Groceries again

Ok so with the CSA I really thought we could eat cheap this week. I didn't really plan that many meals since this week is crazy and I have dinner plans out 3 nights this week. But somehow we still spent over $80 at the grocery store. I won't list the whole receipt but some highlights:

13.99 for a jar of cashews! My husband takes these in his lunch and it really is a better buy to get the big 40 oz jar but still the price is mind blowing. This should last awhile so hopefully it won't be on the bill again for awhile.

7.99 * 2 for coffee. I am a bit of a coffee snob at times and I like to buy the whole bean favor coffees and grind my own. So I was stocking up since this was going to be such a low grocery bill.

Some dog stuff... our neighbor got a new dog and I thought I'd do a little welcome to the neighborhood doggie package for her. So a $5 dog toy and $3 treats get added to the bill.

Pretzel Jello. This is the best dessert recipe I've made in awhile but it isn't that cheap to make if you don't have stuff on hand. I had to buy almost everything (but the butter and sugar). Here is the recipe if you are interested. I made raspberry so replace strawberry with raspberry and have at it.

1.5 - 2 cups crushed pretzels
1 stick melted butter
1 cup sugar (divided in half)
1 packet strawberry jello
2 cups boiling water
16 oz cool whip
8 oz cream cheese softened
16 oz frozen strawberries (could use fresh)


Combine pretzels, butter, and 1/2 cup sugar. Press into the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 for 6-7 mins. Add jello to boiling water and mix well. Then add strawberries. I then put this in the fridge to start to gel while I combined cream cheese, cool whip, and 1/2 cup of sugar. Put cool whip mixture on top of pretzel crust. Pour partly chilled jello on top of cool whip, chill the whole thing for a few hours. Serve.


The rest of the list was some basics like bananas, milk, etc. I also bought a few baby items (teething biscuits, organic puffs) for our upcoming beach trip. I don't like giving Jocelyn packaged foods but for traveling I figured I'd get some in case the grocery stores don't carry them and we eat out a lot. So that's that. A seemingly slow food week turns into $80 + at the store. I feel like I can't win some times. Well at least it wasn't $100 and I shouldn't (knock on wood) need to go back for anything. We will get through this week with what we have and then go on vacation and probably have a big bill when we get back.

CSA

Today I picked up our first week of local produce from the Barbour Farm's CSA (community shared agriculture). We signed up for a half share of produce from July through late September/early October. Today I got 6 zucchini, 4 yellow squash, 3 cucumbers, two onions/scallions, radishes, and some broccoli. I am hoping this cuts down our weekly grocery bill while also helping us to eat healthier. Doesn't it look yummy:

Whoot! A low grocery bill

Ok so I really didn't buy much of anything worth while (like meat or actual fixing for a meal) but I have a low grocery bill to show off. :-) We are still eating up meats, etc. from my weekend run for our company plus meat from the freezer. So this week I went to Weis and got:

5.16 Warm Delights (4 @ 1.79 plus I had two coupons and they round up so I saved $2)
2.99 OJ
1.29 Honey Bar (impulse buy)
2.50 Ice Cream
4.29 Cheese Sticks
2.59 Yogurt
.50 Plum
2.49 Broccoli
2.19 Raspberry Iced Tea
3.92 Grapes
3.00 Potato Chips
2.79 Rice Crispies
2.99 Honey Nut Cheerios
4.29 Laundry Detergent (long story)
6.38 Cascade Rinse agent (2)
2.00 Potato chips
2.99 Blueberries
.98 Bananas
12.50 Soda
3.00 Soda Deposit


Then I had coupons for a free soda, ice cream, iced tea, and potato chips. Plus I already mentioned my two coupons that got rounded up for the warm delights (a guilty pleasure of mine but I only buy them when I have coupons). So the total bill came to $58 even. I saved 17.79. So I finally got a grocery trip in under my $75 a week goal. Of course I had a lot of freebies and I didn't buy any meat. This is an eat from the freezer type of week but it is still nice to see the bill so low. I also stocked up on soda (5 - 12 packs) so that should make next week's bill smaller. I had to buy a special laundry detergent for almost $5 because we had issues with our water this weekend and I now have iron stained towels. This detergent is suppose to get the iron stains out. If that hadn't occurred, I would have had an even lower bill.

I also made a trip to CVS where I got a giant box of Pampers and some fiber pills. I had $8.50 in extra care bucks plus a $1.50 off pampers coupon and a $3 off CVS coupon. So I got the whole thing for $22 which is great considering the pampers typically run that much by themselves. I also got $3 extra care bucks for next time and a $4.50 off coupon for my next giant box of Pampers. Since Pampers are on sale this week at CVS I think I will head back and get another box. We only use disposables at night and for long trips out of the house so two giant boxes should last us a long time. I like the Pampers Baby Dry because they are the only diapers that Jocelyn doesn't leak out of at night. I admit to being a lazy parent who doesn't want to change a diaper at 2 am so it is worth it to me to buy the name brand diapers for that alone.

4th of July

Jocelyn's first 4th of July was very busy. Her Mimi (grandmother), Grand-Bob (grandfather), and great aunt Mary Ann came to visit. We took her to the BMets and then hung out around the house first in her pool and then in her NEW sandbox. Check out some of the pictures.

Here she is with her Great Aunt Mary Ann (check out the Penn State dress)

At the BMets with Ballwinkle (it was starting to get a little weird with how long he held her)

Check out that tongue and yes she can get her toes in her mouth

Trying to get the doggies to go swimming

Her new sand box


It took Grand-Bob and Daddy trips to Toys R Us, Sears, Target, Walmart, and finally Kmart to find this sandbox. Toys R Us had other ones but they were $70. This one is perfect for her. Of course now I have sand all over my house. Oh well. Jocelyn also tried some olives and loved them this weekend. She was also a fan of the grilled chicken which turned out to be pretty spicy so I was surprised that she liked it. She ate well. So maybe Pittsburgh was just an off week and I shouldn't worry too much about what she is or isn't eating yet. The fireworks were less then a hit with her. She had seen some at a BMets game over Memorial Day weekend and enjoyed them but this time she was too tired. So she ended up back inside before the fireworks were done in our neighborhood. It was a very busy weekend.