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.

Frugal Friday---Clothespins

So what is sooo special about these little things called clothespins??? They serve multiple uses in my house! Not only do I use them for their intended use--hanging clothes or diaper covers to dry, I also use them for....

• holding rubberbands! I clip a clothespin to the side of my bill slot on my desk and then hook rubberbands over the pin.
• holding receipts! I superglued a magnet onto one side of the clothespin and then stuck the clothespin on the side of my fridge. This way I have a place when I or hubby come in from shopping, we can clip the receipt there and the receipt doesn't get lost and forgotten before it is registered on the computer checkbook(better known as Quicken!).
• holding chip or cracker bags closed so that they don't go stale!

You can usually find a bag of 50 or more at your local dollar store!

I am sure that there are more ways that I could use these little inventions! What are some other ways that you use these little inventions?

For more Frugal Friday resources, head over to Life as Mom!

Thursday Thirteen--Hinky Pinkies

In honor of National Poetry Month, I thought it would be fun to give you 13 Hinky-Pinkies to figure out.   Highlight the area past the equal sign(=) to find the answer to each one. 

1. a hilarious rabbit = funny bunny
   
   
2. a small violin = little fiddle
   
   
3. a hard molasses mocha = toffee coffee
   
   
4. a happy Tinkerbell = merry fairy
   
   
5. a lawful bird = legal eagle
   
   
6. a stomach full of jam = jelly belly
   
   
7. a weird ape = funky monkey
   
   
8. a young cat in love = smitten kitten 
   
   
9. a tired flower = lazy daisy
   
   
10. a more intelligent boxer = brighter fighter
    
    
11. a fruit that needs a shave = hairy berry
    
    
12. an airplane at a greater elevation than the others = higher flier
    
    
13. a lot of farm land = plural rural

Take some time to figure these out!  Leave me a comment as to how many you knew!  The answers are in yellow, so highlight over the area just past the equal sign (=) to see the two words that make up the hinky pinkie!

For more lists, head over to Happy to be at Home!!

National Poetry Month

One of the tools that I found for helping me put together my children’s curriculum each year is the Educator’s Calendar! I love looking at the different months to see what happened on a day in history or what might be month long events or holidays that I might be able to work into my children’s curriculum. Instead of always doing whatever is in the textbooks, it makes for a fun time of research. 

According to the calendar, I found that April is National Poetry Month!(click on the link or the image below to find out about the history of National Poetry Month)

To find some resources to use with your children during this month of poetry, head over to the rest of my article over at Happy to Be at Home!!