$50/week Shopping

I did my shopping for the week today.  I was able to get the rest of the ingredients for my 'Baked Potato Soup' I will be making for our freezer meal swap this Sunday.  I am really excited and will post more about that later.

Here are my purchases from this week:

I felt like this was a really successful trip.  I had gotten 

*4 - 1/2 gallons (5/$5)  and 1 gallon of milk ($1.79)

*3 - 8 lb bags of potatoes - .99 at Groceries by Joe

*chicken broth

*toilet paper

*cantalope, carrots, bananas

*bread - .50 at Aldi

*cereal 

*eggs 

*freezer meal bags

*syrup

*puffs  

*sour cream

*peanut butter

*shredded cheese (3)/chunk cheese (1) - Cheese was only .99 at Kroger!!

I did not get any meat on this trip, but we have a little already and I know that we are going to be getting 6 other meals at the meal swap on Sunday.  

$50/week Shopping

This week my trip consisted of going to Kroger, Aldi, Al's Supermarket, and Groceries by Joe.  

Milk at Kroger this week was a STEAL!!  5/$5  (half gallons)

I am also making Baked Potato Soup for the Freezer Meal Swap I have coming up this next week.  I was able to get some potatoes and bags of frozen broccoli (only .59 a bag!!)

Some of my other purchases included:

*Totino's pizza (4/$5)

*toilet paper

*pasta

*chunk cheese

*shredded cheese (I only got 4 bags, but they were 10/$10 at Joe's - another STEAL!!)

*cream of chicken soup

*cream of mushroom soup

*pancakes

*chicken nuggets

*pork chops  (these will go with the ones I bought last week to make a full meal)

*sour cream

*hot dogs

*cheese puffs - the girls were really excited to have these!

*cheese slices

*2 cans of corn

*2 cans of green beans

*toilet paper (I will need to get more next week because this pack ended up getting used during an impromptu tp-ing trip)  :-)

4 Bags in 4 Weeks (Bag 1)

BAG #1

Most of what was in this bag was clothes.  There were quite a few clothes that I just pitched because they were stained.  It was really hard to get rid of some of these clothes because they are so cute, but the child they belong to NOW doesn't wear them.  I wanted to save them, in hopes one of the other girls would wear them, but we have SO MANY clothes, it just isn't worth saving them all.  

Freezer Meals

At the start of the new year, my sister and I decided that we would get together once a month to do some freezer meal cooking.  We would make between 6-10 meals.  We figured this would cut  down on the eating out due to lack of motivation to cook dinner.  So far I think we have been doing pretty good.

We had a Freezer Meal cooking night last night.  I always feel so much better after those.  In a couple hours of cooking and chatting with my sis, my freezer is a little fuller and I feel ready for the next couple weeks.

I ended with:
Tatertot Casserole
Baked Potato Soup
Broc/Cauli Cheese Soup
Egg Salad (for lunch, not for the freezer)
Chicken and Rice
Chicken Stuffed Crescent Rolls

My sister's birthday was coming up, so I made a little more of the Tatertot Casserole and the Baked Potato Soup and gave them to her (for her and her husband) as a birthday present.  

This is the Chicken Stuffed Crescent Rolls.  Can't wait to try them!!

These are the dishes my sister made.  Her menus consisted of:

(I have to double check with her and will update as soon as I find out.)

The first time we cooked we met at my sisters house and it worked out well.  I had to be very prepared because I needed to haul all of my supplies to her house.  

The second time, we each did our own because we couldn't find a time that worked for both of us.  

This time we met at my house.  Even though it was nicer to have all of my things at my house, I was not as prepared.  I think I figured I didn't need to have everything planned out because I would already have everything I needed.  I was so scatter-brained though.  :(  It didn't help that there were 5 kids (including my nephew) running around asking for snacks and drinks, etc.  Next time we will definitely do it at my sister's house again.  

*sigh*

This was the picture I took just before dinner last night.  This is a chair in the corner of our dinning room.  What a mess huh??  Well, all of this was either already piled on this chair or piled on the table. 

There are papers, school bags, computer bag (for school), diaper bags, shoes (those weren't on the table), bags of items that needed to be returned to others, and I'm sure much more.  

The only thing that I am proud of it the big white bag.  That's my first of '4 bags in 4 weeks'.  This is a frustration.  I need a better routine of where things go so that this doesn't happen.  It frustrates me and then I sit down to dinner frustrated about the way our house looks and how messy it is and then I don't know if I fully enjoy the company of my family.  

This will be my focal area tonight.  This area will be cleaned before I go to bed.  This does not guarantee that is will stay this way, I need to establish a routine first, but it will hopefully last for a little while.  

$50/week Shopping

So it has been a little while since I have been to the store.  The last time I went to Aldi, I forgot to bring my debit card and didn't have any cash on me.  I got to the register and pulled out my checkbook (hoping they would take is just this one time) and of course I was turned down.  I had to leave my cart, which had lots of great meat deals, and walk out empty handed.  So that week we ended up grabbing a few things here and there as we needed them.

This week I was able to make an actual trip to the store and get what we needed for the week.   My purchases this week came from Aldi and Grocery's by Joe (a local grocery store).

I am always super excited to find bread on sale at Aldi.  This is the second time I have found bread for .49 a loaf.  I got 4 of them and we will freeze them until we need more.  We had most of our meat that we need for the next couple weeks so I got a handful of random things.  

*Draino (our bathroom sink is plugged)

*tums

*pasta salad

*half and half (for some soup)

*chicken broth (for soup as well)

*2 boxes of stuffing (I have a turkey in the freezer that I plan to make sometime soon and we didn't have any stuffing)

*2 porkchops (I know it's not enough to feed our family, but I didn't want to go over my budget and figured I could freeze them and use them when I got some more.)

BTW - My sister and I will be having our monthly Freezer Meal get together on Wednesday of this week, so be on the lookout for our meals.  

Baby Shower Gift - so proud

This past weekend I had a baby shower to go to.  A couple weeks ago I ordered my gift, an Amber Teething Necklace.  The necklace came in a small drawstring bag, so as I was getting ready for the shower,  I put it in a small gift bag and attached my card.  I took a look at it and it looked absolutely pathetic!  

I debated weather of not I should go to the Dollar Store (the only store here in town - the nearest Walmart is at least a 20 minute drive) and pick up something else to add to the necklace so my gift would look a bit more presentable.  After much debate, I decided that since we are really trying to watch our money, I didn't need to get anything else.  However, I felt really stupid walking into this shower with a super tiny gift bag when everyone else had arms full of large gifts and packages.   

In the end it was a HUGE hit and the couple thought the necklace was such a great idea and can't wait to see how it works on the new baby.  I was so proud I had made the decision to save our money and stick to my original gift.  

4 bags in 4 Weeks

Since I am putting my 31 Days to Declutter Your Life on hold for a little while, this is going to be my new challenge to myself.  It will help me declutter, but not get overwhelmed.  

I have been trying so hard to keep up on keeping things clean and laundry done, but there are nights when I just need to SIT!  Of course, it is those nights when the house seems to be the messiest, dishes are piled in the sink, laundry is sitting in heaps on the kitchen floor (because there is no room left in the bathroom) and the girls need a glass of water or have to go to the bathroom 50 times!!

In the next 4 weeks I am challenging my self to get rid of 4 garbage bags of 'stuff'.  These bags will get donated to Goodwill or Salvation Army, but they will no longer be at my house and that is the goal.  

This week will be my first week to get rid of a bag.  So before this Saturday I will have one garbage bag of 'stuff' ready to go.  I know clothes is a typical area to find things to donate, so that's where I plan to start.  As I have been trying to keep up with laundry I have noticed just how many articles of clothing the girls actually have.  I want to get rid of it, but there are so many cute things.  I think to myself, 'she may not want to wear these, but the next one might.'  So I don't get rid of anything.  This needs to stop.  I need to figure out a system to their clothes.  This is definitely going to be something I look into.