MMmm.... Vegetables

Just look at all this wonderful, healthy food! There's so much greeeeeen!


I always forget how much I really do like fruits and vegetables, till they're in season. Mmmm....
This is pretty much all of my breakfasts, lunches and snacks for this week. Doug will also eat some of the salad, but I'll eat most of it.
Cost breakdown:
milk = free (will explain how in a minute)
tomatoes = free (from garden)
2 oatmeal x 9 cents a serving
1 special k cereal x 9 cents a serving
2 servings grapes x 26 cents each
2 servings applesauce x 18 cents each
2 bananas x 16 cents each
2 apples x 25 cents each
3 pretzel crisps x 12 cents each
tons of lettuce- green leaf and iceberg- total of 1.75
2 eggs at 10 cents each
40 cents worth of celery
75 cents of broccoli
20 cents worth of carrots
not pictured: some chicken i will grill tomorrow night. 2 servings x 40 cents each
not pictured: kraft chunk cheese 2 x 21 cents serving
Total cost for my breakfasts, lunches and snacks: About 7.00.

And who says you can't eat healthy food on a budget? It's easy in the summer!

This trip here:

I spent 4.22, and saved 30.30. The milk- yeah, they PAID me to buy it.
Smart Source milk 1/2 gallons were on sale for 1.99.
I had manufacturer coupons good for 2.00 of any 1/2 gallon Smart Source milk.
Sweet- free milk.
ALSO- Meijer had a store coupon for 1 off any 1/2 gallon Smart Source milk.
I wondered.... would Meijer allow both coupons? They always allow you to stack manufacturer coupons with their store coupons, but this.... this would make my balance go negative.
They also had good deals on applesauce and peanut butter so I stocked up (can you tell kids live here?). I had enough other stuff on my order to "eat up" some of the overage from the milk coupons.
Ahhhh.... free milk tastes the best!

So, I am about 5 weeks into my charity challenge. I've spent 1.21 and have gotten about 75 dollars worth of stuff.

A bunch of cereal from my earlier post, feminine items, deodorant, etc. Good stuff, that they can use. Yay!

Spent 16.71, saved 52.42, and left with 11.00 in register rewards.


Spent 8.00, saved 89.34, and left with 13.00 in register rewards.

At Meijer, I went in intending to get just 2 cereals, 4 cracker packs, 4 mixits cereals, cheese, juice and milk.

They have a promotion right now that if you buy any 10 Kellogg's/Keebler/something else items in any transaction, you get $10 in rewards back. Well, the Mixits were price dropped down to 99 cents! That means you can get 10 of them for 9.90, plus tax, and get 10.00 back! So, I did my first trip as planned, dropped it all off in the car, and went back in to get more mixits. They're not great, but aren't terrible. And they're OK as snacky cereal, cause there's no sugar coating to get all over the kids. They can eat it like popcorn.
I don't know where I am going to put them. Cereal has been crazy cheap recently because of school starting just around the corner. Back to school time is a great time of year to stock up on cereal and portable snacks. So, my pantry is pretty much stocked full of cereal.

I am going to donate 10 of the mixits to the Inner City Mission (remember- I am doing a $20 charity challenge).

Portion control through freezer cooking

One of the easiest ways to not overeat, is to not have food you don't need lying around. I try to control my portions partially through freezer cooking. I cook up a big batch of whatever, then freeze it in single-meal portions.
The last time I did this, I cooked up 13 or so pounds of ground beef that I had gotten for pretty cheap. It wasn't the lowest-fat beef, but eating the right portion of the better-tasting non-low-fat beef is more satisfying to me.

I got out my biggest mixing bowl and threw a bunch of ground beef in. 4 or 5 pounds. Crunched up crackers, threw some Sweet Baby Ray's in there, garlic and onion powder, salt and pepper, some random beef spice I got for free at Meijer a few weeks ago, a couple of eggs, some milk, etc. (I don't measure- my meatloaf is different every time.) I pat it into cube-ish loaves, about 3/4 pound each. They are about 8 ounces cooked. I also make it into meatballs, because that's what the kids like best.
I cook them somewhere between 375 and 400 for about 35 minutes or so- the meatballs maybe 20-25 minutes.


I also just brown a large amount of the ground beef, and freeze it for later. So, I can just pull ground beef from the freezer and plop it into whatever recipe I am making- spaghetti, tacos, soup, whatever. I do about 1.5 cups in each container- about 8 ounces, usually.

I also made up hamburgers, but don't pre-cook those- I just make the patties and freeze them frozen. 1 each for me and Doug, and 1 for the kids to share. I make it similarly to the meatloaf- throw a bunch of stuff in, mix it up, and hope it tastes good.

I ended up making 7 meatloaves, 15 hamburgers, a bunch of meatballs, and 9 containers of cooked ground beef that day.

We ate the meatballs that day, but that means that I spent about 2 hours in the kitchen and ended up making enough "meat" for 21 meals (7 meatloaves + 5 hamburger packages (3 per package) + 9 plain ground beef.

I won't go into too any detail, but I also cooked up chicken that day, too, and got enough for another 6 from that! I don't think cooked chicken freezes as well as beef, so I don't do that very often.

When you're ready to eat, you can just pull meatloaf directly out of the freezer and nuke it for 2 minutes. While it's warming, mix together brown sugar and ketchup (maybe 1/4 cup total) and put on top after the 2 minutes. Microwave another 2-3 minutes till heated through. Delicious!

Updates and Donations

Hello, everyone!

I am finally getting back into the swing of couponing again. I took a semi-break for the last couple of months, but am now ready to buckle back down and replenish my stockpile that we've been living off. I had forgotten how much of our budget gets eaten up by grocery bills when I don't coupon.

Another neat thing with having a stockpile- donations. I get so many items for free or nearly free, mostly health and beauty items. But I just simply don't need them all.
I am proud of the Inner City Mission here in Springfield, of the work they do and the support and outreach they have for troubled lives. For more information on them, visit the ICM website.
Our church collects a certain item for ICM every month (for example, July is school supplies). But I put whatever I have in the box!

This is what I took to the box today, and the approximate retail value.
6 cans Oust x 3.00 = 18.00
6 packages feminine items x about 3.50 each = 21.00
Schick Titanium razor about 9.99
Razor refill about 9.99
Right Guard deodorant about 3.50
3 body washes x about 4.00 each = 12.00
2 toothpasts x about 3.00 each = 6.00
perfume = 5.00
air freshener = 7.00
So, I was able to donate about 90 dollars with of merchandise to ICM, that their residents can use.
AND I GOT ALL THAT STUFF FOR FREE!! A few of the items (The Oust and the deodorant), I was actually PAID to buy.

A forum that I belong to is having a $20 Charity Challenge. Starting with $20 in cash (or gift card or whatever), how much can you purchase specifically for donations? It starts today- July 11th. CVS has several items that are free after Extra Care Bucks. I may end up having to spend about 8-10 of my starting 20 this week, but I'll have lots of ECBs to roll in the coming weeks.

I'll keep you posted on what my $20 can buy. I challenge each of you to spend just $5 this week on items for donation. Even if it's just a couple gallons of milk- you won't notice the extra $5 you've spent, but a homeless shelter or soup kitchen or whatever would be really grateful for a couple gallons of milk. Or, you can shop CVS with me and get lots and LOTS of stuff for your money.

A few weeks

It has been a few weeks since I've really had to go any grocery shopping. All we've bought is produce, milk and bread. I haven't stocked up on anything. I keep planning on taking pictures of the semi-healthy meals we're having out of the stockpile, but I keep forgetting. I will have the camera at the ready this week. I really need to show you that eating healthy on a budget isn't that hard.

Now, if I could just eat healthily....... :-)

Week 1- Healthy on a Budget

I think I like year-long challenges.

I am starting a new one. I am going to continue shopping like I have been. I am still going to try to keep it to 60 or less a week. So, that part isn't the challenge.

My challenge to myself is to continue shopping like I have been, AND lose weight. I NEED to lose weight. My knees and hips are starting to get sore from all this luggage.

I want to prove to myself, and demonstrate to others, that you can still eat healthily while on a budget. The key is serving sizes. Isn't that what we keep being told in weight loss/management classes? You can eat some crappy food like Hamburger Helper- as long as you eat ONE serving of it.

I eat better when I plan my food out for the week on Sundays. I have gotten away from that the last couple of months, and my weight loss has stopped. So, I need to start doing it again. I try to plan out 7 breakfasts, 7 lunches, and 6 dinners (we usually end up eating out one night, or having leftovers), but not in what order we'll eat them.

I have planned my breakfasts and lunches out for this week. It's a step in the right direction, and helps me the most, since my snackiness is worst during the day. If I have it planned out, I am not as likely to eat when I don't need to.

Breakfasts:

oatmeal + yogurt
oatmeal + orange + 1 cup milk
oatmeal + orange + 1 cup milk
raisin bran + 1/2 cup milk + banana
raisin bran + 1/2 cup milk + orange
2 eggs and toast
2 eggs and toast

Have you ever actually looked at how many servings are in a box or container? I got little canisters of oatmeal for about $1.00 a couple of months ago. There are 13 servings in each canister. That's only 8 cents per serving. Milk was on sale for 2.19 last week, and at 16 servings per jug that's only 14 cents per serving. I got bread on sale last week for 1.09 for a loaf that has 24 servings (24 slices of bread). Etc.
So, my whole week's breakfasts are only going to cost me about 3.00.
3 oatmeal x .08 = .24
1 yogurt = .21
3 oranges x .33 = .99
2 bananas x .20 = .40
2 cups raisin bran = .28
4 eggs x .09 = .36
4 pieces toast x .05 = .20
3 cups milk x .14 = .42

Lunches
Ah, lunches. Lunches are where I usually try to cram a ton of vegetables into my diet. And this week is especially cheap because the greens were on sale really cheap at Meijer last week.

Salads and vegetable soups, mostly. And some frozen vegetables sometimes, too. This week:
3 salads, with 2 cups spinach, 2 cups romaine salad, 1 serving of baby carrots, 4 ounces baked chicken breast, and 2 TB vinaigrette dressing.
2 progresso soups + 1/4 cup cheese melted in
2 packages frozen veggies + 1/4 cup cheese on top + toast
So, my lunches for the week are going to cost me about 8 dollars.
6 cups spinach x .20 = 1.20
6 cups romaine x .20 = 1.20
12 ounces chicken x .20 an ounce = 1.20
bunches of baby carrots, about a bag over the week = 1.00
Dressing = was free! no cost!
2 progresso soups x .60 = 1.20
1 cup shredded cheese x .25 = 1.00
2 frozen veggies x .50 = 1.00

I won't go into this much detail each week, but I wanted to be able to visualize it, at least at the start.

Week 52

Week 52. My last week of my year-long experiment of spending only $60 a week in groceries, toiletries and paper products.

It's been a lot of fun, and has completely changed the way I look at shopping. I'll never go back to how I used to shop.

Here is this week's stuff.. scroll down to see the year-end totals.

CVS

That's a lot of nuts! I ran into CVS to get a card for someone at work, and they had a TON of Planter's nuts on clearance for 90% off! That made these cans 59 and 69 cents(depending on variety) each. AND, I had 2 coupons for 1.00 off any 2 Planter's nuts. This is why I refuse to shop without my coupon box!
Out of pocket: 3.89
Savings: 63.20


Meijer had their awesome buy 10 for $10 get 11th free promotion this week. I had a lot of coupons for Chex Mix, Hamburger Helper, Betty Crocker potatoes, Green Giant veggies, etc. I ALSO had a ton of Meijer store coupons that were good towards this purchase (a 4.50 off 45 order, 1.50 and 5.00 off on frozen foods, 1.00 off bread aisle purchase, etc).
Meijer has been making me very happy recently, as they are often running excellent sales on fruits and vegetables. Those strawberries were only $1! The romaine and spinach were included in the 10/10get11thfree sale. You CAN eat healthy on a budget (that's a hint as to the direction my blog will take next....), if you just look.

Out of pocket: 33.13
Savings: 62.64

Quick trip to Walmart for diapers: spent 10.50ish, saved 5.00 in coupons.

Weekly spending total: 47.55
Weekly savings total: 130.84
YTD spending total: 2594.48
YTD savings total: 3957.47

When I added up my spendings/savings this week, I was excited! I am only 42.53 short of saving 4,000 in a year! I looked and looked in the ads thinking that I could go save more, to make it to 4,000. I might be able to, but it's not worth the effort. I am happy to say, "I saved nearly 4,000 dollars this year!" I am sure that there are a few trips over the year that I forgot about, but I am pretty confident that these are 98% accurate numbers for my spending and saving.

So, when it's all said and done, my averages are:
Out of pocket weekly: 49.89
Savings weekly: 76.11

So, in any given week, I spent only about 50 dollars on 126 dollars worth of stuff. I spent roughly 40% of retail for my items combined.

Several people have asked me what my stockpile looks like. Here you go. And since it's time for me to take stock of what I have (to see what I certainly don't need to buy more of, or to see what I can donate), I am going to count everything since I am going through it anyway.
This is my pantry.

6 cereal, 8 cans nuts, 2 boxes crackers, 3 chex mix, 2 gravies, 4 open peanut butters and 5 unopened, 7 salad dressing, 1 mustard, bunch of pretzels and goldfish, 3 packages fruit cups, 4 boxes noodles, 10 canned veggies, 10 cans cream of chicken soup, 2 cans tomato soup, 6 progresso/healthy choice soups, 5 jars salsa, 4 unopened canisters of oatmeal, potatoes, 8 betty crocker potatoes, 10 hamburger helper, 4 rice, 2 mac n cheese, 1 applesauce, 2 cans pineapple.

my freezer upstairs, that I didn't realize was this dirty...
I keep the things that we're currently working on in this freezer, and everything "extra" goes down to the basement freezer.

5 frozen veggies, 2 open frozen veggies, 1 open frozen peaches, 1/2 bag fishsticks, dumplins, tots, egg beaters, hot dogs, 2 bags 1/2 full chicken nuggets.

The stand-alone freezer in the basement.

Oh, ignore the huge bags of BBQ in there... those are for my brother's wedding. My freezer is housing them till they are needed.
a turkey, 2 boxes fishsticks, 2 packages jenny-o turkey, 2 rolls ground turkey, 13 frozen veggies, 1 meatloaf, 1 mexirice dish, 2 packages pre-cooked beef, 1 package fries, 4 bags chicken breast 2 1/2 pounds each, and 3 pounds of butter.
under the turkey..


Ah, my health and beauty closet. I love this closet, because I got most of the items for FREE! And with as full as this closet is right now, I donated 2 huge bags of shampoo/razors/toothpaste/body wash just a couple of weeks ago. It's refilled that quickly.

16 various cleaners, 2 contact solutions, 1 lotion, 4 razors and 4 refills, 3 toothpaste, 4 toothbrushes, 3 mouthwash, 9 body washes, 3 men's shampoo, 10 ladies' shampoo/conditioner, who knows how many feminine products, 3 boxes band-aids, 2 pepto, 5 cold medicine, 7 boxes cough drops, 11 deodorants, 39 rolls toilet paper, 10 rolls paper towels, 3 boxes puffs.


Whew.

And... I saved a little over 1500 in the 6 months before this experiment started. So, in the last 18 months, I have saved about 5,500. That's INSANE.