February's Once a Month Shop

I'm trying something new. It isn't perfect, and it is a little outside of my comfort zone.  I've created a video of my grocery haul.  I did a Sam's Club pickup and an Aldi pickup.

I'd appreciate it if anyone has any feedback.

I've already noticed I need to be careful about background noise and the tapping.  I also didn't think about the black frame when I was filming.  Next time I will.

January’s Top Ten Review

The month is at an end so I thought it would be a good time for me to look back over my January goals to see how I did.  

1. Keep grocery purchases to minimal and work on using up what is on hand.
I’m pleased with how we did on this.  While I do not try to separate every piece of household or work related items out, we managed to do pretty well for January.  We spent $385.91 on food and $10.33 on a coffee and fast food meal.

2.  Utilize my planner to help keep things organized.
The planner is fabulous!  I’m able to keep things organized.  Including my school work.  I’m not sure why I didn’t do this before.

3.  Do my best to keep Sunday's free from school work.
This didn’t work.  I did my best, but these classes are intensive and a lot of them have work that is due on Sunday.

4.  Purchase or make Valentine's Cards to mail for next month.
I purchased.  No way was I going to find the time to make them.

5.  Finish the skull shawl I am crocheting. I still haven’t quite finished.  I’m one skeleton repeat and the edging from being there.  Gotta get in gear!

6.  Inventory my freezer. I did this...and I have pasted the list on the side of my refrigerator.  A bit of an eye sore, but I am being faithful about marking things off.  I know if it is too inconvenient I won’t....so this is working.

7.  Continue with my 12 Days of Pintos recipe share. Sigh....I think I got one recipe shared.  I have more recipes.  I’m just having a hard time getting to them.  I promise to keep trying.

8.  Menu plan for the month. I did this.  We managed to stick to it at least in spirit.  In fact, I’ve already made out February’s menu.

9.  Try at least one new pressure cooker recipe. I did this.  I love, love, love using the pressure cooker.  

10.  Don't stress myself by insisting on perfection -- go with the flow. I was hit and miss on this one.  I didn’t do horribly, and I think the only real meltdown I had was related to being sick.  I was just so tired I finally gave up and went to bed in the middle of the day.  A very rare occurrence for me.  

So I am considering this month a success.  Not perfect, but life rarely is.

Opening Food Storage

We don’t keep a lot of food storage on hand, but I do have a few items for hurricane season.

I try to rotate them on a regular basis.  

This one had been lingering and I decided today would be a good day to try it —

A quick and easy dessert.

It came with 3 pouches of raspberry mix, 3 pouches of chocolate cookie crumbs, and 3 “cooking” bags.

Directions are simple.  

Open the raspberries, add boiling water, and wait 5 minutes.

It can be served hot or cold with the cookies sprinkled on top.

Since this was not an emergency situation I altered it slightly.

I poured the raspberries in a dish that has a tight fitting lid, added my boiling water, and stirred.

I put the lid on and let it sit until I was ready to serve it.

A quick dollop of whipped cream because dessert is always better with whipped cream.

My husband loved it!

I have two more packages that I will try to rotate in our meals over the next month or two.

Shopping for Personal Supplies

I spent $23.66 (including tax) on personal supplies.

I was only going to buy 1 package each of foundation sponges and cleaning pads.

However, they were having a sale.  I bought 3 and got 2 free.

Since these won’t spoil I decided to go ahead and pick them up to put aside.

The brush is to replace an old one.  

The cream hair remover is a different brand than I normally use, so time will tell if it was a waste or not.

Chapstick is for my daughter.

I did do one impulse purchase.

These were reduced to $1.89 so I picked one up to toss in my purse.

Household Shopping Expenses

My area rugs have seen their better days.  

I was able to pick up 3 kitchen rugs — one goes in the kitchen, one by the entryway, and one in the half bathroom.

(We have an open area and I like for them to match.)

I went with kitchen rugs for all three because of the price difference.

A “bathroom” rug for the half bath (which didn’t need a shower rug) was $24.99.

I replaced all three of these for $29.97

The soap holder was a need because I have finally converted all of our stuff over to supplies bought in bulk. ($16.99, which I felt was pricey, but the lower priced ones did not feel like they had last power and this one does.)

The sponge holder was to replace my current system, which just wasn’t working for me.  ($6.99)

This was my biggest expense.  

It was originally $59.99, but I was able to get it $10 off.

After almost falling backwards down the stairs vaccuuming the other day I decided enough was enough.

(My last fall down the stairs resulted in 6 months in a wheel chair.)

I’ve already tested it, and it works great.

(My regular vacuum is an upright.)

These are to replace dwindling supplies.

Bandaids were $8.99.

The Downy was $19.98, but I received a $5 gift card towards my next purchase.

Shopping Day Food Items

 

For the office my husband requested canned sodas and bottled waters.

These are for offering to clients.

Sodas were $3.99 each for a total savings of $3.96 so almost got one package free.

(The water was $1.79.)

These are for my daughter’s lunch box.

The protein bars were on sale for $6.99 (a savings of 80 cents).

Cookies were $2.89 and a special request.

I also bought 3 bottles of Skim Fairlife Milk and 1 bottle of Chocolate Fairlife Milk.

Total for milk was $13.69.

Week 4 What We Ate

Sunday — Breakfast was coffee and cheerios.  Lunch was GF chicken nuggets, tater tots, and cheese sticks.  Supper was beef tips in gravy, yellow rice, and string beans.  Yes, that was different than the menu, but my husband wasn’t at home.  We went with my usual rules of not taking anythign away from other meals.  

Monday 

The flu has hit our house or a flu like something.  I was up and down all last night with sick stomach, fever, chills, bodyaches, the works.  My daughter is going okay.  Today I have lived on dry cereal.  Even plain rice and things like that haven’t stayed down.

She had eggs, toast, and bacon.  I was asleep during lunch time, and I think she grabbed something quick from the pantry.  For supper, I heated up the rice, baked some chicken, and heated up some chickpeas.  A bland looking plate.  I thought I was feeling better, and it all sounded good to me.  Big mistake!

 Tuesday I was feeling a little better when I woke up.

Sorry about sideways photo.

I made my daughter a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich.

I had an egg and a piece of bacon.

Today was her day on campus and she ate there.  

I had half a GF tortilla with sunbutter.

By mid afternoon my head was throbbing again, but I wasn’t down.

For supper I made mac and cheese (from the menu) and my duaghter had BBQ pork with hers.

I ate a bit only to discover the pounding headache is what seems to be killing my stomach.

Ugh!

Wednesday

I woke up feeling marginally better.

My daughter ate cereal, and I opted to not eat.

Lunch was scrounge through the refrigerator.

By midday I was feeling better, but didn’t want what was on the menu.

Since it was the first time I was really hungry in days I decided to just go with it.

I fixed turkey breast filets, rice, green beans, gravy, and opened beets.

Then I cooked a yellow cake to serve with peaches.

It was all very good!

Thursday

I feel mostly human today!

Breakfast was waffles, eggs, and bacon.

Lunch was a protein shake for me, because I spent the day working on a research paper.

Supper was a “clean out fridge meal.”

Friday

Nobody wanted to really eat this morning.  

I had coffee and my daughter had some cereal.

Lunch was a protein shake for me, and my daughter ate ham biscuits.

Supper was supposed to be hamburger steak with gravy, but once again it didn’t work out where my husband could come home.

We took a vote and opted to just have burgers instead.

Saturday 

Breakfast — we made a batch of blueberry waffles and I had a protein shake.

Lunch was the two leftover burgers.

Supper was supposed to be quiche.

We kind of hand unassembled quiche.

We just cooked our eggs and bacon and had them with toast.

All in all I am pretty pleased with how the week went.  

Despite feeling horrible and switching some things around we did not pick anything up.

We stuck to items we had and tried to stick to the idea behind the menu.