Menu Plan Monday 10-17-11

Last week's menu went very well. I think that menu planning is definitely a way to keep us on budget and to keep me from wondering what I am going to make for dinner. This week is another week of closing shifts for my husband so I will be in charge of making dinner for 5 of the 7 nights. Here's the plan:

Monday - Chicken Parmesan

Tuesday - Carnitas Tacos (using leftover pork)

Wednesday - Cheesy Potato Soup

Thursday - Shrimp, fries, and broccoli

Friday - Eggs, Toast, Smoothies

Saturday - At a friend's jewelry party

Sunday - BBQ Shredded Pork, chopped Asian salad

Menu Plan Monday - October 10th

We are entering a new phase in our life so I am going to try something new. My husband, Chris, is going back to work after almost 5 years as a stay at home parent. While we are sad that Daddy won't be home as much, we are truly blessed to have my mom watching our children. So in an attempt to stay on grocery budget and to not be running around like a crazy person because I don't know what I am making for dinner, I am going to try menu planning. Here is our first menu plan for this week!

Monday - Lemon Pepper Chicken, jasmine rice, and broccoli

Tuesday - $5 Domino's Pizza (Tasty Tuesday event at our apt complex), cake and ice cream for Lauren's 7th Birthday!

Wednesday - Spaghetti, salad

Thursday - Tacos with all the fixings

Friday - French Toast and Eggs, Strawberry Banana Smoothies

Saturday - Chili and party munchies at Lauren's Birthday Party

Sunday - Leftover night

I am hoping that this will help me get a hang of doing the grocery shopping again and to utilize what is in my pantry first. When I went grocery shopping today, I first checked my pantry to plan my meals. After I inventoried the pantry, I made a list of what I needed to complete the meals. This is a huge money and time saver at the store! Just stick to your list and you won't overspend!

Protein Stock Up

Monday night the kids and I ventured out to Safeway and Harris Teeter. There wasn't a whole lot in the ad that I was interested in this week so I just concentrated on a meat stock up and a few great deals. If you're wondering why there isn't ever produce in my pictures, it is because I usually spend $20-30 on deals each week and my husband spends the remainder of our budget on dairy and produce at Wegmans. Wegmans has the best quality produce and the best everyday pricing.

I had a $3.50 OYNO from Safeway expiring from a granola bar deal I did a few weeks ago. I didn't see anything deal worthy in the ad except chicken. I can always use chicken!

(2) 4-lb bags of frozen boneless, skinless chicken, $10.99
-$8.46 Club Card Savings
-$3.50 OYNO Coupon
Price: $1.25 per pound! Great price for chicken breasts :)

Got to love a savings of 54% on chicken :)

Then we made our way over to Harris Teeter. I really wanted to buy the shrimp and olive oil that were on sale. Unfortunately, there were sold out of the olive oil and I forgot to ask for a raincheck.

(1) 2-liter Sierra Mist, $1.89
-$.22 VIC Savings
-$1.67 FREE item coupon (catalina machine printed this out last week)
Price: FREE!!

(2) CapriSun 10-packs, $2.99
-$2.04 VIC Savings
-$.20 EVIC Savings
-$1/2 CapriSun printable (no longer available)
Price: $1.37 each

(1) Harris Teeter Peanut Butter Crackers, $2.29
-$2.29 VIC Savings (FREE WYB 2 CapriSuns)
Price: FREE!!!

(2) 2-lb bags of Frozen Shrimp
-$34.66 VIC Savings (B1G2 FREE sale - each bag rings up at 66% off)
Price: $8.65 each

(1) Yoplait Trix Yogurt, $2.99 each
(1) Yoplait GoGurt, $2.99 each
-$1.98 VIC Savings
-$.75/2 Yoplait Kids Yogurt MQ, doubled
Price: $1.25 each

(1) Hillshire Farm Honey Ham, $4.49
-$1.15 VIC Savings
-$1/1 Hillshire Farm Lunchmeat printable
Price: $2.33 each

(2) Jimmy D's Breakfast Sandwiches,$4.99 each
-$1/1 Jimmy D's printable
-$4.99 BOGO Jimmy D's MQ (printed out of the catalina machine last week)
Price: $2.00 each

Total Before Coupons and Sales - $82.57
Total After Coupons and Sales - $28.87

That's a savings of 65%! Pretty good savings considering I bought shrimp :)

Combining Coupons and Promotions to Save Money

Many people ask me how I save so much money with coupons. If you go to the store with a coupon for a product, you will save the value of the coupon. This is a good start but there are more ways to maximize your savings. The key is to use a coupon when the item is on sale to get the best deal. You buy as many of the product you will need to get you to the next sale. This way you will never pay full price. I take this even a step further. I am always on the look out for rebates to combine with my coupons and sales. Here is an example of how I combined a promotion, sale, coupon and rebate to maximize my savings.



During the holidays, I received a $10 off your next purchase of $10 or more at Best Buy. So my hubbie and I went to the store to look for a gift to purchase for Christmas. At Best Buy, we purchased two Blu-Ray movies for my mom and her fiance. Here is a breakdown of the Blu-Ray pricing.

1. Buy 2 Blu-Rays (regularly priced at $29.99 and $24.99) - current total is $54.98
2. Minus $10 off sale on one movie and $2 off the other - current total $42.98
3. Best Buy was running a promotion if you bought select movies where you would receive a $5 gift card at check out - current total $37.98
4. Minus $10 for reward certificate - final total $27.98 for 2 Blu Ray movies



So using sales and promotions, I saved $27! But it gets better...there was a rebate for one of the movies. If you purchase 2 Classico Pasta Sauces and Eat Pray Love, you would receive a $4 rebate. :) I was at Target last week so I checked the price of the pasta sauce. While shopping I noticed a coupon on the Classico Sauce, purchase 2 Classico Alfredo Sauces and receive a free Classico Red Sauce. Here is a breakdown of the transaction.

1. Buy 3 Classico Sauces (on sale for $1.84, $1.79 and $1.79) - current total $5.42
2. Minus $1.84 using the Buy 2 Classico Alfredo Sauce and get Classico Red Sauce FREE - current total $3.58
3. Minus $1/2 Classico Alfredo Sauce from the Sunday Paper - Final Total $2.58



By combining sales, promotions, coupons and rebates, I received $60.40 of merchandise for $26.56! That is a savings of 56%!!!! All I did was pay attention and I cut the expense in half! Totally worth it to me. :)

Harris Teeter Super Doubles

Here is my first round of Harris Teeter Super Doubles. This week Harris Teeter is doubling coupons up to $1.98. They will double a maximum of 20 coupons per day. It has been 2 months since there has been a super double coupon event so I was super excited! Here's how I did:

(1) Sorrento Cheese Stick, $4.99 each
-$1/1 Sorrento Cheese Stick 1/2/11 SS, doubled
Price: $2.99 each

(1) Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa, $2.39 each
-$1.14 VIC Savings
-.27 E-VIC Savings
-$2/1 Swiss Miss printable (no longer available)
Price: FREE plus $1.02 in overage :)

(2) French's Honey Mustard, $1.99 each
-$1/1 French's Honey Mustard printable, doubled
Price: FREE

(4) Ortega Flour Tortillas, $2.39 each
-$2.40 VIC Savings
-$1/2 X 2 Ortega Products printable, doublesd
Price: 79 cents each

(4) Peter Pan Peanut Butter, $2.89 each
-$4.88 VIC Savings
-$1/2 X 2 Peter Pan Peanut Butter, doubled
Price: 67 cents each

(2) Electrasol Tabs, $5.49 each
-$5.49 VIC Savings
-$2.25 X 2 Electrasol Tabs
Price: 50 cents each

(2) Colgate Toothpaste, $2.89 each
-$2.89 VIC Savings
-$1/1 X 2 Colgate Toothpaste, (1) doubled and (1) at face value
Price: FREE plus 11 cents overage

(1) Weight Watchers Blueberry Muffings, $3.99
-$2 VIC Savings
-$1/1 Weight Watchers Bakery Treats printable, doubled
Price: FREE

1.02 lbs of Golden Delicious Apples, $1.62

(2) Tony's Frozen Cheese Pizza, $1.49 each
-$0.64 VIC Savings
-$1/2 Tony's Pizza printable, doubled
Price: 17 cents each

(2) Alexia Frozen Fries, $4.49 each
-$3 VIC Savings
-$1/1 Alexia Product printable, doubled
Price: 99 cents each

(2) Borden American Singles, $2.50 each
-$1/1 X 2 Borden product printable (no longer available), doubled
-$1/1 Borden product e-coupon
Price: FREE

(1) Yo-Crunch Cookie Yogurt, $2.89 each
-.89 VIC Savings
Price: $2 each (treat for my little helpers)

(2) Yo-Crunch Yogurt Parfaits, $2.89 each
-$1.78 VIC Savings
-$1/1 Yo-Crunch Parfaits printable, doubled
Price: FREE

Total before rebates, savings and coupons: $80.28
Total after rebates, savings, and coupons: $16.61

That's a savings of 79%!!!! Not bad for my first super doubles trip. :)

The Leaning Tower of Pasta

One of the goals for 2011 is to actively post to my blog. I virtually abandoned the blog about 6 months ago when we moved. Life got in the way and I never committed to posting. But that is all about to change! For my first blog post of 2011, I present the Leaning Tower of Pasta.



This picture includes 37 boxes of pasta that I was able to obtain for absolutely FREE! My hubbie was kind enough to stop on his way home from work to pick up the last 10 boxes. Mueller's Pasta was offering a .55/1 printable coupon on their website. Unfortunately, the coupon is no longer available. I paired the coupon with a sale at Harris Teeter and voila FREE pasta! Most printable coupons only allow 2 prints per computer but the coupon on the Mueller's website had, from what I could tell, unlimited prints.

I'm looking forward to posting many deals and my shopping adventures this year. Thanks for stopping by!

Saving Money at Safeway - Day After the Beach Edition

Sunday I was dog-tired from a fabulous day at the beach with my hubbie and littles. The last thing I wanted to do is go to the grocery store - sans hubbie. He was at work. But with a little planning, I was able to get in and out of the grocery store quickly. You can do it too! This is what I did to make my life easier.

1. I prepped my grocery list on Thursday night by matching my coupons to the sales ad. I knew that I wouldn't be home on Friday night so I did this ahead of time.

2. I checked my favorite blogs to make sure I didn't miss any great deals.

3. I went to Safeway's website and created my shopping list using their weekly ad. Their site is soooo easy to use. :) All you do is click the items you want to ad and print.

4. The most important thing of all when shopping with children. I promised them a treat if they were good!

Here are a couple of the great deals I was able to snag....

(4) Assorted Pepperidge Farm Goldfish Crackers, $2.19 each
-$1.31/1 X 4 Club Card savings
-.50/1 X 4 Goldfish printable, doubled
-.50/1 Shortcuts e-coupon
Price: FREE!!! Plus 98 cents overage!

(3) Kraft Salad Dressing, $3.29 each
-$1/1 Kraft Salad Dressing 6/6 SS
Price: 49 cents each plus $2 OYNO for buying 3 - looks like I made 53 cents on that deal :)

(2) Ball Park Hot Dogs, $3.99 each
-$2.49/1 X 2 Club Card Savings
-.75/1 X 2 Ball Park printable (no longer available)
Final Price: FREE!!!

On this trip, I received $157.40 worth of groceries for $46.99! That is a savings of 70%! Plus I received a coupon for $2 OYNO, a free gallon of milk OYNO and mailed away for a $6 rebate. Not too bad for a Sunday afternoon!