Weekly Glimpse of Pantry Challenge #3

Sara over at Learning The Frugal Life is having an "Eat from the Pantry Challenge" during the month of May and I am joining in even though I did something similar last month. I am thinking that doing these challenges is helping me to use those items that have been sitting in my pantry & freezer over the last few months. It also is helping me to keep my grocery budget low and in check as well. If you want to catch up on my progress from the previous weeks you can read here and here.

Here are the happenings for this week:

1. I was able to stretch a pork loin just a little bit further for a meal by using some creativity. 
   
   
2. I once again managed to keep my grocery total for the week under $100!  I went to the bread outlet store this week so my overall total is a bit closer to $100, however, I will not need to get bread for a couple of weeks.
   
   
3. Menu plans went very smoothly this week.  I stuck with the plan all week.
   
   
4. Baking was a little sparce again this week.  I did make up some cupcakes from one of the mixes I had in my pantry for a nice treat for hubby and the kids.

Not much to write about this week, hopefully next week will be a bit different!  I think that about covers the week in the area of food details at Sonshine's house.  Take the time to let me know how you did this week!  Also don't forget to blog about it and then link up the post over at Sara's!

This post is linked at: 

• Eat from the Pantry Challenge at Learning The Frugal Life!

Weekly Glimpse of Pantry Challenge #2

Sara over at Learning The Frugal Life is having an "Eat from the Pantry Challenge" during the month of May and I am joining in even though I did something similar last month. I am thinking that doing these challenges is helping me to use those items that have been sitting in my pantry & freezer over the last few months. It also is helping me to keep my grocery budget low and in check as well.

So here is the results or update of how things have gone this week:

1. I put a new twist to a tried & true dessert recipe with great results! Doing the twist of the dessert used up 16 oz. of cream cheese in my fridge that needed to be used before it went bad!
   
   
2. This was "payday week" so it was time to do some restocking of items that I consider as staples.  However, I was able to do my weekly shopping trip for under $100 out of pocket! There was some good deals at my local stores this week! I should be able to just have to worry about getting milk, eggs, & bread  at the end of next week to round out my shopping for the rest of the month. 
   
   
3. I did my monthly Sam's run this week as well.  This month's shopping trip to Sam's was to restock some essentials along with getting some vacation food so my total was more than I usually do for a month at Sams.
   
   
4. I still need to get some baking done that would help a lot in diminishing some of my pantry supplies. 
   
   
5. Menu plans for the week went very well, I didn't have anything planned for Saturday's dinner but that will be filled up with the family going to a church sponsored event where we can get pizza (all you can eat) for $5 per family!
   
   
6. Before I did my shopping this week, I actually saw bare spots on my pantry & freezer shelves!!  That must mean that we are using up things that are on the shelves.
   
   
7. I know this fact doesn't have anything to do with food, but I stayed home 3 out of 5 week days this week!  That means I still have a more than 3/4 tank of gas in my van! 

I think that about covers the week in the area of food details at Sonshine's house. Take the time to let me know how you did this week!  Also don't forget to blog about it and then link up the post over at Sara's!

This post is linked at: 

• Eat from the Pantry Challenge at Learning The Frugal Life!

Weekly Glimpse of Pantry Challenge

Sara over at Learning The Frugal Life is having an "Eat from the Pantry Challenge" during the month of May and I am joining in even though I did something similar last month.  I am thinking that doing these challenges is helping me to use those items that have been sitting in my pantry & freezer over the last few months.  It also is helping me to keep my grocery budget low and in check as well. 

So here is the results or update of how things have gone this week:

1. I made a new recipe with some of my abundance of browned ground beef in the freezer and it flopped big time!!  I think I am going to have to trash the leftovers because no one wants to eat them!
   
   
2. I didn't seem to take too much out of the freezer or pantry this week!  I gotta get on the stick with doing more baking so that I can move more out of the pantry.  Hard though to do baking when the weather has been sunny and 70°+ days!
   
   
3. Despite having to rearrange the menu plans for this week, we have not gone for take out food! Who wants to turn on the oven when it is 75° outside...that is grillin' weather so I pulled some premade burgers out of the freezer, frozen fries, and purchased some corn on the cob(on sale for 5/$1) for a summertime meal!
   
   
4. I was able to make a meal for a couple at church who just had a baby a week ago! (I got to hold a week old baby girl who was sleeping sooo contently when I dropped the meal off. Oh! such sweetness!)
   
   
5. Last week, my Grandma was moved to an assisted living home so my aunts, cousins, my parents, sister, and I sorted through Grandma's things on Tuesday so they could be put in a yard sale or sold online.  As a result, I was able to get a stack of plastic/Tupperware containers to add to my stash for leftovers and such. When I was finished for the day, my aunt gave me $100 for helping them out.  Since there was only $16 left in my checking account until payday(15th), that $100(still have some change left!) was used for groceries for the upcoming week.  You can read and see pics of my purchases in my weekly shopping post. 

I think that about covers the week in the area of food details at Sonshine's house.  Take the time to let me know how you did this week!  Also don't forget to blog about it and then link up the post over at Sara's!

This post is linked at: 

• Eat from the Pantry Challenge at Learning The Frugal Life!

Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning Challenge UPDATE!

Yesterday was the last day of April which means that my spring cleaning event is officially over!

However, I am finding that I still have several things that were not used up in April!  These things are still good and there are no worries of them expiring even in the month of May but they still need to be used and the amount on the pantry or freezer shelves still needs to be reduced.   So in an effort to use those items up, I am going to continue this spring cleaning and join the fun over at Learning the Frugal Life: Eat from the Pantry Challenge!  

Most of our eating from the pantry will be in the form of desserts!!  Some how I still have 17 boxes of instant pudding and 7 boxes of cake mixes!!  I have several cans of pumpkin and sweet potatoes to make muffins too! As for the freezer there is still lots of browned ground beef to use but not much else in the way of meats!  There is also several packages of english muffins and toaster strudel that need to be eaten as their freezer life is shortening by the day. 

As for April grocery shopping totals:  

Grand Total(food only) was $469.82

Grand Total for the month(food, paper products, toiletries, laundry soap, and cleaners) was $523.37

I have been spending closer to $650/month!!  So I was successful in getting our budget back on track! We have a budget of $525/month. The total also includes my monthly shopping trip to Sam's Club!

Breaking down the grand total spent on food, it translates into $15.67 per day for 3 meals and 2 snacks!!   That is amazing for feeding my family of seven!

So it looks like really taking the time to think throughly about what I have on hand and shopping accordingly is helping me to reduce the grocery food bill and get the budget back on track!  

Now to continue on  keeping my grocery total under $500 for the month of May!!

This post is linked at: 

• Eat from the Pantry Challenge at Learning The Frugal Life!

Out of the Pantry Brownies

One of the box mixes that I just can not seem to get rid of in my house is brownie mixes! However, during my spring cleaning event,  I have decided to work at getting rid of them! I decided to make up some brownies but did not want them to be just "plain ol' brownies".   So I used a couple of my odd n' end items to spruce them!

I took one of the five boxes of brownies that I had in my pantry along with the dozen mini Heath bars and a dab of carmel ice cream topping out of my fridge to make up the brownies. 
First, I unwrapped all the mini Heath bars and put them back into the small Ziploc bag.  Then I took my rolling pin and let out some frustration on the Heath bars to crush them! 

After I crushed the bars, I made up my brownie mix as instructed on the box.  If you don't want to use all the oil that the box calls for you can do 1/2 applesauce and 1/2 oil.  I didn't have any applesauce so I just used the oil actually I didn't quite have the 2/3 cups like the box says but didn't add any extra water or anything and the brownies came out fine. 

Once the brownie mix is stirred well and ready to pour in the pan...Pour about 1/2 of the brownie batter in your slightly greased baking pan.  Then take your crushed Heath bars(or you can use any kind of candy, like leftover Easter candy!) and spread over the top of the batter.  Then drizzle carmel ice cream topping over the Heath bars. Then pour the other 1/2 of the brownie batter over the top of the Heath bars and carmel topping. 
Now your brownies are ready to cook!!  Cook according to the box instructions---350° for 28-30 minutes. 
Once they are cooled...cut and enjoy!  One thing I noticed in doing the brownies this way when I cut into them is that ALL the Heath bars and the carmel soaked into the brownie batter as it cooked!!  I was hoping that the Heath bars would do like what mini chocolate chips do being stirred into the batter. My thinking is that I did not use enough of the Heath bars or that I crushed them too finely or something???  

Despite having all the Heath bars and carmel topping "melt" into the batter, the brownies tasted wonderful!!  They came out nice and thick and rich!!  They made great brownie sundaes for the family!!

This post is linked at: 

• Tempt My Tummy Tuesday over at Blessed with Grace!
  
• Kitchen tip Tuesday, over at Tammy's Recipes! 
• Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam
  
• I am Blissfully Domestic at Blissfully Domestic!

Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning Event Update

After one and half weeks of doing my spring cleaning event, I am sure that many of you are wondering how I am doing in cleaning out those seemingly forgotten or in need of rotating out items that are in my freezer and pantry. 

So far in the month of April(11 days), I have spent $77.42 for food only for my family of seven!  Usually by this time of the month I will have spend closer to $150 for food only.  It looks like that might be all I spend for the month instead!

We have been eating more leftovers for lunches rather than the standby peanut butter and jelly sandwiches so I haven't thrown out any food because it has gone bad before we decided to eat it.

I made a chicken pot pie using the single cans of veggies that would not have been enough for a side for a meal.  Also for the pot pie, I used a container of frozen chicken gravy that needed to be used before it would have needed to be dumped from being in the freezer too long. 

We have not skipped out on the planned menu to order take out instead for meals so this has helped using up the food we have on hand. There was one exception when my parents treated the kids and I for lunch at Bob Evans. My mom had coupons for free kids meals and my meal ended up being free as well so she only had to pay for my dad's and her meal.  

My hubby had a lunch "pitch-in" potluck at work and he was able to take some of the banana bread that I had in the freezer to share with the lunch.  

I am getting low on chicken but still have LOTS of ground burger to use so in the next week there will be more beef on the menu rather than chicken.  I am hoping for a good sale on chicken next week or the following week so that I can get more in the house. 

I am going to put together a bag of groceries for my church's food pantry as we have about 12 families in our church that are unemployed. There are some items that I have in pantry that I bought thinking that I would use but have decided I will not be using them so before they get too close to the expiration date I will pass them on for someone else to be able to use.

That pretty much covers everything for the last 11 days.  

Looking forward to seeing the menus for this next week? They will be posted on Monday!

Weekly Shopping Trip---Savings $51.58

What do you get when you go to checkout at the grocery store in a lane where the cashier has been there for about seven hours and is scheduled to leave in another hour and is frustrated that she hasn't had a break the entire time she has been there????  A tired cashier who does NOT pay one bit attention to what she is doing!!!  She did not scan my bag of chocolate chips BUT she forced subtracted the coupon off at the end of total and she actually did it twice and didn't scan my manufactor's coupon for my cream soup.

Then on top of that....I forgot to give her my 2-$1/1 coupons for Johnsonville sausage and my one coupon for $1/2 Juicy Juice!  UGH!

And of course this all happens on a day when I am running late in getting out of the store so I didn't take the time to check my receipt while I was at the store like what I normally take the time to do.  Spring soccer practice has started so it is imperative that I am at home and getting dinner started around 4pm so that my boys can eat before they do a ton of running. UGH!

So needless to say, I am not sure who should be more at fault here for my lousy checkout...the cashier or me!  

At any rate, here is the breakdown of what I purchased at Meijer:

• Wrigley's Big Red gum FREE with coupon
• 3.23lbs ground chuck $5.33
• 4 boxes Jiffy Muffin Mix $2.36
• 4 bags Freshlike frozen corn $1.56
• 4 dozen eggs $3.52
• 3 gallons milk $5.97
• 10lbs potatoes $2.29
• 4 pkgs Eckrich smoky links $5.45
• 4 cans cream of chicken soup $2.00
• 2 bags potato chips $3.99
• 6 boxes ziploc bags $8.50
• 2 pks Johnsonville sausage links $4.00
• 1 box Oreo Fun Stixs $1.50
• 1 box foil $2.00
• 3 bottles Juicy Juice $7.00
• 1 bag mini chocolate chips $1.25

Total OOP: $56.06

Total Savings: $51.58

Total(without sales or coupons): $107.64

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings or to BeCentsAble's Centsable Savings Stories.

Weekly Shopping Trip---Savings $86.23

This week, I started my pantry & freezer spring cleaning event, so I did not do any stockpiling(other than some meat) and  just worked at getting the necessities to finish meals for this next week.   I was trying to only have to shop one day this week but I ended up forgetting a few things on my list, so I had to venture out again to get the remaining items.   It actually worked to my advantage having to go out a second time during the week because I was able to score some ground chuck for $1.65/lb!  I haven't seen it that low for sometime!  It would be nice for it to hit 99¢/lb again! 

Anyway, here is the breakdown for the week...

Family Fare:

• 5.06lb pork loin $9.06
• 1/2 gallon buttermilk $2.59
• 20lbs potatoes $3.98
• 3-18ct eggs $4.47

Total OOP: $20.10

Total Savings: $22.29

Total: $42.39

Aunt Millie's Bakery Outlet: 

• 2 loaves sandwich bread $1.78
• 6-8ct. hamburger buns $4.14
• 1 bag-24 ct mini bagels 99¢

Total: $6.91

Total Savings: priceless---I love shopping at the bakery outlet for my bread!!

Aldis: 

• 3lbs. baby carrots $2.07(69¢ each)
• 1 head lettuce 89¢
• 2 boxes taco shells $1.98
• 1-32oz beef broth $1.29

Total: $6.23

Total Savings: priceless!!

Meijer(1st round):

• 2 bars Johnson buddies soap 34¢
• 2 tubes Kids Crest toothpaste $1.98
• Cascade Rinse Aid FREE(with coupon)
• 1 bottle Suave body wash $1.21
• 2 bottles Suave kids shampoo $2.42
• 2 containers Land O Lakes butter $1.45
• 7 bags frozen veggies $7.00
• 10 cups Yoplait yogurt $3.60
• 2 boxes Post cereal $3.45
• 3 bags Meijer hashbrowns $5.00

Total OOP: $27.36

Total Savings: $22.86

Total: $50.22

Meijer(2nd trip):

• 10.77lbs ground chuck $17.77
• 2 bags Doritos $3.98
• 1 family size bag tortilla chips $3.88

Total OOP: $25.63

Total Savings: $22.77

Total: $48.40

GRAND OOP TOTAL: $86.23

GRAND SAVINGS TOTAL: $67.92

GRAND TOTAL: $154.15

For more savings stories head over to MoneySavingMom's Super Saturday Savings or to BeCentsAble's Centsable Savings Stories.

Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning--Part 2

I have written down everything on my pantry shelves and in my freezers.  It took me about an hour to get the lists made and some what in categories so that I didn't have to look through the whole list to see if I had an item on hand. 

I have come up with at least 16 dinner meals that I can make from my lists.  In order to finish off those meals, I will need more veggies in the house.  As for breakfasts and lunches, I am pretty sure that I have enough items to match the 16 dinner meals.   

Most of the items that are on my list are things that I need to make homemade goodies, like yeast bread, quick breads, cakes, cookies, etc.   Now the next step is making a list of different goodies to make and making those items over the course of the month.

Next step is writing out the menus for next 2 weeks!!  Stay tuned those will be coming at the beginning of the week! 

The Pantry & Freezer Spring Cleaning Event

My hubby asked me the other day if I would work at spending as little as I could for groceries during the month of April so that we could pay down some lingering debt and get our budget back on track.   I agreed and I see that I am not going to be alone in my endeavors, as I found that Stephanie is going to be doing a month's worth of eating out of her pantry and freezer for April and last week Crystal aka MoneySavingMom did an "eating out of the pantry challenge" .

In order to keep me on track, I thought that I would work at blogging about the "Spring Cleaning" that is going to be occurring in my pantry and freezer. 

I will be purchasing milk, eggs, fresh fruit and veggies during April as I like to keep a fresh supply of these items on hand.  I will also need to get some meats as well because meatless meals just do not go over well with my meat lover family. 

I have bulk staple items like flour, oatmeal, and rice that I need to be using up along with other odds and ends of canned goods, like fruit and pumpkin.  I also have plenty of cake and cookie mixes that I have stockpiled from previous sales that I need to use up as well. 

I will be taking inventory of everything in the freezer and pantry in the next week along with making up meal suggestions for menu planning.  Updated: You can see the inventory results here.

It should be an interesting month!

Anyone else looking to do some spring cleaning???