1. Groceries: I spent almost $90.00 on groceries this week. This is a lot more than we usually spend, but…. Those fantastic holiday sales have started!!! Some of the best deals I got were pasta for $0.50 per pound, cheese for $2.50 per pound, and cottage cheese for $1.10 (24 oz.), turkey breast for $1.00/lb. I also bought some cereal for $1.27 per box, which is inexpensive, but not the best deal I’ve ever found. I have a love/hate relationship with cereal. I really love to eat it. But it’s not very healthy. It’s very expensive when compared to other grains. But rather inexpensive when compared to chips, Little Debbies and other snack foods that we sometimes buy.
Other things I bought were sour cream, grapes, a bell pepper and a pomegranate; all on sale. I used a coupon for the pomegranate, so that only cost $1.50 (cheap for our area). I found some marked-down lunch meat that I will use on a road trip we’re planning.
I harvested kale, swiss chard, endive and spinach from the garden. I also started some sprouts this week, since the garden pickin’s are getting more slim.
2. Cooking: I cooked part of the pork butt that I bought last week, in the Instant Pot. It was AMAZING!!! If I ever see that cut of meat again, I will buy more. We ate some of it like a roast, and some with pasta. It would be perfect for pulled pork.
I also baked some biscotti to have with tea, coffee and cocoa this holiday season. I haven’t made biscotti in a long time, but they turned out so yummy. I froze half to eat later.
3. Kids’ stuff: my sister-in-law dropped off some clothes and a LOT of shoes for our little girl. The shoes spanned three sizes, so those will last for a while. There was also a beautiful dress in the box that will be perfect for next summer.
4. Book: I borrowed a book from the library’s interloan system. It’s a book related to my never-ending local history research; exactly what I was looking for! So I was super excited to find that.
5. OCC: We packed two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I was able to fill each box (for 10-14 y/o boys... their most under-served demographic) for about $15.00, not counting the shipping fee. We found an AMAZING deal on pocketed T-shirts; one of the clearance packages at Walmart had been marked down from $15.00 to $3.00. We picked out a set of matchbox cars for the “wow” toy ($5.00) and filled the rest of the box with personal care items (combs, toothbrushes, washcloth, soap), school supplies (pens, pencils, highlighter, notebook, eraser, pencil sharpener, etc… purchased at back-to-school sales) and inexpensive toys from the Dollar Tree, which included marbles and a pack of miniature dominoes. Some non-toy items were work gloves and a multi-purpose screwdriver tool from Walmart. I made drawstring bags for the loose school items, personal care items, and marbles. A lot of the items I was able to purchase in packs, and then split up the pack between two boxes. Last year we only packed one box, and it was much more expensive.
That’s about it for this week. As usual I line-dried laundry, cooked from scratch, etc. We’re still working on potty training, so that takes up time. Sometimes I get to the end of a day and think, what did I actually do? As in, how did I move forward today? Usually by the end of the week I feel like I’ve got something done, but lately it seems like I've been chasing my tail a lot. :/
Til next time,
-Bethany
Other things I bought were sour cream, grapes, a bell pepper and a pomegranate; all on sale. I used a coupon for the pomegranate, so that only cost $1.50 (cheap for our area). I found some marked-down lunch meat that I will use on a road trip we’re planning.
I harvested kale, swiss chard, endive and spinach from the garden. I also started some sprouts this week, since the garden pickin’s are getting more slim.
2. Cooking: I cooked part of the pork butt that I bought last week, in the Instant Pot. It was AMAZING!!! If I ever see that cut of meat again, I will buy more. We ate some of it like a roast, and some with pasta. It would be perfect for pulled pork.
I also baked some biscotti to have with tea, coffee and cocoa this holiday season. I haven’t made biscotti in a long time, but they turned out so yummy. I froze half to eat later.
3. Kids’ stuff: my sister-in-law dropped off some clothes and a LOT of shoes for our little girl. The shoes spanned three sizes, so those will last for a while. There was also a beautiful dress in the box that will be perfect for next summer.
4. Book: I borrowed a book from the library’s interloan system. It’s a book related to my never-ending local history research; exactly what I was looking for! So I was super excited to find that.
5. OCC: We packed two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I was able to fill each box (for 10-14 y/o boys... their most under-served demographic) for about $15.00, not counting the shipping fee. We found an AMAZING deal on pocketed T-shirts; one of the clearance packages at Walmart had been marked down from $15.00 to $3.00. We picked out a set of matchbox cars for the “wow” toy ($5.00) and filled the rest of the box with personal care items (combs, toothbrushes, washcloth, soap), school supplies (pens, pencils, highlighter, notebook, eraser, pencil sharpener, etc… purchased at back-to-school sales) and inexpensive toys from the Dollar Tree, which included marbles and a pack of miniature dominoes. Some non-toy items were work gloves and a multi-purpose screwdriver tool from Walmart. I made drawstring bags for the loose school items, personal care items, and marbles. A lot of the items I was able to purchase in packs, and then split up the pack between two boxes. Last year we only packed one box, and it was much more expensive.
That’s about it for this week. As usual I line-dried laundry, cooked from scratch, etc. We’re still working on potty training, so that takes up time. Sometimes I get to the end of a day and think, what did I actually do? As in, how did I move forward today? Usually by the end of the week I feel like I’ve got something done, but lately it seems like I've been chasing my tail a lot. :/
Til next time,
-Bethany
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