No potato chips in the shopping cart

*263*

Wheat bread! Fish! Chicken! Not a junk food in sight!!

 We did decide to buy the large bag of pretzel sticks. It fills my large cookie jar. I do not feel about pretzels the way I do about other snacks. So I can have them around and just eat a little when I need something in between meals. I am serious when I said I was doing this. Natalie and I went shopping. We bought fruits, vegs, nuts, fish, chicken, some chorizo which was uber cheap on sale (we like to eat with eggs), 2 packages of 18 eggs, and other stuff. Everything for snacking and eating that is healthy.  I also replaced my whey protein drink for breakfast every morning. I have eggs hard boiling on the stove. I have to cut up celery to store in a water container for snacks. We have nuts and dried fruits. She and I did a really good job shopping.
 Ate a healthy lunch and dinner is going to be a rotisserie chicken, baked sweet potatoes, and corn on the cob. Probably a salad too.

  As I said before, I will post my weight changes on Mondays. And I will start moving my ass tomorrow. I am going to try out the Zumba on our Wii.  That should be interesting.

 Oh yeah, no more diet soda either. I have been banned from it.

I saved money!!!!

I actually saved money yesterday when I went grocery shopping. I have been reading this book, Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half with America`s Cheapest Family.  I have not gotten super far into it yet but enough to know that they are teaching how to shop once a month and cook some of your meals for that month at one time to freeze or OAMC (once a month cooking). I had no idea that is what this was about. They do not say you shouldn't use coupons but they say you do not have to KILL yourself being a Coupon Queen. It starts you off easy. Try to shop just for this week only. You look at all the sales flyers, see what you already have in the house, and plan out your meals for the week. I did that.  If you have coupons to correspond with the sales, great! I am just a beginner in the coupon thing so I only had like four coupons to use total. I have to see why my printer is not working and either fix it or get a new one. Printing coupons online is the way to go too.
 I wrote out my lists of the two stores. We did get a couple things not on either list. Hamburger became an unadvertised sale at Stop and Shop. I needed it but had not added it to the lists. Sometimes if something good pops up, you have to grab it.
 I saved $40 at Stop and Shop and I saved $30 at Shoprite. I also bought B1G1 cereals at Rite Aid. I spent $125 (which I usually spend) and I came home with more than double the groceries! I had chicken breasts, big family pack of hamburger, two things of bacon, Italian sausage for my Tuscan soup, hot dogs, and a big family pack of pork chops that was used last night for dinner.
 Plus all the stuff I needed for this weeks meals. Fred and I can eat leftovers.

So I saved money and it was a rush and I will do it again. I have a crisis right now. We cannot find the metal rack that goes inside the canner so that I can make jam today. I could drive 20 minutes away and spend $6 for a new one but part of me doesnt want to spend the money until Friday.

Food Budget

*267*

I think I have used this picture before but it fits into what I am talking about so I am gonna use it.
  I did not go grocery shopping in the classical sense this past Friday. I went to the food co-op to pick up a few odds and ends for the vegetarian but otherwise, I did not go. I have food in the fucking house. Lots of fucking food. In the freezers and in the cabinets. The only thing I really need to buy on a weekly is toilet paper, paper towels, and some dairy. I need to pop into the store today and pick up coffee grounds and cream. I am TRYING to save money. I spend $100 a week (give or take) on groceries. That is $400, sometimes $500 a month! That is fucking ridiculous. Granted, if there is a sale on those big packages of hamburger or pork chops, my ass is going for it. But I should not be spending that amount of money. I need to hark back to when people made due. You cooked everything from scratch..except the bread. I will do some artisan bread for grins and giggles but I am not baking household sandwich bread.
  I want to see if I can cut our food spending to $200 a month BUT there will be alternate months where I will spend that extra to fill up the cabinets. Enough of spending tons of money on food that ends up in the garbage.
 There is a smell in my fridge that I cannot distinguish where it is coming from. Fred and I did a sweep of it yesterday. I tossed out anything old or suspicious. There was nothing that made us go EEWWWW!
Smell is still there. I will have to clean the fridge.
But see what I mean. I threw out about $30 worth of food. There are people in this country that cannot afford that luxury. So I am going to stop it in our house. It is going to be eaten dammit! Before it goes bad.
I will shop this Friday. I will need to.
But for this week, I did not.

Good Grocery shopping and it is fucking hot!

I want a nice Italian ice

 

*271*<---Woo effin Hoo! I am the incredible shrinking woman. Something is working!

I went out early in the morning..like 730am. I did my banking, took Chelsea to her volunteer job, water the community garden, and went grocery shopping. I spent about $30 less then I usually spend. There are some things I had to put back on the shelf but I also was able to get some good stuff to eat for the weeks meals. It will just be an adjustment. Tonite I have a fish chowder simmering on the stove because I had 3 Tilapia fillets left from the bag of fish I bought. I have 3 large chicken breasts that I am going to cook on the grill later. I have corn on the cob and I am going to make rice roni. Oh and a $2 loaf of sour dough boule. Yummy!
It is fucking hot as hell. The thermometer in the house says 82 deg F and the outside temp is 102 deg F..that is not even with the humidity and heat index. I know that other parts of the country have it worse off then we here in the Northeast do. I do not know if I could handle it. I think there is relief coming on Sunday. Thank goodness!

I am going to finish my nectarine and play some Farmville and enjoy the fan (ac air is behind it)

Stay cool!