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Popping into a few stores

Thursday, April 23, 2009

It's a dangerous thing.... Oh I'll just run into X and get X. Then you find all those things you didn't know you needed until you see them.

BJ's Wholesale Club

8.00... 4 gallons milk
4.00... gallon orange juice
6.00... 5# apples
6.00... 2dz bagels
8.00... container of mini half moon cookies (I know! I know!)
3.50... 2 loaves of bread
_______
Total... $35.00

Big Lots

4.00... 2 boxes of Honeycomb cereal
2.00... bag malt-o-meal, fruity bits
2.00... bag malt-o-meal, muffin tops
1.15... 8pk Torestas salsa cheese crackers
1.15... 8pk Torestas Black bean sour cream crackers
2.00... 2pkgs 16ct flavor ice
0.90... 2pkgs sunflower seeds (Drew's birthday present)
________
Total... $11.20

Real Deals

3.00... 3pkgs 6ct Heart Healthy muffins, cranberry orange
2.00... 2pkgs 6ct Heart Healthy muffins, banana chocolate chip
3.00... 6pkgs 4ct ssips apple juice boxes
4.00... 4pkgs philidelphia cream cheese tubs, 8oz
1.00... various snack bags of chips 6/$1 (for weekend getaway)
_________
Total... $13.00

$59.20... Total

Shopping running total... $319.89

Oops! I forgot

I threw the porkloin roast ($8) into the oven before picking up Michelle, figuring I was just running there and back so would only be gone an hour. Then it was...we're out of milk and bread so I'll run and grab some. Then I remembered I was suppose to stop and pick up chicken feed. Seeing as the tractor store was in the same plaza as Big Lots and the dollar store and I was without kids...we HAD to stop. It was only on the way home and seeing the clock say it was after 6 that I remembered I had the roast in the oven. Just a tad longer then I'd expected to cook it. I walked in the door, dealt with a sick kid, set Carrie up to make a tossed salad ($2... 1 head of lettuce ($1), cucumber ($.50), couple stalks of celery and dressings from the fridge), reheated the leftover rice (already calculated) from Friday, and sliced up the roast. In the door and dinner on the table in 15mins...not too shabby.

Total for Wednesday's dinner... $10

Running total of meal costs since April 15th... $128.75 (8 meals...one being pizza delivery)

Impromptu grilling session

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

I hadn't planned a big meal for Sunday because we were having a feast at church. A family is moving back to Norway and we were saying good=bye. :o( It was a full meal at late lunch/early dinner time. So I thought soup or ramen noodles with some snacks would be ok. Instead Tom's big brother brought us a bag of Hoffmann hotdogs and set Tom off on having him over for grilled hotdogs and burgers (BIL was going to the feast too). So when I got home they were in the back grilling. Unfortunately that meant a few more expenses for me as I had planned on making hamburger buns for the burger dinner which was impossible so quickly. So I had to send Val and John to the convenience store (meaning even more expensive then it'd be if I bought them at the grocery store). She spent $15 on 5 or 6 pkgs of buns and rolls. Luckily there were leftovers. They are now in the freezer until Saturday's dinner of sloppy joes. We also had leftovers of burgers and dogs which the kids finished off for lunch/after school snack the next day.

Sunday's dinner...
16 Frozen burger patties.... $7.25
3# bag of Hoffmann hotdogs... $8.50 (even though we were gifted them...it still cost money to buy)
Rolls and buns..... $15
Bag of corn chips.... $1.33

Sunday total... $32.08

Monday's dinner consisted of tacos with homemade tortillas. ($2.50...figuring 9 cups of flour = $1.60 and 1/2 lb of lard = $.75...add a little for the rest of the ingredients) I made a triple batch and put the leftovers in the fridge. The kids will make quesadillas for lunches and snacks with them. It was nice to be able to just grab the 3# of meat already made out of the freezer ($6.50...meat + seasoning). We used 1 head of lettuce ($1), 5 out of 7 tomatoes ($1.10), 1 out of 3 green peppers ($.73), 8oz pkg shredded fiesta cheese ($1.50), container sour cream ($1), 1 or 2 cups salsa ($1).

Monday total... $15.73

Tuesday was dentist appointments. I forgot I was picking up the Eileen and Olivia before lunch and had nothing for them to eat. I realized I was hungry too. So we stopped at McD's on the way and blew $20. I think I'm going to keep track of eating out separately though....especially since this was lunch and I'm mostly keeping track of dinners. We ate out for dinner too...I ordered a sheet pizza and had it delivered to my parents' house (the joy of living in suburbia lol) That was another $20. While that will be included in the take out, I'm also including it into my meal total.

Tuesday total... $20

Running total of meal costs since April 15th... $118.75 (7 meals...one being pizza delivery)

Menu... April 19 - 25

Sunday, April 19, 2009

OK, I think I have this nailed down finally. I was having a hard time because Tom and I are planning on going away for the night on Saturday. Michelle has to work until 7, so dinner has to be quick and easy.

Sunday... Grilled burgers and hotdogs. Tom's oldest brother brought us some Hoffmann hotdogs and joined us for dinner.
Monday... Tacos
Tuesday... Dentist appointment...probably end up at my parents' house and ordering a sheet pizza.
Wednesday... Pork Roast, mashed potatoes and salad
Thursday... Pizza
Friday... Chicken nuggets, veggies and dip
Saturday... Sloppy Joes, pasta salad

Ran into Walmart quick

I forgot to get a few things when grocery shopping last week. So after picking up Michelle from work we ran into Walmart. I also needed to get a "fancy" dessert to bring to church on Sunday.

1.00 - mustard
0.98 - honey BBQ sauce
2.73 - mayonaise
1.50 - coffee creamer (Tom to bring to work)
3.98 - frozen cream puss (splurge for the few of us home)
1.64 - whipped topping (dessert for church)
7.68 - lg pan peach cobbler (dessert for church)
_______

$19.51 Total

Bringing the running total to...$260.69

Now THAT wasn't in my plans!

Friday night I cut up and roasted the 10# bag of chicken leg quarters ($5.90). They came out CRISPY brown just like I like them. The original plan was for me to bake them and set aside 3 thighs before serving them. After all, if I waited until AFTER the meal to save them, there probably wouldn't be any left to save. After dinner I deboned the thighs into a pan and deglazed the first roasting pan. As I started working on the second pan I saw Sean out of the corner of my eye. He was sitting in the kitchen next to me and picked up something. As I turned to investigate further he overturned what he had into the pan of chicken and drippings. It was the sugar bowl!!!! 2 cups of sugar mixed in with all those golden drippings and moist thigh meat. I put it aside with the thought that I'd figure out what to do with it in a few minutes. I needed to get Sean out of the kitchen and occupied. Well I did find something for Sean to do and so did I. I got distracted and forgot about the chicken until it was bed time. 5hrs sitting there, it then became cat food. Luckily it wasn't too much. But still there went the batch of chicken and gravy or chicken noodle soup I'd planned on.

So what did we have with the crispy chicken leg quarters? 5 cans of sweet potatoes from the pantry ($3.96 - $.79/ea - Aldi's) with a stick of butter ($.50) and 1/4 cup of brown sugar (< $.25) and 4 bags of Knorr Sides plus Roasted Chicken Rice ($2.67 - 6pkgs/3.99 - BJ's wholesale club) We had lots of leftover rice which will be used in another meal. (had to add a stick of margarine to the rice mix... $.19.

Total for Friday's dinner... $13.47

Saturday I made dinner while I experimented in the kitchen. We have to bring a "fancy" dessert to church today. We're having feast for a family that is moving. I had the brillant idea of making mini chocolate cups, filling them with an orange flavored custard and topping it with a strawberry. I had plastic 2oz (I think) cups that I tried to use for the mold. I dipped them in the chocolate...it went on too thin and broke whenever I tried to remove them. I tried using the inside of the cup but it came out too thick. Then Sean woke up from his nap and all my creative juices went down the drain. I decided to see if I could buy mini pie/tart shells at the store and make lemon merginue pies. They didn't have any, only phylo ones which were teeny and expensive. So I sold myself out and bought a large pan of frozen peach cobbler and a container of whipped topping.

So dinner was a quick throw together of Scalloped potatoes. I used 6 bags of hash browns ($6), although I could only use 4 as 2 were gross (risk of buying food at the dollar store even though it hadn't hit it's sell by date), 3 cans of cream of mushroom soup from the pantry ($1.77 - $.59/ea - Aldi's), a stick of margarine ($.19), dried onions, salt, pepper, ham from the freezer (see this post) and a few cups of milk ($.50). It was plenty enough without any sides since there were only a few of us here. There were even leftovers.

Total for Saturday dinner... $8.46

Running total of dinners cost.... $51.34 (4 meals)