Can you believe I went shopping without using a single coupon?

Well I did!

I made out like a bandit too.

I made two shopping trips this week. I made one shopping trip to both Aldi’s and to Hyvee.

At Aldi’s I wanted to stock up on some fresh vegetables and a few frozen ones too, along with some needed baking supplies.

I bought 3 acorn squash

1 box margarine

1 baking powder

2 pints strawberries

2 pints blueberries

1 bag baking potatoes

1 bag sweet potatoes

1 bag onions

1 box baking soda

2 cans non stick spray

1 bunch bananas

1 bag of sweet peppers

3 bags frozen fruit

1 pint cherry tomatoes

4 taco seasonings

1 bag of fresh garlic

2 cans mushrooms

2 cucumbers

1 can jumbo black olives

2 bags of flour.

Whew….I think that is it.

I spent a total of $43.25.

That was 33 items for $43.25. That makes the average price for each item I bought $1.31 each.

And, I did not use a single coupon. Cool uh?

My next shopping trip was to Hyvee. They had a great deal going on for shredded cheese and butter.

I bought:

4 butters

1 bag of celery

1 box of mushrooms

1 salad croutons

1 chicken soup base

1 beef broth

7 packages of shredded cheese

I spent a total fo $28.07.

That is 16 items for $28.07 with an average cost of $1.75 for each items.

All with out coupons.

I love coupons, but sometimes you can do great even without using them. Just by shopping using the great sale adds and stocking up on those items, can really save you money too.  So, I guess what I am trying to save is that, if you don’t have time or feel couponing is not for you, you can still get some great deals out there on groceries. This means more money for other fun stuff.

I love spending money on other fun stuff.

Who knows, I still might buy that, A Christmas Story, leg lamp. Even if the colors don’t match my house. : D

Here is what I have in my budget for groceries right now.

On February 2nd, I had $115.96.

I added my $75.00.

I spent $73.32 at Hyvee and Aldi’s.

I had a left over balance of $127.64.

I added another $75.oo today.

This gives me a new balance for the week of $202.64.

Let me know how you are doing. I would love to hear from you!

Happy Shopping and Savings!

Becky

A couple of weeks ago at school, a couple of really nice young boys came to me and asked me if they could make some Thomas Jefferson Ice cream in my foods labs. This was for a project for their social studies class.

The next morning, they met me at school bright and early. The had their ingredients and a smile on their face, ready to make ice cream. (What junior high student doen’t like ice cream, even at 7:30 in the morning?)

You can read all about the whole cooking adventure here.

After we were done making the ice cream, I put their ice cream in little containers, and put them in the freezer to harden.

Over the course of  the next three days I saw those nice young men several times.

They came in to get just a nibble to make sure it tasted good.

They came in to get just a nibble to share with another teacher.

They came in to get another nibble to share with their friends.

It was not long before I had to ask them if they had enough nibbles of ice cream left to present to their social studies class.

They told me, “Yes,” while they were getting yet, another nibble.

I have read in ancient ruins of,  “Legends and Lore of Junior High Students”, that Junior High students have hollow legs that they fill up with food. When one leg if full, they simple move to the other leg. By the time they fill up that leg, the other leg is empty. I think I read it on page 96 after the chapter on, “How to herd cats or secrets to keep junior high students in one place.” : D.

After many visits and many nibbles, the ice cream was all gone.

I did not think I would ever see my little ice cream makers again.

Until…..

They came in to give me this.

Aww……..

I also read in, “Legends of Lore of Junior High Students,” that it was OK to cry when they do something extraordinarily nice.

Bring me some tissues and some spoons, I think we all need a nibble of ice cream!

Becky

Hello Babies!

These are my little baby artichoke plants.

They love me!

They love their new house too!

Oldest daughter who does not cook, put the house together. See I told you she was good for something. hehe

Oldest daughter loves artichokes too.

Do you think the onions are jealous?

Is that why the onions are just laying around?

At least the artichokes love me.

I could get all choked up about it. : D

Becky

I am a bad, bad, bad onion mama.

First I did not water them enough.

Next, I watered them too much.

Then, I bought them a new house to make them happy.

Finally, the heat from the new house is steaming the onions with all the extra moisture in the soil.

What is a onion mama to do?

Give up?

No way!

I planted more onions today.

The onions that are surviving are getting pretty tall.

Do they look like future onions?

Don’t answer that hehe….

This is definately a learning process.

Do I laugh or cry?…

I think I will cry from laughing.

Becky

photo credit

Planning a budget is hard.

Trying to stay on budget can be harder.

Right now I have my budget for groceries at $75 per week.

Is that enough?

Do I need to reduce it?

I started with a $75 balance on  Sunday, January 6th.

On January 13th, 20th, and 27th I added an additional $75.00

In four weeks I spent a total of $185.04.

I have a left over balance of $115.96 for the four weeks.

Check out some of my shopping trips, here, here and here.

Do I start fresh every four weeks with a zero balance, or keep a running tally?

Right now, I think I am going to keep a running tally.

Maybe, if I have a bunch of money left in a few months, I will buy something really crazy.

I could buy a replica of the leg lamp from “A Christmas Story.”

Now wouldn’t that be great!

I might look good in fish net too : )

Becky

Super Hero went shopping!

He wanted to take food tonight for a Super Bowl Party he was going to.

I told him today that at our local Patricia’s store they were having a 5 hour Super Bowl Sale.

Patricia’s had their Hillshire Farms little smokies on sale for $1.99 and I happen to have, ten .55 cent coupons for them.

With double coupons, that would mean he would get each bag for just .99 cents.

At 12.10 pm he went to Patricia’s and came back with his 10 packages of little smokies.

I traded him some little smokies for some BBQ sauce and I even let him borrow my crock pot.

With a crock pot full of BBQ little smokies, I bet his friends will think he is a Super Hero too!

Go Super Bowl….or rather… Go Commercials!

I love the commercials.

Becky

Our local Schnucks store was offering to double coupons up to and including one dollar.

Let me say that again….they were going to double your dollar coupons.

So that means…..each $1.00 coupon would turn into a $2.00 coupon.

Hotdiggittidog!!!!!

Schnucks offered this deal a few weeks ago and I just could not make it happen with work, kids, extra stuff after work, sleep, eating….maybe cleaning the house. You know what I am saying. Sometimes, no matter how well intentioned you planned to be, you just can’t make something happen. I totally missed out on the whole double dollar coupons.

Not this time. No siree!

I managed to make it there two times already. I might be able to squeeze in one more time tomorrow. Schnucks is only offering it for three days. If you snooze you lose, kinda thing.

I hate losing…at least on a good deal : D

 Here is what I bought:

3 boxes Jingos Crackers

3 packages of meatballs

2 Planter peanut butters

1 Steevia sweetener

6 Uncle Ben rice cups

4- four packs of Activa yogart

Can you see all the double $1.00 coupons that doubled to $2.00?

Did you see one only doubled to $1.25?

I guess the owe me .75 cents. Don’t worry I did not go and stand in line for 30 minutes for my .75 cents. At least not this time : ).

I spent a total of $7.55.

My second trip:

3 bags of meatballs

3 Planter peanut butters

3 boxes of Steevia

3 boxes of Jingos crackers.

I paid $4.66 for everything.

Did you see that two of my coupons only doubled to $1.99 instead of $2.00. I guess they owe me another .02 cents. I did not wait in line for a half hour to get my 2 cents. But I am starting to want to give them my two cents about their registers.

I also did a couple of great Gerbes shopping trips.

Here is what I bought.

10 Helluvagood dip cartons (don’t call the doctor, I am not going to eat all 10 cartons as I am giving most of it away)

1 Ocean Spray Grapefruit juice

10 boxes of Hefty storage bags (stocking up on freezer bags for my future onions and artichokes hehe)

I spent a whopping $2.51 for everything.

Here is another shopping trip I did, but all I have is the  cash register receipt to prove it. Sometimes I buy stuff to donate to the nurse at school. I was able to get 10 good and natural bars for free and 2 quarts of grapefruit juice to donate and some yogurt and vegetables for myself. I have already given the donation to the school nurse. I put the rest of my stuff in my refrigerator at school. Because of this I was unable to get a photo, but wanted to show you how much I saved.

I spent $2.93 on:

2 steam fresh frozen veggies

1 box baked crackers

1 mac and cheese

6 Greek yogurts

10 good and natural bars

2 Ocean Spray Grapefruit juices

1 Egg beater all whites (this was a E coupon I loaded for a free Egg Beater)

Total spent on all three shopping trips is $17.65

Does this make you want to get your scissors out to clip a few coupons?

You can still get these deals at Schnucks for double coupons up to and including $1.00 until tomorrow Sat. Feb 2.

Happy Couponing!

Becky

Photo Credit

Today I got a lesson in history.

At my school, the eight grade social studies classes are studying the period of time around when Thomas Jefferson was alive .

It seems that Thomas Jefferson was a early fan of ice cream and even created his own recipe.

Who knew?

I had a couple of boys ask me if they could make the ice cream in my foods lab and freeze it for their class presentation on Thomas Jefferson.

Of course I said, “yes.”

So this morning when I arrived at school, I had two nice young men waiting outside my classroom door with their ingredients to make Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream.

Here is the recipe that was made from the deciphered original recipe from Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson Ice Cream

2 quarts whipping cream

1 vanilla bean

2 cups sugar

6 egg yolks

Directions:

Heat the whipping cream on medium heat in a sauce pan on the stove. Add the vanilla bean and simmer for 5 minutes. In a mixer, mix together the egg yolks and the sugar. This mixture will be very thick. When the cream is heated remove the vanilla bean and slowly add 1 cup of the hot cream to the egg yolk mixture. This is temper the yolks (bring up the temperature without cooking the eggs). Slowly add the rest of the cream and mix together with the mixer. When it is all mixed together, pour the ice cream mixture through a strainer or cheese cloth.

Place in the refridgerator to chill for several hours. When chilled, use a ice cream maker to finish making into ice cream.

The boys did not want to use my electric ice cream maker I have at school to finish freezing their ice cream. So, we just put it in tupperware containers and put it the freezer.

Their presentation is tomorrow.

photo credit here is one picture of the gardens at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson

I did not know that Thomas Jefferson could cook….I thought he just planted flowers.

I wonder if I will get a nibble.

It is not everyday you get a chance to sample presidential ice cream.

I will have my spoon ready, just in case.

Becky

Rumble, Rumble, Rumble…..

“Yes, stomach I hear you.”

“I know I only fed you diet stuff all day and you are missing your extra 500 or more calories you are used to having, but can you be quiet already?”

Has this ever happen to you? You are trying to shop, count your coupons, weave through traffic with a cart wearing a cold wet coat, trying to get your shopping done as fast as you can. Then you hear it. The rumble and the deep voice saying, “feed me, feed me”.

“Ok already, if I buy you some pork chops will you be quiet?”

“Yes.”

After school today, I stopped by Gerbes to buy a few items trying to use some coupons that expire in two days. Some item I wanted were out of stock and some items they did not carry. But, one item that was not on my list and I did not have a coupon for was pork chops.

I was craving pork chops or rather my stomach was craving pork chops.

So guess what? I bought some.

Here is what I bought tonight at Gerbes:

4 bags of Popcorn Indian.  

4 bags of Baked Natural Crackers (I love these with sliced deli meat for my lunch at work)

4 bags of steamfresh frozen vegetables

4 cans chicken of sea tuna

2 packages of Starfish tuna pouches

6-two liter bottles of Pepsi (my son the super hero will be so excited)

4 cans petite diced Hunts tomatoes

1 large packages of PORK CHOPS

My reciept says I spent $24.45

But…

my four coupons for Indian Popcorn was not on there.

So when you take another $4.00 off ( four .50 cent doubled coupons) for my refund using my coupons.

I only spent $20.45 and that included my $13.25 package of yummy pork chops.

I also stopped by Hyvee to get some items that was going off of sale today.

I bought:

2 dozen eggs

4 one pound packages of Farmland sausage

16 packages of budding single serve lunch meat (super hero loves these)

Bunch of bananas (I go bananas over banans)

container of fresh blueberries (I love blueberries)

I spent a total of $14. 60

Total spent this week (so far) is $34.60.

Can you guess what we had for dinner???

Yes, you got it right!

Fried Pork Chops.

My stomach is so happy right now : )

Does your stomach tell you what you should have for dinner? Does it rule the roost, so to eat..no speak?

Don’t worry if it does, it happens to all of us : ).

Happy Couponing!

Becky