Whats For Dinner Pea Soup Tonight for under $5.00

Made pea soup last week with the ham bone left over from Thanksgiving dinner, yes some at the dinner did not like Turkey. Glad my sister made a Turkey for hubby and me and a couple of the others.
Pea soup was so good thought we would do another batch. Snowing and cold in Houston. Yes Snowing. I left Minnesota because of snow and here it is snowing. Will melt fast I hope.
Decided to try add a few more items for
Tonight's Thrifty Pea Soup

1 cup of chopped onion cost me .... 25 cents



1/2 Tablespoon of garlic 10cents
oil for sauteing



1/2 tsp of oregano 10 cents
1/2 tbl of salt
1 tsp of pepper
1 cup of diced potatoes ... 40 cents
2 small carrots diced ..30 cents



1 celery stalk diced ..30 cents



1 pound of dried split peas ... 99 cents
8 cups of water or chicken stock ( free I used water )



and diced ham ... $1.62




In a large Dutch oven over medium heat, we sauteed onion in oil until transparent.
Added some garlic, tablespoon of salt, teaspoon of pepper to the onion.
To this added 8 cups of water, small carrots, celery and potatoes peeled and diced and dried split peas. And finally cut up the other half of the ham piece we bought yesterday for scalloped potatoes with ham.
Bring to a boil then simmer for about 40 minutes or until peas are soft. Serves 5 to 6




Turned out great, was so tasty and so frugal. Cost us $4.00 for this pot of soup and we will get 2 meals out of it. We added the left over Pillsbury Grand Biscuits from last night and had dinner for under $5.00

Thrifty Shopping and Several Dinner Ideas

Pantry is full but still needed a couple of items to make it through the week. Went to Randall's to buy a Rotisserie Chicken and since I had 12 boxes of Betty Crocker Au Gratin Potatoes ( have coupons for Cola bottles) figured it was a good idea to buy a ham slice.

Picked up a bag of peas to make pea soup with part of the ham slice.

So for a few items in the pantry and $ 10.56 spent at Randall's I have at least 5 + dinners

Ham and Scalloped Potatoes with Pillsbury Grands ( have a few in the refrid)

Pea Soup with left over Grands

Chicken with potatoes, I bought 10 pounds earlier this week.

Pea Soup later in the week

and with left over chicken we can a have home made Chicken soup. Our recipe is fantastic and that will give us more than 1 meal.

Good tasting and frugal eating. Plus I added a bag of Tidy Cat Litter that I had a coupon for and had added to my Randall's card from one of the Internet sites. Tidy cat ended up costing us 79 cents.

20 Ways To Save At The Grocery Store

I just read a great posting on 20 ways to save at the grocery store. All put together nice and clear. Take a jump over there to read what Wicked Cool Deals has to say.

http://www.wickedcooldeals.com/2009/02/20-ways-to-save-at-grocery-store.html

I use most of these ideas and feel it is important not only to save for my own family but hopefully be an example for others in my family. In turn I want to be able to help you out there reading to save money on groceries and eating out.

I have made so many mistakes, have spent so many years not using coupons seriously or doing rebates. Today I look forward to reading the grocery ads and blogs to find the best deals.

We have never had so much food in our pantry ever. My pantry is getting fuller by the day. I have a main list on my pantry door telling me what I have and how much.

It gives me a sense of comfort knowing I have a good stock of coffee, soup , food items, and laundry products. If it was necessary, I could go without buying some of these items from a few weeks to months.

Eating Out On Less Dollars .. Using a Coupon at a Pizza Joint

Today was the last day of a 6 days of Tax classes. Glad it is over for the time being.

We planned ahead and knew there was a CiCi Pizza place within blocks of school. Had never been there before so perfect time to try it out.

Ci Ci is a Pizza place that is mainly a buffet featuring Salad bar, 2 pasta choices ( same pasta with 2 sauces)

and several types of Pizza to choose from plus cheesy bread. They even have a couple of desert choices like pizza crust with a apple pie filling ( to sweet for me)

Food was good, prices fair, and they kept busy adding more Hot Pizzas and picking up plates. Cost of Entertainment Book $30.00

Total saved $5.00 with coupon today .. Total of bill $10.36 .. Total saved so far $10.00

Eating Out On Less Dollars .. Using a Coupon at a Sports Bar and Grill

As many of you know hubby and I eat out at lunch time alot. We wander around looking for things to buy and sell on the internet, we are involved with going to school to do taxes for the third year at H & R Block and usually eat out before class.
To try to cut our costs even more I have bought the Entertainment Book for the Houston area. With using this book and using the coupons from the Sunday paper or local papers we should be able to eat out on a few less dollars.
And we should be able to eat at places we may not have tried before.
Last Sunday we went to church with my sister and her hubby. After church we always go out to dinner. This time I looked in my Entertainment book and found a coupon for a Sports Bar and grill we had ate at once before. Food was okay and was real close to a used book I wanted to visit.
So off we drive and visit the Stadia Sports Grill in Katy Texas.
What was I thinking every TV was on and all to different football games. We are not sports people and it was blaring loud in there.
Oh well everyone else was happy and enjoying the football games and that is really what it is about.
Food was very good ( I had a barbecue hamburger that was very tasty and would buy again ) We ate our hamburgers and scooted off to a nice quiet bookstore.
We will probably stop by this sports bar again but it will be in the middle of a week at lunch time when it is quiet like a used bookstore.
We saved $5.00 on our lunch bill ... total of bill plus tip was $11.91 Total saved so far $5.00 with coupons

Organizing My Pantry before and after Pictures

After doing my earlier post about making Thanksgiving and the holidays easier and taking a picture of my pantry, I realized it has gotten out of hand.

I have never had so much food in my cupboard and that is great but I need to start finding ways to use some of it up over the next few weeks. This is not saying I won't buy the great deals I find, but in the same time want to clear out the old as I bring in more.

Right now in my cupboard I have

20 Hamburger Helper ( the majority of these were bought at Walmart on the clearance shelf for 50 cents each and I had coupons

6 Macaroni and Cheese Jiffy cups ( quick lunch )

11 Jars of Ragu Spagetti sauce

13 Betty Crocker Au Gratin Pototatoes ( these have coupons on them for liter Coke bottles)

5 Packages of Velvetta Macaroni and Cheese or Kraft Macaroni Cheese

5 Jiffy Blue Berry Muffin packages

6 Jiffy Corn Bread Muffin packages

1/3 of a package of Instant mash potatoes

1 Pasta Roni

2 1/3 boxes of Elbow Macaroni pasta

4 packages of Idahoan Mash Potatoes

1 Jello pudding

3 Jello

1 package of Taco Shells

1 package of Banquet Homestyle Bakes Creamy Cheesy Chicken Alfredo

1/2 package of Bisquick

1 Free Sample of Betty Crocker Potatoes

1 package of Carnation Instant Breakfast

1 1/2 bottles of Ranch dressing

1 bottle of Italian dressing

5 Bumble Bee Albacore Tuna packages

8 cans of Campbell Tomato soup

3 cans of Mushroom soup

3 Progresso Soup

1 Campbell Select Soup

2 cans of Rotel Tomatoes

10 cans of Hunts Diced Tomatoes with spices

1 can of peas

2 cans of popeye spinach

3 cans of Chicken gravy

5 Jars of Salsa

4 Cans of Hormel Chili

3 Jars of Peanut Butter

2 mustard

3 Lea & Perrins Worchester Sauce

1 Miracle Whip

5 + boxes of Cereal

3 boxes of Quaker Instant Oatmeal

4 + cans of Coffee

2 packages of Taco seasoning

1/2 package of Lipton Soup Mix

2 1/2 packages of Lipton to Go

plus samples of ceareal, and nutrition bars

This list shows what I have a lot of and what I have little of. I will print out this list and cross off as I use items or add items when I buy.

This is just the pantry items need to do an inventory list on items in linen closet and laundry, cleaning areas of home and put a list of that.

There is the before and the after picture of my pantry now. Not perfect but sure a lot better.

Coupons In Your Parade Magazine in Sunday Paper

Be sure to look through your Parade Magazine before throwing out your Sunday Paper. There are some coupons in there.

I found a coupon for $1 off 2 Oreda Steam and Mash Potatoes or Ore Ida Hash Browns, a coupon for $2.00 off The Fragrance Collection by Glade ( nice little gift for some one), $1.00 off Niva Body Wash

These coupons could vary around the country. You may have the same or maybe different. If you find different coupons comment here so others will know.

Thanks for stopping by.. Lets Keep Saving Together ... Grace