apples

I meant to link to this entry on Utah Deal Diva when I made the applesauce last week, but forgot. This has some great ideas of things to do with apples, along with pictures and how-tos.

Baking Day Results

I had a pretty productive day today. I made:

• 2 batches of strawberry freezer jam
• a ton of pinto beans
• ground a bunch of wheat for flour
• a loaf of whole wheat bread
• shredded a bunch of chicken
• 4 cups of chicken broth (I forgot that the chicken I was using was bone-in so I threw in some seasonings, onion, and garlic after I pulled out the chicken)
• rice, that I need to figure out what to do with (was left over from the Mexican Lasagna)
• a recipe of Chicken Tetrazinni
• 2 dishes of Mexican Lasagna

I didn't get to the pita bread and I will put in the granola tonight.

I learned a few things today.

1. Set the timer when letting bread rise when you're doing lots of other things. Otherwise you may end up with shriveled, over-risen bread.
2. Mexican Lasagna makes a TON of food. I filled up 2 9x13 dishes to the brim. We had one for dinner tonight and barely even dented it. I think our sweet grandma next door might get some for lunch tomorrow. Ashley, do you want some too?
3. I did like the wheat bread I made today (minus the over-rising). I will definitely make it again.
4. I need to make a complete game plan the day before, gather all my recipes, and pull out whatever I need out of the freezer. I ended up not being able to start until 10 this morning which was not good.
5. Sam did so great today. I was very surprised. We did take breaks, but he did so much better than I thought he would.

I want to start doing this regularly. If I can get a few meals in the freezer every time I do it then when the baby comes, I will be set.

Baking Day

I thought I would do a little food prep today. I probably shouldn't have labeled this post as "Baking Day" since I am not so much planning on much baking. Oh well.

Here's the plan and we'll see what I get done.

• cook and shred 5 lbs chicken, freeze in 1 lb increments to use in future recipes
• cook couple pounds (dried) pinto beans, freeze in 2 cup increments
• grind wheat flour
• make a loaf of bread, freeze
• Make pita pockets, freeze
• make strawberry jam from the frozen strawberries I bought back in April at $.89/lb.
• make chicken tetrazinni, freeze
• make Mexican Lasagna for dinner
• make lazy granola before I go to bed to be ready in the morning

Just typing this makes me feel tired, especially since Sam woke up on the grumpy side of the crib this morning, and an hour early at that!

All of the linked recipes are new to me. We love that darn variety here at this house. I'll let you know what I think of them.

walgreens? walgreens.

After months and months of being Walgreens-less, I returned today. I'm really on the lookout for good diaper sales. It seems like I just can't keep all that far ahead these days. Have there been a lack of stock-up sales lately? It sure seems like it.

Anyways, since I was there for the diapers, I grabbed a few other things too and took yet another chunk out of the budget. Darn it. Shopping is seriously compulsive for me. Good thing I'm not a jewelry shopper (unless you count Claires).

Retails: $69.40

Total Spent: $24.99

Percent Off: 64%

Plus, I have $7 to spend on anything at Walgreens in the next 2 weeks.

How did I do it?

• compiled list from hip2save
• sales: $20.62
• coupons/Register Rewards: $20.75
• The diapers were 2/$18. I used 2 coupons with them making them 2/$14.50. They also print out a $4 Register Reward (like a gift card you can use on anything)
• The lotion was $7 and spit out a $7 RR, the chapstick was $3 and spit out a $3 RR
• Ragu/Skippy is on sale for $1.66 each. When you buy 8, an $8 RR spits out. I also had $.75/2 coupons for the Skippy.
• the wrapping paper was on clearance for a $1 each. I needed to have some filler items.
• Walgreens is SO expensive to just walk in and buy stuff but I have gotten so much free shampoo/deodorant/shaving cream/toothpaste/etc from there using RR.

Money Left for the Month: $65.87

15 pounds of apples

I bought 15 pounds of apples at Buy Low on Wednesday. 15 pounds is a lot of apples, way more then we could ever eat before they went bad. I diced 4 of the apples and froze them to use later in pancakes and muffins. The rest I made into apple sauce and canned in 13 pints. I wish I had bought more!

buy low

I left Albertsons and headed over to Buy Low and waited there until they opened at 7am. I was pretty excited because the manager told me very sneakily about some unadvertised specials they were going to have today while supplies lasted.

I got 2 5 lb rotisserie chickens, 10 yoplait yogurts, 5 lbs of ground beef, 3 limes, 15 lbs granny smith apples, and a bunch of spinach.

Retails (approximate): $51.00

Total Spent: $15.00

Percent Off: 71%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from ad listed on pinchingyourpennies
• only bought what was on sale
• They only thing I was interested of the unadvertised specials was the whole chicken, cleaned, seasoned, tied and ready to cook for $.39/lb. It is normally $1.59/lb. A 5 lb bird was only $2! Sweet!
• Plus I found some 93% ground beef on clearance for $.99/lb, regularly $3.69/lb.
• The yogurt was 3/$1 and then I had 2 $.75/4 yogurts coupons from coupons.com.
• The apples are 5 lbs/$1 today only. I got 15 pounds and it cost $3. That is a lot of apples. All in all, a good trip.

Money Left for the Month: $90.86

And THIS is why I have a monthly budget. Otherwise I would just spend and spend and spend and spend and spend. And spend. Speaking of which, I need to slow it down a bit. It is only the 7th. Yikes.

albertsons

I was SO excited for this sale today. Besides the granola bars, the rest of this is good stuff, not the junk food that is normally so cheap. I was standing outside the store at 5:56am, waiting for the doors to open. Dorky.

Retails: $98.11

Total Spent: $23.64

Percent Off: 76%

How did I do it?

• compiled list from pinchingyourpennies
• sales/promotions: $59.41
• manufacturer coupons: $ 10.30
• I was sad because the disposable gloves that were going to be free with coupon weren't there. I went to 2 Albertsons and asked employees about them and they said that with the upcoming switchover to whatever the new store will be called, they haven't gotten in all the stuff they regularly do. Too bad.

Money Left for Month: $105.86