Mama's Little Loves

Whew! Sorry about the sketchiness of posts this week. Here I did so good last week on posting all of my stuff that I purchased and this week I have done horrible. I have a couple of pictures for you but they really don't even come close to showing everything that I actually got. So I decided to not even show them.

A HUGE eye opener this week was how much $$ I actually spend. I went through all of my $75.00 this week! It was all gone yesterday. How? I am not sure. I also did not do as well with writing everything down. But I will try for a recap.

$5.00 for flowers for Grandma
$12.00 for a half bushel of pears
$8.84 at Meijer
$7.74 at Meijer ( I will be getting $3.00 back from this though)
$20.00 approximately at Walgreens
$15.00 at Costco for bacon for Caleb and lunch for Caleb

That leaves me short just a couple of dollars. I'm not even sure where that went. :( So I did horrible on my budget this week but that means I will just have to work harder next week to ensure that I can recover from it. Caleb will be gone too which will save me $15.00 from Costco. :) Plus I won't be buying any more huge amount of pears. That will definitely help too.

I am amazed though how fast I really do go through the moola for the week. I am not sure how I do it but it is becoming more and more clear to me that I spend the majority of our money not on food but on deals. Deals that are supposed to be free...but aren't. I need to recognize that, move on, and STOP getting so many. Easier said than done. I wonder if there is a class for addiction to deals? Hmmm, might be something for me to check on.

On a side note, I saw this:

"Basic Fruit Leather
Pureed fruit can be dried on special, heavy plastic sheets in your electric dehydrator. To prepare apples or pears for leather making, wash fruit thoroughly, remove seeds, puree in a blender or food processor until smooth. Mixture should be of pouring consistency. It is important to add honey to help keep the leather pliable when dried. If the puree is too thick, add liquid to thin. If too tart, add more honey or sugar. Heat apple or pear mixture to 190° F to prevent oxidization, cool before pouring onto dehydrator trays. Coat trays with a layer of fruit puree about 1/8 inch thick. Dry at 135° F until leathery. Be careful there are no moisture pockets. Roll up fruit leather while warm, wrap in plastic and store. Makes a great, easy to pack snack for any outing.
Applesauce Puree for Fruit Roll-ups
I make applesauce by quartering the apples, trimming off the blossom and stems ends, put in pan and add a little water then simmer stirring frequently, until soft. I then put the cooked apples through a food mill or strainer to remove the peels and seeds. Add about 1 tablespoon honey per cup of applesauce to keep the fruit leather pliable so it can be rolled up. This results in a nice smooth puree for making fruit leather. (If it's too thick to spread easily, add more water.) -KE
Fruit Leather Made from Applesauce Puree
Lightly grease dehydrator trays and spread puree evenly and thinly onto trays. Set temperature at 130-140° F. (55-60° C.) and dry until fruit leather feels dry and pliable, with no sticky spots. Remove from trays and cut into pieces. Roll in wax paper and fasten rolls with a strip of freezer tape. For long-term storage, put roll-ups in freezer bags or quart yogurt containers and store in freezer.

Anybody up for trying? It looks like fun to me! Now I just need to see if either I have one of those trays for my itty bitty dehydrator or if the father in law has one for his commercial sized one. :) Oh the fun of being able to store up food! I am loving it this year!

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge

Here is our menu for this week. There were some of you who were curious about what we eat since all I really bought last week were chocolate covered pretzels and corn. :) Or very close to that at least.

Sunday was grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches. Easy, peasy for a Sunday night.
Monday will be chicken, potatoes (from Costco last week) and asparagus (frozen from earlier in the summer).
Tuesday will be chicken enchiladas. Again, I have all these ingredients and don't need to buy anything.
Wednesday will be pork loin, potatoes, and brocolli.
Thursday will be our hodge podge night. We will eat whatever leftovers there are and maybe make some grilled sandwhiches.
Friday is always up in the air. We like to go out with friends or have people over so we never know what we are going to have.

The way I can shop now is to just stock up on sale items. About every 3 weeks I buy meat unless it goes on sale before then. A couple of weeks ago, Tilapia was on sale at Meijer for $2.99 a pound so I bought 6 bags of it (sold in 1lb bags) of it. We eat about three quarters of a bag at dinner, and just save the rest. But this is why you see very strange shopping habits from me. I don't go on regular shopping trips.
Snacks around here are pretty irregular too. This week will be Fiber bars, dried cranberries, yogurt, pears, 100 cal snack bags, dry cereal (since I have TONS of that), peaches, and maybe bananas if I go shopping later this week. And if we run out of any of that there is more to be had in my storage. I will probably have to go on a fruit run, but bananas should be about all I will buy.
Hopefully I will have pics up tomorrow of the insane amount of deals that I got yesterday. Good stuff...too bad it just comes to so much out of pocket. :( Oh well. The girls and I had a lot of fun shopping and running around.

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge, Miscellaneous

Here is a recap of my $300.00 monthly challenge: Week 1: I had $75.00 in cash to work with this week. Here is what I got yesterday:

Stopped at a garage sale:

1. 1 pair of jeans for myself
2. 4 t-shirts for myself
3. 1 pair of capris for Ambry
4. 4 tees for Ambry
5. 1 jewelry box for Ambry (not pictured)
6. 2 VHS movies (not pictured)
7. 1 play crown for Piper (not pictured)
8. 1 Websters dictionary(not pictured)
   Total came to $15.50.
   

Trip to the mall:

1. 1 Bath and Body antibacterial soap
2. 1 mini pocket antibacterial hand sanitizer
3. 1 pair of panties (free panty coupon in the mail)
   Total came to $1.59!

Trip to Meijer:

1. 15 Del Monte veggies
2. 3 Del Monte pineapple veggies
3. 5 100 calorie snack packs
4. 1 bag of cat food
5. 2 Huggies wipes
6. 3 Fast Shake pancake mix
   Total came to $1.86!! I used a $2.00 OYNO from earlier in this week from another order.

Here is a trip to Costco and Rite Aid that I made earlier in the week:

1. 5lb bag of potatoes at Costco
2. 1 gallon of milk at Costco
3. 10 VO5 shampoo/conditioner at Rite Aid
4. 2 Clean and Clear products at Rite Aid
5. 3 Snicker bars--one not pictured :)

Total at Costco came to $6.94. Total at Rite Aid came to $.06. I used the rest of my gift card on this order. Before gift card, the total was $6.35. I will be getting $5.00 back for buying the VO5.

Also pictured here is some stuff I got in the mail. I got two $10.00 gift certificates from Kellogg's. I also got 5 FREE (up to $4.00) certificates off any STAR product.

I also bought 2 different painters tape for Caleb to finish painting the house. This came to $5.08.

Budget total this week came to $72.01. I came just under my goal of $75.00 a week. Not too shabby. Not to mention, I was still able to do the deals and got lots of extras. Hopefully next week turns out just as good as this week did.

Something I am learning...money gets spent very, very quickly when you are trying to stay on a budget. I also have so much more to learn about all those "free" deals that I get. Yes, they are great deals, but the money still needs to be spent out of pocket in order to get the rebate/ECB/RR back. Whatever the case, I am definitely trying to get these deals figured out so that I can make them even better. :)

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge, deals

Here is the before pic:

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge, Miscellaneous

A lost tooth and a $.32 trip to Meijer!

First up is my amazing trip to Meijer. I will have to make one more trip yet this week since they were already out of the Del Monte veggies. And those are too good of a deal to pass up.

Here is what I got:

1. 1 7.5 lb of cat food on sale for $5.97 (should be the 3.5 lb but they were all out of that one)
2. 3 packs of Huggies wipes
3. 2 Cafe Steamers
4. 6 Grands biscuits
5. 12 Crystal Light packs
6. 1 pack of canning rings and lids (for Tara since her Meijer was out of them)
7. 5 packs of 100 Calorie boxes

Total came to $69.25 before coupons. After coupons and instore savings I paid $11.79. The cat food rang up wrong so I got $6.38 back at customer service. After Tara's canning rings purchase of $3.09, I will have paid $2.32! Plus I got a $2.00 catalina back for buying 6 Grands Biscuits. So after all is said and done it will have come to $.32!!! Woohoo! (I am still counting the cash out of pocket and recording $2.32 though).

Another lost tooth for Ambry! She was more than excited. :) Here is with her second tooth.

And rather than have to subtract money out of my $75.00, I went downstairs and pulled out a notebook and some sparkly markers for her treat. Perfect...or at least we thought so. :)

Since Sunday, that brings my spending up to $17.42.

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge, Ambry pics, deals

I am starting the $300.00 challenge! Esther has been doing this for the last couple weeks and I have decided to jump in now and see how I do. My first day was yesterday and I have spent $15.10 so far. It could have been less if I wouldn't have been in such a hurry and forgot some coupons and didn't figure out each purchase correctly. Oh well.

Here is what I have gotten so far:

Rite Aid:

1. 3 packs of Huggies All Natural diapers
2. 2 packs Huggies diapers
3. 2 Sunday newspapers
4. 1 bottle Proantix--not pictured, but it is a free after rebate item, plus after coupon a $3.00 money maker!!

Total came to $18.71. I had a $25.00 gift card to Rite Aid from a previous rebate and used that to pay for it. After the $10.00 rebate on the diapers and the $6.99 rebate on Proantix, my total will be $1.72! Unbelievably awesome deal for diapers!!

Walgreens:

1. 1 package Carefree pads
2. 3 Sally Hansen nail polishes
3. 2 Scotch Brite scrubbies
4. 2 Thermacare
5. 2 Lolli-pops for the girls (fillers)
6. 1 Sunday newspaper
7. Chalk plaything (filler)
8. 4 erasers (fillers)
9. 2 Root Care moisturizers
10. 1 Aussie hair gel
11. 1 Aussie hair spray
12. 2 Oral B toothbrushes

I split these up over 5 different transactions. If I would have taken the time to figure it out, I could have spent even less. :( Oh well. Total came to $8.79. This was after coupons and RR's ($27.50 used and $32.50 back).

We also went out to lunch with Caleb at Wendy's and spent an additional $6.31. Boy oh boy, does this ever add up fast!

In case you are wondering, I have $75.00 in cash in my wallet--that is how much it comes to per week out of the $300.00. I am counting any type of food, drink, "deal" purchase, etc. all out of the $75.00 a week. The only thing I am not taking out of that amount is gas. We'll see how we do. Here's to hoping for a good week!

Check out this blog here for her challenge. This is where the challenge first started. :)

Labels: $300.00 monthly challenge, deals