Pantry Challenge

I've decided to participate in MoneySavingMom's January 2010 Eating From the Pantry Challenge. We'll see how this goes. I am primarily doing this to prepare for the 'big move' coming up at the end of the month. I don't want to have to pack all my misc. pantry supplies so I am going to try to eat a lot of them before moving. I cannot live off of what is in my pantry alone though - I have plenty of pasta and rice and peanut butter but I definitely do not have enough meat and produce to last the entire month. So I'll have to pick up some fresh goodies throughout the month but I am going to try to minimize that as much as possible.

We'll see what happens. Hopefully by the end of January I will have a lot less stuff to move!

Target, 10/13/09

Motivated by Hip2Save's recent video on Target shopping, I decided to grab a few deals while I was there buying a birthday present. I'd say it worked out pretty well. I stacked a number of Target coupons with manufacturer coupons which resulted in much bigger savings.

Anyway - the deodorant I got for $0.07
The ziploc bags ended up being $0.22
Each Chex Mix was $0.49
The nature valley deal was buy 3 granola bars and get the nut clusters free. I used 4 separate coupons and ended up paying $1.32 each for the 3 boxes plus the clusters. Not spectacular but a pretty good deal overall.

For everything pictured I spent just over $7 and the total value was over $18. Soooo - not too bad :)

Anyway - what I am hoping is that I can use a lot of these deals to send to my adopted soldier overseas. I got an email recently saying that they had WAY more soldiers needing to be adopted than they had volunteers so I volunteered again. Last time I did this I wasn't so aware of coupons and deals and all that so I am curious to see how it goes this time around. I am hoping to pick up a bunch of inexpensive but useful items to send over and some tasty snacks, etc.

Butternut squash with chicken in white wine sauce

This is one of my favorite fall foods. I got introduced to it somewhat recently and plan on making it for YEARS to come. Seriously, I do not get tired of it.

Risotto:
Butternut squash
1 small onion
Some garlic
2 cups Arborio rice
6-8 cups of chicken broth
1/2 cup white wine
1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Fresh sage to taste
olive oil


Remove skin and seeds of butternut squash and cut into cubes. Steam until soft and easily mashable. Mash and set aside.

In small sauce pan, heat chicken broth.

In large pan (like you would make pasta in), heat some olive oil (medium). Add chopped onion and garlic to taste (I use the pre-chopped stored in olive oil and I just put in one big spoonful). When onions are clear, add 2 cups of rice. Mix around for a min or two and then add white wine and simmer until absorbed. To make risotto, spoon enough hot broth over rice just to cover it. Let absorb over medium heat while stirring often. Repeat....a lot...until rice is creamy and has softened (about 30 mins). When just about finished, add in some chopped sage, mashed squash, and parmesan cheese. Stir together and let sit.

Chicken:
2 Tbs flour
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth

Mix flour, pepper and salt. Dredge chicken in mixture. In large pan, heat olive oil. Cook chicken on both sides, about 2 minutes each. Add chicken broth and white wine. Cover and let simmer until cooked though.


I'm not positive about how frugal this meal is. Let's calculate!

butternut squash - $1 (farm = cheap)
1 onion - ~$0.75 (got a bag of onions on sale for $3 at some point)
rice - this rice tends to be a little expensive. I think the bag was probably $6 and I probably used 1/2 so we will call this $3
Chicken broth - 1 full container @ $1.97
Cheap white wine - 1 small container @ $3.99
Chicken - 3 chicken breasts @ $7.97
Parmesan cheese - package was $1.97, I used only a small portion. We'll say $0.50
Sage - package was $1.99. I probably used about $0.30 worth. I'll be cooking with sage again soon to use this up!

So grand total looks to be about $19.50 and I will get 6 meals out of it so that works out to be about $3.25/meal. Not the cheapest for sure but for a complicated meal with meat, I think it works out to be pretty good. Eliminating white wine and using only chicken broth would make it about $2.50/meal.

Plus it is amazingly delicious so it is totally worth the treat :)

Meal Plan Monday

Due to special request, I am participating in Meal Plan Monday. Where you, my faithful reader(s) can learn exactly what delicious items I will be enjoying this week! I warn you - my meals can be somewhat repetitive. Since my opportunities to cook are limited, I tend to make a lot of something and eat it all week. Luckily, repetition doesn't bother me :) The theme of this week is - using foods I picked at the farm yesterday!

Monday:

B: Fruit
L: Toasted bagel with peanut butter, bananna
D: Butternut squash risotto with steamed broccoli and chicken in a white wine sauce (I'll post recipe in later post)
S: Apple, apple pie

Tuesday:

B: Steel cut oats with flax and banana
L: Butternut squash risotto with steamed broccoli and chicken in a white wine sauce
D: Peanut butter sandwich and apple (dinner while driving to class)
S: Apple, apple pie

Wednesday:
B: Steel cut oats with flax and banana
L: Butternut squash risotto with steamed broccoli and chicken in a white wine sauce
D: Dinner out with friend
S: Apple, something TBD

Thursday:
B: Steel cut oats with flax and banana
L: Butternut squash risotto with steamed broccoli and chicken in a white wine sauce
D: Spaghetti squash with pesto, steamed broccoli
S: Apple, TBD

Friday:
B: Steel cut oats with flax and banana
L: Butternut squash risotto with steamed broccoli and chicken in a white wine sauce
D: Frozen pepper, onion, meatball pizza I made last week
S: TBD

So that's the week. Usually I don't eat the same thing THAT many times but I love this dish and I made a ton of it so I will be eating a lot of it :)

Recent purchases

I haven't had too much time to post about my good deals recently. I've been doing a good job of keeping under my grocery challenge budget for the month which has been awesome. I've had some unexpected purchases but have otherwise kept everything to a minimum. It is hard to pass up some deals though so I've still been doing a little shopping! Above shows a recent trip to CVS. I spent $0 OOP and got back $2 in ECBs. Thee was another piece of candy too which I ate at work one day.

Total Value: $9.83
Total OOP: $0.00 (I don't know why I didn't get charged tax...)

Total savings: 100%




I was in a shopping mood last Friday so I decided to give myself $5 to spend at Target. I went over but I think it was worth it.

The skittles were free! The Kotex were each $0.09. The other exciting news is that my Target now carries produce. WOO HOO!!

Total value: $11.31
Total OOP: $5.80

Savings: 49%

Plus, I have $45.07 left in the grocery budget for the month (which is almost over!!)

Homemade Pizza!

I love MoneySavingMom's pizza dough recipe. It is quick, easy to make, and delicious. A friend came over to dinner recently and we decided to make a pizza for dinner. I made the dough and used some of the stockpiled mozzarella cheese from the freezer. The peppers were from my Kroger deal from the beginning of this week. Man I love peppers. There are onions on the pizza too but you can't see them. My friend is quite the chef and made the tomato sauce from a can of tomatoes that I had. It was delicious and there was enough for lunch the next day!

Farmer's Market Deals

I was really excited to learn that a Farmer's Market opened up just down the street from my house. Unfortunately it is only open on Tuesdays which is the day of my Fall class so we'll see how often I am able to go. Anyway, I spent $4 and got some green beans, a cucumber, some peapods, and 3 apples! I also got a loaf of bread but I am counting that as part of my 'hospitality' budget since I purchased it to bring to a dinner where I was asked to bring bread. It was definitely worth every penny and I have some leftover in the freezer!

The apples are absolutely delicious. Very few things beat a fresh from the orchard apple. I can't wait until apple season is in full swing so I can pick a whole bunch and make a pie!

Grocery shopping, Week of 8/9

Ok so technically I already went grocery shopping this week but I found out that Harris Teeter is running triple coupons this week and I am going to be on vacation for almost the entire promotion. I love the challenge of finding some good deals with the triple coupons so I gave myself $5 to see what I could come back with. Well - the answer is $5 goes a long way with triple coupons!!

I got 3 frosting containers at $0.49 each which will go nicely with the cake mixes I have. I think I need to make some cakes!

The rice was $0.34

The Warm Delights were $0.17 each. Never would purchase them normally but for $0.08 per serving I think they will make for some awesome snacks!

The toothbrush was free :) and the shave gel was $0.54.

The pasta was also a great deal since I am almost out of it at home. It was $1.68 for both.

Total value: $26.09
Total OOP: $4.68
Total savings: 82.1%

Total left in the $100 grocery challenge: $64.12! I am definitely on track to come in under my challenge amount! YAY!

Grocery shopping, week of 8/9

No photos of this shopping trip since it happened in a few parts. First off, I went to Kroger while I was down in NC and they were having a sale on peppers that I could not pass up! It was one red, one yello, and one green bell pepper for $3! At my Harris Teeter, green bell peppers are usually $1.50, and red and yellow peppers are each $3. I love peppers so this was an extremely exciting find. Yet another reason to love North Carolina :)

I only picked up some necessary items this week at Harris Teeter - milk, bananas, advil, and Irish oatmeal. I didn't have coupons for any of these items so nothing exciting to report. I spent a total of $13.70 on groceries this week.

Tomorrow I am going to the new Farmer's Market in town so I might pick up some more produce depending on what they have!

Total remaining grocery budget for my $100 month challenge: $68.80.

So what did I eat this week?

My goal for this month is to eat inexpensively and healthfully while using up a lot of items I have stored in my pantry. I've also decided to write down my exercising as a way to motivate myself. So how did I do?

Monday:
B: Homemade bran muffin
L: Morningstar veggie burger on my favorite multigran/flax bread with carrot sticks
D: Pasta salad with chicken, carrots, zucchini, onions, and green bell peppers and a buttered piece of multigrain/flax bread
S: Carrot sticks, pirate booty, and strawberry jello

Exercise: Walked to metro and back (about 1.5 miles), ran 2.4 miles.

Tuesday:
B: Homemade bran muffin
L: Free lunch at work! (Pizza and salad)
D: Out to dinner with a friend (Cheesecake Factory!)
S: Carrot sticks, pirate booty, strawberry jello, and part of a slice of cheesecake.

Exercise: Walked to metro and back

Wednesday:
B: Homemade bran muffin
L: Leftover pasta salad from Monday night and banana
D: Leftovers from last night's dinner
S: Carrot sticks, pirate booty, strawberry jello, and the rest of the cheesecake.

Exercise: Walked to metro and back, walked 2.86miles

Thursday:
B: Homemade bran muffin
L: Morningstar veggie burger on multigrain/flax bread, banana
D: Subway turkey sandwich with a friend
S: Pirate booty, strawberry jello, and 1 chocolate chip cookie.

Exercise: Walked to metro and back (1.5 miles), walked to gym and back (about 1 mile), 35 minutes on elliptical.

Friday:
B: Homemade bran muffin
L: Peanut butter sandwich, banana
D: On the road to NC!
S: Carrot sticks, pirate booty, and strawberry jello

Walked to metro and back, sat in car for ridiculously long time...

Saturday - Sunday: Out of town :)

Ok so it is interesting to see everything written down like that. I generally consider myself a healthy eater but I do enjoy my snack foods. I think I ate more snack foods than usual this week - especially because of that cheesecake. I am going to try to minimize that next week. I do love my desserts! I don't think I am eating poorly, but I do think I could be doing better. Something to work on! Plus side - I was really active this week which always helps to offset that junk food!

Counting pennies!

About once a year I empty out my coin jar and turn the coins into cash. I am usually pleasantly surprised at how much change I can save up in a years time - mostly in pennies because I generally need the larger coins to pay for parking at meters. Anyway, I counted everything up and I came up with:

$13.54! almost entirely in pennies!


YAY! That is a little bit more that I can put towards my vacation fund :) It just goes to show you that every penny counts!

Baking Failure

So, in general I consider myself to be pretty good in the baking arena. Cookies, cakes, quick breads - generally not a problem!

Today however was a different story. I wanted to make some cookies for some friends down the street who just had a baby. I am trying to eat through things in my cabinets this month and I like trying new recipes so I thought I'd give this recipe a try. In theory it sounds simple - cake mix, butter, eggs, and chocolate chips. I followed the advice of some of the reviewers and added some vanilla extract.

I put them on the tray and they looked perfectly normal - it was a good think batter and held up well as I spooned it onto the tray. I baked at 350* for 8 minutes and ended up with this:



COOKIE BRITTLE! Seriously, I can't even describe it. All the cookies melded together into this flat crunchy cracker-like cookie with chocolate chips sticking out like little mountains. Obviously I did something wrong but I can't figure out what! The recipe reviewers rave about the cookies. I took a bite out of one and it tasted like a cookie - just flat...and crunchy. Needless to say, this is not acceptable to give as a gift.

So in a last ditch effort to salvage the sitaution, I put the remaining dough into a baking dish and made it as though it were a cake.
It looks more appetizing but I have no idea how it will taste. I will have to sample it before sharing. I may just have to chalk this one up to experience!

Grocery shopping, Week of 8/2

I made a really quick trip to Harris Teeter on my way home today to pick up some produce and take advantage of the sale on dish detergent. Nothing too exciting to report here. The strawberries were really cheap - only $1.25 for the pound so I chopped them up and stuck them in the freezer. The 3lb bag of onions was also a good deal - only $1.97. All in all I spent $14.26 and saved $4.74.

That brings my total grocery bill for August to $17.44 ($82.56 left for the month). I shouldn't have any additional grocery purchases this week so that sets me up nicely for the next week!

CVS, Week of 8/2

The CVS deals just keep coming! My trip today was very successful. I purchased the above items in 2 transactions this morning. There was also a candy bar that is not pictured because I left it at home for my mom. I am so excited about this purchase because it is definitely a step in the right direction as far as minimizing the grocery budget is concerned! Also I eat an abnormal amount of peanut butter so to get 3 jars of it for only pennies is a HUGE deal!

Anyway, here is how it happened:

Transaction 1: Starting with $1.98 in ECBs
2 Stayfree pads @ $5.00 each (on sale)
1 Softsoap bodywas @ $4.99
1 folder @ $0.49 (on sale, purchased as filler).

I had some great coupons to use for this transaction. I had a $3/$15 CVS coupon, a BOGO coupon for the stayfree pads, a $1 coupon for the other stayfree pads, and a $2 coupon for the bodywash.

Total Value: $18.16
Total OOP: $2.78

Earned $9.00 in ECBs

Transaction 2:
3 Skippy peanut butter @ $2 each (on sale)
2 Ragu pasta sauce @ $2 each (on sale)
1 candy bar @ $1 each

I used 2 coupons for this transaction: $1/2 Skippy and $1/2 Ragu. I paid for this transaction using the $9 ECBs from transaction 1.

Total Value: $14.75
Total OOP: $0.06

Earned $3.00 in ECBs

Summary:

Total Value: $32.91
Total OOP: $2.84

Savings: 91.4%

And I have $3 in ECBs to carry over until next week!

August Grocery Challenge!

Over the past few months I've been able to generate a pretty decent stockpile of food, toiletries, and other products. In an effort to use what I have and also to put a little extra money towards savings this month, I am challenging myself to spend no more than $100 this month on groceries, household needs, and toiletries. I usually budget a little more than this in order to build up my stockpile but that isn't necessary spending so I think I should be able to meet this goal.

My rules:
1. No cheating. When $100 is spent, there are no further funds, unless it is an emergency.
2. This does not count eating out which comes from a different part of my budget. So I can still eat out if I have room in my "fun budget" to accommodate it.
3. I will not eat only cereal and peanut butter sandiwches all month. The plan is to eat healthfully and normally all month. In order to prove that I can do this, I will periodically update with menu plans, successful meals (and likely some not so successful ones as I try to creatively use what I already have...), and pictures.

That's it! Today was a weird food day for me so I am not sure it counts in the whole "eating normally" all month. I helped my sister paint her new house and we got caught up in our work and didn't eat anything other than banana bread until about 4pm when we shared a pizza from Dominos. Then since I am going to a baby shower in MD tomorrow morning, I am staying at my parents house tonight. They aren't really around much this week so it is slim pickings in the food department here. So I had Rice Krispies for dinner. I'd say we are not off to a great start on this month but things should be back to normal once I head home tomorrow. :)

Ashley experiences Harris Teeter Super Doubles!

Ashley was in town this weekend and when I told her about Super Doubles at Harris Teeter, she had to experience it for herself. So on Saturday night we picked up a newspaper for her and that night we clipped coupons together (we are very exciting, obviously). Surprisingly, there were a good number of coupons for items she used and needed so those combined with a few printables made for a pretty successful shopping trip for her. She got the following items for free: 2 boxes of Success Rice, 2000 Flushes, 2 whiteout products, and 2 candy bars. The toothpaste was $0.89. I don't remember what everything else cost but it all worked out to be a great deal.

Ashley's summary:

Total OOP: $24.11

Total value: $71.68

Total savings: 66.4%

Ashley was very impressed by the power of super doubles. We had a great time bargain shopping!

Grocery shopping, week of 7/26

It is still Super Doubles time at Harris Teeter so I picked up some deals and a couple of staples. I am pretty well stocked right now so I only grabbed a few things. The 2000 flushes was free which was cool. So were the 3 candy bars! I never buy candy bars so that will be a nice treat one day! I put them in the freezer. The whiteout was also free. I will probably put that in my school supply donation pack. The jello ended up being $0.67 for all 3 of them. The chicken was not on sale but it is the brand I like (I like to buy 'happy chickens') and since I have plenty of room in the gracery budget this month, I went ahead and grabbed some ($7.69).

Total OOP: 14.75 ($7.69 of which was the chicken)

Total value: 31.21

Total savings: 52.8%

Total savings without the chicken: 70%!

CVS, Week of 7/26

Another great week for school supplies at CVS! I've been poking in and out of various CVS stores this week to snag these great deals in 3 transactions.

I started with $1.98 ECBs.

Transaction 1:

2 post-it notes @ $0.99 each (on sale)

Total value before coupons and sales: $3.98

Paid with ECBs, Total OOP: $0.10

ECBs earned: $1.98

Transaction 2:

2 packs of pens @$0.99 each (on sale)

Total value before coupons and sales: $4.38

Paid with ECBs from transaction 1, Total OOP: $0.10

ECBs earned: $1.98

Transaction 3:

2 composition books @ $0.99 each (on sale)

Total value before coupons and sales: $$5.98

Paid with ECBs from transaction 2, Total OOP: $0.10

ECBs earned: $1.98

Summary:

Total value before sales: $14.34

Total OOP: $0.30

Savings = 97.9%

Plus I have $1.98 in ECBs to roll into something next week!

Grocery shopping, Week of 7/19

Ok so technically I've already had my grocery shopping trip for the week but Harris Teeter is having SUPER DOUBLES this week and last time I waited too long and they were out of a lot of things (even though the week started today they were already out of some stuff). Plus I'm about $17 ahead in my grocery budget for the month so I figure I have a little room for stocking up on these great deals.

Anyway - it was an awesome trip. I am particularly pleased with the Kotex purchases - I got each of the packages for $0.50. Also notable - the rubber gloves were free, the shave gel was $0.50 each, and the air freshened was $0.79. The shampoo is for men - so I might end up smelling like a man but for $0.27 for shampoo I'll deal with it. The face wash was not cheap - $3.39 each but better than paying nearly $7 each. I now have 4 of those stockpiled so I should be good for a while. I can't seem to get them cheaper than $3 something so it was worth it to pick them up.

So here is the run down:

Total OOP: $12.37
Total Value: $41.96

Total Savings: 70.6%

Most of that OOP cost is for the face wash. If I eliminate that from the tally, I saved 81%! I am pretty happy though because I got all that useful stuff for the cost of what I would have paid for the 2 face washes alone. Not bad at all!

Making English Muffins!

I will never purchase English Muffins again! These are amazing! I was browsing the internet looking for a new muffin recipe to try when I stumbled upon this recipe. It was very easy to make and really they turned out better than I anticipated.


Here are some fun pictures of the process. I mixed all the ingredients into a fairly wet dough and let it rise covered for about an hour. Here is the pre-rising dough ball. I forgot to take a picture of the post-rising dough ball. It was MUCH bigger.


After punching down the dough, I rolled it out using a drinking glass (note to self - buy a rolling pin!) and used the same glass to cut out circular muffins. Then I let the dough rise for another 30 minutes.
The weirdest part of the recipe is that you bake them on the stove top. The recipe says to use a gridle, but I used a large frying pan instead. I just sprayed it with PAM and that was enough to keep it from burning.



And here are my beautiful finished English Mufins!!! :)

More CVS deals, Week of 7/19

Yay for continued great deals from CVS this week! The CVS next to my office is too hard to pass up when I know I can get basically free items! So I grabbed 2 packages of notebook paper, a pack of pencils, and 2 small notebooks in 4 separate transactions (spread over 2 days - don't worry I didn't stalk the CVS people). I won't go into the details because frankly I am pretty sure no one cares that much...but here is the summary:

Total OOP: $0.48
Total Value: $8.65

Total Savings: 94.5%

Plus I have $1.98 in ECBs to put towards something next week!

Grocery shopping, Week of 7/19

Not a great week for me with grocery shopping because I was rushed and didn't go to my usual grocery store. I usually shop at Harris Teeter but was out running errands in a different part of town and ran into Safeway to pick up some fresh produce. They were running a good promotion on the freezer bags ($1.50 each) and my favorite bread was 2/$5, a decent deal considering it is usually $3.99/loaf. I have very few brand loyalties, but I don't mess around with my bread.

Anyway, here are the numbers:

Total OOP: $26.06
Total Value: $37.20

Total Savings: 30%

Not too bad considering I wasn't trying hard :)

CVS, Week of 7/19

Another awesome week at CVS for school supplies if you can find anything left on the shelves! I ran errands today and stopped by 2 CVSs to see about grabbing some stuff. The first CVS had absolutely none of the free after ECB deals left but the second one had the pens left.

Here is how is went down:

I started with $1.98 in ECBs from last week. The pens were on sale for $0.99 each for a total of $1.98. So my out of pocket total was $0.00 AND I got $1.98 back in ECBs. Woo! I may check out the CVS next to my office at some point this week to see if I can roll those into another free item.

Original price: $1.99 for one

Savings: 100%

CVS, Week of 7/12

I've been looking for a good opportunity to build up some ECBs at CVS and this was definitely a good week for it. I have a CVS next to my office so it was easy to run in real quick today after work. I thought most of the 'free after ECB' deals would be gone by now since they expire tonight but for some reason the sales weren't marked at this CVS so there was plenty of everything. I don't particularly need school supplies so I will probably keep a package of pens and then donate the rest to a local shelter. The only thing they did not have that I actually wanted was the scissors. I may try to hit up another CVS tonight for those.

Anyway, I did this in 3 transactions with no ECBs to start.

Transaction 1:

1 CVS notebook @ $0.99 (on sale)

1 CVS notebook @ $0.99 (on sale)

Total value before coupons and sales: $5.58

Total OOP: $2.09

ECBs earned: $1.98

Transaction 2:

1 package pens @ $0.99 (on sale)

1 glue @ $0.99

Total value before coupons and sales: $3.18

Paid with $1.98 ECBs from transaction 1 Total OOP = $0.00

ECBs earned: $1.98

Transaction 3:

1 package pens @ $0.99 (on sale)

1 package pens @ $0.99 (on sale)

Total value before coupons and sales: $4.38

Paid with $1.98 ECBs from transaction 2 Total OOP = $0.00

ECBs earned: $1.98

Summary:

Total value before sales: $13.52

Total OOP: $2.09

Savings = 84.5%

Plus I've got $1.98 in ECBs to use on something else. WOO!

Why am I starting this blog?

Why am I starting this blog? To be honest, I'm not completely sure. I read money saving blogs and never thought I'd end up being someone at all interested in sharing my money saving adventures with the anonymous people of the internet, but here I am! I plan on using this space to chronicle my successful (and probably not so successful) attempts at saving some money, accomplishing my goals, and setting myself up for a financially stable future.