Canning Plums - Sweet Plum Sauce

Is there something special about plums that makes them more runny than other fruit?  For the second year in a row my attempt at plum jam has made plum sauce instead.  It's super yummy and folks loved it last year so I guess it will do this year, too.

First I put 1/3 of the plums in the crockpot with about a cup of water.  I counted them as I put them in so I would be sure to fish out all of the pits.  DD#3 is an awesome little kitchen helper so as I scooped out each plum, she did all the pit picking.  We dumped the next 1/3 of plums into the juice, let it cook about 6 hours and repeated the pitting.  One more round and we were done.

This is the plum pulp.  I always think it looks gross, but whatever.

It sat in my fridge for a week before I was ready to make the jam.  I measure out 6 cups and it looked like I could double the batch.  Sure enough, it was just over 12 cups.

My pot was pretty full as I warmed it up.  I added 2 boxes of pectin.  I didn't like the look of the few skin bits floating around so I got out the immersion blender.

The immersion blender is one of my favorite kitchen gadgets.  See how much more smooth it looks after blending up the bits? 

Uh-oh.  Time to add 8 cups of sugar.  Will it fit in my pot? 

Nope.  I had to get out my next-size-up pot.

Once it was all cooked and boiled hard for a minute I poured it into hot jars, and sealed with boiled lids and rings.  Finally, I ran them through the water bath with a 15 minute boil.  After every jar had sealed with a satisfying pop (best part of canning) I labeled them with the date and "sweet plum sauce" since it was definitely too runny for jam. 

It made a little over a gallon.

Katie

Monday Menu Plan

My mom is visiting this week - Hooray! 

Dinners:
Monday - Pizza
Tuesday - Italian sausage & veggie soup
Wednesday - Packed dinner (sausages, carrots, almonds)
Thursday - Skillet
Friday - Roasted beet & potato soup
Saturday - Beef stew
Sunday - Smoothies & Popcorn

Lunches:
Monday - out
Tuesday - scrambled eggs
Wednesday - nachos
Thursday - sandwiches
Friday - French toast
Saturday -Leftovers
Sunday - Tuna Melts

Katie

2014 Week 43 Groceries - $103.73

This week was pretty average on the grocery shopping front. 

I went to Fred Meyer on Monday.  I wanted to get some certified gluten-free hot cereal for DD#2.  We have standard oatmeal & I think the trace gluten has been having a negative effect.  At least I'm hoping that's what the problem is!  The GF cereal was $3.99 but I consoled myself with knowing it's so very much cheaper than cold cereal.  Other notable items - the 10# bag of potatoes was $2.48.  I only needed a 5# bag, but it was $2.99!  Of course I'll buy the 10# instead.  Altogether I spent $36.29 at Fred Meyer.

 

 I stopped at Albertsons just to look for clearance deals on Tuesday when I was nearby.  I'd been scoring some great deals on meat lately, but not this Tuesday.  Rats.  We got candy free with 5 cans of sale soup and decided to try a couple new GF snacks.  The lettuce was $.99 on clearance.  I spent $7.99 altogether. 

 

 I went to QFC Wednesday on my way home from a kid activity.  I scored major clearance produce - hooray!  There were 3 bags of clementine oranges (8-9 each) for $0.99.  I got red band bananas for $0.49/lb.  And I got 9 bags of apples for $0.99 each.  DD#1 and I weighed every bag to be sure it was over 2# so I know at most I spent $0.50/lb.  We also found clearance bagels ($0.99), clearance frosting ($0.99) just in time for Christmas cookies, and clearance Caesar salad (for me).  We also got taffy for $0.50 just to try it (GF).  I spent $25.58 altogether.

 

Finally, I picked up some carrots and beets as part of my bulk buy group.  I spent $21.00.  It was $7.00 for 5# organic carrots and $7.00 each for organic regular beets and Chioggia beets.    

 

I still haven't met my friend for eggs.  Sad!

 

Milk was $12.87

 

Total for 2014 week 43:  $103.73 

Year-to-date 2014: $3,760.53

Weekly Average: $87.45

 

Love, Katie

 

Huge Batch of Applesauce

I had a mountain of apples to can last week and kept putting it off because it was a huge job.  It was just about 100 pounds altogether.

We started at 5PM and all the girls were helping. 

This was our most common set-up: 2 youngest washed and passed apples to me, I cut apples and filled pots, 2 oldest took turns grinding apples as each pot was soft enough.

The two youngest also filled the dishwasher with jars to be sanitized.  One unloaded the jars from a box and rolled them to her sister to be put into the dishwasher.  They were having a great time.

Even a 4 year old can make applesauce!  She was so excited to be up so late!  This was about 9:30 pm.  They were such good little helpers I let them stay up as long as they kept a good attitude. 

We listened to worship, the Frozen soundtrack, and classical hits while we worked.  One girlie took a round of photos.  Here I am in a rare photo appearance. 

My kitchen is a huge mess after canning this much applesauce.  This is the trivet where the hot pots of cooked apples sit while being loaded into the grinder.

This is one burner on my poor stove.  The apple juices just make a huge mess.  Bleh.

But the finished product is always pretty impressive.  We made 42 quarts! 

Our total for the year is now just over 100 quarts.  We went through that by February last year so I'm hoping to get to make even more - depends on if I get any more apples for free or affordable enough.

Love, Katie

Dishwasher Bliss

Oh sweet friends, I wanted to share my extreme thankfulness for my amazing dishwasher.  It was given to us by a friend when our old one was having some trouble.  She saw a post on Facebook where I was asking for ideas on what might be wrong with our dishwasher and remembered it several weeks later when she ran across this industrial dishwasher that was being freely given. 

Let me display it's power to you: 

And look at these sparkling dishes!  I never would have put actual bits of food in my old dishwasher.  It was more of a dish sanitizer than I dish washer I now realize.  I am continually grateful for this gift.  Just feeling blessed today.

 

Love, Katie

Making the Most of a Whole Chicken

I bought a whole organic chicken a few weeks ago and had big plans to post about how to use it efficiently and waste nothing.  This would have been a great post IMHO if I hadn't totally (but accidently)  wasted a bunch of the chicken!  Here's the story:

First I cut up the whole chicken.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much meat there was on it.  I had heard that organic chickens were smaller and in my head that translated to skinnier.  But there was plenty of meat on these bones.  In fact, it was so big I couldn't even fit one of the breasts in my pan and I cut the second breast into smaller pieces to make it fit.  Here's the chicken in the oven.

You can almost always make a nice broth or stock if you boil bones and bits.  So I put the neck, the  bone from cutting up the breast, and other bits into a pot.  I also had every intention of putting the bones from my family's dinner plates in there.

That second breast I cut into strips to bake.  I had just heard a great MOPS speaker who shared about clean foods and giving your kids a protein, vegetable, and fruit and/or carb for their packed lunches.  I thought some homemade chicken fingers might work for my kids since they used to like chicken nuggets.  Those are long gone due to the GF eating.

Well, I popped those chicken breasts into the still warm oven and set a timer.  I was rushing out of the house when I saw the timer was at 4 minutes and made a mental note to call my husband on my drive and remind him to pull the chicken out.  My mental note failed and the dinging timer failed to notify DH. Two hours later I was proudly telling some girlfriends about my chicken achievement when I gasped and realized a whole, beautiful, expensive breast was probably still in the oven.  One friend said, "It'll be chicken jerky."  The other friend said, "I hope not.  Organic chicken is like gold."  I couldn't agree with both more. 

chicken jerky

While I was very sad about the wasted breast I thought I'd still try and make the most of the rest of the chicken.  DH had helpfully had the kids clear their places, but again he didn't know I'd wanted to save the bones so I had less to flavor the stock.  There was also a lot of leftover chicken so I waited another two days to make stock so I could add the bones from leftovers.  I ending up packing lunches with just meat cut off  the bones and the kids ate it much more easily that way.  I didn't realize I'd been raising a pack of snobs who won't eat meat off a bone.  Time to break that habit!

Eventually, I cooked the bones in a pot with water just covering them.  I let it simmer overnight and in the morning I had some nice, flavorful juices.  Here's the 4 cup container it filled. 

I decided to try and make more broth with the boiled bones.  I left the meat bits and broke open the bones when I put it all in a baking pan.  Again, I filled the pan with water and broiled it on high for about 25 minutes. 

View inside the oven.

I was attempting this second broth on a busy morning and turned off the oven when I thought the liquid looked (and smelled) good.  Then I promptly forgot about it in the oven until the next day!  Darn!  I had to thow it all away. 

So my 'using the whole chicken' post is kind of a failure, but I will try again and hopefully won't have so many chicken calamities!  I went ahead and told my pathetic story so you all would know I am so very human and make all sorts of kitchen mistakes as I go. 

Next time I'll also show you how to cut up a chicken.  I had to remind myself how to do it with this bird as it had been so long since I'd used a whole chicken this way.

Until next time,

Katie

Friends of the Library Sale

I scored some deals over the weekend at the library of all places!  The shelves near the entrance were full of books I was really excited to see several American Girl items.  I was even more delighted when I saw the prices!

$0.50 - Tallchief - true story of Native American ballerina
$0.25 - American Girl Pencil Play - word games, puzzles, mazes
$0.50 - The Royal Diaries - Eleanor
$0.25 - American Girl Meet Josefina
$0.25 - American Girl Josefina Learns a Lesson
$0.25 - A Little Princess (classic)
$0.25 - American Girl Yoga
$0.50 - American Girl Kaya and the River Girl

I'm most excited about the small books that will easily fit in Christmas stockings!  Yay for stocking stuffers at bargain prices! 

Love, Katie

Monday Gluten Free Menu Plan

I'm so tired of our limited meals - I need some recipe rejuvenation. Maybe I'll find time this week for some research.

Lunches:
Monday - turkey, carrot sticks
Tuesday - mac & cheese pie
Wednesday - nachos
Thursday - pizza
Friday - finger food lunch
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - with family

Dinners:
Monday - beef & broccoli
Tuesday - pork chops
Wednesday - sausages
Thursday - skillet (eggs/sausage/cheese/potatoes/bell peppers)
Friday - dinner out
Saturday - some sort of soup
Sunday - popcorn & smoothies

To buy: potatoes (have been wanting to buy organic, but haven't found them & didn't want to go to Whole Foods)

Katie

2014 Groceries Week 42 - $114.29

This week I really wanted to limit my spending because the last few weeks were so big! 

I also had a friend mention something this week about how much time I spend grocery shopping and I thought I should clear up any misunderstandings the might be lingering.  I'm super-busy and I don't have time to grocery shop constantly.  Many of my shopping trips are squeezed in 15 or 20 minutes when I'm between errands or already out for an appointment.  I'm typically not making special trips or spending much time at this.

This was a quick visit to Fred Meyer at 10PM on a Monday night.  I had just left my accountability group and thought I'd swing by on my way home to get butter.  I didn't buy it because it was ridiculously priced, but found some other great stuff instead: An organic chicken, 4 lbs of apples for $2.00 and some tomatoes on the vine.  I spent about 20 minutes in the store and spent $12.43.

On Tuesday I dashed into Albertsons with 3 girls while the 4th was at speech therapy.  We were in the store less than 15 minutes.  I picked up frozen corn, some grapes, and this amazing markdown meat.  It's bone-in grilling steak that were on sale B1G1 and had peelie stickers.  I found two of similar size and paid $5.38 total for over 3 pounds.  With grapes & corn I spent $11.67.

 

 

Costco - dashed into Costco for a couple things on Wednesday after a visit to the pumpkin patch.  My aunt & uncle came with us, so they fed the girls half-slices of Costco pizza while I ran in for butter and  string cheese.  I could not believe how the price of butter has increased!  A year ago I spent $8.99 on the Costco pack and thought it was expensive, but this week I paid $12.99!!!  The string cheese was also $12.99 so I spent $25.98 at Costco. 

 

QFC - Later wednesday I stopped at QFC after DD#1's ballet class.  We just milled around looking for clearance deals and I found a lot:  4 bagels for $0.99 ( a kid splurge), 2 lb bags of apples for $0.99 each, 8 oz. fresh mozzarella for $0.99 each (yummo!), a whoopee pie/cookie thing for DH $0.99 (also a kid-prompted purchase), yami plain yogurt $1.79 each, a greek yogurt for $0.39 and 2 deli pizzas for $2.99 each.  The most exciting purchase was not on clearance, but on sale.  A 7 oz  pack of pepperoni for $1.50 which I thought might be cheaper than the Dollar Store.  Sure enough, I looked when I got home and my usual purchase at the Dollar Store is $1.00 for 3 oz.  So this pepperoni was a great sale price.  I spent $17.39 at QFC.

 

I went back to QFC when I was running errands Saturday.  We were out of milk and I was planning to pick up that pepperoni again.  I found lots of other clearance deals include $1.99 for 1# chubs of sausage, $2.39 for 1# packages of turkey lunchmeat, $1.79 for plain Yami yogurt, $0.39 for a greek yogurt cup, 6 mandarin oranges for $0.99, and 3 big apples for $0.99.  I also got some fresh pears.  I spent $33.95 in total.

 

Milk was $12.87

 

Week 42 Total: $114.29

2014 Year-to-date Total: $3,656.80

Weekly 2014 Average: $87.07

 

kp

Small Batch of Applesauce

Last week we made a small batch of applesauce.  A friend had given us a bag of apples that were picked before we left for our 2 week vacation.  Then, the apples were in our fridge for another 2 weeks before I managed to process them in applesauce.

Here is about half the apples.  I had them stored in my fridge in big Tupperware so I could still stack stuff on top of the bins.

Lots of hot 'sauce.

For a small batch I don't bother with the water bath canner.  I just freeze these guys and save the cost of the lids needed when pressure canning.

 

Next up I have about 100 pounds of apples still waiting for me in the garage.  They are newer so could wait longer to be processed.  Plus, it's kind of daunting . . .

 

Love, Katie



Emergency Fund Update

We have been trying to restore our emergency fund for about a year.   Last fall we replaced our family vehicle using the emergency fund because our old Suburban was really dying.  And then we had a car accident and we had to replace our commuter vehicle.  We quickly depleted our emergency fund, you can read about it here, and have been working at replacing it since then. 

We had saved 13% heading into summer, but had to use most of it for a big car repair (hello transmission!).  We would have been able to save more, but we are paying for DH to fly and visit his dad every month and we've paid about $600 twice for the whole family to go visit so the girls could see Grandpa.  So the saving had been going slow.

We were counting on a fall bonus to boost our emergency fund and then the hot water heater went out.  After covering that expense I'm happy to report our emergency fund is at 51%!  It feels so good just have a little cushion.   

Love, Katie

Canning Pears

I had those 85ish pounds of organic pears to process a couple of weeks ago so I got busy canning.  These girls were happy helpers - I paid them $0.10 each for each pear that they peeled.  I have to add that my 5 year old, kitchen-loving, DD#3 peeled just as fast as 9 year old DD#1.  DD#1 was very conscious of how many dimes were in each girls cup and kept checking to make sure she had more, even though it was only 1 or 2 more for the duration of the peeling!  They only peeled one box, but it was worth the couple of bucks to get the canning done that much faster!

Here's the finished product, but we ate at least a dozen raw pears before and after as well.  They were extremely delicious!

 

 

I am not a canning pro, but I've done pears 4 or 5 times so it's pretty low stress.  See previous year here.  My favorite canning website is www.pickyourown.com.  They have instructions for just about everything with color photos to help show the way.  I also rely on my Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. 

 

And now I'll feel good this winter about giving my kids organic fruit.

 

Love, Katie

We Have Hot Water! - update

I didn't want to leave anyone out of the loop so I'm updating about our hot water situation.  I wrote a lengthy post last week on Thursday all about events up to that point.  Thanks friends, for praying for me! 

That day we did not have anyone come to check out the problem.  DH's attempts to reach our friend's friend were unsuccessful. So first thing Friday morning DH called the company who services our furnace and asked about hot water heaters.  They said a guy could come out and have a look that afternoon.  DH explained the whole situation because we didn't want to pay for a service call if the technician would refuse to work on it.  Yes, they would still send someone.

So Friday afternoon I met Pete and he was great.  He was dismayed about the venting situation, but still had a look at everything and eventually delivered the sad news: We need a new hot water heater.  He explained the things that had deteriorated in the heater and how it might be possible to replace or repair them, but the cost and labor would run about $800.  Even then, he couldn't be sure it would work or for how long because it was just worn out. 

Ed and I talked it over and decided that we'd rather have a new one than pay $800 to fix the old one.   We talked about getting a tank v. tankless.  A tank is significantly cheaper but due to the space in our utility room and all the plumbing and structure already fitted for a tankless heater we decided to dip deep into our emergency fund and get another tankless.  Also, we figured over the life of the heater we could definitely justify the tankless as soon enough we'll have 4 daughters showering everyday and a need for more than 40 or 50 gallons of hot water in a given morning. 

I called my brother Friday evening and he agreed to come install the heater for us AND fix the venting problem.  I am sooooo thankful and blessed.  Would you believe he got up at 4AM on Saturday, drove 7 hours to our house (stopping on the way to buy the hot water heater while he was still in Oregon to save us sales tax), then proceeded to work hard until 10PM when he got back in his car to drive virtually all night to get home by Sunday?  Crazy!  And again, soooo thankful.

All the kids got a bath Sunday morning and DH and I enjoyed glorious, hot showers instead of a sink of warm water for our morning ministrations.  Hooray! 

The best part is that this new hot water heater is even better than the old one.  It can heat more gallons per minute so I can actually run the clothes washer or dishwasher while someone is in the shower!  And the kitchen faucet will actually pull hot water all by itself!  Previously, the faucet water had to travel so far it never got warm unless a bigger appliance was pulling a bigger amount of water all the way to the kichen/laundry room.  Now it takes about a minute, but the hot water does come to my kitchen sink!  I am in hot water heaven! 

Thanks for reading and caring.  Love, Katie

Monday Menu Plan

Ah, back in the saddle.  It feels so good to be hammering out a plan.  We've been trying to eat more gluten free meals with better or organic meats and for the first time in my life I feel at a loss sometimes for what to make.  I think with the diet changes the meal plan is going to be more important than ever.

I'm so glad I got some good grocery shopping in this weekend! 

Lunches:
Monday - packed lunch - sausages (slices), cucumbers, deviled egg
Tuesday - Tortellini & leftover beef stroganoff for DD#2
Wednesday - packed lunch - chicken breast, grapes, cheese
Thursday - packed lunch - nachos, cucumbers
Friday - corndogs, grapes
Saturday - Mac'n'Cheese Pie
Sunday - leftovers

Dinners:
Monday - Beef Stroganoff, zucchini
Tuesday - family visiting - lemon chicken, acorn squash
Wednesday - packed dinner - sausage, carrots, trail mix
Thursday - Breakfast for dinner - pancakes
Friday - Egg Casserole
Saturday - Wedding! - kids eat homemade pizza (small gf one for DD#2)
Sunday - Smoothies & popcorn

2014 Groceries Week 41 - $134.93

I didn't do any shopping until Friday and I ended up buying a ton of stuff this weekend.  I also was gifted a bunch of food this week - We are So Blessed! - so the food is just flowing around here. 

On Monday my girlfriend gave me these apples:

 



 There was a 4th bag (from the prior week) that I had already processed by the time I took the photo.  She also gave me a paper grocery bag about half full of plums.  Again, I had started processing them by the time I took the picture, but this is about a quarter of them in the crockpot.

I finally went to the store on Friday morning.  I was committed to making chicken taco soup for 5 families that night and desperately needed onions!  So I went to Fred Meyer.  I grabbed a 5# bag of onions at first priced at $3.00 something, then I realized the 3# bags were only $1.49.  So I got two of those instead.  It was a good reminder that the big package is not always the best price!  I also bought some GF Rice Chex - $2.50 each after sale & coupon, Honeycomb - $1.50 each after sale & coupon, grapes for $1.49/lb, coconut milk, organic yogurt, eggs (for deviled eggs for a Saturday potluck), canned beans because I hadn't planned ahead and cooked beans already, clearance pack of turkey for $2.49 and a few other things.  I noticed an employee putting out more markdown meat while I was leaving the meat department so after I took my groceries out to the car I ran back in for a minute to check.  I was glad I did!  I found sirloin steak for $2.99/lb!  Each pack was over 3 pounds, too.  In total I spent $59.78!

Later on Friday morning I met an acquaintance who had a huge volume of acorn squash to give away.  Seriously, his church has a farm and donates to the food bank, but they couldn't use any more acorn squash.  So his minivan was loaded with squash and I took a big grocery bag full.  Not sure how I'll use it yet, but squash keeps so long I am not in a hurry.

Sudnay I went to Albertsons after church to get sale GF corndogs, but they didn't have any! I also got eggs for $1.25 a dozen.  I keep missing my friend at church so I needed to stock up.  I got sour cream for $0.99 each on clearance, organic carrots, 4# bag of sugar for $1.59 after sale & coupon and frozen green beans for $0.88 each.  My best find was seriously markdown meat - again!  I got three packages of cubed steak at were marked at $3.39, $3.24, and $3.69 with peelies of $3.00 off, $2.00 off and $2.00 off!  Similarly, I got three packages of pork loan marked at $3.35, $3.18 and $1.78 with peelies of $2.00, $2.00, and $1.00 off.  Seriously - $.78 for half pound of pork loin!  I spent $21.20.  I also picked up a few things at the dollar store for $4.00.

I went to QFC because I had a $4.00 off coupon to use that expired today.  I found lots of clearance including: brown rice noodles for $2.39 each, some clearance corn noodles, a B1G1 turkey sausages that worked out to $2.39 each, 2 bags of six lemons for $0.99 each (great for lemon chicken and GF lemon cupcakes), Annie's shells & cheese for $0.49, plain Yami yogurt for $1.79 and a family-pack of chicken rigatoni for $3.79.  The only thing that wasn't on clearance was the Monterey Jack cheese, but it was on sale for $5.99.  It looks like QFC has all their Kroger 2# cheeses on sale until January 5 at the $5.99 price.  That will be great for cheese trays at holiday parties and potlucks.  I had a coupon for $1.50 off a $7 purchase of meat and that $4.00 off coupon so I spent $37.08 altogether.

 



It was a big week with lots of meat purchases, but I didn't make it to Costco where I needed to pick up some basics like butter, olive oil, and tortilla chips.

 

Milk delivery was $12.87

 

Total for Week 41: $134.93

Total year-to-date 2014: $3,542.51

2014 Weekly Average: $86.40 

 

Katie

Disney Savings Update

We're cruising right along with our Disney Savings Plan.  We're at week 40 and have saved $1,022 so far this year!  Weeks/values left include: $3, $7, $13, $27, $28, $29, $31, $32, $41, $43, $45, $47.

I'm feeling pretty good about our progress up to this point, but I am not excited about saving $356 more as Christmas approaches.  I'll just keep at it . . .

Katie

2014 Groceries Week 40 - $168.37

We came home to a very empty fridge - I had left an unopened half gallon of milk and coffee creamer so we wouldn't have to run our immediately for the basics, but that was about it!

I was also bummed that we still had fruit flies!  There was nothing for them to eat for 2 weeks.  I even ran the disposal to be sure there were no appealing remnants, but no luck.  Oh well.  I know the traps are working because there are flies in them every day, but I want them to work faster!  lol.

With little food in the house we opted for popcorn and smoothies for dinner our second night home, but I was out of popcorn.  I had bulk purchased (and split with a friend) a 25 pound bag of multi-colored, organic popcorn about a year ago.  I am so sad it's gone!  Anway, I went to the closest grocery store, QFC, for popcorn and picked up a few other things. I spent $10.68.

Next stop was Costco on Monday with 3 kids (one was at ballet class).  I want to incorporate more organic and/or better meats into our diet, but I am limited by the budget right now.  I picked up a 10 pound bag of frozen chicken breast for $21.99 and my usual Costco purchases of cheeses, lettuce, and organic tortilla chips.  I spent $59.74.  DH picked up some take-n-bake pizzas that night for us.  He found 2 on clearance at QFC for $5.98 total.  Yay!

I went to Albertsons on Tuesday for the $0.99 hot dogs.  Oscar Meyer has a nitrate-free hot dog I've found included in sales this summer, but they were all out at Albertsons so I just bought regular.  I also swung into the Dollar Store of pepperoni and whipped cream.    Between both stores I spent $17.01.  (not pictured - pita bread)

I was at Albertson's again the next day because I had spotted major shampoo markdowns but I didn't have my coupons with me.  Doh!  I went back for the shampoo deals and picked up 4 quarts of coffee creamer and 2 containers of Dreyers ice cream while I was there.  The food was $12.94 and I didn't take a picture.

And finally, I spent $35.19 at Fred Meyer and $8.96 at QFC on Saturday.  I found a whole organic chicken for $1.49/lb and stocked up on the pudding for $.79/pack.  It's a gluten-free, dye-free snack my kids love and I keep it hidden in a white, five gallon bucket in the pantry so they don't see it and beg.  I also bought coffee and sugar that we were running low on.  My kiddo was excited I bought hot cocoa and the whole purpose of shopping was to buy eggs (not pictured) so I could make deviled eggs for church the next morning.

 

Milk delivery was $12.87

Eggs were $5.00 for 2 dozen

 

It was another big week: $168.37

Total year-to-date: $3,407.58

Weekly Average: $85.19

 

I'm afraid this next week will be a big spending week, too, as I replenish some basic stores.

 

Katie