my Christmas gift cards and bought myself a breadmaker. I've wanted one and have researched different brands for quite a while, but never could really justify spending so much to get a top quality one. My mind was made up when I opened my email and found a Kohls coupon! I ended up paying very little out of pocket and am thrilled with my purchase:) So far I've made pizza crust, cinnamon raisen bread, and rye bread. All have been super yummy and easy to make. I've already got a list of ideas to try for next weekend and hope to research some recipes using rye this week.

Menu Plan Monday 1-11

Monday: country ham, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese

Tuesday: penne pasta and sauce, homemade bread

Wednesday: China Buffet

Thursday: vegetable soup and sandwich

Friday: Papa Johns

Saturday: shake and bake chicken, oven roasted potatoes and onions, pumpkin pie

Sunday: snacky supper, or out to eat for a late lunch

Best Deal in a While

I'm loving Walgreens today! With my new coupon system, it was so easy to find the coupons and match them up with sales in the Walgreens ad. Here's how it went:

Transaction 1: Electrasol Power Ball 20 ct. 3.49 sale price
-2.50 coupon from Sunday's paper
_________
.99 had to pay out of pocket
- 1.00 back in Register Rewards
___________
.01 money MADE on this transaction


Transaction 2: Special K Cereal sale for 2.50
Special K Cereal sale for 2.50
________
5.00
- 2.50 ( B1G1 free coupon)
__________
2.50
- 1.00 Register Reward from transaction 1 - these are used like cash
__________

1.50 paid out of pocket and received 2.00
back in register rewards

I made .50 on this deal!

Transaction 3: gallon of milk 2.19
string cheese for Hannah + .59
__________
2.78
- 2.00 in register rewards earned from
transaction 2
_________
.78 paid out of pocket

Not too bad for a quick 10 minute stop at the store!

Menu Plan Monday

Week of January 4th- 10th, 2010 ***updated*****

M: white beans, country ham, and cornbread

T: lasagna, salad

W: on your own, leftovers (faculty meeting)

R: chicken tenders, mashed potatoes, cheesy broccoli and cauliflower

F: pizza

S: fried country ham, biscuits, soup

S: leftovers, snacky supper, or out to eat for a late lunch

Eating From the Pantry Challenge

I've decided to take the Eating From the Pantry Challenge from the Money Saving Mom and Life as Mom bloggers. I tried a couple of different ways to get their button for this challenge, but my technology skills are lacking in so many ways:(

Anyway, here's how the challenge will work for me:

I will spend no more than 120.00 this month on groceries and household supplies ( soap, toilet paper, etc.). I'm aiming to spend no more than 30.00 a week, but some weeks may be higher and some lower. As long as it comes to under 120.00, I'll be thrilled.

I will plan my meals based around food that I already have and will then match coupons and sales to create a very minimal grocery list.

I'll post meal plans each week, my grocery totals, and what we actually ate (which sometimes may be very different than the plan!).

Since I'm headed to BG tomorrow, I'll actually shop tomorrow for what I'll need the first week of January. I'm really looking forward to this challenge and am hoping that I save some big bucks! I guess we'll see!

Cooking - what's that?

There hasn't been much cooking going on around the Vincent household. Seriously, for the past couple of months cooking around here has looked like warming up previously cooked chicken strips in the oven, hamburger helper, steaming vegetables in the microwave, and grilling burgers. Nothing blog worthy. My crystal ball doesn't show any blog worthy cooking in the future either!

I'm sure I'll be cooking more as the weather changes. There's just something about hot weather and turning on a stove or oven that doesn't appeal much to me.

CVS - how it's works for me

A little over a year ago, I had never stepped foot in a CVS drugstore. After I started reading blogs, I realized what I had been missing! CVS has a program using ECB ( Extra Care Bucks). The store runs weekly and months ads and certain items give you ECB's when you purchase them. The best times to score ECB deals are at the beginning of the month. For example, paper towels might be on sale for 4.99 and you will receive back 4.99 in ECB's. So, you've gotten them for free! ECB's print out on the bottom of your receipt. You just tear them off and use them like cash on your next purchase! The way to get cheap or even free product is by combining the store sales, previously acquired ECB's, and coupons. I did a couple of transactions today. Here's what I did:

Transaction 1: 2 Prilosec 42 ct. on sale for 24.77 will give back 5.00 in ECB ( for each one
purchased limit 2 per house)
used a 7.00 coupon and a 3.00 coupon ( from last Sunday's paper)
spent 39.54 out of pocket
got back 10.00 in ECB

Ok, I know that I started out by spending almost 40.00, but most people start by buying the free after ECB items. I'm always on the lookout for products that we have to have anyway. Jeremy takes Prilosec daily and luckily it is covered on my flex spending account that comes with my health insurance. So, I wasn't out any cash. I simply scanned my flex Visa card!

Transaction 2: Charmin 16 roll on sale for 9.99 (gives back 2 ECB)
2 Dawn dishwashing liquids 2/2.00 (gives back 1 ECB)

used .25 coupon for Charmin
used .25 coupon for Dawn

my total was 11.49 after coupons
I paid with 10.00 in ECB.

Total spent out of pocket 1.61 ( you still have to pay some tax)
ECB's earned this transaction 3.00

So, I actually made 1.39 on this transaction.

Transaction 3: Hefty 45 count garbage bags on sale for 6.99
used 1.00 off coupon
total was 5.99 plus tax
I paid with 3.00 in ECB, leaving 3.23 to pay out of pocket


Total spent out of pocket: 4.84
I could have stopped after transaction 2 and waited to use my ECB's on a product that would yielded more ECB's, but we really needed the garbage bags. ECB's are good for a month. I usually use all of my ECB's on one trip, rather than "rolling" them. However, more money can be saved by "rolling" them. For example, I could have taken my 3.00 ECB and saved them to spend on a item costing 4.99 and giving back 4.99 in ECB's. In that instance, only 1.99 would have been spent out of pocket.

I hope this doesn't sound confusing. It's really simple to do once you get the hang of it. My shopping trip today took about 10 minutes to plan out and maybe 10 minutes total in the store (and Hannah was with me which means I probably could have been out in 5 minutes if I had been alone:)

If I didn't want to worry about pairing up ECB's, sales, and coupons, I could have visited moneysavingmom.com, the centsible sawyer, or lifeasmom because they do this weekly and post it on their site.