Wednesday, September 9, 2009

HAPPY NATIONAL COUPON MONTH!!!

Greetings!! It has been a long time since I have sent any updates or shared any ideas here! I really haven't done much coupon shopping in the past several months! I have needed to focus on other things and also needed to use up some of the goodies in my stockpile before they were past date! Well, my shelves and freezer are starting to look a bit bare so it is time to get started again! I have been motivated recently by a couple of great shopping trips! Just last night I did some coupon shopping and bought:
9 tubs of Country Crock margerine
4 bags of Sun Chips
2 bags of Lays chips
3 rolls of Bounty
3 pkgs of Charmin Ultra Soft TP (4 large rolls)
4 pkgs of floss
5 Brut deodorant
2 loaves of bread
1 Suave bodywash
2 loaves of bread
1 Dillon's ranch dressing

all for a total of $22.57; a savings of 75%!! WOOHOO!!!

I will be watching for more deals; seeing that 75% in savings was really motiviating!!!

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Dinners w/cost 3/23-25

Good evening! Here's an update on what we have eaten and the cost for the last couple of days:

Monday, 3/23: pork roast, mashed potatoes w/gravy, corn and rolls
pork roast: $1.5 lobs @ $2/lb/ = $3.00
mashed potatoes (steam-n-mash): $1.00
corn (steamers) $0.00
rice $0.65
rolls $0.70
TOTAL: 5.35

Tuesday: potluck of leftovers
TOTAL: $0.00

Wednesday: chicken breasts, roasted new potatoes w/green beans in rosemary butter, corn, and rice w/gravy
chicken breasts: 3 lbs. at $1/lb. = $3.00
Italian dressing as marinade: $0.00
roasted new potatoes w/green beans in rosemary butter (steamers): $0.00
corn (steamers): $0.00
rice and gravy (both leftover from Monday): $0.00
TOTAL: $3.00
(This is why I love using coupons - FREE dressing and 2 veggie side dishes! WOOHOO!!)
Plus, these 3 chicken breasts were HUGE, so we only ate 2; therefore, the 3rd will be dinner tomorrow night!!!


Total spend on dinner so far this week:
Monday: $5.35
Tuesday: $0.00
Wednesday: $3.00
Total: $8.35

Thanks for joining me on this journey so far! It really has been interesting for me to see what we really spend to eat!

Monday, March 23, 2009

Dinners w/cost for 3/20-22

Friday, 3/20 - taquitos, mexican rice and refried beans
Taquitos (yes, the infamous taquitos): 12 @ $.15 each = $1.80
refried beans: $0.70
mexican rice: $0.65
salsa (to make the rice): $0.50
cheese: $0.25
sour cream: $0.00 (I love it when I get free stuff)
TOTAL: $3.90
(a couple of kiddos ate cereal, but I didn't figure the cost since I know it is minimal)

Saturday - pizza from Papa John's
Okay, we caved in but only because we could get cheap pizza from Papa John's due to the $6 pizzas as part of their Customer Appreciation Day. So, we ordered 2 large pizzas and an order of cheese sticks for $18.04 (MUCH better than the $38 we spent on pizza last week).

Sunday: leftover pizza and cheese sticks
Cost tonight is $0.00 since the total cost was in for last night's dinner! I won't complain too much about $18 for dinner for 2 nights, especiallly when I didn't have to cook! Yippee!!


My total cost for dinners this week was:
Monday: $8.49
Tuesday: $8.40
Wednesday: $5.77
Thursday: $1.50
Friday: $3.90
Saturday: $18.04 (ate out)
Sunday: $0.00
TOTAL: $46.10
($28.06 at home and $18.04 eatting out)
Total to date: $24.16

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Coupon Class on 4/18, 9a-11a

I am teaching another coupon class on Saturday, April 18th from 9a-12p. The class is FREE but you do need to sign-up ahead of time so that we can be sure to have enough handouts for all attendees. If you are interested, I would love to have you join us!! Feel free to pass this on to others who want to learn how to save on their groceries!


S-T-R-E-T-C-H Your Grocery Dollars!!
Come to Grocery Savings 101 to learn how to save on your groceries
and even be able to donate more items to charity as well.

Class will be held on Saturday, April 18th from 9a-12p.
Class: 9a-11a
Q&A and coupon swap: 11a-12p
(bring your extra coupons - whether a few or a lot
to swap with others for coupons you can use!)

Cedar Pointe Baptist Church
9221 E. 31st Street South, Wichita
(between Rock and Webb, near McConnell AFB)
See map here

To RSVP as well as ask questions:
contact Amy Strait at amyscoupons@cox.net


Many Blessings and Happy Savings,
Amy

Dinner menus and costs - 3/17-3/19

Here's an update on what we have been eating for dinner this week so far.

Tuesday: Burgers and hot dogs on the grill
Wednesday: meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes
Thursday: leftover spaghetti pie

Here's our cost breakdown:

Burgers and hot dogs on grill:
burger patties: 5 patties - 1 1/4 lbs. = $2.50
buns: $0.50 (used half of a package)
cheese slices: 5 ($2/24 slices = $.08 ea.) = $0.40
hotdogs: 8 ($7/28 = $.25 ea.) = $2.00

Macaroni-tuna salad
pasta: $0.50
tuna: $0.75 (probably too high, but it is a guess)
onion and celery: $.20 (too small of a quanitity to really calculate, so I'll guess)
ranch dressing: $0.10 (used approx. a 1/4 cup)
mayo: $0.20 (again, guessing)

chips (1/2 bag): $1.00
chip dip: $0.25
TOTAL COST: $8.40


Meatloaf and garlic mashed potatoes:
ground beef (1 1/2 lbs.) = $3.00
crackers: $0.12
onion, milk, egg, ketchup: $0.50 (guessing as amounts are too small to calculate)

Garlic mashed potatoes (Steam-n-Mash): $1.00
mixed veggies: $0.00 (free after coupons - yes, I do have a large stash of these!!)
rice: $0.65 (with leftovers for breakfast on Thursday or Friday)
Grands biscuits: $0.50
TOTAL COST: $5.77


Leftover spaghetti pie from Monday night: $0.00
(the full price of the meal was calculate on Monday, so this is just using up what we fixed that night)
canned fruit and jello: $1.50
TOTAL COST: $1.50


My total cost for dinners this week so far is:
Monday: $8.49
Tuesday: $8.40
Wednesday: $5.77
Thursday: $1.50
Total to date: $24.16

Hope your week is going well!!


Monday, March 16, 2009

Dinner (and cost) - 3/16/09

Hello!! Well, dinner at our house tonight is all about using up some of the odds and ends in the fridge. Since my "extras" include spaghetti sauce, cottage cheese, and salad fixin's, tonight's dinner will be: spaghetti pie, garlic bread and salad.
(Recipe for spaghetti pie at: http://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Spaghetti-Pie-4; I used jarred spaghetti sauce instead of making as they suggested, I also used regular cottage cheese and mozzerella cheese instead of the low-fat versions as that is what I had on hand)

Meal cost:
Speghetti pie:
spaghetti: $1.00
ground beef: $1.00
spaghetti sauce: $1.00
cottage cheese: $0.50
sour cream: $0.00 (free due to coupon; used this as I didn't have enough cottage cheese)
shredded cheese: $1.00
eggs: $0.25

garlic bread:
hot dog buns: $0.50 (manager special; makes great and cheap garlic bread under the broiler)
cheese: $0.50
margerine and garlic powder: $0.20

Salad:
romaine and iceburg lettuce: $1.25
cheese: $0.50
croutons: $0.30
dressing: $0.50

TOTAL COST: $8.49

We usually don't eat this much salad, but I thought I was getting a deal on the romaine lettuce at Target only to realize after the fact that I forgot to use my coupon - oops!!! Now that I have it I refuse to let it go to waste!!!

UPDATE: Dinner was AWESOME!!! Cool thing was that there is enough leftover for lunch on Wednesday! So, while the cost of dinner tonight was high, it will also serve as a whole other meal!!! WOOHOO!!!

Meal costs - week of 3/9-3/15

Here is my first post on meal costs for the week of 3/9-3/15. I am only showing dinner for thsi week. I may do lunch costs in the future but just didn't keep a record for last week. I will not be posting breakfast costs as we usually eat breakfast pretty inexpensively; either cereal (bought on sale with cuopons), toast, rice, or oatmeal.

Here are our meals:
Monday, 3/9: burgers and dogs on grill
Tuesday, 3/10: Macaroni and cheese, smoked sausage, mixed veggies
Wednesday, 3/11: ham, popcorn shrimp, baked potatoes, broccoli w/cheese sauce
Thursday, 3/12: pasta and spaghetti sauce
Friday, 3/13: pizza from Pizza Hut
Saturday, 3/14: cube steaks w/gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade yeast rolls
Sunday, 3/15: taco salad (for the grown-ups) and ravioli with speghetti sauce


Cost breakdown:

Burgers and hot dogs on grill:
burger patties: 6 patties - 1 1/2 lbs. = $3.00
buns: $1
cheese slices: 6 ($2/24 slices = $.08 ea.) = $0.48
hotdogs: 4 ($7/28 = $.25 ea.) = $1.00
tatertots (1/2 bag at $2/bag) = $1
carrot stix (1/2 bag at $1.50/bag) = $0.75
pears (1 can) = $1
TOTAL COST: $8.25

Macaroni and cheese, smoked sausage, mixed veggies:
Kraft mac-n-cheese deluxe $1.50 (estimate as I can't remember exact cost)
Kraft mac-n-cheese (powdered cheese w/margerine & milk): $0.60
smoked sausage (from Schwan's): $5.00
mixed veggies: $0.00 (thanks to coupon)
TOTAL COST: $7.10

ham, popcorn shrimp, baked potatoes, broccoli w/cheese sauce
ham $3 (approx.; small piece left from Christmas)
popcorn shrimp $4
potatoes (approx. 1 1/4 lbs.): $0.40
shredded cheese: $1.00
sour cream: $0.00 (thanks to coupon)
broccoli w/cheese sauce: $0.00 (thanks to coupon)
rice (for picky eater): $0.65
TOTAL COST: $9.05

pasta and spaghetti sauce:
box of pasta: $0.75
sauce: $0.75
parm cheese: $0.25
TOTAL COST: $1.75

pizza from Pizza Hut: $38 (enough for dinner and lunch the next day)

cube steaks w/gravy, mashed potatoes, corn, homemade yeast rolls
cube steaks: $4.00
mashed potatoes (Steam-n-mash) $1.00
gravy (2 jars): $1.30 (estimate)
corn: $0.00 (thanks to coupon)
rice: $0.65 (leftovers for breakfast next day)
flour: $0.25
shortening: $0.12
yeast: $0.00 (free plus overage thanks to coupon)
TOTAL COST: $7.30

taco salad (for the grown-ups) and ravioli with speghetti sauce (for kids)
Romaine lettuce: $1.00 (forgot to use coupon at Target - rats)
iceburg lettuce: $0.25
ground beef: $2.00
taco seasoning: $.35
sour cream: $0.00 (gotta love coupons)
picante sauce: $.50
fritos: $0.00 (again, gotta love coupons)
ravioli: $2.50
spaghetti sauce: $0.75
TOTAL COST: $7.35

Total eating at home:
Monday: $8.25
Tuesday: $7.10
Wednesday: $9.05
Thursday: $1.75
Friday: $0.00
Saturday: $7.30
Sunday: $7.35
TOTAl: $40.80

Total eating out:
Monday: $0.00
Tuesday: $0.00
Wednesday: $0.00
Thursday: $0.00
Friday: $0.00
Saturday: $38.00
Sunday: $0.00
TOTAL: $38.00

Well, $40.80 for 6 meals isn't too bad, but it was a bit high compared to our usual meal costs. Twice this week we had items from Schwan's (popcorn shrimp because we like it best and smoked sausage because I wanted to try it) and that really drives up the cost of a meal. It is pretty sad though that we ate 6 meals for approx. the same cost as Pizza Hut. Oh my!!!

I still need to figure out our meals for this week, but that will have to wait for later... The kiddos have been patient with me typing for this long but I can tell that their patience is wearing quite thin!!!

Blessings!

Cost of meals challenge

Hello friends! As some of you know I have been seriously couponing for just over a year and have built quite a stockpile (freezer and pantry). My struggle comes with planning meals. I have thought on this and prayed about it and the only thing I can come up with is that I get sick of the "same old meals" (and I have a family that prefers those "same old meals", so just making something new isn't always an option). It is this attitude (tossed in with some laziness at times) that has led us to eatting out more than we really should. I have even prayed that God would take away my desire for such junk but I still struggle. I have come to the conclusion that God has not taken away that desire because He wants me to have the self control to stay away from it. SIGH.... it would be so much easier if He would take care of it supernaturally! LOL!

Well, one thing I do on a regular basis is to roughly figure out the cost of our meals. (You can read a blog post where I detail a couple recent meal costs at: http://manystraits.blogspot.com/2009/02/frugal-dinners.html.) As I have been looking at the cost of our meals (usually between $5-$8 to feed my family of 7 - 2 adults and 5 kids ages 7 and under), I feel the Spirit telling me that my low meal costs (due to coupon shopping) should be my motivation to eat at home and be a better steward of our finances. Calculating that we all eat a good, wel-balanced meal with little giong to waste for $7 compared to grabbing junk from a local drive-through for $27 where too much gets thrown away really helps to keep things in perspective.

So, in light of that, I have decided that I am going to try to post my meals and meal costs daily (or at least several times a week). If you would like to follow me in this quest, I would love your encouragement and accountability. You can even join me in this quest by posting comments to share your meal costs or struggles with meal planning, etc.

Many Blessings and Happy Savings,
Amy

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

$5 Dinners Bargain Meal of the Week

You may have heard of the blog $5 Dinners (http://www.5dollardinners.com/) where they feature meals that cost less than $5 to make. Well, they have added another element to their blog by enlisting bloggers from around the country to come up with meals (with recipes) for $5 or less using the items that are on sale at grocery stores that week. Visit this site (http://www.5dollardinners.com/2007/07/bargain-meal-of-week.html) and scan down to the blog listing for your store(s) of choice.

This is a really awesome idea and may give some new ideas on how to make economical/frugal meals with what is currently on sale!!

Many Blessings and Happy Savings,Amy

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Frugal dinners!!!

I just had to share with you a few of our frugal meals lately!! I am working very hard to prepare meals from what is in our pantry rather than spend more money at the grocery store when we already have more than plenty! So, here is what we have been eating:

Last Wednesday:
pork chops - 1.5 lbs. $3.50
New potatoes and green beans
in a rosemary butter sauce
(Green Giant Steamers) $0.00
Rice and gravy (for picky kiddo) $0.50
TOTAL $4.00
(I had a coupon for the pork chops as well as for the Steamers which made them FREE!!!)
(ALSO, I made dinner by browning the pork chops and then adding the contents of the Steamers bag to the top of the pork chops. As the butter chunks melted they cooked with the pork chops; it was super yummy!! I will definitely do that again!!)

Last Thursday:
chicken thighs in the crockpot w/seasoning - 2.5 lbs. $2.50
Cheesy broccoli rice (Green Giant Steamers) - 2 bags $0.00
corn (Green Giant Steamers) $0.00
Rice and gravy (for picky kiddo) $0.50
Stuffing mix $0.70
TOTAL $3.70
(I had coupons for the Steamers which made them FREE, and I bought the stuffing mixes when they were on sale at Thanksgiving and used a coupon. I may have also had a coupon for the chicken which would have made this meal even more frugal but I cannot say for sure, so I will go with what I know the price was on the package.)

Tonight:
Baked chicken alfredo
chicken - approx. 1 lb. $2.00
penne - 1/2 lb. $0.50
alfredo sauce $0.00
mozzerella cheese $0.50
Broccoli w/cheese (Green Giant Steamers) $0.00
Garlic cheese bread
hot dog buns $0.50
4-cheese blend $0.50
TOTAL $4.00
(I purchased the chicken through Angel Food Ministries a while back and needed to use it up before it got freezer burned. I had a catalina coupon for the alfredo sauce which made it FREE, and I used coupons on the pasta, cheese, buns and broccoli.)

Monday night we had a beef roast with mashed potatoes and gravy, buttermilk biscuits, corn, and rice. I am not sure what I paid for the roast or the potatoes so I cannot price this meal out, but it does split into 2 meals as I will use my leftovers for a shepherd's pie to put in the freezer for dinner another night.

I have been teased by many for hoarding Steamers coupons, but through them I was able to purchase LOTS of FREE veggies!!!

Blessings!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Menu Plan Monday - wk of 1/19/09


Dinner week of 1/19/09:
Mon: creamy italian chicken w/egg noodles and foccicia bread
Tues: pork chops w/scalloped potatoes
Wed: meat loaf w/garlic mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and french bread
Thurs: stuffed chicken breasts w/augratin potatoes and mixed veggies
Fri: (not sure yet; something kid friendly as dad will be at the fire station)
Sat: cream cheese chicken enchiladas w/mexican rice
Sun: (not sure yet; has to be an easy meal after evening choir practice)


Links:
* Mon: http://www.recipezaar.com/Crock-Pot-Creamy-Italian-Chicken-19859 (I marinate my chicken in italian dressing overnight before making this as it really enhances the flavor; I also omit the mushrooms just because I rarely have them in the house.)
* Tues: http://www.tasteofhome.com/Recipes/Scalloped-Potatoes-and-Pork-Chops
* Wed: no real recipe; garlic mashed potatoes are the Ore-Ida ones from the bag, regular green bean casserole, and Pillsbury french bread from the refrig. section of grocery store (all of these items were purchased with coupons while on sale, so the cost is minimal)
* Thursday: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Stuffed-Chicken-with-Scalloped-Potatoes/Detail.aspx (I substituted au gratin potatoes for the scalloped potatoes)
* Friday: dunno yet - LOL~
* Saturday: http://www.box.net/shared/9k863668fs
* Sunday: again, dunno yet~

Great thing is that all the ingredients for these meals are in our kitchen already so I don't have to do any additional grocery shopping - WOOHOO!!!
There are LOTS of other weekly menus posted to inspire you at http://orgjunkie.com/
I hope that you, too, are inspired to plan your meals for the week.
Many blessings and happy "eats"!!