Grocery Shopping Challenge 1/13/11

Friday is when I do my grocery shopping round up from the last week. How did I do. We have a grocery budget of $60.00 a week for the two of us. Sounds like a lot doesn't it. But less than what the goverment lists for a family of two senior citizens on the thrifty side.

My goal is to see if I can cut this down even more so I can build up our emergency fund.

This week shopping was several trips as usual but we pass by the grocery stores often so not out of the way.


Walgreens
2 trips there for the Special K cereal deal spent a total of $10.00 and received back $8.00 back in register rewards. We bought a total of 8 boxes of cereal. I gave 1/2 to my brother and his wife who are living on a tighter budget than we are.
I will need to use these next week so I do not lose them when they expire. I am hoping walgreens has some good deals this next week but what I see posted so far does not look good. I do not need any more toothpaste, shampoos. Maybe I will treat myself to some diet coke. I have pretty much stopped buying this for the food budget.


Super One
Bought 2 potato bread $1.88 each
tomato paste 4 for 49 cents each
bush beans large can $2.19
Skippy peanut butter $1.49
Peter Pan peanut butter 99 cents
Pasta 2 for $2.50
Ketchup 99 cents
Bath tissue $4.94
3 Tomato sauce 49 cents each
4 Chili beans 49 cents each
Branschwigr $1.99
2 Land of Frost lunch meat $2.00 each
Total after using coupons $26.38 total savings with coupons and store sales 38 percent


Super One .. passing by any way so stopped for these items
2 beef broth 67 cents each
4 candy bars 50 cents each
total spent after coupons $3.00 total savings after coupons and store savings 42 percent


Cub Foods
6 Campbell soup sale 39 cents each with store coupon then I used a 25 cent coupon on them
2 jar gravy $1.50 each
1 Lipton onion soup mix$1.29
Sour cream $2.99
total spent $9.37 after coupons and store sales saved 31 percent


Cub foods 2nd trip passing by any way
2 tuna buy 1 get 1 free 88 cents
2 spagetti pasta buy 1 get 1 free 99 cents
2 Pasta sauce buy 1 get 1 free $1.50
1 milk sale price $1.98
2 Kraft shredded cheese $2.59 each
total after spent after coupons $9.53 savings after coupons 37 percent


Cub foods passing by any way
6 more tomato soup 39 cents each with coupon had another 25 cent coupon to use also
1 Roast Beef $11.42
bag of onions FREE
bag of potatoes FREE
bag of carrots FREE
total spent after coupons $13.51 savings of 33 percent


Total spent this last week $71.79
Total for the month $135.51
Left of monthly Budget $$104.49

I will be sharing this at
Grocery Cart Challenge

Frugal Friday Saving Money Eating At Home

Friday is already here. I love Friday because it is the day I add another weeks money to my purse and hubby's wallet. Thursday night I spend time in the kitchen seeing what I may need to get at the grocery store and start thinking about what is on the menu for next week.

Friday's we go out to lunch for clam chowder so that is another reason I love Friday's. We have cut the budget so tight that it is Friday's for lunch and then Sunday morning for egg burritos at McDonald's.

I would rather go some where else for breakfast BUT we can eat the burritos , greasy hash browns, drink senior coffee for less than $6.00 and read our newspaper.

Every Sunday I pay for the Minneapolis newspaper because it has better coupons and articles, but as I sit at McDonald's people are reading the Duluth paper and some of them leave there paper for others to read.

I get to read the Duluth paper and mainly I hope that they have left the coupon inserts for me.

We love to eat out and that is where we can over spend money. There were times that we would go out to eat 4 or more times a week. We have really cut that bracket of our budget. Once we get the hospital bills paid we will add an extra $25.00 back to entertainment budget just for the fun of going out.

Until then if I want Mexican I know that I have a fantastic recipe for beef and green chili enchiladas that is just as good as any out there.

I love barbecue beef sandwiches. We would go to this little gas station/country store for barbecue sandwich's while living in Richmond Texas. I use to love their sandwiches. There is a bottled barbecue sauce at the grocery store that is fantastic. I want to see if I can create one at home that is as good. It is a honey barbecue sauce. Until then I will by it at the store.. I have been out there searching for recipes and printed them so will be giving them a try.

I have ate at many Italian restaurants and I have never had Spaghetti as good as my own meat sauce and the Cheesy Lasagna soup I made recently for the first time is fantastic. Maybe some of these restaurants should search and try out some of our recipes.

So until I can afford to add to our entertainment budget I will continue to hunt for great recipes to try at home from all of you.

Recipes I found just today that I want to try are
Ultimate Chicken Fajitas from siggyspice and
Barbecue sauce from countrycook

Where do you think you have to work to be for frugal or are you so tight that you think you need to loosen up a bit. I can fall under these two examples often. I am posting this at Frugal Friday at Life As Mom check out others frugal ideas there.
thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. and please remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

Want To Save A $1,000 This Year? I Know I Do

This afternoon I found this article on msn. To put it simple it is possible to save $1,000 this year.
This is what the article says. Go to this link to read the complete article.


STEP 1 : Starting January 1, put aside $3 a day (weekends too!) for the entire year. You can slip three bucks into an envelope every night, schedule a weekly automatic transfer of $21 to a savings account, or move one big chunk all at once.
But don't stop there — save $5 a day or more if you can, and definitely continue contributing to a 401(k) plan at work if you have one.


STEP 2 : Fast-forward a year. What do you do with the $1,095 you've saved?

Invest in the stock market through mutual funds by opening a Roth individual retirement account, or IRA, that allows your money to grow tax-free.


sounds pretty good, can I skim $20.00 a week from some where. Pull back $20.00 from food budget. Can I go from $60.00 a week to $40.00 a week? Time will tell but I will be trying. We are two weeks into the New Year but better to start now than not at all.

Step 3:
To read the whole article about where to put the $1,000 you can follow the link . If you are 35 years old or younger you could build up a nice nest egg for retirement.

Now is the time to start thinking about that nest egg. Don't wait like I did.

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together.. and please remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money... Grace

Thrift Store Hunting For Treasures FOUND 1 Rare Cookbook

Today hubby and I went to a thrift store in Superior Wisconsin we had never visited before. Nice and clean, neat and upscale for a thrift store. Up a set of stairs is the book section. Small but neat and priced reasonably. Even had chairs to sit on. I found two treasures to resell on eBay there today.

A somewhat rare cookbook " Tough Men Don't Dice " a cookbook for men who can't cook by James Thorson. This starts out at $28.28 and goes up to a unbelievable price of $103.30. I find it so amazing the wide variety of pricing of books on the Internet.

The other item was a vintage sewing pattern from 1945. A real pretty blouse that shows us the style of clothing and hair styles over 65 years ago.

I will be putting these up for sale later this week on eBay and hope for a fast sale. Do you go thrift hunting? If so what have you found recently?

I am sharing this at Wallet Friendly Wednesday

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together.. Grace

100 Smart and Surprising Uses for Drug Store Items

Good morning everyone
As I drink my first cup of coffee I am reading my emails. Over night I received one from someone who had read my blog. He wanted to share an article on his blog that is for nursing schools. It was “100 Smart & Surprising Uses for Simple Drug Store Items”

Well since we spend so much time in the drug stores shopping I had to read it.
Take a moment and read these tips. Interesting ideas on items we may have in the house already.

Have a great morning.. thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together and please remember
Never under estimate the value of a small amount of money.. Grace

The Saved Quarter Week 1

Over at Saved Quarter there is a Challenge to build our savings. Some want to save a quarter of their income. Some are looking for ways to save or make money so they do not have to dip into their savings account during rough spots.

What ever our goals may be the most important thing is to save what money we can. To build our emergency fund and pay off our debt.

To know where we want to be ... we need to know where we are right now.

The first important thing to do is to make a budget.

They say you should pay yourself first. This is nice if it is possible. For us and many others that just is not a possiblity.

Our budget is so tight that do have enough at the end of the month to do what we have to. We draw the line and then work to make more money.. mainly selling on eBay or amazon. Our main this to sell is books or what ever may catch our eye.

Our food budget is below the national average for 2 senior citizens.

We pay for our own health insurance with hubby being on medicare and paying his supplement and I am not 65 years old so I pay my own health insurance. Health insurance takes 1/3 of our income.

The only way that I can save any money is to sell on eBay which we have done since 1998 to suppliment our income.

This week I was able to sell an item for $75.00.

From this amount plus what I had in my pay pal account already

I paid eBay $20.00 what we owed this month plus a little extra

I paid $13.00 for my year on line refundcents membership.

After all that had $62.00 left.

I sent $30.00 to savings and kept $32.00 for hunting for more to sell on eBay.

Not a lot of money saved but will come in handy if it is needed to pay bills.

If not needed will go for my first goal of $1,000 emergency fund.

And as I always say..

never under estimate the value of a small amount of money. So I am pleased to put anything into savings.

Take a look at what others are doing to save money over at Saved Challenge

Thanks for stopping by... lets keep saving together Grace

Tasty Tuesday What's For Dinner Crock Pot Roast Beef

Good morning everyone

For tasty Tuesday I am sharing a recipe I made yesterday in my crock pot.




Cub Foods had a deal on a beef roast and vegetables. Buy a 3 pound roast and get FREE carrots, onions and potatoes.





I cut the roast in half to fit in my crock pot and browned it first in my frying pan.

Potatoes , carrots were cut and placed in the bottom of crock pot, roast next.

One can of beef broth and cream of mushroom soup added next.

Was set on low and we let it cook for 8 hours while we ran errands . The 8 hours passed but the vegetables were not quite done. I turned it on high for an hour as we sat there hungry and waiting for dinner.

It was fantastic tasting, but I was so hungry I forgot to take a picture of my dinner.

This picture is of the left overs. We will get another 2 to 3 meals out of this piece of meat. It was so moist and I feel the broth and soup were the key to this recipe.

Next time I will start an hour or two earlier. Give it a try .. moist , tasty and so good.

Thanks for stopping by for tasty Tuesday.. Grace

I am sharing this at

Potluck Sunday

Monday Mania

Homemaker Monday

Delicious Dishes

Tuesday Night Supper Club

Tuesday At The Table

Take A Look Tuesday

Tempt My Tummy Tuesday ( at the well this week)

Penny Wise Platter Thursday

Thursday at LifeAsMom

Tip Day Thursday

Grocery Cart Challenge

EKats Kitchen

Foodie Friday

Menu Plan Monday 1/10/11

I love planning my menu every sunday night. Even if it gets changed around some it takes so much pressure off me not wondering " what's for dinner" every night.

Cub food had a great deal in the paper today. Buy a 3# roast and get FREE potatoes, carrots and onions. Now that is a great deal and they had a recipe laying next to the pile of roasts that I will give a try.. will post it after I have tried it.





Monday .. Crock Pot Roast Beef with potatoes, carrots and onions recipe to come

Tuesday Cream Cheese Potato soup




Wednesday Open face hot beef sandwiches with potatoes, gravy and left over carrots

Thursday Hamburger patties with tomato soup sauce, potatoes and corn

Friday Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup

Saturday left overs

Sunday Chicken and Rice with peas





Whats on your menu for the week?

thanks for stopping by.. lets keep saving together.. Grace