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Viewing the 'Grocery Shopping' Category
August 11th, 2006 at 08:30 am
Didn't quite get this in under the wire so it will post as Friday but its Thursday's stuff.
First savings: Today was the day of the weekly auto transfer of $10 to savings, bringing that account to $587.56. Just $12.44 shy of $600, which I'll go over tomorrow when I deposit the $56.44 I owe to that account. We'll see if there is any more left after paying the bills that can be squeezed out for savings.
Today (8/10) was Rose's 10th birthday. It was a relatively good day. She got 2 Mermaidia Barbie dolls, a magnetic tin with magnetic car games like tic tac toe, checkers, pyramid solataire and lots of writing paper in it for hangman or other games, and a basketball. She also got 4 books, 2 of them Judy Blume ones that I read as a kid.
When her dad gets back he is going to take her to get a used Game Cube. She is paying half with birthday money she got from the grandparents. My parents also gave her a rabbit she made with my mother at the Build a Bear Workshop. Not sure what the other set of grandparents will do. They bought my son a bigger bike as he had grown two sizes from the one he had, but they did that in June and his birthday was in March.
Rose does not need a new bike. Though by the time they get around to buying one for her, she might. They are notoriously late, though generous. I'm still waiting for what I asked for when she asked me what I wanted for my birthday in February which was a hard anodized caphalon 12 inch skillet. Not a whole set or anything, just the one pan. It'll come, though. Some day. LOL
Tomorrow is payday and grocery day. I will be making a smaller Costco run as I only need a few items, but I really NEED the few items that I need. Definitely under $100 there. Probably closer to $50. I also have to go to Fred Meyer and Haggen. Maybe Cost Cutter, too, I haven't had a chance to look over their flyer. Fortunately, I can do a loop route as they are all within a three mile circle. I'm only buying loss leaders and sale items at the 3 regular grocery stores.
I hope to hit the farm stand on my way home and get more cherries. And possibly go to one of the farms where they grow kohlrabi. My second planting of it got wiped out by the 90 to 100 degree heatwave last month. Hopefully, their's didn't. I love kohlrabi. It is my favorite vegetable. And very low on the glycemic index, too. Have to watch stuff like that as Rose is prediabetic. She loves kohlrabi, too. Maybe I should try one more planting. If September stays hot...they could make it and if not, they're only seeds.
I picked 2 gallons of blueberries from one of my mother's trees (yes, trees, I call them, they are 6 feet tall). I only managed to clear about 2/3 of the one tree. I hope to pick more tomorrow. The other tree is heavily loaded, too but I don't know if I'll be able to get to it before the birds, do.
I did pick a quart size baggy for my dad. He can't see well enough to go out and pick some each morning for his cereal like he used to. He's not blind, but his brain no longer processes images properly so he doesn't see what is right in front of him. It's been bad as he can no longer read and if you knew my dad, well...that is heart-breaking. Add that to the mid-level dementia that is creeping forward. Well, a few berries seems like not enough to do for him. I do read to him when I can. And Rose has started to, also.
Wow, I got chatty tonight. And way off the point of blogs. Well, the berries are free food, so that is saving money, right?
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July 31st, 2006 at 05:07 am
So this is my challenge for the next 12 days, which will be our next payday. I have $12 left of non-targeted funds. I don't think it will really be an issue, since I bought plenty of fill in the cracks groceries today at Costco (spent $33) getting a giganto bag of lettuce, kosher beef hotdogs (14 per pack), pack of pepperoni for making pizzas, 2 lbs of deli ham, and 2 jars of peanut butter. Then a quick stop at the IGA to get celery (didn't have any at Costco for the first time in forever) and strawberry and blackberry perserves (spent $10).
I can make bread when we run out. We have plenty of fruit (plums, apples, cherries, raspberries from the garden, strawberries we put up in the freezer, blueberries I picked at Mom's and a canteloupe. I have cucumbers, green beans, cabbage and kohlrabi for veggies from the garden.
So probably the $12 will go for milk. Since the organic milk is the one thing we always get, that should cover 2 gallons, but since we have 2 gallons in the fridge now, I doubt we will need to buy more than one more before that payday.
I still have money set aside for Rose's birthday presents, and a much better idea of what she wants now after running her around Fred Meyer while DH and Tobias went blinkie hunting. Didn't buy anything there except the afore mentioned milk.
Anyway, I am challenging myself not to spend the $12 at all, but to try to get to the end of this period with all of it intact. Then it will go in savings.
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July 23rd, 2006 at 12:31 am
I cashed out on another click-thru, this one $3 and did another survey for $2, yesterday and Thursday. Didn't qualify for a $5 survey. >{
Yesterday was Friday and payday, so we paid the medical mortgage, $1000. We also did a small grocery run for fresh produce and they had some chicken on sale cheap and some London Broil on sale cheap, so we had chicken tacos today and we will be making beef fajitas tomorrow. I also picked up milk on sale. $2 a gallon. Not quite as good as Costco but I spend more when I go to Costco so it evens out.
Spent some time yesterday at Mom's and a lot of time in our pool. It was 99 degrees in the shade on our porch thermometer yesterday. It's only (ha, only) 89 today.
I have to sit down tonight and pay the rest of the bills. It is too hot to think and do math right now.
I'm in the middle of trying to plan a last minute vacation to Victoria. We can usually get a good hotel deal at the last minute and going to Vancouver Island is one of our favorite trips to do. The kids love the ferry ride and the city seems so much older than some of the cities in WA, even though it isn't. But the culture and the look of it, we enjoy.
Haven't done much else. They finally shut the cable off Thursday morning. So we ended up with 20 days free. Not bad.
I guess that is it.
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Extra Income Sources,
Paying the Bills,
Grocery Shopping
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July 14th, 2006 at 03:52 am
My mother just called and she picked up 60 pounds of strawberries from the strawberry farm for $72. Did I want half like last year. Why yes, I do. She even cut them up, sugared them and put them in quart size Ziploc bags and has them waiting in her freezer. She's also giving me a quart size jar full of the excess juice so I can make frozen juice bars out of them. I make it in layers, freezing some strawberry juice, than freezing some leftover pineappl juice, and making stripes. The kids love these! So that is 30 pounds of strawberries and at least 12 frozen juice bars for $36 and the berries usually lasts us a year.
After that phone call I went on out to the garden and picked my first quart of raspberries for the season and there will need to be another picking done in 2 days and again in 4 days. This is the most these have produced, they are about five years old.
While I was out there I noticed six strawberries hanging forlornly in their bed, so picked those and then went to check on the Saskatoons and they should be ripe any day now.
Checked on the bush cherries and despite having bloomed prolifically they have not produced. They are only 2 years old, though. Maybe next year. I've got five cherries on my cherry tree that are up way too high to pick. My pears are coming along nicely though.
Then Mom called me again to say there were some ripe berries on her blueberry trees (not bushes, these things are 7 feet tall), about a quarts worth so I could pick those tomorrow when I come in to drop off the kids. I usually get several gallons of blueberries over the course of the season, but its always fun to get the first ones.
I'm going to drive by where the farm stand is and see if they have any more cherries available. The season is so short and the 15 pounds for $15 was finished a week ago. We love eating them fresh, but I read a thing recently that said you could pit them and freeze them, so I may try that. Mom has a cherry pitter if she can find it.
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Grocery Shopping
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July 14th, 2006 at 12:21 am
Tomorrow is payday and I will be making a run to Costco. It is often quite hard for me to get out of Costco without paying over $100. My goal is to be under that. So I will make my list here of what I need, so I can stick to it and hopefully it won't be too high.
Kosher beef hotdogs
Large pack shredded romaine leaves
3 pack English cucumbers
bananas if they have them and they look good
paper towels
Omega 3 organic eggs
Paradise Valley organic creamy mashed potatoes (dehydrated)
pepperoni
Canaian bacon
Kraft Singles
That should do it. I just need to avoid going through any sections of the store that I don't need to go through.
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Grocery Shopping
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July 1st, 2006 at 07:59 am
Today was payday so we did some spending.
$400 house mortgage--$375.86 + $24.14 extra to principle
$27.92 power bill
$175 medical bills
$15 for $15 pounds of bing cherries at farmstand
Grocery Store--$71
Took out cash for fireworks--$100
Took out cash for berries--$15
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Paying the Bills,
Grocery Shopping
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June 29th, 2006 at 05:38 am
Today we had a car appointment to see why the check engine light never went off after our last repair and also why the cruise control stopped working at the same time. And to get the wiper blades replaced, which technically we could have done ourselves but its a big hassle for me and DH doesn't like to do it as he always manages to crack a fingernail or pinch a finger or cut himself when he does it.
We only ended up having to pay for the wiper blades because the reason the cruise control wasn't working was because they had forgotten to tighten something and they couldn't see any reason for the engine light to come on. They took it for a drive and it didn't come on for them. They said it was safe to drive now.
So we spent $25.99 there. While we were waiting we ate lunch out, which is something we weren't going to do, but did anyway. We went down the highway and across at the big light to Shari's and I haven't eaten there in maybe 10 years because it always used to reek of smoke the minute you opened the door. My allergies couldn't handle that so I didn't go. Well, the anti-smoking law passed and at the first of the year you could not smoke in any restaurant or bar, so we decided to go there, and well, I didn't miss anything by not going there so long. The food was unremarkable. Spent $30.89 for food and left a seven dollar tip, because the service was very good despite the food.
Then we walked back across the highway and down to the Barnes and Noble and spent an hour there. I picked out some work books for Rose. Her teacher said she should practice her cursive and her printing over the summer because she can be very sloppy when she doesn't try. And then picked up some math practice books on her weak areas which are place values and division. Also got multiplication and division flash cards.
For Tobias we got some early reader, very simple books and some printing practice, then some number games and puzzles, too. These were planned purchases out of what was left in my homeschool money envelope that turned up last night. I had misplaced it quite awhile ago and it had $100 left in it from a year ago when we last were homeschooling. We spent $108.39. Sales tax put us just over.
We then went to Exxon to use the last of my Exxon gas cards only the machine said it was accepted but then after we put the gas in, it said it wasn't. So the clerk came out and tried to get them to work and they wouldn't. Well, we'd already put one card's worth in the tank, which was $10 so we had to pay that in cash. I was miffed because we never would have gotten gas there without the card because it was $3.09 a gallon at Exxon and the Arco across the way was $2.99 a gallon so we would have gone there without the card. In fact we did go there and put the last $13 of cash I had in the tank.
Then we went to MIL's where the kids were playing in the pool, looked at the new sauna and hot tub that they'd put in and chatted for awhile. Then home. Well, we drove by a fruit stand selling cherries for a dollar a basket and I scrambled to count my change, but only had 92 cents, so we couldn't stop. They sell the best cherries there.
We also stopped at the IGA and I bought a few things. I got 4 chicken hindquarters (which equals 8 pieces), a bunch of scallions, 2 pounds of shredded cheese and 18 hormone free, antibiotic free, free-range chicken eggs for $10.69, but minus ten cents for using my proud card, so only $10.59. Everything but the scallions was on sale, and the scallions were only 69 cents.
So we spent a good bit today, but it was $200 less than we expected, because we figured the car would be a lot more. But since the problem was their error, it wasn't. However, the check engine light did come back on again, so grr, argh.
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Vehicle Expenses,
Grocery Shopping,
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June 24th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
Yesterday we went on our big run for the month. We plot out each store we need to visit and then the shortest drive distance to get to them and drive it in order. We started at Haggen grocery store because we had bought stamps there earlier in the week but hadn't been given them, so took the receipt in and got them. We also bought a watermelon and 10 bottles of soda for a 7-Up promotion. It had 10 2 liter bottles for $10, with a $10 rebate. Flavors allowed included A&W root beer and cream soda, orange crush, and a couple of the new flavored 7-Ups. We hardly buy pop anymore, but for this we'll end up having only paid the 8.4% sales tax. And it should last all summer.
After that we went across the street to Wells Fargo and paid the Medical Mortgage $1000 and then on to our main CU to get money for gas. We then went to Sprawl-Mart (WalMart)to get water socks for Rose (will her feet ever stop growing? She's just gone to a nine and she's only nine! Also got Sudafed at their pharmacy after signing in blood and taking a retinal scan to prove my identity. Okay, I'm only slightly exaggerating, I only had to show photo I.D. and sign electronically. While we were there we picked up nasal spray and eye drops that are safe for contacts (DH just got them.) And we bought 2 gallons bubble soap because it allows the kids endless entertainment. All purchases planned and no extra items snuck into the cart when I wasn't looking.
Then we went to Costco, which is across the highway from Sprawl-Mart and I am very happy that we only picked up what we planned on there, also. Kleenex brand tissues, Charmin brand toilet paper, the big bag of chopped romaine lettuce, and 2 pounds of King crab legs. Then we walked to the other end of the parking lot to Bed, Bath & Beyond and used my $20 in g.c.'s from a trial offer plus spent an additional $23 to get a good digital food scale. It goes up to ten pounds, and it is what I will use to weigh my e-bay packages. Since most of what I will be sending is going to be used dance shoes and leotards from the past seven years, that should be a good limit.
Then we took the jog over to the cheap Arco and filled the tank. $45 almost but it's gone down to $3.05. I forgot to buy Costco cash at Costco or we would have got it there four cents cheaper. Then to Fred Meyer for organic milk on sale and the cheap 2% for DH on sale. They had an unadvertised sale on turkey legs at .79/lb so we got some of that and some .88/lb chicken thighs and legs. Then we walked next door to Baskin Robbins. I had coupons for buy one get one free kids cones for the kids, but payed full price for mine and DH. This is a rare thing, we do not go there often and it was also planned, not impulse.
All in all it was a very good shopping trip and the kids were good. By plotting out our course ahead of time we were able to spend the least amount of gas getting places and we didn't back track at all.
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