Other than walking out my front door to walk the dog, or doing a bit of gardening, I only left my house TWICE last week. And it was pretty RAD. I don’t know if it’s because I’m starting to become a recluse, I’m getting lazy, or it was because the HH was out of town for 5 of the 7 days last week on a business trip. But you know what, I really enjoyed staying put. I went to Costco, and Goodwill and the fabric store and that was it!
So, you’re probably wondering what the heck Monkey Boy and I ate last week while the HH was away…
Clearly that box of Hostess treats were for my son. 😉 {Okay, so maybe I ate 3 of them!!}
I try my best not to buy too much cold cereal. Why? Because you need {extra} milk. But Cinnamon Toast Crunch was on sale for $4.59 and it just so happens to be one of Monkey Boy’s favorite cereals… so I caved.
I bought the kid a ginormous box. Oh the horror. FYI, 1 giant box of Costco cereal fits in a 2 gallon Anchor Hocking jar in case you were wondering. 😉
So what else did we eat besides cupcakes and cereal? 2 dinners with turkey, mashed potatoes, carrots and cornbread mini muffins for starters.
I also spotted a small box of chocolate pudding in the back of the cupboard and made pudding cups.
Chili, lot’s and lot’s of chili.
Monkey Boy probably goes through a crock pot of chili a week by himself. Sometimes I get lazy and buy canned chili, but since purchasing the 25 pound bag of pinto beans last week, I really have no excuse to BUY chili when I can make it for so much less.
Is there a teenager alive that doesn’t like pasta?
Oatmeal with frozen blueberries.
Homemade chicken soup with lentils and rice. {I’ll post the recipe soon}
And last but not least, I whipped up a batch of the best oatmeal cookies ever. Cooking from your pantry instead of popping into the grocery store for one thing {which always leads to more things} can seriously save you BIG BUCKS by the time you tally all your receipts up at the end of the month. Then again, being a shut in and not leaving your house helps too.
So far I am totally digging this shopping at one store, once a week thing. I honestly thought it was going to be harder than it has been {and I seriously thought I’d be over budget by now too}. But then again, it’s only been about 3 weeks
~Mavis
Total Spent This Week $33.24
Total Spent Year to Date $69.60
Go HERE to read more Shopping Trip Stories.
JC says
Do you have a link to your chili recipe? It looks delicious!
Helen in Meridian says
Mavis, I too made chili last week in my 6 qt electric pressure cooker. This was the first time I used pinto beans in chili. I usually use Kidney and red beans or black. I was impressed with the pinto beans cooked in my pressure cooker. I kinda pre soaked the beans while i gathered all my supplies, but it only took 15 minutes at full pressure. I bought a case of tomato paste for .40 each, and used that and 2 cans of crushed tomatoes too. I made stuffed green peppers 2 weeks ago but use bulgar instead of rice.
Karen says
I had to chuckle Mavis~ I made the opposite grocery New Years resolution of yours. I decided to shop more at my local Fred Meyers and Winco and less at Costco. I have come to terms that I cant keep shopping in bulk like I have both of my kids living at home anymore. When my daughter would drive home from collage, she would raid the pantry and take her haul back up to university so I felt a bit justified. She is graduated and her career has taken her to the mid west and its just my son myself and my hubby. We were wasting a lot of food (the chickens weren’t complaining though) so I decided to buy more variety in smaller amounts and hopefully spend less along the way. I’m following your method with much interest! BTW, I caved in and bought the same Hostess pack for my son last week at Costco! Hes nineteen and I love it when he can go with me to lift the heavy items for me but taking him along definitely adds to the bill! 🙂
Madam Chow says
Ha! I feel like a shut in, too, especially since I moved to the country. Today, I went to the feed store and loaded up on things for my chicks that will be arriving in a couple months, and then we went to the tractor store. I would rather do those things than go to the mall!
Mavis Butterfield says
Who needs a mall when we have AMAZON. 🙂 🙂 We need to form a club for shut in’s.
Marcia@Frugal Healthy Simple says
I am so impressed. I want to get my grocery budget down (from $10k last year, yikes, to maybe $6k this year).
Already at over $300. Ugh. Have to get my mojo back. In 2009, I was ON IT. Then I went back to work FT and had a second kid. Whoops.
Monique S says
Yup, me too. WAY over for the month. I budget $300 for EVERYTHING household, not just food, but EVERYTHING month…so basically $150 every payday. This includes fuel, groceries, household essentials like toiletries, cleaners, paper products, etc. Only thing that I don’t calculate into that total is laundry $, because we live in an apartment building and have coin operated machines.
I spend $230 on my last weekend shop alone….BUT I haven’t don’t a big shop for household cleaners and such since before we moved into this apartment (from our smaller one) almost 3.5 years ago. Like, haven’t bought laundry soup in over 3 years. So I felt it was ok to spend a bit extra this month.
I spent in total 233 including gas….that is counting all purchases all day, any food and splurges and it included: 11 boxes of cereal, 5 boxes of fruits snacks,2 pints of ben& jerrys, 1 pint of sorbet, 1 half gallon of Tillamook icecream, 8 2L of pop, 1.5 gallons of milk, 31 coffee singles, 3 half gallons of starbucks coffee, 3 bags of tortilla chips + 2 of reg chips, 2 power bars, 2 2lb bricks of tillamook, 2 sliced swiss tllamook packs, yogurts, sourcreams, 4 lbs of butter, chicken, hemplers sausage, 10 lbs of potatoes, various veggies including celery, 6 english cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, avocados, mushrooms peppers broccoli etc, 3 12 packs of 1000 count tp, 260 centrum multi vitamins, 3 50 ct aleve, 6 20ct aleve pm, 6 scrubbing bubble toilet gel, 8 20ct finish dishtab packs, 2 packs of Ziploc bags, 2 packages of Ziploc containers, 2 solo 30 ct cups, 4 ALL laundry soaps…Not too shabby.
I also submitted about $10 in rebates for my purchases so I earned some cash back for it all too!
Helen in Meridian says
Wow Monique, I am impressed. You probably saved 70% at least. Not having to buy laundry detergent and household cleaners for 3.5 years is also amazing. Did you tally your savings on that huge shopping trip? Did you get your All for $1.50 w coupons at Fred Meyers? I like lavender detergent for my sheets and stocked up last week.
Cherilyn P says
Hi Mavis,
I love your blog, I look forward to reading every day.
I was wondering, do you notice a difference with the quality of the Costco milk from when it was from a local place? I’ve been trying to save some grocery money, but do not know if it is worth it to switch from our current organic milk to a store brand.
Cecily says
http://Www.topsecretrecipes.com has a recipe for homemade twinkies. Lots of other recipes too of your favorite restaurant and store bought foods.
Julie says
Was wondering to about your switch to store bought milk products?
Vicki says
It looked so strange to see eggs in your purchased items! Do you miss having your chickens…and their eggs?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes and yes! 🙁
Kayla says
Mavis, where did you find such cute pudding containers with lids? My kids need some of those. I would make pudding more often if my little 1 1/2 year old would not stick his finger into everything in the fridge. We need the lids… 🙂
Mavis Butterfield says
Target sells them next to the ziplock baggies and Gladware. 🙂
Kayla says
Thank you! I am making a Target trip today.
Mavis Butterfield says
You bet! 🙂 Happy Shopping!
Meredith says
Hi Mavis! Those carrots look yummy! Is that the 5 spice recipe or is it something else? I bought a huge bag of carrots at Costco to roast for dinners. 🙂
Thanks!
Mere