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!