Received the grocery sales ads in yesterday's mail. One store is having a buy 10 participating items and save $.50 per item for a total of $5.00 savings.

I checked what the participating items are and found a couple of items that would be great to stock up for the pantry - canned cream of mushroom soup (name brand) and canned fruit in either juice or syrup (store brand).

Regularly priced at $1.00/can; on sale, I'll get them for $.50 each, with the purchase of 10 cans.

I rarely buy canned veg. and fruit when they have the 10 for $10.00 sales - in my opinion, $1.00 per can is not such a good bargain; but at $.50 per can, that's a good deal!

Good find, Bless!

I did a quick run into the store for $40 in produce (carrots, apples, celery, raisin), some specialty breads, our regular cheese, butter, milk, cream, some pasta, olives, and other bits and pieces to carry through the week. I'll do my big stock-up and spend $150 or so this weekend.

Tonight we did bowtie pasta with chicken and mushrooms alfredo, and diner's choice of steamed green peas, broccoli, green beans, or raw carrots/celery, green salad. Brownies for dessert. YUM all the way around! My niece is over--she's not used to eating non-nugget chicken, but did her best with the unfamiliar textures, and snarfed a bunch of steamed broccoli dipped alternating in French dressing or alfredo sauce.

Working to keep budget slim-last night we had tuna fish sandwiches for dinner- about $2.50 for 4 sandwiches(DBF ate 3!)

Big grocery trip today for large item.
Whole boneless new york strip loin for $2.77 a lb! Got a 14lb loin and will trim and slice it tomorrow. They would have done it for free, but I like making different thicknesses and have the knives to do it. Should easily get 20 to 25 steaks for just $35.

Also had a chuck roast special-buy a 3.5 or more (cost $15.88) and got the following for free-3lbs potatoes, 2lb onions, 1 lb carrots, 1 doaen dinner rolls and a tray of brownies. I know what will be in the oven for Sunday dinner! and monday and tuesday lunches. I will also cut the roast in half for another dinner and lunches at a later date.

Slight changes to the meal plans:

Wed. we had leftovers from our lunch for dinner, with cucumber salad.

Yesterday, DD asked if we could get dinner from McDonalds and I said yes.

Today, we are having leftover pancakes for b'fast and salads for lunch. Will probably make the teriyaki beef and broccoli for tonight's dinner; if not, there's chicken curry, garbanzo beans, and green beans.

Did a fairly large stock-up, spending $180, which will last us a little more than two weeks. Some of the meal plans include:

* Party Food! Hot wings, dumplings, stuffed mushrooms, lots of raw veg, pickles, crackers, cheese (this was last night... yum.)
* Mongolian beef, fried rice, pot stickers, lo-mein
* Beef roast with roast veg (son is happy--turnips are included)
* Beef pasties (with leftovers from above)
* Pork roast with rice, veg
* Pulled spicy pork tamales with Spanish rice (pork in the oven now!)
* Chicken/veg and dumplings
* Swedish meatballs with homemade egg noodles and from-scratch sauce, too.
* Pizza/pizza pockets (probably twice, plus lunches... might as well use up all the ingredients, and get lots of eating out of it!)
* Chicken shu mai dumplings, egg drop soup, fried rice
* Build-your-own salad bar and rolls
* Egg stack, diced potatoes, orange rolls
* BBQ meats, raw veg, BBQ beans
* Corndog casserole, Boston baked beans (not on successive nights!)
* Hamburgers on the grill with homemade cheddar buns, seasoned potato wedges

Breakfasts will include pancakes, pear-gingerbread muffins, diced potato hash with eggs, oatmeal (likely multiple times), raisin bread, coffee cake with fruits, and other homemade things, plus some leftovers (after pizza and pasties, particularly).

Lunches include leftovers, soup & sandwiches, veg/cheese/bread grazing.

I have three new recipes to try in the next two weeks, which shakes up the monotony a bit.

The week of Thanksgiving, I'll do two trips to the store, spending $60 each time... $50 on "the list" and the rest on a special-price turkey. My favorite grocery runs a "buy $50, get a turkey for 40c a pound" special each year, and I confirmed that with our friendly butcher at the store. Breaking the last part of the month's shopping into two segments will mean an extra turkey in the freezer for later. I'll repeat the process in December, and we'll have turkey twice more, easily.

I've discovered that if I dice and cook my potatoes until they're very nearly done, I can freeze them, and re-heat/brown without detriment to texture or flavor. I see a HUGE pot of potatoes in my future. LOL Friends gave us about 50 pounds of very nice gleaned spuds, and doing them up all at once would speed dinners and breakfasts a lot for the coming month or two.

I'll also be making and freezing breads/rolls, and some special party foods like spinach-artichoke dip, to be used as gifts or last-minute party additions in the next two months. I have the supplies, and need to make up, gingersnap dough, sugar cookies, oatmeal-raisin cookies, and a few other treats.

I've never been a big soda drinker, but the last few months I've found myself buying it while out and about... I'm going to work to go back to "a person who doesn't drink soda" again. It doesn't affect my grocery budget, but it does affect my "mad money" bottom line!

Did up the tamales today.

Officially: yum.

Financially: $9 for 30-36 tamales. VERY nice. Buying them would be upwards of 4 times the cost!

They do take some time to form, so next time, I'll pull in more family members and it can be social/visiting time as well. Now I know why our neighbors invited over the whole extended family and made hundreds in one day! It could be a really fun "tamale party."

Last night I made a pot roast with carrots, potatoes and gravy. I'll make up a casserole with some of the meat, vegetables, I'll add some mushrooms, and wet with gravy, top with biscuits. It will be a nice casserole.

I'll have to find my new menu plan and post it, too. I feel much more prepared when I can at least work from a list of foods to prepare.

Went grocery shopping yesterday (Sun). Spent $22.08 and bought:

3.5 lb. chicken breasts ($.99/lb = $3.46)
1 gal milk ($2.69)
18 eggs ($.99 with coupon)
1 loaf French bread ($1.25)
10 cans fruit in syrup or juice ($.49 @)
.36 lb green beans ($.88/lb) = $.32 (I still had cooked green beans from last week's grocery shopping)
1 bag potato chips ($2.48)
1 bag hot cheetos ($2.50)
1 chocolate powder ($3.49)

I had wanted to buy some salmon, but salmon was selling for $8.99/lb, so, decided to get chicken breast, for $.99/lb, instead!

Nov. grocery spending = 19.45 + 24.95 + $22.08 = $ 66.48
Balance remaining in Nov. grocery budget = $150 - 66.48 = $83.52


Menus for the week will include:

- Broiled chicken breasts with rice, sauted green beans, beets
- Chicken curry, rice, green beans, leftover beets, zucchini
- Broiled chicken breasts with fried potatoes, steamed broccoli, corn
- Stir fried chicken with broccoli, carrots, red bell peppers, and walnuts, over rice
- Chicken noodle soup (homemade broth, carrots, celery, onions, etc.)

B'fasts: cereal, fruit, yogurt

Lunches: leftovers from dinners, fruit

Changed my plans for the roast due to schedule changes and meals with friends.

The roast was divided into 3 parts and frozen. DBF has an electric filet knife set(big hunter/fisherman) so he came over and did the cutting and portioning of the steaks for me while I was at work. Then he went out and bought steaks, and mushrooms, and we went over to a friends house and had those with onions, brussel sprouts, stuffing and dessert items. Good food, and firends.

He is giving me grief as he hates ramen noodles and they are on sale this week. They are ten cents each with no limit so I bought $3 worth in assorted flavors. I use them as an alternative to spaghetti-no seasoning packet.

Last nite I mixed pesto, onions, feta, kalamata olives and a few shrimp with the noodles for dinner.

The same store also had shrimp for $3.49 for a one pound bag(frozen) so stocked up on that. The freezer is full so the winter, other than the ham for Christmas, will be all the fill in foods, no entrees! And the ham will be from aldi at $1.49 for a really tasty spiral one.

Swedish meatballs and noodles last night, everything made from scratch. The batch made enough meatballs for four meals, so that's two months set. I'll do noodles fresh, though DS suggested rice instead. (He's not big on pasta or potatoes.)

Saturday, I had made several dozen pork potstickers, and those have been tasty as snacks.

BL, tell DBF he's going to be beaten with damp ramen. Good price on the shrimp, and I'm looking to similar prices on hams here, myself! Last year, we bought two, but only got to eat one, as our freezer died. We saved one for ourselves, and gave the other to friends around the corner. This year, the freezer is in good shape.