So Much For Last Groceries

I posted this morning about my "last" grocery trip of March. Then, I got an e-mail from Amazon Fresh that I just couldn't resist. As a new customer they offered me $30 off my order of $50 or more using this code - KLFUYF9VW6 - now through March 23rd.

I just can't ignore an offer like that!

Ever since I raided all the change jars in the house and rolled $26 in coins, my husband has been bugging me to buy him a 12 pack of beer with his portion of the bounty. Undeserved! At least in regards to his contribution to the coin rolling. But I will admit my husband is a hard working, good man who is handsome to boot and deserves a cold beer now and again ;-)

I've been dragging my heels nonetheless (but what about the budget! and all) so I knew this gift from Amazon was the perfect time to buy beer guilt free. I also decided to stock up on flour since, you know, I'm now an expert bread baker and all. I perused The Frugal Girl to find out what brand she likes best, and it was also very economical. I got a 10 pound bag of Gold Medal unbleached and a 5 pound bag of Gold Medal whole wheat.

Then I had to fill in the gaps. Popcorn? Don't mind if I do! More expensive per ounce than Costco, but I figured I could treat myself to a small bag to tide me over. Quaker Oats - our staple breakfast on the weekends, and great for making oatmeal cookies/bars for weekday mornings - a no brainer. Two bags each of frozen corn and peas (won't have to restock those next month!) brought me to just under $50, so I put it over the edge with 3 apples. I think I'll make my really, really, ridiculously good looking delicious pork chops with apple and onions later this week.

Total Spent: $51.80 + $5.99 delivery fee minus - $30 coupon discount = $27.79

Bringing my FINAL March Grand Total to $187.70. Still happy!

If you give the discount code a shot (remember, it expires March 23rd!) leave me a comment and let me know if it worked for you - and all about your bounty of goods!

Last Of The Groceries

Here's to hoping yesterday's shopping trip was the last of the month.

Safeway
3 1/4 oz Yeast - $2.75
Organic Milk - $5.19
Carrots - $1.89
1 lb Canadian Maple Ham Lunch Meat - $5.65
Total: 14.98

Franz Bakery Outlet
2 Loaves - $5.29

That would bring my grand total for the month to...(drum roll please)...$159.91! To say I am proud of that number would be an understatement.

This morning I sent my husband off to work with homegrown sprouts in his lunch! The jar is so full I had to split the yield in two in order to allow light to reach them all and turn them a beautiful green. Let's gaze at the glory, shall we?

If anyone would like to gift me a Canon Rebel or equivalent
on account of it being a Monday, I would be much obliged.

Aren't they beautiful? I can turn the jar upside down and they don't even budge they're packed in there so tight. Lesson learned - less seed next time. I am definitely going to be regularly stocking up on sprout seeds. Growing your own sprouts is just too easy!

Speaking of easy, The Mrs also inspired me to take a stab at bread baking. She is working her way through 200 different bread recipes. It got me thinking of how she must have a whole range of flops and successes, but the point is she's trying. Too often, I let perfection get in my way - it's part of the reason I bought sprout seeds in January and didn't try to grow them until March!

So I picked up yeast (enemy number one) yesterday and came home and just did it - I baked bread. And it turned out delicious!

My Italian Herb Loaf - a success!

Food Waste Friday - Croutons!

Today's food waste post is another victory - I don't have anything to toss! My husband, however, would say differently. He's wondering why I haven't thrown away the four bags of sandwich bread crust that I have in the fridge.

Granted, I should probably consolidate them....

I make my husband a boxed lunch every day to save money over eating out. I once sent him to work with a sandwich made with one regular piece of bread and one crusty end. I got a text message from him that read, "Baby, are you mad at me?"

So, since he has been ever so willing to eat the same packed lunch every day instead of spending money, I have tried to be extra considerate and never force the crust on him again. I always make sure we have a spare loaf of bread, but I can't seem to bring myself to throwing away the crusts! I sometimes have toast as a snack, and I try to use them up that way, but I definitely don't snack on toast enough. My fridge full of crusts attests to that.

For dinner the other night I decided to make a salad with grilled chicken. It was a delicious - and thrifty - meal if I do say so myself. I seasoned one and a half chicken breasts (I tend to only eat half, but hubby can definitely down a whole) with lemon pepper and cumin. I sneak cumin into everything! I grilled that in a cast iron skillet and sliced it up. I chopped up some red lettuce, dressed it with an oil, vinegar, powdered garlic and Italian seasoning mix and threw in some chopped green onions and red pepper.

The dressing was key in this being the most delicious salad ever. I have a handful of tiny Tupperware, and I use these for all my dressings. Just pour in a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, season to taste (or perfectly delicious unseasoned, too) and then put the lid on. Shake for a few seconds and it emulsifies. It's the easiest thing in the world, and I don't spend money on bottles of dressing that live in the fridge for years getting crusty around the edges.

I decided that since I was making salad it might be a good time for me to tackle some of my bread crusts. I chopped two crusts up, tossed them with oil, and threw them in my cast iron pan. I'm sure I could have baked them, but it was a last minute idea that I wanted to cook quickly. I threw in some seasoning - Italian and powdered garlic - and tossed the mixture around the pan until the crusts were crispy. They were delicious!

My husband agreed it was one of the best salads we've ever had.

My fridge is still full of unused crusts, but now they have a purposeful future ahead of them. Maybe I'll toss them all in the same bag to neaten the fridge up a bit, but I'm definitely not tossing them in the garbage!

A Cheap Quiche Recipe

I have loved quiche all my life. Growing up we called it "spinach pie". I'm not sure how many parents could get their kids to eat that, but I guess I've just always been a spinach fan!

I bought some pie crusts this month on sale - 2 packs of two for $5 - but am planning on making my own pie crust from now on, so this recipe could have been even cheaper. I usually put ham in my quiche, but I forgot to get a new pack from Costco. The ham is fairly reasonably priced, and I can usually get 6 quiches out of it, but I was restocking the freezer with a lot of meat this month, so I'm glad I skipped it.

I decided to make quiche anyway when I realized I had some frozen spinach in the freezer. So, I chopped up some bacon and sautéed it with half a large onion. Usually I put the onion in the pie crust uncooked with the ham chunks, but I think this way added great flavor!

I whisked 5 eggs with about 1/2 a cup of milk and added about a cup of shredded cheese. Any hard cheese will do. I've used cheddar, pepper jack, swiss. Last night I used up the last little piece of Dubliner...mmm. You can use cheaper cheeses, but it was the best option for me since the cheese would have been part of next week's Food Waste Friday if I hadn't used it!

Then I defrosted about a 3/4 cup of frozen spinach, squeezed out the extra liquid in a strainer, and mixed it in with the cheesy eggy goodness. Then season season season! Last night I used salt, pepper, powdered garlic, paprika, red chili powder, and cumin.

I usually pin prick my crust and put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 3 minutes before I put the onions and bacon in. It helps the crust that gets covered up bake a little more than it would otherwise. Then pour your liquids  over the onions and pop it in the oven. Bake it at 400 for 15 minutes and then at 350 for 30 minutes.

Quiches are so quick to assemble, and you can just sit back while they bake. I wish I'd taken a picture last night. It was my most delicious quiche yet - and made for a great breakfast on the go this morning!

Update: Made quiche again and added some chopped asparagus - pic this time!

A Note On Milk

You may have noticed (and probably didn't care) that I bought 1% Milk on my last shopping trip. This is actually a huge change for my little family of two.

I was raised on non-fat milk, and on top of really loving milk I really really love non-fat milk. My husband is also quite a big milk drinker, and thinks anything less than 2% tastes like gross water.

Now, milk is really not a frugal drink choice, but we still drink quite a bit of it at my house. Besides being very healthy, milk also helps sooth acid reflux. I have a nasty case of GERD, and a poor case of health insurance. I recently switched from my nifty but expensive drug to a why-am-I-even-bothering to-take-this more affordable option, so I've been drinking even more milk than usual.

Around the same time, I started noticing I was having breakouts. After searching the internetz a bit decided to switch to organic milk. This is a $3 per gallon difference - another less than thrifty move, but balancing thrifty food with healthy food can be a tricky act. I'm no scientist and have no idea if it's even related to the milk, but my breakouts have stopped.

Another plus? Organic milk is delicious! Delicious and extra creamy. After much deliberation, my hubby decided he'd be willing to switch to 1% if we keep drinking organic milk. So, we're meeting in the middle. By having only one gallon in the fridge at a time I'm pretty sure we'll never have sour milk again.

And avoiding food waste is thrifty.

A Quick Safeway Trip

I made a quick stop at Safeway for some things to supplement my big February shop. I knew I was going to need things like milk, onions and sour cream, and I also picked up some canned fruit for a healthy dessert. They were having a $10 for 10 sale on the smaller cans, so I picked up some peaches and pears as well as a big can of the fruit cocktail my husband loves.

All the fruit is canned in pear juice - no heavy syrup for us!

Safeway
Fruit Cocktail - $1.54
Canned Peaches - $1
Canned Pears - $1
Sour Cream - $1.50
1% Milk - $4.99
Onions (.99/lb) - $4.12
Total: $14.15


I'm pretty happy with my total grocery purchases this month. So far I'm $213.53. My budget calls for $250, but I want to get that down to $200 a month so I'm trying really hard to come under. It's probably a good thing that February is so short - March will be a real challenge!

Groceries | February

Felling pretty good about our grocery expenses so far this month. In the name of accountability, I am now tracking not only what I spend but exactly what I spend it on. I think this is going to make a HUGE difference in our food budget and my ability to keep within my limits.

I typically do one big grocery trip a month to Safeway and Costco. I then pick up little things as needed like milk or lunch meat. I'm a little bit worried that I've spent too much this month already, and it's only the 5th. I think maybe my problems with going over are that I spend within my budget on the big shopping trips, but then have too many "little" trips that add up and put me over.

Hopefully keeping track of exactly what I buy as I buy it will cause me to be more aware of how much has already been spent and how much room is left.

So, here's what I've bought so far in February:

Trader Joe's
1 Dozen Eggs - $1.69 (This is the first time I'd realized TJ's eggs are this cheap!)
Red Wine - $13.13 (Total splurge, totally needed that night. That's the after tax price.)

Safeway
2 Bags Timm's Jalapeno Chips - $4.29 each
Brown Sugar - $2.39
Oatmeal - $3.19 (All they had was quick oats, grrrr!)
Frozen Corn - $2.50
Frozen Peas - $2.50
4 Frozen Pie Crusts - $5 (Lesson learned - making my own from now on)
Red Leaf Lettuce - $2.19
Salami - $6.49
1lb Deli Turkey - $5.75 (They were running a special so I bought a pound)
2% Milk - $4.99
2 Loaves Franz Bread - $2.79 (Super sale, bought two!)
Skinny Cows - $4.99

Costco
Timm's Maui Chips - $4.89 (Almost twice the size of the Jalapeno bags!)
2 Flank Steaks - $15.09
3lbs Organic Ground Beef - $12.99
2 Tubs Nestle Tollhouse Cookie Dough - $5.29 each (They applied my $2.50 coupon twice!)
Pantene Conditioner - $5.99 ($2 off coupon)
Pastrami Lunch Meat - $12.99
Potatoes - $7.99
6 Red Peppers - $5.79 (Cheaper than the multi-colored pack)
2 Dozen Eggs - $3.45 (A few pennies more than they would have been at TJs)
Garlic Powder - $4.49
Olive Oil - $17.99
Frozen OJ - $9.99
Laundry Detergent - $11.29 ($2 off coupon)
Pepperjack Cheese - $6.89 (Same price as the sliced stuff, but 1/2 lb more)

Grand Total: $199.38

I'm going to need onions, more lettuce, sour cream, and a couple more gallons of milk before the month is over. I'm hoping that is it. We have frozen chicken breasts, shrimp, and sausage in the deep freeze, plus chicken pieces and broth for soup and tuna for sandwiches. It should be enough to get us through 24 more dinners. I definitely have enough chips and cookie dough to get through my hubby's lunches. I bought more than is necessary, but I wanted to stock up while Costco still had the cookie dough on sale and the chips in stock. I know I should start making my own cookies, but for 80 oz of our favorite cookie dough I couldn't pass up the price. The same cookie dough would have cost me the same amount on sale at Safeway for only 36oz!

I might have to get another loaf of bread and half a pound of lunch meat towards the end of the month. I'm excited to stop in at the Franz Bakery Outlet for the first time. It is basically across the street from my Safeway, but I've never been in. I can't wait to compare prices!

I completely forgot to buy ham at Costco for quiches. I'm also out of spinach. Those way-too-expensive frozen crusts are really annoying me now, and I don't even need any quiche to make it through the month. Maybe I can return them to Safeway? Is that really weird? Where else do you think I could be saving on my grocery budget? Technically I've allotted myself $250 for the month. I know I can make it, but I really want to come in under!

Staying Accountable To My Budget

I recently created a detailed budget for myself. I have $100 to spend on miscellaneous items, and I've allotted myself a total budget for groceries and gas of $325 every month. The problem with budgeting isn't so much creating a budget - it's sticking to it.

At the end of every month I've been tallying that months spending. This month I spent $106.66 in the miscellaneous category. This included my antique store purchases, a Groupon certificate for half off at happy hour, lunch with the hubby's grandmother, the Living Social certificate which I applied to buying sprout seeds (can't wait to start this project - hopefully a money saver!) and a late fee and interest. No, I'm not perfect, and I'm super annoyed with myself for this one. I thought I had all of my ducks in order before leaving for the holidays, but I forgot to schedule the payment on one of my credit cards. Usually I can get the late fee reversed (while still eating the interest) but apparently I had done that last March, and USBank is only being lenient once a year.

I decided to include the late fee and interest in my miscellaneous category to really make it hurt. It's frustrating to know that the only reason I went over my miscellaneous budget this month is because of that stupid mistake. I assume that my miscellaneous spending is going to be somewhat flexible every month. By this I mean that sometimes I'll go over and sometimes I'll be under because I don't buy cat food or litter every month, or get my oil changed every month. But it's really easy to go a little over $100 a month, and a lot harder to stay under. I'm glad I almost made it, but I'm going to try really hard to be under in February because of the late payment mistake.

I came in just under budget on gas and groceries - $321.49. This is partly because I decided not to hold myself accountable for the $11.79 my husband charged to my card when I sent him out for eggs. He decided to also get 5 concentrated juices. I would never have bought these for him. Juice is expensive, and I try not to buy too many in a month, and typically keep them in the deep freeze in the garage so that my husband doesn't go through them so fast. This time he's already gone through all 5 cans of Welch's, and he just bought them on the 20th!

After reading that Kristen over at The Frugal Girl feeds her family of 6 on $100 a week (and she does it in part by avoiding expensive juice!) I'm feeling a little disappointed in myself for barely managing to feed the two of us on $285 a month (that's $325 minus the $40 I realistically feed the Prius every month). Truthfully I aim at $200 a month, added in $50 when I started making the hubby's lunches, and allot $75 for gas (which is more like what I fed the Lexus). I combine gas and groceries in my budget to give myself a little extra cushion on groceries, since I definitely don't spend $75 on gas anymore. So basically, I'm pathetic. I mean who am I fooling? Myself?

So I'm going to try to be more accountable for my grocery shopping expenses. I'm going to seriously aim at spending less than what I've currently alloted - a lofty goal, since last year I had a difficult time coming in at the already generous budget I've given myself. So I've decided to track even more data! (There's nothing I love more than a detailed Excel spreadsheet :) The last few times I've been to the grocery store, I've kept my receipts and started tracking exactly what I purchase. I've already recognized that I can probably stop paying $2.50 for two frozen pie crusts. It can't be that hard to make crust, right? And I'm pretty sure I can do it for less than $1.25 each. Hopefully I'll be able to plug more of these holes as I take a closer look at my grocery purchases!

Taking Lunch To Work

My husband used to eat out for lunch every day that he worked. I convinced him to aim for under $10 a day, and with a free sandwich every once in awhile courtesy of a Safeway Deli Card sometimes he'd even beat that goal! But just as easily he'd go over, so saying that he spent $50 a week on lunch is being rather generous. I finally cracked at the thought of this money flying out the window - at least $2600 a year! It's not the thing I want to do most in the world after working and then making dinner, but I started making his lunches every night.

I was worried that there might be complaints about variety, but it turns out my husband's real needs revolve around quality quantity, not keeping things interesting. He's a superintendent at a construction company, so filling him up is really the main goal. If he can have his favorite thing in the world - Timm's Jalapeno Chips - he's perfectly happy to have them every day.

Lunch consists of sandwich, 2 chocolate chip cookies and jalapeno chips. I buy a couple party size bag of chips each month (about $10) and pour them each night into a Gladware container to keep them from getting crushed. I also buy a couple tubs of Toll House Cookie Dough each month (about $12). Not only is this more delicious than out of a box and cheaper than at the bakery, but this way they aren't lying around for unchecked consumption. I learned the hard way that if I have a box of cookies lying around to last the month, they'll probably be gone in a week. I bake a week's worth of cookies at a time, and knowing I have just enough or I'll have to bake more keeps me away from them. My husband loves this sweet dark whole grain bread so I buy it even though it's a little pricey. I need about 2 and a half loaves a month (about $12). I buy a big tub of this pastrami at Costco because it too is delicious along with pre-sliced pepper jack cheese. The pastrami is a little pricey, although I think it sells in my store for about $12 - I need to double check - and the cheese is about $5. And then I supplement the pastrami with some salami (about $5) and other Safeway Deli lunch meat (about $10). Top that with a piece of lettuce or some sprouts and he's done.

That totals about $66 a month. I also buy 2 packs of dijon mustard at Costco and tubs of mayo at Safeway which I use in other cooking as well. These last a really long time, so the cost is pretty negligible. Nevertheless, I know I could probably do it even cheaper. I've looked into baking my own bread or making my own cookie dough. If anyone has a great sweet dark whole grain recipe, let me know! I should probably look more closely at the price of cheese that isn't sliced, but the convenience of the sliced cheese is part of what keeps me committed to making his lunches everyday. The easier it is on me, the more I know I will stick with it.

Due to a recent salmonella outbreak, I have looked into growing my own sprouts, an activity I loved doing with my mom as a kid, and I will post on my experience with that soon. I was also inspired by The Frugal Girl to tackle our breakfast expenses by making my own yogurt  and granola bars. I'll post about my experiences with that soon. But all in all, reducing the cost to $66 a week still saves us over $1800 a year! That's penny pinching at it's finest :)

Antique Shopping Thrifty Finds!

I posted a little while ago about going into a thrift store to check out clothing for pretty much the first time ever. This past weekend the hubby and I visited his grandmother and hit up some local antique shops in the morning. I had mentioned to him that I wanted to try making my own homemade yogurt and needed some mason jars to do it. He saw some adorable Balls jars with seals for $3 each. Probably more expensive than mason jars would be, but also so adorable! On top of that, his grandmother had 2 almost identical but larger jars that she gave me! So I came home with 4 jars ready for yogurt for $6. With the savings I'll have making my own yogurt instead of buying it, I'll pay off that $6 in no time.

Here they are after sterilizing them. Adorable? I think so!

As I was walking out with my jars I looked over and saw a cheese dome just like we'd had when I was growing up for only $4. At that price, I couldn't resist. Maybe thrift store shopping actually isn't going to save me money ;) 

Mmmm, cheesy goodness.

The jars are just perfect for making the yogurt. The big ones are quart sized and the small ones are pints. The cheese dome is something that I really didn't need. I've just been keeping my cheese in plastic bags in the deli drawer of my fridge, and it works just fine. The dome takes up quite a bit of room, while not really fitting all that much cheese since it's round and the cheese is usually...not round. But like I said, for $4 I couldn't resist. I might give it a good wash and put it on Craigslist next month. If I sell it for $10 I'm more than doubling my money. Has anyone else thrift store shopped and sold for a profit? Maybe this could be my new thing in the quest for pennies!

LivingSocial Deal - Free Amazon Money!

Every morning I have e-mails waiting in my inbox from Groupon and LivingSocial. I do my best to resist the daily temptation of fantastic offers on things I don't need. But today, LivingSocial is selling $20 gift cards to Amazon.com for $10! Sign me up for 10 of those! Or just one...you know...since there's a limit of one per person.

Even if I didn't have something specific in mind, I know that at some point in the next year I'm going to need to purchase something from Amazon, and this Penny Pincher is never going to walk away from a free $10. But luckily I've been eying some sprout seeds at Amazon for about a week now. The recent Salmonella outbreak and scarcity of sprouts - a staple of my husband's sandwiches - had me remembering how my mom used to grow sprouts in a mason jar. Not only would that save me money, but now I've got some free money to get started! Win Win Wednesday :)