I am so excited with how Week 4 went and actually for all of January! The only items I purchased were a frozen dinner bowl , a loaf of Italian bread and a couple of other odds and ends for a total $23.54. We had everything else we needed to get by and if I ran out of something, instead of running out and buying it I just made do and improvised.
It was a good week in the meal department. Sunday I made a big pot of meat sauce with spaghetti and Italian bread which we ate for lunch for about 3 days after as well. We also had a big pot of chicken soup, and crockpot chili sauce chicken with stuffing and beans. We even had a white pizza on Saturday night which we got for free for the hubs doing a favor for the pizzeria owner. Those are the best kinds of pizza right? I also made two loaves of raisin bread to test out my yeast for St. Joseph’s bread season which is right around the corner. It was very yummy.
Total this week $23.54 Grand total for the year $266.66
What did you have this week for dinner that was interesting? Have you ever though of a no spend month? That is definitely one of my goals coming up.
Week 3 went way better than week 2. I was finally on the mend from being sick for two weeks straight and felt more like cooking! Even though I said I wasn’t going to spend a lot at the grocery store there were a few things I saw in the weekly ad that I couldn’t pass up on so I stocked up.
Thomas’s Bagels were on sale this week at $3.50 for a 6pk which was over a $1.50 savings so I bought four packages and froze three of them. That will last us a few weeks. Then they had mega packs of 90/10 ground beef on sale for $4.99/lb so I picked up a 5.5/lb pack for $27.45 and vacuum sealed it all into five more manageable packages and stuck those in the freezer too.
I spent a total of $90.77
We ate much better this week! Chicken Kiev, loaded baked potatoes, taco salads, potato bacon soup, and grilled pork tenderloin with butternut squash. Have I ever posted my homemade teriyaki sauce recipe? It’s easy and I use it on everything!
Total this week $90.77 Grand total for the year $243.12
With these egg prices we might have to get us some chickens! Do any of you have chickens?
It’s been an interesting three weeks. I was sick for the first two weeks of it. You would think with all that down-time, I would get a lot of stitching done, but sadly, my brain just didn’t want to work well enough to concentrate. However, I did get quite a bit stitched in the last week, so here it is.
Here is where I left off last time I posted:
And here is where I am now:
Almost all of the bottom half of the rose is complete, and now I have started on the last leaf of the bottom half.
I hope Helen is feeling better! I hear she has been sick as well. I think everyone has been feeling under the weather. The gloomy days aren’t helping, that’s for sure!
Next update is Sunday, February 12th. See you then! -MM
This stitch-a-long is made up of many talented stitchers from all over the globe and we are all working on different projects. I have linked the other members of the Stitch-A-Long below. Please pop on over to see what all of the other stitchers are working on. Thank you Avis for organizing this SAL!
Week 2 didn’t go so hot in the meal department. I was sick all week and the only meal I actually made was goulash which we ate for two nights and two lunches. There are two other occupants that live in this house and one doesn’t cook at all and the other worked three out of the 5 nights and was gone a fourth night to a hockey game. Sometimes I hate being the only cook in the house. 😒.
Okay, so I did manage the goulash, there was two nights of that and one night I made scrambled eggs and bacon and toast, one night I ate guacamole and chips (I know), two nights we ate out and last night I ate oatmeal with home canned peaches as my dinner because the hubs was still full from lunch.
The good news is that all of the meat I had in the freezer is still there so we’ll just eat that this week. That means another week with a small grocery list!
The store I shopped at this week has a promotion going on where if you spent $10 in groceries you get a stamp (remember green stamps?) If you collect 50 stamps you get $10 off your next purchase. I guess if you collect 2 books of stamps (that’s 100 stamps) you get $25 off your next purchase of $50 or more. Well with all of my Christmas baking I did and my mom giving me hers, I collected two books so I had a $25 off coupon to use. My bill came to $77.90 but with the $25 off it brought my groceries down to $52.90. But there is more! My health insurance company offers a wellness rewards card where I can get $300 a year as a bonus. I used that pre-loaded card for this purchase so essentially our groceries were free this week. Yippee! If you haven’t already, check to see if your health insurance offers wellness rewards. They usually want you to show proof that you went to a wellness check-up or bought some sort of wellness product to earn the reward.
Total this week $0 Grand total for the year $152.38
How have you all been fairing with shopping so far this year? Are you eating from the pantry? Have you stayed healthy?
December is always a rush of holiday orders. With cookies and confections I only offer at Christmas time like chocolate covered peanut butter balls and cream puffs, this year I had more birthday cakes than usual, five in all.
One was a very special, a 95th birthday for a man I have admired since I was a teenager so I was thrilled to be asked to make it!
Another cake I made was simply a carrot cake with traditional cream cheese frosting but the family was thrilled and I enjoyed seeing the absolute delight from the birthday boy’s son who picked it up.
The other cake I did was for a sweet boy who wanted a snowman cake this year. Below is a step by step of my progress with this cake.
The cake was made up of two round single layers, a 6 ” and 10″. Both were frosted in white buttercream frosting. The key for any of these types of character cakes is the outlining. Without the outlining in black this cake would have fallen a bit flat.
The fourth was a 21st birthday cake for a now fully grown man that I have been making a cake for since he was about 9. Wow did time fly! Unfortunately I forgot to get a shot of the cake because I was hurrying with that big blizzard about to hit Buffalo.
Last, but totally not least was my own, now fully grown man’s 21st birthday on December 31st and his cupcakes. Boy did we have a fun weekend. He was my little tax deduction when he was born 😀
December was an exhausting, but joyous month. January is quiet for now and I am enjoying every minute of it. -MM
Happy New Year! The new year started perfectly with January 1st being right on Sunday, which is of course my grocery shopping day.
I shopped mostly the sales this past week, using only the super coupons given in the weekly ad at one store and stocked up on meat at another.
Here are a few of the deals I got:
1-lb - store brand bacon - $3.99
1 box Kellogg's Special K Cereal - $1.99
1-8oz Shredded Moz Cheese - $2.19
1-Thomas's English Muffins - $2.69
22oz Folgers Coffee - $7.99
1- Kraft Mac and Cheese - $.99
1 bag of 5lb Potatoes - $2.48
Pack of Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast - $1.99/lb for $7.56 total
A huge pork butt roast for $1.79/lb for a $12.49 total
Yoplait yogurts were $.60 ea
Boneless beef Chuck Roast for $6.99/lb for a $21.18 total
and I picked up 2 packs of Pork tenderloin for $3.49/lb which totaled $13.61.
Grand Total for the week including all groceries was $152.38
I do have a tip for you, or rather something to observe the next time you shop BOGOs (Buy one, get one) deals. See what the price is for buying only one. Now in most stores you will not get the deal unless you purchase two. But here’s the kicker…they jack up the price so really they don’t lose out much.
Case in point above, if you didn’t buy 2 of these 12 oz packs of raspberries, blueberries or blackberries you would pay a whopping $10.49 per pack. However, after the BOGO sale, those same 12 oz containers might only be $8.99 at regular price. Needless to say I didn’t buy them. Yes, I would have gotten 24 oz of raspberries for $10.49 but I didn’t want to spend that much on raspberries regardless. When a store jacks the price up on a BOGO then lowers it the next week it just isn’t a true BOGO. Now at a store just 10 minutes away they actually have BOGOs where you can buy just one and get it for the half price. Not only do you actually get a true Buy One Get One but you can buy just one and it’s half the price of the original. I don’t know of any other store that does this. Do your own investigating and see if your local stores offer a true Buy One Get One.
This week’s meals:
Sunday: Beef roast with veggies and Italian bread
Monday: Crockpot Pork Roast with corn and potatoes
Tuesday: Crockpot meatloaf with garlic bread and green beans
Wednesday: Chicken and veggie stir fry
Thursday: Veggie beef soup with homemade blueberry muffins
Friday: A frozen Digiorno pizza which totally sucked. I think they have changed their recipe because it used to be good!
Saturday: We just ate leftovers
For lunches we ate tons of leftovers, cheese and crackers, PBJ sandwiches and one day I made nachos with leftover beef and beans and whatever sounded appropriate from the fridge. I even had an artichoke as a snack. It was huge! I just steamed it with fresh garlic tucked into the leaves and a drizzle of olive oil until it was soft and the leaves broke away from the bottom heart. That took me back to my childhood when we would eat fresh artichokes and pomegranates in the winter months. But I digress…
I have a ton of food to use this coming week in the fridges, pantry and freezers so our grocery bill should definitely be lighter.
How are you all doing with grocery prices right now? Aren’t egg prices insane?? See you next week -MM
Happy New Year!! My one and only turned 21 yesterday, and boy, did we have a fun weekend with him. Still not a lot stitched in the last three weeks on this project but here goes…
Here is where I left off last time I posted:
And here is where I am now:
Just a small amount stitched in the upper corner of the rose, and that’s about it..
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and here’s to a wonderful, productive 2023!
This stitch-a-long is made up of many talented stitchers from all over the globe and we are all working on different projects. I have linked the other members of the Stitch-A-Long below. Please pop on over to see what all of the other stitchers are working on. Thank you Avis for organizing this SAL!
At the beginning of 2022 our debt to income ratio was pretty high. I am happy to say that by the end of 2022 that ratio has changed. Although I have struggled a bit in the last two months to finish paying off the one credit card completely it is down a whopping $5000 in only a few short months. That’s is a huge accomplishment and feels amazing! We also paid off an 11 year home equity loan in July and that has given us a lot more wiggle room.
As far as Christmas spending went this year the only thing I put on the credit card was the purchase I made for my husband for his new E-bike. It wasn’t a small purchase by any means but I know he will enjoy it, get good exercise from it and probably in the long run will save us money because in the summer he can zoom around town on it and leave his car in the garage at home.
I am proud to say this month we paid for three brand new windows for our home in cash and my husband’s car needed some more repairs so we also paid for those repairs in cash too. Pretty fantastic considering we also had our regular bills and Christmas in there too. No one ever said that once we got our debt paid down life would be easy. My mother likes to say to me, “being a homeowner just ensures there is always something breaking down but at least you have the funds to pay for it now without adding it to a credit card dear.” She is absolutely right.
I hope your holiday season was peaceful and love filled. Here is to a new year of paying off more debt and hopefully not adding to it! 😉 -MM
I was definitely right, last update when I said stitching much would be a tall order. Cookie orders have been pouring in, so not much time to stitch. Here is where I left off last time I posted:
And here is where I am now:
Just a small amount stitched in the upper corner of the rose, and I got some stitching started on the last bottom leaf to the left.
Hopefully more next time!
This stitch-a-long is made up of many talented stitchers from all over the globe and we are all working on different projects. I have linked the other members of the Stitch-A-Long below. Please pop on over to see what all of the other stitchers are working on. Thank you Avis for organizing this SAL!
Again, I got a lot stitched in the last three weeks. I hope to finish the underleaf, the rest of the section of rose and there is a huge leaf that needs to be stitched to the left of everything and I want to get that done. That may be a tall order with holidays on the horizon but ya gotta have a goal right? Here is where I left off last time I posted:
And here is where I am now:
This stitch-a-long is made up of many talented stitchers from all over the globe and we are all working on different projects. I have linked the other members of the Stitch-A-Long below. Please pop on over to see what all of the other stitchers are working on. Thank you Avis for organizing this SAL!
For my US friends have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Next Update is December 11th. -MM
I am your typical housewife living in high maintenance suburbia. I have a handsome husband, 2 kids and a flock of pet chickens. I try and feed my family with $100 a month. With the help of coupons, gardening and bartering I am able to squeeze the most out of our grocery budget and still manage to have a little fun along the way.
The Professional Domestic 