Mondays with Mavis: How to Feed Your Family For $100 a Month

Hot diggety dog!  The pea plants are starting to flower.  Can you believe it?  I’m hoping we’ll have sugar snap peas in about 2 more weeks.  All I can think about lately is stir fry, stir fry, stir fry.  Oh how I love this time of year.

Last week while I was in Albertsons, I noticed a sign that read “Spend $100 in specific gift cards get a $10 catalina coupon.”  The strange thing was, the sign did not give specifics as to which gift cards were included in the sale. So I went to customer service to find out.  But they didn’t know either.

The only gift card I was really interested in was the one to Home Depot.  Because, hello, the Home Depot is practically our second home and since we shop there on a weekly basis, it tends to be my gift card of choice when these catalina deals come along.  Anyway, to make a long story short, I bought $100 worth of Home Depot gift cards and the catalina did not spit out.  So customer service was kind enough to issue me a catalina.  I would have taken the time to get more gift cards {and more $10 catalinas}, but I was in a hurry.  So I didn’t.  This promo ended 5/24.  When I checked the bottom on my receipt, I noticed I had earned a $5 off my next order coupon as well.  Yee-Haw!

Albertsons $5.12

After purchasing the Home Depot gift cards, I stocked up on pasta sauce {just enough to get us through until we can make our own this summer} milk, bananas and 5 packages of stinky bologna for Monkey Boy.  I used the $10 catalina, and the $5 store coupon and paid $5.12 oop.  I also earned a $4 catalina coupon from the bologna which I used later in the week at QFC.

Albertsons $3.68

Holy crap!  For a second there I thought I was at the airport with prices so high.  Note to self, never buy sweet potatoes out of season.

Target $1.99

Omaha Steaks FREE

The Handsome Husband’s mother sent him his annual care package of meat for his birthday {he’s very old BTW}.  The Girl Who Thinks She’s a Bird stole his bacon though.  Pretty much anytime bacon enters our house, she swipes it and hides it so no one can find it.  I’d try to hunt it down to get some, but she would just come up with a new hiding place.

Costco $6.85 + Safeway $4.98

I should have paid $1 more for my groceries at Safeway, but the cashier insisted that $.49 off $1.49 twice was $2.  I tried to explain it to her 3 times but she didn’t believe me and finally gave up.  I am not a rocket scientist or anything, but I can do simple math.  Whateva!

Papa Johns Pizza $3.00 {tip}

I have seriously slacked off on Swagbucks lately.  But when I was over there the last time I noticed you can now redeem your Swagbucks for $25 Papa Johns gift cards. No freakin’ way!  Yes way, it’s true.  The total for the pizza came to $23 something.  When you order online and use an e-gift card, you can also apply the remaining gift card balance towards the tip.  Pretty cool if you ask me.  So not only did we get 2 free pizzas, but I used the remaining balance towards the tip {plus gave the pizza guy an additional $3}.  Something tells me I’ll be using my Swagbucks for free pizza from here on out.  What a neat treat!

QFC Shopping Trip $9.07

You can read about this shopping trip HERE.

So basically this was a stock up week.  Let’s hope there will be a few low spending weeks in my near future.  I need to get my yearly spending back on track.

Total Spent This Week $34.69
Total Spent This Year $613.12
Total Spent This Year on Garden Seeds/Supplies $436.12
Total “Seed Money” donations received $3.00

How did YOU do this week?  Did you splurge on anything good?

Are you in the market for some new shopping totes?  Amazon has the Green Bee 2pk Reusable Shopping Bags currently on sale for $8.99 and they ship for free with Amazon Prime.

*Amazon prices can change at anytime.