The Professional Domestic

What We Ate and How Much We Spent on Groceries – Week 2 of 52

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?

See you next week! -MM

December Cakes – Step by Step Cute Snowman Cake

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

What We Ate and How Much We Spent on Groceries – Week 1 of 52

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

SAL-Project Joyce’s Rose #7

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!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy

Not Impressed With Our Debt 2022 Wrap-up

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

SAL-Project Joyce’s Rose #6

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!

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy

SAL-Project Joyce’s Rose #5

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:

For my US friends have a very Happy Thanksgiving! Next Update is December 11th. -MM

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, Cindy

What We Have Been Eating Lately

Food costs have been insanely expensive but last week I caught an amazing sale! When sales are offered that are that good it’s time to stock up. One piece of advice is don’t be afraid to pre-order sale items especially meat. When I saw the sale ad I called and ordered 20 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breast and good thing I did because they ran out of it on Friday!

Here is what I got with the sale:

2-5lb bags white potatoes $5.00
3 pints blueberries $7.49
6 pk flavored water $1.00
2 cans Campbell's chicken noodle soup $2.00
2-24pk Eggo waffles $5.98
4 packs Sugardale bacon $15.96
1-6pk Thomas's bagels $3.50
4-4lb bags sugar $7.96
approx 20 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts $40.92
3-16 oz containers sour cream $2.97

Grand Total $92.78!

After I got home I got to work repackaging and freezing the bacon and chicken breasts with my vacuum sealer.

I package and freeze the breasts individually and I cut the bacon in half and freeze each half individually

I kind of fell off the wagon last month with our food. We went out a lot because after 3 months of doing mostly home cooking I needed a break I guess. Well I am back on the home cooking wagon this month so here are some of the things I have made so far:

I am hoping to share more recipes this month and as we go into the holiday season I’ll also share some tips and tricks to get you through the most wonderful time of the year. (You get my tiny bit of sarcasm there right? lol!)

How are you all doing with grocery prices right now? I am glad I got a lot of canning done this year. We will enjoy that all winter! -MM

Not Impressed with our Debt – October Update

Well, I really don’t have much good news for October. It feels like it was a total bust. For some reason I just couldn’t keep a positive balance in our checking account for the second week of October and I had to keep taking from my saved paycheck. On top of that my husband’s car was on the fritz for almost three weeks and cost us $698 to fix. The only good news is that I didn’t have to use the credit card for that expenditure, I just paid in cash but that also meant that I couldn’t pay what I wanted on the credit card.

I can tell November is also going to be a challenge. We have to have three windows replaced (they are actually broken) in our home to the tune of $1700 so all of my paychecks will be going to that and we have one yearly bill for a car insurance policy due next week for $271.

But again, I should be able to pay for these things without using the credit card so that is a blessing right?

We are still holding steady at about $3100 on the credit card I am trying to pay off. That’s all I’ve got to report.

Till next month! -MM

SAL-Project Joyce’s Rose #4

I am so excited about how much I got stitched in the last 3 weeks! I finished the one large leaf, stitched another 400+ stitches on the rose and started another underleaf. Here is where I left off last time I posted: