Freebie Shopping

So, I am doing the pantry challenge to clean out our excess supply of food, but couldn't resist picking up FREE stuff at the store. Believe it or not, we have just about used up the yogurt and we only got it three days ago. It's AWESOME! So I will be getting quite a bit more of it this month. :-) It's great because the Greek yogurt is so thick and tangy, you can use it in place of sour cream as well. Actually, I think it tastes better!

Week One Wrap-Up

Week one of the pantry challenge was a success! We spent a total of $9.19 this week on groceries.
What did we buy? Dairy: milk, half and half, organic greek yogurt. Produce: pears, apples, shredded cabbage, big tub of baby spinach, and a tomato.

I can see that the pantry stockpile is dwindling, but the freezer is actually filling up more! Not what I expected. But as we've been trying to make the most of what we have, we've been ending up with lots of leftovers. We now have baked potato soup, vegetable soup, lots of collards, and pizza sauce all added to the freezer this week.

I'm going to be cutting the budget to $20 a week for the rest of the month and rolling over the extra from this week into next week, since there are some extra things we will need to buy next week like dog food.

While we had been planning on not doing the pantry challenge at all while we go on vacation later this month, I think we will try to take enough food with us that we only go out once a day. Hopefully will have a free breakfast at the hotel and I will plan either lunch or dinner from our pantry, with the other meal being out.

January Eat From the Pantry Challenge

So I'm going to take a stab at the pantry challenge for January. We've actually been eating mainly from the pantry and freezer for all of December, so I don't have much of a stockpile, but I do really want to work through what we have and also put together a donation for a local food pantry.

My goals:

• Keep grocery spending under $25 a week for the month of January. This will be mostly produce and dairy.
  
• Clean out the freezer in preparation for defrosting and a thorough cleaning at the end of the month.
  
• Work through pantry to avoid having food expire.
  
• Inventory freezer, fridge, cupboards.
• Gather and deliver food pantry donation.
• Grocery budget money will go towards supplies for the garden. I want to add another raised bed and we also need to purchase another truckload of mulch/compost as well as plants and seeds.
  

"Baking Day" Part Four

Wednesday afternoon after grocery shopping, I came home and started browning ground chuck for the pasta sauce in the crock pot. Made sauce with lots of fresh herbs from the garden, then added it all together with spinach to simmer in the crock pot.


Baked two loaves of oatmeal bread and two more batches of muffins for the freezer. (not pictured)


Cooked pasta and assembled baked ziti with lots of cheese and popped them in the oven. Made four-six meals worth of baked ziti. Some below.


Mixed up four batches of pizza dough, freezing three and making BBQ chicken pizza for dinner.


Baked a couple dozen pecan tarts, but the rest will have to be for tomorrow. I'm just too tired! I'm hoping to put together a complete list and how much I spent, but again, just too tired.

"Baking Day" Part Three

Wednesday morning it was great to start with a clean kitchen after cleaning up the night before. Started out by packaging up and freezing five meals worth of black bean soup that had cooked in the crockpot all night! (No picture)

Then I mixed up oatmeal bread dough and set it out to rise.


Mixed up five batches of blueberry waffles and ate some for breakfast and froze enough for five more breakfasts.

Rolling out and shaping bread for baking.

Processed the rest of the garden tomatoes that I had had sitting on the counter to make the beginning of pasta sauce and off to storytime @ the library and the grocery store.

"Baking Day" Part Two

Tuesday evening I started out by removing the bones and shredding all the chicken and adding seasoning to taste. Looks nasty, I know, but it really isn't. Enough for four meals for the freezer, with some left over for dinner Wednesday.

Sauteing sweet potatoes and onions for black bean soup.

Then it was time to chop up the precooked bacon, dice up leftover steamed veggies, and mix up the egg/milk/cheese for quiche.

I had pillsbury pie crusts from a freebie deal this week, so I guess I cheated a bit. :-) Here are the crusts with veggies and bacon layered in them.

And one of them finished. I made four, three for the freezer and one for dinner (and lunch Thursday from the leftovers).

Got everything in the freezer and mixed up a batch of pecan tart dough.

Also put all the black bean soup ingredients in the crock pot to cook overnight - smells good!!!

Oh, and made two experimental batches of muffins, trying to make my own recipe...

Crazy Kroger Shopping

Okay, don't ask me how I did it because this one was complex involving the mega-deal overlapping with a catalina deal ending today and TONS of coupons. Oh, and three transactions.

Total Saved: $84.56
Total Spent after cats, etc: $3.38 (and I even included taxes!)

15 bags Kraft cheese
4 boxes mini wheats
3 bottles A1 sauce
4 bags chex mix
1 box special K bars
2 bottles Sobe (one pictured, we drank the other one)
1 bag Quaker snacks

Friday Shopping

So Friday I really made the rounds, but only got a picture of the Publix stuff.

Publix
Spent $10
Saved $61

-4 half-gallons of milk
- 3 kashi waffles
- 4 peanut butter
-8 smart balance
-1 pack cinammon sticks
-1 pack dentyne (not shown)
- 2 huggies bath products
- 5 packages of kids yogurt


Wal-Mart
Spent $4
Saved $17

-8 tubs of starbucks ice cream
-1 box of hefty bags

Kroger
I don't have receipt info, but basically spent $8 for about 12 pounds of chicken breast and some apples.

Walgreens
-headband ($1 moneymaker)

CVS
-lots of free after ECBS febreeze products

Shopping Trip Wednesday

Publix

Okay, so this totally looks like an ad for Smart Balance, but they had some really good coupons out for freebies, so I bought the spread at a discount price and will pass along to family members and friends who use it. We're butter only people. But I'm excited to try the peanut butter, popcorn, and the milk.

Spent: $12.62 after tax
Saved: $49.52

4 large tubs of SB
8 small tubs of SB
2 boxes of microwave popcorn
4 half-gallons of milk
2 jars peanut butter
2 boxes Kashi waffles
2 bottles of Huggies wash/shampoo

Shopping Trip - Wednesday

Walmart

6 containers Starbucks ice cream
6 boxes of Hefty one-zip bags

total: $3
saved: $18

Today's Grocery Trip

Didn't really need much for this week, but had a lot of soon-expiring coupons and a great deal on the only hot dogs I like. :0) Stocked up for the summer.

We do still need lettuce and milk, but I'll have DH pick those up later in the week.

Total after taxes, coupons, and rebate: $16.18
Total saved: $80.40

Today's Publix Trip

Thankfully, Matt had Autumn tonight, because this one was really complex. 32 coupons and had to ring a raincheck 8 times as well. Also had to make sure I got just the right items in the right amounts to get a $10 rebate gift card back.

Total after coupons, rain checks, rebate, and taxes: $30.51

Total savings (not even counting clearance items): $102.44!!!

Not only that, but after adding that coffee to my accumul8 rewards account, I'm one bag away from a $25 visa gift card!!!

Would have saved even more, but I got several items without coupons.

Vocalpoint - Free Samples and Coupons

If you're not already a member of Vocalpoint, you should really check it out! It's a free program designed to advertise products via word of mouth. They send free samples and coupons out every so often and surveys occasionally as well. I LOVE them! It's not a points or cash earning opportunity, just a chance to try new products and get coupons.

To join go here: http://site.vocalpoint.com/guest/index.html

Just this morning, Autumn had a bowl of frosted mini-wheats for breakfast that came in the mail yesterday along with coupons. (You can also learn from Vocalpoint-I had no idea that a bowl of mini-wheats with milk had the same amount of protien and fiber as an egg and two slices of whole wheat toast!)