Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 16

Here's Tuesday's menu:

Breakfast: I think I had a SoyJoy bar? Jai had a banana.

Lunch: Leftover pork chops, curried rice, and a banana:



Dinner: I had planned to make a nice casserole and a cabbage side dish, but after it hit 80 degrees, turning on the stove was no longer an option - the heat snuck up on me, or I would have planned something that didn't require cooking! I know many of you live in much hotter areas, but we're not used to these temperature on the Oregon coast, and no one here has air conditioning. That kind of heat is rough with no AC, and by dinner time I was too hot to even think. So instead, we drove to Home Depot to buy a fan, and paid a visit to the McDonald's drive-thru on the way to get the largest, coldest drinks they had:



I also got a cold ice cream cone, and we each had a hamburger. Total for the meal? $4.88. Not turning on the stove? Priceless!

Free Box of Betty Crocker Gluten-Free Dessert

You can receive a coupon for a free box of Betty Crocker's Gluten-Free dessert mix by calling 1-800-446-1898. Select option four from the menu to be transferred to a live operator, and ask to sign up for the coupon. They'll take your address and ask three very brief survey questions. The person I spoke with was extremely nice and happy to help, and said my coupon should arrive sometime by the end of August. You may be on hold for a little while before you get through to a rep, but I just organized my email inbox while I waited!

Thanks to JANE4Girls for the tip!

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 15

Here's the menu for Monday -

Breakfast: I had yogurt, while Jai had a banana.

Lunch:

Leftover buffet! Steak, fish, and stir-fry.



Dinner:



Pork spareribs and sautéed yellow squash, zucchini, and onion.

Grocery Challenge Meals - Weekend Edition & End-of-Week Budget Total

This was our menu over the weekend:

Friday -

Breakfast: I could have been healthy and had a nice bowl of oatmeal, cereal, or yogurt - but instead I opted for a delicious Macadamia Nut cookie! I have a sneaking suspicion that Jai may have done the same.

Lunch:

Leftover nachos - MMM!


Dinner:

I came down with a cold on Friday night, so my dinner plans went out the window. Being sick makes me lose my appetite, so Jai picked up some saltines for me, along with some 7-Up, for $4.83. This brought our running weekly total to $29.54. I ate the saltines and cantaloupe as "Dinner" while Jai ate some leftovers/raided the pantry.

Saturday -

Breakfast & Lunch:

I still felt crummy from the cold, so I didn't eat much of anything. Jai had the stockpile special.

Dinner:

I perked up and made a nice dinner of fish 'n chips:


I made this fish batter recipe and pan-fried the fish - a first for me. The batter came out really thick (kind of like pancakes!), so I need to work on that, but it was still tasted good. I had meant to get some peas and make mushy peas to go with this, but I forgot to buy them. So instead I served some cantaloupe as a side dish - not exactly tradition, but hey, I like fruit.

This was a very affordable meal - I got two fish fillets in one package for $2.99 earlier in the week, making the cost per person $1.50. The cantaloupe was .99 cents, and we have eaten it at multiple meals and still have some in the fridge. The chips, ingredients for the batter, and malt vinegar all came from the stockpile.

Sunday -

Breakfast & Lunch:

I had planned on making a pancake brunch, but my plans changed somewhat and I ended up making a stir-fry around 1:30:


Two dear friends are in town visiting, so I made lunch for all of us, which was really fun. I made the same stir-fry from Wednesday, except this time I added peanuts from the stockpile. Yum!


Dinner:

Jai and I were thirsty, so I bought chocolate smoothies from a local coffeeshop:


Yum! The total cost was $9.00 - the drinks themselves were $8.00, but I also stuck a dollar in the tip jar, which obviously I didn't get a receipt for. Frugal? No way. But there's nothing wrong with having a treat; just be conscious of how much you're spending!

Then we ate steak & corn on the cob:


This was the same steak that I bought on Wednesday - it was a large piece of meat, so I was able to cut it in half and have more than enough for both Jai and myself.
I have every kind of steak marinade imaginable in my stockpile, because I got them all free after coupons last year; so that's what I flavored the meat with.

After dinner, I went to the store to get more half and half and pick up some pork ribs for dinner this evening, because I wanted something quick and easy for the ever-hectic Monday night. The total for that purchase came to $6.62. This, combined with the smoothie cost, brought my final total for the week to $45.16.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 11

Breakfast:

I had a super busy morning and was so caught up in what I was doing, I forgot to eat breakfast. Ooops! Meanwhile, A friend had made a batch of cookies and gave some to us, so Jai had Macadamia Nut cookies as his "Brunch" and I enjoyed some later on, too!

Lunch:

I scrambled an egg and added leftover rice and stir fry from the previous night's dinner, to make my own take on egg fried rice:


Dinner:

Nachos & corn on the cob:


To make these, I cooked a package of ground pork seasoned with taco sauce and layered it on top of tortilla chips. Then I added two cans of black beans from my stockpile, copped onion & cilantro, sour cream, and cheese. Frugal tip: I had several packets of taco sauce in my fridge from Taco Bell - any time I go there, they give me way more sauce packets than I could ever put on one taco. I used this as the seasoning, and we enjoyed it!

This made a huge mound of nachos, and it was very good. Since the nachos were so plentiful, I cut one corn cob in half and just served that as the side. It's cheaper to buy 3 corn cobs at Safeway than 2, which is why I always end up with an uneven amount!


This would be a great meal for a larger family. Since there's just two of us, we'll be enjoying the leftovers!

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 10

Here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal

Lunch: Finished off the rest of the garlic chicken and potatoes:



Dinner: Tofu stir fry with onion, cabbage, yellow squash, and mushrooms, served on Jasmine rice:



When I make stir-frys like this, I like to marinate the tofu beforehand in soy sauce and garlic; simple, but tasty. Tofu really absorbs flavor well - if you don't add enough flavoring beforehand, it turns out bland and unappetizing.

Shopping Trip - July 22nd

Total spent: $16.57
Total before coupons & can refund slips: $39.24
View receipt

We had a whole bunch of empty cans that have been building up, and it was high time to return them. Safeway has it's own bottle deposit center, and when you cash in your cans, it gives your refund in the form of a voucher. You can take this to a checkstand and either redeem it for cash, or use it to offset your grocery purchase. Since I needed groceries, I decided to do the latter.

Got:

1 bag of tortilla chips - Price: $2.00
7 oz bag of shredded cheese - original price $2.49, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to drop the price down to $1.49.
1 package of cheese singles - original price $3.49, used a free coupon that I got in the mail. I'm not sure why I got this - I think I won it from a Kraft sweepstakes? Either way, this made the final price free!
1 gallon of milk - price: $2.49
1 tub of sour cream - price: $1.49
1 lb of butter - price: $2.49
1.55 lbs of steak - originally priced at $5.10, this was placed in the clearance meat section with a 30% off coupon on it. Final price: $3.57
.39 lbs of pork chops - price: $1.75
.75 lbs of Rockfish - price: $2.99
1.93 lbs bananas - price: $1.33
1 cantaloupe - originally priced at $2.49, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price down to .99 cents.
1.11 lbs of zucchini - price: $1.11
2.37 lbs of cabbage - price: $1.40
3 ears of corn - price: $1.98
.94 lbs of onion - price: .94 cents
1.02 lbs of squash - price: $1.52
1 bunch of cilantro - price: .69 cents
1 brick of organic tofu - price: $1.50. I had a coupon good for a free package of Nasoya tofu, but Safeway was all out of that brand, so I settled for this.
1 package of sliced mushrooms - originally priced at $1.99, used a coupon from the Safeway sales flier to bring the price down to .99 cents.

The last two times I was in Safeway, I received catalina coupons good for $3 off your $10 produce purchase. So I made sure to purchase enough produce so that I could use that coupon, shaving another $3.00 off my final total. I didn't bring a double coupon, because I didn't think that any of my coupons qualified, but after the cashier rang up my coupons, he said, "Hey! Do you want me to double these? They don't say 'Do not double'." Well, OK then! That shaved another $1.00 off my total. I also had $10.15 worth of can refunds - I told you we had a lot! - which brought my final total down to $16.57. My running total for the week is now $24.71.

To give you some insight into how I decide what to buy, here's a run-down of my meal plan for the rest of the week:

Tofu & veggie stir-fry
Nachos and corn on the cob
Fish & chips (I have the chips in my freezer)
Steak and corn or a zucchini side dish (whatever we feel like at the time)
Creamy basil pasta with pork - I'm going to make this using a Macaroni Grill Dinner Kit from my stockpile.

We've got plenty of stuff in the stockpile for breakfasts, and for lunch we'll have leftovers or sandwiches. The cantaloupe and bananas will make good accompaniments for these meals also.
So what's on your menu this week?

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 9

Here's yesterday's menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal. Remember all the boxes of oatmeal I got for .07 cents back in November? We are still enjoying that stockpile.

Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches and mandarin orange pieces. I didn't have time to start the breadmaker, so I decided to serve it on hamburger buns instead.

Jai and I both have hectic work schedules, so we don't always eat at the same time. If you just see one plate in the photo, then that means that Jai had the same thing later, unless I note otherwise.

Dinner: Yesterday afternoon, Jai fixed a computer for a good friend of ours. To thank him, she had made him some of her special lo mein noodles. So I guess this would go under the "bartering" category!


I went to the store last night to pick up some half-and-half for $2.29. This brings our running total to $8.14.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 8

Here's our menu for Day 8 -

Breakfast: Yogurt and oatmeal. We also got a bag of coffee for $5.85, our first purchase of the week.

Lunch:

I made egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread. Jai took his to go:


I had mine with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of Crystal Lite iced tea.

Dinner:

Leftover garlic chicken and roast potatoes:

We have tons of chicken left, but my plate looks pretty sad because I didn't have much of an appetite. Jai got home from work pretty late so there's no picture of his plate.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Weekend Edition

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Here's our menus for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday:

Friday -

Breakfast: I had yogurt, while Jai opted for leftover casserole.

Lunch: I had a piece of pizza leftover from the night before, along with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of coke.


Jai had more casserole. He could have eaten something else, but he really liked the casserole!

Dinner: I opted for my favorite quick-and-easy stockpile meal for hectic nights - Pasta Roni. I used a box of Nature's Way Mushrooms in Cream Sauce, and added two cans of tuna and some green olives. I served this with some salad that needed to be used up.


(The second plate is empty because Jai hadn't gotten back from work yet!)

Saturday -

Breakfast: I wasn't feeling so hot, so I skipped breakfast. Jai ate the rest of that casserole!

Lunch: Since I was still feeling a bit off, I just wanted something simple and plain for lunch - so we had fresh, warm homemade bread served with a choice of butter, jam or peanut butter and applesauce.


Dinner: That afternoon, I went to the store and bought chicken, pork, and a gallon of milk for $7.86. This was my last shopping trip for the week, bringing my final grocery total for the week to $16.90 - far below our $50 allotment. Since I'd had a pretty rotten week, we decided to take the leftover money in our budget and have some fun. We went out for dinner to a restaurant we like:


We spent $21.55 for two hamburgers and fries, a beer, and tip. After dinner, we also got two ice cream cones for $3.08. Our final total for the week was $41.53.
It was a fun night out - sticking to a budget doesn't necessarily have to mean sacrificing things you enjoy.

Sunday -

We had a nice brunch of pancakes:



When I'm making pancakes for just the two of us, I find it easier to make one big pancake and cut it in half. (When I have company over, I make smaller ones and keep them on a warm plate in the oven until they're all finished.) I had a lot of batter left, and there were several more pancakes made after I snapped this picture!

Dinner:

I used the chicken I had bought on Saturday to make a big pan of Garlic Chicken and Roast Potatoes:



This chicken is slow-cooked, and so good, especially with fresh-pulled garlic from my garden.


This is an example of one way to save on meat. This package of drumsticks only cost $4.01, and makes a big meal - especially when combined with potatoes, a frugal staple. You could make this meal for about $5, and you get a lot of food for your money. Since there's only two of us, we'll get a few meals out of leftovers from this dish, but it could easily serve a larger family.

Free After Rebate: Tyson Skillet Creations

Click here to access a "Try-Me-Free" rebate form for Tyson Skillet Creations. They also have printable coupons available on that page for $1 off - this would lower your initial out-of-pocket investment, and who knows, it could possibly turn it into a money-maker, although I'm not sure.

Thanks to Coupon Cravings and everyone else who posted about this deal!

Planning a Frugal Wedding: Free Copy of "Get Married" Magazine

Click here to sign up to receive a free copy of Get Married magazine when it debuts in October.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 4

Thursday marked day 4 of the Grocery Challenge! Here's our menu:

Breakfast: Jai and I both had a pot of yogurt, a bartered item.

Lunch:


We had leftovers - Jai was out at a job, so I packed some casserole as a lunch that he took with him. I had half a pasty and casserole, served with this bartered fruit juice. (In case you missed my earlier posts, these bartered items are samples which I have been sent to review on Contest Corner.)

Dinner:

Remember the .99 cent pizza I ordered from Schwan's in back June? Well, I thought this would be a good time to make it:


I had one big ear of corn left that I had purchased on Tuesday, so I cut that in half and served it with the pizza.


Yesterday, I purchased three 2-liters of soda, for a total of $2.28. This brings my running total for the week to $9.04. I also spent an additional $1.69 on sponges, but household items do not count towards the challenge total.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Day 3

Wednesday marked day 3 of the Grocery Challenge! Here's our menu:

Breakfast: I skipped breakfast, yet again. (Now I see the value in food journaling!) I think Jai had something from the stockpile, but I'm not sure.

Lunch:


Leftovers from last night's casserole, served with a fruit drink - a bartered item which I am writing a review of for Contest Corner. Jai wasn't home for most of the day, so I packed some casserole for him to take along as his lunch.

Dinner:



I cooked up a few more recipes for the "Pace recipe challenge" that I mentioned yesterday. The salsa was bartered, and all the other ingredients came from my pantry and freezer stockpile. I made meat & potato pasties and a meat & potato pie, which will give us leftovers for a few days!



I served this with a bag of salad from my fridge. If you like, you can click here to get the full details on the recipes.

Grocery Challenge Meals: Days 1 and 2 - Plus a Thank You

I'd like to start this by thanking all my readers for the kind words of condolence; it is truly appreciated. Keeping some semblance of normality during this time is very helpful to me, so let's shift the focus a little bit and talk about the grocery challenge for a while.

Monday - Day 1 of the challenge

Breakfast: I skipped breakfast - a habit which I have gotten into lately and am working to break. Jai ate leftovers for his breakfast.

Lunch:


Gardenburgers & freeze-dried fruit. The patties & buns came from my freezer, while the fruit samples were sent to me so that I can review them on Contest Corner - so those would fall under the "Barter" category.

Dinner:


We had a lot of Chinese food leftover from the weekend, so I reheated it for dinner. The flavored fortune cookies are also samples for a review, so those are bartered items as well.

Tuesday - Day 2

Yesterday morning, I went to the store and purchased a gallon of milk, a quart of half-and-half, and three ears of corn, for a total of $6.76.

Breakfast: Jai skipped breakfast, while I had a SoyJoy bar from my stockpile. (I know these have kind of a bad reputation, but I actually enjoy them!)

Lunch:

I had packed a lunch for Jai the night before, since he was going to be at work during the afternoon. After we got the news about Grandma, he cancelled his work appointment and ended up just eating the sack lunch at home.


There was one Veggieburger left in the freezer, so I ate that along with some freeze-dried fruit, yogurt, and a protein drink. The yogurt and protein drink are also bartered items which I will be reviewing. Jai's lunch also contained one of the freeze-dried fruit pouches and protein drinks, along with a Zone bar and peanuts, both from the stockpile.

Dinner:

I am also participating in a recipe challenge on my other blog. Pace Salsa sent me two jars of salsa for review, and asked me if I wanted to create some recipes using them. So for dinner last night, I modified my favorite Bean and Cheese Pie recipe to make this casserole - click here if you'd like the recipe.



Remember how I planted garlic back in October? Well, here it is now:


I pulled one fresh head of garlic, which I chopped up and used in the casserole. Yum!


The salsa was another bartered item, while the rest of the ingredients came from my stockpile.



I served it with the corn that I had bought that morning, and some wine that has been in my fridge for a while. As you can see, the recipe made a lot, so we had plenty for second helpings and lunch today.

In Loving Memory

This morning I got the news that my Grandma has passed away. So this is dedicated to her memory - the photo you see above is a snapshot of her holding me as a baby. We love you, Grandma.

All You Grocery Challenge: Day 1

I have entered the All You Magazine Grocery Challenge contest, and today is the first official day of the competition. All You is challenging entrants to spend no more than $25 per person per week on groceries for one month, and the frugal champion will win some awesome prizes.

The rule for this contest is that any food you buy - be it groceries or eating out - will count towards your weekly total. 10 finalists will be chosen and asked to submit recipts for all of their food purchases during the contest period. You can also utilize stockpiled food, barter, and utilize home-grown foods. Household supplies such as cleaning items, toiletries, etc, do not count towards the weekly total.

I'm excited to begin the challenge, and it couldn't have come at a better time! I'm sure you've probably noticed that I haven't done much shopping lately. Life has been especially hectic recently, so I have been eating from my stockpile and also eating out a lot. I have a habit of turning to fast food when I'm stressed out - I'm sure many of you can relate. When you've had a crazy day, cruising through the drive-thru for a Big Mac sounds a lot better than cooking! This doesn't help my budget or my waistline, so this contest is a perfect motivator to cut out the fast food.

Since I will be using stockpiled ingredients in some of our meals, I went through the house today and snapped photos of all my stockpiled food, to give you an idea of what I already have on hand:

Beans & soup

Bottled water

Lots of frosting!

Canned Goods

Baking supplies, Capri Sun, chocolate, tons of granola & protein bars, fruit snacks, lots of meat marinade, plenty of salad dressing, Crystal Lite, peanuts

More peanuts

Lots of rice and popcorn

Tons of pasta & pasta sauce, noodles, Rice-a-Roni, salsa, cooking oils, peanut butter, maple syrup, corn muffin mixes, etc.

Oatmeal, cereal, potatoes, Hamburger Helper, applesauce, tea, baking soda

Inside my freezer - a few pre-made frozen meals, berries, some meat, etc.

I'm going to be documenting what we eat every day, so that I can chart our progress in the challenge and also share my frugal meal ideas. Are any of my readers participating in the All You contest? Or are you doing your own personal budget challenge? I would love to hear from you!

Free Venom Energy Drink

Click here to sign up for a coupon good for a free Venom energy drink. I don't really associate snake bites with having a lot of energy, but hey, I'll try it!

Thanks to Hey! It's Free for the tip!

Free Gardein Vegetarian Meal

***The free coupon offer has ended already - sorry everyone!***

Click here to register for a coupon good for one free Gardein meal. This is a meat substitute, and it looks pretty versatile. Safeway carries Gardein, along with a few other stores - there is a full list of retailers on their home page.

Thanks, Common Sense With Money!

Free PediaSure After Rebate

If you use PediaSure, then click here to access a rebate form that will refund you the price of a PediaSure six-pack, up to $12.99. Common Sense With Money also has a scenario for possibly making a small profit on this rebate by using coupons - click here to read her post.

Free Lipton Tea

****This offer has now ended - sorry!****

You can receive a coupon good for one free box of Lipton tea by calling 1-888-435-3639. It's an automated line, and you will be prompted to leave a message with your name and address. It's not the same as tea from home, but I'll take it! Thanks to Money Saving Mom for another great tip.

Free Starbucks Ice Cream

If you're a Facebook member, then click here for your chance to register for a coupon good for one free pint of Starbucks Ice Cream. They will be giving away 800 coupons every hour until July 19th, so if you don't get one now, you can try again later. These coupons go fast, so I haven't been able to register yet, but I will keep checking - I love Starbucks and I love ice cream, so this is a coupon worth waiting for!

Thank you, Money Saving Mom!

Yet Another Home Made Simple Booklet

Here is yet another offer for the free Home Made Simple coupon booklet, which contains $30 worth of coupons. You should be able to sign up for this edition of the booklet even if you've received one in the past. I get one of these every time they come out, and they've always included a coupon for a free bottle of Cascade Rinse Agent. Thanks, Hip2Save!

Earning Money From My Stockpile

While I was holding my estate sale this past weekend, I thought I'd make a little extra cash by selling some of my spare stockpile items. Remember some of the great catalina deals that I've talked about in the past for Glade Plug-Ins and Windex? Those deals served me well, and saved me massive amounts of money. And when all was said and done, I had more of those products than I needed, so I decided that I would sell the surplus as soon as we had a garage sale. And it worked out well!

I put out a bag full of plug-ins and a big tub full of Windex which I priced at $1.00 each. Most stores around here sell these items for around $3.99 (!), so it's a good deal if you use those products. All the Windex sold out before I even had a chance to take a photo, and as you can see, the Glade supply was also pretty diminished. I wish I had counted how many plug-ins were in the bag - I think there were about 20 altogether. I sold 12 bottles of Windex total, along with all of the plug-ins, so in all I made about $32.00 off products that were free to begin with! Better than free, actually, because I made such a profit off the catalinas that these products generated in the first place.

This is an example of how your stockpile can really work in your favor. I think people get turned off by the idea of coupons because they don't want to have cupboards full of junk - but it's all about having a smart strategy. I abhor clutter, and I'm not big on keeping things around that don't serve a purpose. My Windex/Glade stockpile has been very useful to me, in so many ways:

Supermarket Savings: These products generated catalinas that saved me tons of money on other groceries that I needed at the time. When buying Glade plug-ins can get me $32 worth of produce, cheese, coffee, and more for only .17 cents, I'm all for it!

Items I Use: I like these products anyway, so I'm glad to have some extra on hand - I use the all-purpose Windex on a daily basis. But I definitely don't need 60 bottles of it, which brings me to my next point.

Care Packages: I've been able to give lots of Windex and Glade away to my family and friends. Who doesn't like free stuff, especially when it's something practical? I love being able to share my freebies, and I've also cleared out some excess this way.

Donations: I've also been able to donate some of these supplies to local organizations. If you see a great money-making coupon deal, but hesitate because you don't know what to do with all the excess, there are many charities and organizations that will glady take it off your hands.

Garage Sale: And, finally, you can profit once again by selling some of your stockpile at a garage sale. My Glade and Windex supply sold out quickly, and I've heard of other couponers having similar success.

Have you ever sold stockpile items at a yard sale? Or have you put your stockpile to some other creative use that wasn't covered here?