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. :)