2014 Groceries Week 3 $68.60

I had to go the store immediately when we were back in town, but I tried to keep my purchases to just perishables.  I always try to start the year with a Pantry Challenge to use up things in a bulging pantry and freezer.  This year has been no exception.

I dropped in to Fred Meyer for a few items DD1 requested for a recipe she wanted to try and found a couple other things, too.  I spent $14.60 for this stuff.  The coffee creamer was on clearance.

I also stopped at QFC and bought lots of dairy.  The organic plain yogurts were only $2.00 and the bacon was for baked potato soup I was making for two families at church (along with my own family). I regretfully bypassed a couple of things in the clearance dry goods that I would have bought if I wasn't having the Pantry Challenge.  I spent $28.26.

 

I had signed up for snacks at church, but just didn't have time to make anything in our first week back at home so on the way to church we swung into QFC for donuts even though they are ridiculously priced at $0.79 each or about $9.00 per dozen.  So I was really pleased to find 2 dozen in the bakery markdowns and they were decorated in Seahawks colors and sprinkles!  Woohoo!  Those were $9.00 total and I didn't get a photo before they were eaten.

 

We also had our milk delivery for $16.74.  This is increased from 2013 because I switched to organic.

 

Total groceries for Week 3: $68.60

Total groceries 2014 to date: $73.33

Average weekly spending through Week 3: $24.44

 

Katie

 



Thursday Menu Plan

I'm switching my menu plan to Thursdays for now.  My very part-time job on Wednesdays has an excellent perk of leftover food so I will plan on Thursdays to incorporate those leftovers.

I'm also trying to use up food in my freezer and pantry.

Snacks:
Smoothies at least 3 times (uses peaches, blueberries, & bananas from freezer)
Hard boiled eggs
Small rolls with cheese
Honeydew
Cinnamon/sugar toast

Lunches:
Thursday - egg salad on toast & honeydew (leftovers)
Friday - Pizza
Saturday - Big snack before Birthday Party
Sunday - Soup
Monday - chicken nuggets & tater tots
Tuesday - pbj

Dinners:
Thursday - French Toast
Friday - Sloppy Joes (leftovers) & Salad
Saturday - Macaronda & Salad (pantry noodles)
Sunday - Super Bowl - Chili & Cornbread (leftovers) & Salad
Monday - Lemon Chicken (freezer) & couscous (pantry) & Salad
Tuesday - Pizza

Katie

2014 Groceries Week 2 - NONE!

Yep - You read that title correctly.  We were out of town for the whole of Week 2 - Sunday to Sunday - on a Disney Cruise to celebrate our 10th Anniversary.  I'm sure my mom spent some on groceries for our kids, but I also tried to help out by sending along food from my pantry and fridge.

So Week 2 was $0.00

Katie

2014 Groceries Week 1 - $4.73

Well Christmas is mostly put away, but the taxes still loom.  One payroll tax filing has to be postmarked by Friday and there's lots of work to do before then to produce the information that goes onto the form.

Today's a sick day since DD4 has a cough and slight fever.  I decided I'd go ahead and use the 'free' time to catch up on the grocery posts before I forget what I bought!

I actually bought these two items at the very end of 2013, but they fell into the
2014 Week 1 budget.   I spent $4.73 at Safeway.

 

We left town just 2 days later so this is the whole of that week's groceries.  I didn't get milk as we were leaving town.

 

Katie

Quick Update

Hi friends,

I have to start by telling you how weird it feels to write these little 'update' posts.  It's not as though I have a huge readership or that any of you few, dear friends will terribly miss pictures of my groceries!  But I feel compelled to explain myself anyway so thanks for bearing with me. 

I have all sorts of ideas for blog posts and thoughts swimming through my mind about projects & recipes that I want to write about.  Here's a short list:

• Pantry Challenge 2014 is underway
• Grocery shopping so far in 2014
• Goals for 2014 - Savings & otherwise
• Confessions of spending our Emergency Fund
• Economic recovery
• Starting a very part-time job

The fact is I just don't have time yet to spend time writing.  We had a lot of family for extended visits and were out of town ourselves for much of the holiday season.  We were not alone in our house for more than 24 hours between December 8th and January 12th!  Our Christmas decorations are still up and some of the new gifts still haven't found a resting place so the house just feels so messy and cluttered.  If you know me then you know that things must really be bad for me to be bothered by the mess. 

I have several tax filings for our business to prepare and our personal tax return to prepare in the next couple of weeks.  I have a rule that our own tax work must be complete before I help anyone else out, so I try to get ours done fast. 

On a positive note, home educating is going well. We are right back into the swing of things and I am busy looking at options for next year.  We are also all healthy and I am so thankful for amazingly created immune systems.

In short, I hope to get back to writing here soon but I also need to feel like I'm doing my best job as a wife, homeschooling mom, and homemaker.  I just have to get things more manageable on the home front before I get to have fun blogging!  God's not going to care about my blog content but He'll care about how I served Him by serving my family. 

So hopefully I'll write soon, but I expect I will need a few weeks. 

Love, Katie

Happy New Year! And Successful Year-of-Saving Report!

Remember last January when I planned the "52 weeks-of-saving" with DD1?  We planned to save one, non-repeating whole dollar amount between 1 and 52 each week all year long.  At the end of the year we would have saved $1,378 for our 2015 Disneyland trip.

We did it!

Each week we added to our little cache of cash (ha!) and DD1 diligently worked at the sums that grew each week.

Now we have a pile of cash to take to the bank on a special mommy-daughter field trip.

All of Eve's adding:

Some weeks were certainly easier than others and I'm looking forward to trying it again in 2014 with DD#2!

Katie