All You Grocery Challenge Week 1

Week 1 Menus

Monday: lasagna; spinach

Tuesday: chicken tortilla casserole; frozen corn; frozen peas; lemon-blueberry pudding cake. Greta’s boyfriend stayed for dinner; David was sick and ate only jello.

Wednesday: relatives in town for 5 days; they took the whole family out for dinner at Bahama Breeze

Thursday: lunch-tacos; dinner-grilled chicken; rice; salad; squash; brownies (11 people)

Friday: lunch-sandwiches; fruit; brownies; dinner-relatives took family to Sonny’s BBQ

Saturday: Brunch-Swedish pancakes, juice. Dinner-seafood on the grill; hash browns; green beans; carrots; corn muffins; cupcakes and ice cream for Grandpa’s birthday (11 people)

Sunday: Noon meal-pork roast; baked chicken; side dishes contributed by others; cupcakes (18 people for Patrick’s baptism celebration). Evening supper-leftovers; H and J went to friends’ house for homemade pizza

Week 1 Notes

This week we had three house guests (The Professor’s family) for 5 days, Wednesday through Sunday. They took all of us out to dinner twice. I cooked for everyone the rest of the time. And Greta’s boyfriend was a frequent dinner guest. So most meals, Wednesday through Sunday, were for 11 people.

One of our guests, my father-in-law, celebrated his 85th birthday while they were visiting. Instead of taking eleven people out to a seafood restaurant to celebrate, we stayed home and prepared all the seafood he loves. The worst part of it was sending “the guys” to an Asian market to buy the assorted seafood to grill. They spent $59! Ouch! But it was very yummy. We had salmon, scallops, red snapper, calamari, and mussels. We added hash browns (freebies in pantry stock), corn muffins (more freebies in pantry stock), fresh carrots (39 cents lb at Kroger two weeks ago), and frozen green beans as sides, with cupcakes (mix close to free some time ago) and ice cream (on sale last week) for dessert.

On Sunday we had another celebration: our infant grandson was baptized and we invited extended family over for dinner afterward. I supplied the pork roast (on sale at Kroger several weeks ago), baked chicken (from freezer), and dessert of two flavors of homemade cupcakes (made from mixes as above). The others brought the side dishes. There were 18 here for dinner, not counting the baby.

I saved some money by taking up a friend’s offer to pick blueberries at her house. We picked 6 lbs. Most of them I froze in 3 cup portions. Some we ate fresh all week.

David got a free sandwich and drink for lunch on Tuesday when he cashed in a coupon at Chick-Fila. He was given the coupon on a previous visit to Chick-Fila.

The Mystery Q item at Publix this week was salad dressing. It was one penny. I had two coupons because I bought the double Sunday paper. So I split my purchases between two Publix markets and got two bottles of dressing.

Week 1 Purchases

I spent $19.04 at one Publix and $23.11 at another for pork chops (sale), pasta (BOGO and coupons), peanuts (sale and coupons), almonds (sale and coupons), ice cream (sale), milk (free with Q), margarine (BOGO and coupon), sandwich meat, and in-season fresh produce.

Chuck spent $3.87 at Costco, for a six-pack of romaine lettuce.

I spent $4.90 at Entenmanns Bakery Outlet for three loaves of whole grain bread.

I spent $29.55 at Kroger for cheese (part of the Buy 10, get $5 off deal), cream cheese (ditto), raw almonds (sale), eggs (sale), and lots of in-season produce. I didn’t have any coupons, but I did get the senior discount.

We spent $58.77 at Super H Mart for five varieties of seafood to feed 11 people.

Even with all the extra mouths to feed and the overkill on seafood my grand total for the week was only $139.24. I’m glad to see I’m under our allotted $175 for seven.