Money Saving Meal

Tonight we had chicken tacos/fajitas

chicken .77¢ pound

green bell pepper .50¢

taco shells .60¢

cheese .99¢

salsa free

torillias free

sour cream free

onion forgot price

Leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

Menu planning

By shopping sales *and* combining/using coupons I have a small stockpile started. My menus are based around what I have in my stockpile and what is on sale.

*Beef Lo Mein- sale $3.00

*Chopped chicken BBQ sandwiches-chicken .77¢ pound, KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce .78¢

*Homemade pizza

*Hamburgers-extra lean ground beef sale $2.88 pound + it was marked down an additional $3.00 per package since it was 9pm.

*Buffalo Chicken Lasagna-Bella's birthday supper-chicken .77¢ pound, Franks Hot Wing sauce used 1/.55¢ got it for $2.33. ( Not a super good price, but it is for Bella's birthday supper.) Spaghetti sauce from my stockpile.

Mother's Day!

My husband cooked breakfast for me, and then my family made dinner. Bella gave me a pedicure and Emilie brushed my hair. Very nice to be pampered. I'm so blessed with a wonderful family!

Taco Rice

This is an excellent way to stretch ground meat for tacos, burritos, nachos or taco salad.

1 pound ground meat ( beef, *chicken or turkey)

1 cup diced onion

1 package taco seasoning

16 oz canned tomatoes

2 cups cooked rice, brown or white

Brown meat and drain. Combine meat, onion, seasoning, rice and tomatoes in saucepan, simmer until thick, about 30 minutes.

Use anywhere you would use taco meat.

*I've also made this with cooked shredded chicken too.

Yearly grocery sales cycles

January- diet foods, super bowl snack foods, oatmeal, chili, soups, soda

February- canned food, hot foods such as waffles and oatmeal, dog food, chocolate, Chinese food

March-frozen food: dinners, waffles, ice cream, veggies, etc. Easter items go on sale too depending on when the holiday falls such as eggs ham, etc.

April- other years you’ll get your Easter items here: eggs, ham, candy, sugar, cookies, Jewish foods, also Earth Day promotions for organic foods.

May- Summer kickoff begins: BBQ items, hot dogs, hamburger, condiments, produce, grilling items such as charcoal, outdoor items such as sunscreen & allergy meds.

June- National Dairy Month: milk eggs, cheese, butter, yogurt, ice cream, etc. Father’s Day promotions including BBQ items, grilling meats

July- even better BBQ sales: grilling meats condiments, chips, bread products, produce, ice cream, baked beans etc.

August- Back to School: breakfast bars, cereals, Kellogg’s promotions, Lunchables, juice boxes, snack items, peanut butter, jelly, and school supplies, many years ago (like 24) I worked at Walmart and feminine hygiene products seemed to be a back to school item, double packs. Along with make-up & deodorant, and shampoo

September- back to school continues: pasta, pasta sauce, tomatoes, and baby items such as diapers, creams, feeding products, etc.

October- Candy chocolate, pumpkins, and fall baking items.

November- Thanksgiving items: turkeys, stuffing, sweet potatoes, pies, and marshmallows, canned vegs, hot cocoa, oatmeal, soups, baking

December- Holiday baking and dinner items; frozen rolls, green beans, potatoes, cream soups, ham, butter, flour, bread, pie crusts, turkeys


information gathered from The Power of Coupons by Sarah Roe.
Excellent book, highly recommend it.

weekly Menu plan

Roasted Chicken

Beef Roll Ups

Chicken Divan*

Tacos

Pizza

* Chicken Divan

5 cooked Chicken Breasts ( I usually don't cook the chicken before hand, I throw it in frozen)

2 pkgs chopped broccoli

Sauce: 4 TB milk, 4TB chicken broth, 2 tsp. lemonjuice, 1/2 cup mayonnaise ( I have used Miracle Whip no problems), 2 cans of cream of chicken soup ( or 1 chicken soup and 1 cream of celery soup)

Place broccoli in 9x13 pan chicken on top, cover with sauce and parmessan cheese, bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Freebie

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Book Review

The Grandma's Attic Series, by Arleta Richardson is a wonderful set of short stories as told by Grandma Mabel to her granddaughter, Arleta. These funny and heartwarming stories are about Mabel's adventures growing up on a farm in Michigan. These stories also present Biblical truths is a very engaging way making it easy for children to grasp and making them excellent stories to practice "narration."

These books are part of the Sonlight homeschooling curriculum Core K, Core B&C, & Core C

These stories have been a favorite of my daughters over the years.

Thank you B & B Communications for these review copies in exchange for my honest review.

One of those weeks

It's going to be one of those busy weeks, with something everyday which will make me feel as if I've done nothing.

Monday- Monday Night Moms

Tuesday- Faithgirls

Wednesday- AWANA

Thursday- Monthly Ladies Meeting

Friday- driving my Gramma to Corsicana

Saturday- The Fuse garage sale

Sunday- church anniversary potluck

Menus for the week-

BBQ meatballs, leftover scalloped potatoes, green beans

lemon chicken

Hamburger Helper

spicy chicken strips

pizza

He's Alive!

It's Friday

Money, Menus and shopping.

So Emilie and Olivia needed some summer clothes. So I decided to split my remaining grocery budget money in half to spend one weeks of grocery money on shorts and other wardrobe items. It was $120.

Olivia got a shirt that was on clearance for $5, and a pair of denim shorts $20! EEEKKK, she likes plain denim nothing froufrou with embroidery. So I asked if we could just get some $10 jeans at WM or Target and cut them off? She was fine with that. Scored some on clearance for $9 and a pair of pajama pants for $3.00

Emilie got a pair of $9 clearance jeans for shorts too. I got the girls 3 bras on clearance at Target, and we ate at Chick-Fil-A.

Then we went to to Albertsons, where I got 3 Crystal Lights, 3# apples, 4# Land O' Lakes Butter, and 1 pineapple. Stopped by the bread store and got 2 loafs bread and a package of cinnamon rolls for $2.00.

At the end of the day I had $27 dollars left to round out a menu plan for next week. I got a roast, carrots, bananas, lunch-meat, store brand "Ritz" crackers, corn chips, pretzels, cereal, and toilet paper. I had coupons for the cereal, that doubled that made it only .99¢, a coupon for the lunch meat, coupon for the toilet paper, and I got a free roasted chicken. So at Brookshires I only spent $24.00, $3 left for milk later in the week.

So here are our meals for the next week,

Chicken Nachos

Roast

Poppy Seed Chicken

Tacos

something else chicken

homemade pizza

I sew like I cook. I read the directions and then do my own thing. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Everything's Coming Up Roses

My roses are really doing well.

Weekly Menu plan

Cheesy Chicken Cups

BBQ Chicken

Grilled Chicken sandwiches

Spaghetti

Pizza

Lots of chicken this week, I've gotten a lot of good sales on chicken the last 2 weeks so stocked up. I'm hoping to avoid grocery shopping this week for next week (except for milk and bread) so I can use that money to buy some shorts and pajamas for Olivia, and shorts for Emilie.

Saving Money

In my quest to help my husband, I am doing all I can to get quality and quanity of good food for our pantry and freezer. I've been doing pretty good, not to the extreme as those on Extreme Couponing but I'm staying under our monthly grocery budget, which for us includes HBA, paper products, and dog food.

My week so far: Dollar General- 2 body washs, 4 toothbrushes, 1 box envelopes- spent $7.31/Saved $5.00
Super 1- 2 3# bag chicken breasts, 3 boxes poptarts-spent 10.98/saved $14.90
Albertsons- 4 pastas, Mircle whip, eggs, Dryers Ice cream, 4 Red Baron Pizzas, 2 kraft cheese, 3 limes, 2 cantaloupes, 2# green beans, 2# apples-spent $24.48/saved $29.72
WAGS-BOGO large bottle multip vits, One a Day multip vit, BOGO vit C-spent $24.97/saved $28.98 got a raincheck for Purex
current spending $67.74/saved $78.60
still have WM and Brookshires

Food and flowers

Today's stuff

Supper in Crock-Pot

Roasted chicken in the crock pot.

paprika, kosher salt, black pepper, poultry seasoning,

lemon zest, juice of lemon, celery seed, ground cloves

(sounds weird I know but tastes really good with chicken)

Azaleas are blooming

Changed out wreath to spring flowers

Decorated living room for Easter.

I've also mopped the kitchen, and cleaned the oven.

Budget & Menu

Last week I spent- $113.54/Saved- $111.09. This includes HBA stockup products, toilet paper. The hamburger that I'm using this week was bought on sale back in January. I love the "pantry principle." Stocking up on items while on sale. Then making your weekly menu from the stock you've bought at low prices.

Saturday- hamburgers

Sunday- pork chops

Monday- Chicken spaghetti for the family I'm going to Monday Night Moms for soup and salad.

taco soup or chili

roast chicken

stroganoff meatballs

pizza-homemade

In the Kitchen

Oven Chicken Fajitas-I just threw frozen chicken breasts in the oven with a package of fajita seasoning and about 1/2 cup water and frozen peppers and onions mix. It cooked for an hour and then I just shredded the chicken.

Have I put pictures of our stock on here before?
shelves next to freezer in laundry room.

Big cabinet above washing machine. Lots more room here!

Plus I have a closet pantry in the kitchen, mostly canned goods, flour, sugar, drink mixes, it's running low right now.

Shopping list for the week:

Walgreens-

Coffee-mate-q

Dove products-q

Ban deodorant-q

Speedstick deo-q

Colgate toothpast-q

Bic Razors-q

Charmin-q

Target-

2 Purex Crystals-q

2 Clorax wipes-q

1 Soft Scrub-q

Albertsons-

2 Red Baron Pizzas

1 KC Masterpiece-q

1 A1 steak Sauce-q

1 Simply Orange juice-q

2 Kraft Cheese-q

3 Grands biscuits-q

McCormick Jerk seasons-q

free gallon milk

Brookshires-

2 bags chicken breast-q

pork chops

mission torillas

3 poptarts-q

Family Dollar-

Delmonte Canned Vegs

Barilla pasta if they carry it.

Endust-

$5 store coupon when purchase $25

wonderful time

We had a wonderful 4 days with my mom in Austin, Texas. It was very relaxing for me. Anytime I'm not in charge of cooking is relaxing. Don't get me wrong I like to cook most the time, but it is the thinking about what to cook all the time that isn't all that great. So anyway, we enjoyed ourselves. The girls spent time in the woods and Bella loved on the dogs. We did a mosaic project, and looked at model homes, shopped at World Market and hit a bookstore.

Bluebonnets on the way home.

Tonight is the monthly Faith Ladies meeting. We are having a friend of mine come teach us about extreme couponing. I've been couponing since January. I have seen a big difference in my budget, and my stock, which we affectionately call "the store."

Monday Night Moms Bible Study is going well, we are doing a study called Sacred Parenting.

Started my garden last week. I turned over nearly all of my little plot, and was sore for 3 days. I could hardly move. I planted 6 tomatoes so far. I still have some cucumbers, and a pepper plant. I'd like some green beans, and I'd really like to try Strawbale Gardening.