Caution: Back to school shopping may lead to a stop at Krispy Kreme. My daughter and I bought 2 chocolate iced custard filled doughnuts for $2.58. And they were worth every penny.
My neighbor Girl Girl was decorating a cake and called to see if I had any extra raspberries I’d be willing to trade. Luckily did! So I traded her a giant tub of raspberries for a box of graham crackers . I plan on using the Graham cracker this weekend for smores.
Later in the week I traded another neighbor zucchini & raspberries…
For some sugar, olives, garbanzo beans and chocolate. I love bartering!
This week I also collected chive seeds from the garden (for next year).
I also harvested a basket full of green onions.
Swiss chard, (more) zucchini, a few cherry tomatoes, eggs and raspberries.
Did you stock up on blueberries last week at Fred Meyer? At less than $2.00 a lb I did. I paid $29.79 for 15lbs and divided the berries up into ziplock baggies and tucked them into the freezer to enjoy this winter when fresh produce deals will be few and far between.
I also stocked up on peaches. 31+ pounds of peaches for $31.78 These found their way into the freezer as well. At $1.00 a lb this is a steal! We will be able to enjoy peach pies and smoothies all winter long and not have to worry about paying high prices at the grocery store. Although this seems a little extravagant for someone who is trying to feed their family for $100 a month or less… in the end… (in my opinion) it pays to stock up. PLUS… If the Girl who thinks she’s a bird doesn’t have fruit… she will melt.
QFC had toothbrushes for $1.00 each. Since this was part of their 10 for $10 promotion my store was heavily stocked with 2 giant cardboard displays. I used the $2.00 P&G coupon (now expired) to buy 8 toothbrushes. I only had to pay the tax. which was $ .67.
2 Bell Peppers for zucchini relish $1.58.
Milk $ .47 & Try Me FREE Cereal from Rite Aid $ .44 (stamp). I used my $2 in Rite Aid coupons ($1 July VV and $1 August VV) to help pay for the milk.
24 FREE Cans of tuna. Thank you SWAGBUCKS!
Albertsons Double coupons $22.52. Wowza! Talk about a spendy trip to Albertsons.
Total spent this week $89.92
Total spent year to date $821.68
(Only $378.32 for the rest of 2011 left in the budget!)
That’s only $2.50 a day left to feed a family of four. Got any suggestions?
Gwen says
You aren’t kidding. My Alby trip was pretty spendy as well. Missed the blueberry deal, darn, and love the chive idea. I have a bunch of chives that bloomed that I will now go pick through for seeds. Thanks for all the great ideas. Never stop blogging 🙂
mavis says
Gwen,
I snipped the tops off and placed them in a bowl. Then crushed the dried chive heads. The seeds will fall to the bottom of the bowl. Discard the dead leaves and put in a baggie and you should be ready to go for next year. 🙂
Gwen says
I’m so glad you told me how to do this. I was totally going about it the wrong way. Thank you!!
Jules says
You could always drop in on in-laws or friends around mealtimes.
mavis says
Actually my in-laws will be staying with US this weekend… I am crossing my fingers that the HH stays away from Costco.
Heather S says
I don’t think the tax for the toothbrushes should count to your total since it wasn’t food 🙂 So, when you freeze your peaches, do you prepare them in any way? I had some extra so I decided to freeze them for the first time. I wasn’t sure how but one site said to blanched them, cut them up, and then put them in a freezer bag with apple juice and lemon. I was curious how you did yours…
As for suggestions, I wish you luck 🙂 I can’t seem to feed my family of five on your remaining budget for this year for only one month for us… Maybe you could set up a little stand on the road and sell some of your raspberries and zucchini – is that legal? hmmm..
mavis says
I was suppose to blanch them? Really? I just peeled, sliced, sprinkled with Fruit Fresh (Ball makes it and it usually goes on sale around now so stock up for next year when you find a deal) and froze them. I thought I followed the directions on the jar. Hmmm…
Heather S. says
I’ll look for the Fruit Fresh. That sounds better than the whole juice thing. We love smoothies all year round but I usually just save my strawberries, blueberries, and bananas. I can’t wait to have some peaches this winter. I think SaveMart has them for $0.67/pound – I’m going in the morning 🙂
You can call me Jane says
Heather, We just chop ours up and put them in baggies and freeze without adding anything. We put them mostly into muffins and baked oatmeal and it works great.
sodbusters says
Mavis, Just think, once upon a time, you lived off your land. You can so totally do this! You are rooting me on girl! Think you could barter for milk? I mean if you barter for toothbrushes alone, that would cost someone $8 sale shouldnt that be worth at least 1 gallon of milk? win win situation. You get a deal, they get a deal. 😀 That is just my humble opinion.
Food ideas-
Swagbucks
mypoints
Farmer Market? I dont believe you have to have an authorized food vendor license to sell produce there BUT i could totally be wrong. What if you waited until it ended and then traded with the locals? a lot of the “bad” produce goes to farms for the animals. Trade some fresh Zucchini (we’d totally get some by the way. All 4 of our plants yielded 1 zucchini and we like go through 10 a week. 😛 Seriously.) So maybe other locals had some issues? I dont know. Wish we lived closer. LOL.
Mike says
Hmm, Mrs. H did not bring me home any peaches from Fred Meyer…not even one. I’ll be having a talk with her about that.
You grow large raspberries…wow, they are huge compared to ours..
mamasminutia says
Back from the grocery store and this just in: grand total of 210 bucks, and some spare change. Not a single, solitary coupon in sight.
HEY MAVIS! STOP HYPERVENTILATING! BREATHE! BREATHE! BREATHE!
You can call me Jane says
Do peaches grow where you live? If so, plant some trees. There is a bit of an investment up front, but it’s not huge (to purchase the trees), but it will lead to FREE peaches! Jamey just picked 130 peaches off our three little (4-year old) trees. And it’s comforting to know they aren’t sprayed. Along the same lines, have you ever tried blueberry bushes? It’s those yummy fruits that cost an arm and a leg. FREE fruit is so much better:-).
Mandey says
“Jane” I am wanting to plant peach trees for myself (& I guess the kids, BUT ONLY if they are good!) but I know NOTHING about fruit trees! I hear they get worms very easily… when do you plant them & how do you keep the worms away without spraying & 1 more thing…do you need 3 or more for polinating? (not sure how to spell that word?!?)
Melannie Hay says
I love free fruit & veggies as well of course the ones I cultivate.
From the pastures 20lbs of wild asparagus put up apart from what we ate, 9 1/2 lbs of wild black raspberries (61/2 pints jam the rest frozen).
My red raspberries are only a year old, I am looking forward to the future, did ok from my strawberries though, after what we ate fresh 12 1/2 pints jam/preserves, 9 1/2 pints strawberry syrup & 2 1/2 gallons frozen.
What I am really looking forward to is my giant blackberries, I counted 176 bunches of berries ripening.
moralia says
You must have a crazy amount of stockpile… what if you just had a “no shopping” week once a month to save $$$ and ate from your stockpile?