All You Grocery Challenge Week 3

Week 3 Menus

Monday: tamale pie; Greek salad with tomatoes, cuke, and feta cheese

Tuesday: pork chops on the grill; potatoes; corn on the cob; romaine salad with parsley, cucumber and grated yellow squash

Wednesday: company casserole (like a lasagna casserole with a sour cream layer in it); biscuits; romaine salad with craisins, swiss cheese, almonds, and vinaigrette

Thursday: cheesy chicken and potatoes; fruit salad; fresh green beans. After dinner we divided up a leftover birthday cake that Jared brought home from work, which the birthday person didn’t want to take home. Greta’s boyfriend joined us for dinner.

Friday: homemade pizza; romaine salad with tomatoes and cucumbers

Saturday: hamburgers on the grill; condiments; hash browns; sliced tomatoes on lettuce; fruit salad. Greta was at a wedding; Heather and Jared went to Jared’s parents’ house for dinner.

Sunday: noon meal-roast beef with herb rub; mashed potatoes; cooked carrots; romaine salad with feta, parmesan, tomatoes, and cuke slices. Dessert-leftover doughnut halves with mango chunks. Evening meal-grazing the week’s leftovers.

Week 3 Notes

The Publix Mystery Coupon item (penny item) at Publix this week was hot dogs. The young men in the house sometimes like to take hot dogs for lunch.

At dinner on Monday the family all agreed that it would have been nice to have cornbread with the tamale pie. I’ll add that to the written menu plan. Instead, some of the family had ice cream or Italian ice later in the evening.

I baked a batch of chocolate peppermint cookies for lunch treats, and to use up some of our leftover candy canes from Christmas. It’s a favorite cookie in this house.

Heather bought some groceries at Publix this week, but they didn’t cost her anything because she spent some of a gift card. She had lost the card some time ago, and found it again last week. It was a wedding gift from three years ago! She bought the penny hot dogs, Silk milk (coupons made them $1.37 each), Yakisoba (coupons made them 19 cents each), ravioli (coupons made them free), Mac and cheese cups (coupons made them free), frozen Starkist dinners (BOGO and coupons made them free), yogurt cups (coupons made them free), juice boxes (coupons made them 50 cents each), graham crackers (BOGO and coupon made it $1), tomato sauce (free after coupon), cake mix (BOGO and coupon made it 15 cents). The little bit this cost was spent from her gift card; no out of pocket.

I got another CVS coupon for $2 off 2 Gold Emblem nuts. Again, I bought two packages of chocolate covered peanuts for 99 cents each. With the $2 coupon they were free. This time I popped them in the freezer.

David got another free sandwich on Tuesday. He had just finished his final exam for summer school, walked by some activities going on for new student orientation, and was invited to spin a wheel to win a prize. He won a “Five Guys” sandwich.

Greta’s art class had pizza for lunch, donated by the art club, to celebrate the last day of summer school on Tuesday.

When I made the cheesy mashed potatoes on Thursday I added a partial carton of flavored cream cheese that was lurking in the refrigerator. It made the potatoes very tasty.

Friday morning I got another free bagel at Einstein’s, using the same coupon from the newspaper that I used last week.

There was a potluck brunch during fellowship hour at church on Sunday. Several people didn’t want to take their leftover food home, so Heather brought it home. We had a bag of doughnut halves (we ate for Sunday’s noon meal dessert), a large bag of bagels, some cream cheese, grapes, grits, and two different egg casseroles. Good eating for the beginning of the week!

Week 3 Purchases

I spent $20.34 at Publix. I bought the penny hot dogs, Hebrew National franks (BOGO and coupon made it $1.75), Lawry’s marinade (BOGO and coupon made it 43 cents), Lawry’s salt (BOGO and coupon made it 85 cents), five in-season fresh fruits, three fresh veggies, four cake mixes (BOGO and coupons made them 15 cents each; we have three birthdays in August), and six boxes of Italian Ices (raincheck on BOGO plus coupons made them 50 cents each. I expect these six boxes to last the rest of the summer). I also used a Publix $3 off $30 coupon.

Chuck spent $3.87 at Costco on a 6-pack of romaine lettuce.

I spent $38.24 at Kroger this week. I stocked up on 13 bags of frozen veggies since they were on sale for 99 cents. I also got 2 quarts of Dannon plain yogurt (sale $1.88 ea), a 6-pk of Danactive (sale and Q made it 88 cents), 6 cups Yoplait yogurt (Q made them 38 cents ea), sour cream (sale $1), chicken breasts (sale 99 cents lb), 5-lb chub ground beef (sale $1.68 lb), 4 dz eggs (sale 99 cents), and the only item I paid full price for was a bottle of peppermint extract ($2.69). I also got the senior discount ($2.08).

Heather had the same coupon for $2 off 2 Gold Emblem nuts that I had. She bought three packages of nuts for 99 cents each, minus 90 cents for Jared’s employee discount, minus the $2 coupon made the total 6 cents before tax.

Heather also got 2 bags of peppermint candies at CVS. After coupon and employee discount, she spent 40 cents. She likes to make our favorite chocolate peppermint cookies with these.

David did the Wednesday deal at Arby’s. He spent approx $2.50 for a sandwich and got a free “fruit-thingy” (his words) and no receipt. He said it wasn’t a good deal this week.

I spent $17.97 at Aldi and bought 2 gallons milk ($1.49 ea), 4 8-oz pkgs cheese ($1.29 ea), 6 big cans tomatoes (89 cents ea), can corn (49 cents), 2 cans cream soup (59 cents ea), oregano ($1.09), and 2 dz eggs (69 cents ea).

Our total spending for week #3 was $83.38. That comes out to less than $12 per person, and just under half my weekly allotment. And we ate very well!