Shopping and menu for 5/18

I have a confession. Meijer is my weakness. Especially when they have a weekend 2-day sale. If I see good deals, I have a compulsion to stock up! If you ever see an item that's at rock-bottom price, try and buy about 6 weeks worth, as that's about how long it'll take for that item to go on sale again.

Meijer 5/16

Barilla pasta: $.69 each. This is the lowest price I've ever seen pasta without using coupons. I was disappointed, because I had like 8 coupons for $1 off 2 of the whole wheat pasta, but only the regular was on sale. Luckily, I had one coupon for $.55 off 2, so I got two boxes for about $.42 each.

2 bottles Kraft ranch dressing: $1.98. They were $1.99 each, but if you bought 2 you got $2 off.

Aunt Millies buns: $.99 each. I had two coupons for $.35 off 1, which made each $.64.

Hummus: $4.29 each. I had a B1G1 coupon which made each one only $2.14 each. These weren't actually on sale, but I wanted to spoil myself. :)

Hunts ketchup: $.88. 

Meijer 5/18

2 packages Kraft singles: $2 each. Had an mPerks for $1 off 2, so I got them for $1.50 each. This is a rock bottom price, and they freeze well!

Bananas: $1.30

Romaine hearts: $1.99

Milk: $2.09

4 pounds ground chuck: $9.94.  It was on sale this week for $2.49 a pound, which is AMAZING for ground beef!  We'll freeze each one in individual 1-pound packages.

Bread: $.88.  Ibotta is giving back $.50 when you buy any brand of bread!

Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce: $.99 each.  This one was an oops.  I thought I had an mPerks for $1 off 2, but it must have expired.  Oh well, this is still a good price!

Lip balm: $.89

Hand sanitizer: $1

I also had an mPerks offer for $5 off my order, from their personal monthly rewards!

Aldi 5/18

Garlic toast: $1.79

Oatmeal: $2.29

Cottage cheese: $2.29

Sour cream: $1.29

Tortilla chips: $1.19

2 packages cream cheese: $2.58

Total spent: $38.88

Menu:

Million Dollar Casserole- Will double and freeze half

Hot dogs and fries

Stir-fry chicken

Leftovers

My birthday dinner at Firehouse Subs

Nachos

Birthday party

Breakfast: Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Baked Oatmeal

Sometimes Failure Happens

We all have those days. You just want to drown your sorrows in a gallon of ice cream and eat the biggest brownie in existence. These past two days have definitely been like that. Diaper blowouts, outfit changes (for both of us), possible teething... at the end of the day, I tell myself, "I deserve to get something after a day like this", even though I know I'm at my calorie limit for the day. Yesterday was a limeade from Sonic, and tonight is a peanut butter dessert that I made. Yes, they're not too bad calorie-wise, but my mindset is not in the right place.

It's okay to fail sometimes, though. You just gotta get back up and try again. I found today that my jeans are already feeling looser! That's motivation enough to keep me going!

Shopping and menu for 5/11

This is a light week shopping wise. Most of our meals this week are from the freezer, where I made double batches a few weeks before. This gives me plenty of money to stock up!

Meijer-Saturday

Meijer had a 2 day sale this Friday and Saturday. These can be pretty awesome sometimes, because Meijer usually has a 5% off grocery mPerks coupon you can clip. This week Mott's applesauce was buy one get one free, and I've been using the natural kind for Allison, so I decided to go check it out. I was not disappointed!

2 Mott's applesauce: $2.69 each, B1G1 free plus 5% off
-Makes each one $1.23 each

4 International Delight coffee creamer: $2.50 each
Used 2 $1.00 off coupons, plus 1 $.75 off 2 coupon, plus 5% off
-Makes each one $1.72 each!

I wasn't expecting to get that many coffee creamers! They're regularly like $3.30 and go on sale for $3.00 and $2.50 pretty often. International Delight doesn't give out many coupons, so I stock up when I can. The creamer expires in October, so I have plenty of time to use them!

Total spent: $9.57

Meijer 5/11

Meijer often has a 10 for $10 sale, with the 11th item free.  They usually have good stuff, and if you have coupons, they pair nicely!  I didn't have enough items to get a free item, but I wasn't going to spend more money just to save.

4 2-liters soda: $1 each, used 2 $.50 off 2 coupons

-Makes each one $.75! (This is typically a really good stock up price.  You might see them slightly cheaper during the summer months.)

1 can mushrooms $.88

1 onion $1.01

1 package Romaine hearts $1.99

1/2 gallon milk $2.09

Bacon bits $1.19

Bread $1

Croutons $1

Total spent: $12.45

Target 5/11

This week Target has an AMAZING deal on coffee!  Any brand is buy 2, get 1 free.  I have a Keurig, and I used to buy the K-Cups all the time until John got me the My K-Cup, which lets me brew regular ground coffee.  It's SO much cheaper to buy ground coffee than it is K-Cups!

2 bags Starbucks coffee $15.78, used a $2 off 2 coupon

1 bag Dunkin Donuts coffee $6.99 (Made free after the deal!)

Total spent: $13.78, or $4.59 per bag!

Menu for 5/11-5/18
Slow Cooker Chicken and Sausage Stew
Tuna Melt Pie
Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas
Leftovers
Corn Chicken Chili
Burritos using taco meat from freezer
Pasta and sauce

 Find any good deals this week?  Comment below!

Websites and apps that save/earn money!

Are you looking for ways to save money or earn a little extra cash/gift cards for Christmas, birthdays, etc.?  Here's a short list of websites/apps that I've personally used and still enjoy using.

Swagbucks is a website dedicated to helping you earn gift cards doing a variety of things, like watching videos, taking surveys, using their search engine, and more!  Redeem points for a huge variety of gift cards, such as Amazon, Starbucks, Wal Mart, as well as a variety of restaurants.  It only takes a couple minutes a day to do the basic Daily Survey and No Obligation Special Offers, and you can also download the Swagbucks Toolbar to earn an extra 1 Swag Buck a day. If you have a smartphone, you can install the Swag Bucks TV app to earn an extra 50 Swag Bucks a day!

What I typically do is run the app and watch the videos while I multi-task with other things.  It takes around 3-4 hours I think to earn the 50 Swag Bucks.  If you can do that and take at least one survey, you can earn 100 Swag Bucks or more a day!  That means in about one month, you can earn a $25 gift card!  I've done this multiple times, first with Starbucks, and most recently I've gotten the Wal Mart gift cards to use for Allison's formula at Sam's Club.  Swagbucks is a great way to save up gift cards for Christmas presents!

Shopkick is an app available for Android and iPhone. It allows you to earn "Kicks" at retail stores by scanning specific items, linking your credit card to your account and making a purchase, and even for just walking in. I personally don't use the credit card linking, but I can earn quite a bit just from walk ins and scans! Most $5 gift cards cost 1,250 Kicks, and you can get between 45-200 Kicks for walk ins and around 500 Kicks in scans each week. Seriously, between this and Swagbucks, I don't pay for Starbucks anymore.

Ibotta is a free app that acts like coupons. This app works in most grocery stores and a few restaurants. Each store has a list of items that show you how much money you'll get back for each product. For example, buy a specific laundry detergent and get $.50 back. Once you buy the item, take a picture of the receipt with the app, and once you reach $5, you can redeem it for a gift card or have it sent to your PayPal. I haven't earned enough yet to get a gift card, but I've heard great things about this app.  

This app could potentially save you money, but don't make the mistake of buying something just to get the cash back!  That's not really saving money in the end.  If you don't need it, don't buy it.

Checkout 51 is a fairly new app.  It works the same way as Ibotta: buy specific items and take a picture of the receipt to earn cash back.  The difference is that you have to accumulate $20 first, and then they'll mail you a check.  I'm starting to like this app a little more because you can get cash back for buying produce!

Have you used any of these apps or used any other good ones?  Share below!

Shopping trip for 4/27/14

Just got home with our groceries for the week!  This month is a little weird.  We used part of our tax return to make a big run to Sam's Club, where we bought enough food for a month's worth of dinners.  That means we can use our regular grocery budget to stock up on little things we were running low on.  I'll try to post each week what I bought, how much, what good prices are, etc.

Aldi:

Hawaiian rolls $1.99 (This is a great price!  You can find these at Meijer for $3 and they taste just the same.)
Packets of sweetener $1.69
Light pancake syrup $1.79
Black pepper $1.99
Salad dressing mix $2.07 ($.69 each.  These are great for using in recipes!  These packets are $1.50 at Meijer.  If you see these at Aldi, especially the ranch, buy a few to stock up.  I don't see them in stock very often.)

Total: $9.53


Meijer:

Every so often, Meijer will have a promotion on certain items, where if you buy 8 you save $8.  This happened to be one of those weeks, so we stocked up!

12 packages of Crystal Light $9.50 (Part of the buy 8, save $8.  After the special, they were $.99 each.  I used a $.50 off 1 coupon, a $1 off 2 coupon, and a $1 off 1 coupon.  Altogether, this averaged them at $.79 each!  I ONLY buy Crystal Light if they're $1 or less.  This is THE best price I've seen.)

5 bottles Kraft salad dressing $4.33 (4 of these were part of the buy 8, save $8.  There was a Kraft dijon ranch that was on clearance for $1.66, regularly $2.79, so I thought I'd try it.  The other 4 were $.98 with the special.  $.98 is a GREAT price for salad dressing!  I used a $.50 off 1 mPerks, and a $.75 off 2 coupon, averaging each bottle at $.86!)

5 boxes pasta $3.95 (Pasta was on sale for $.79 each.  This is the best sale price if you don't have coupons!)

3 jars Ragu pasta sauce $2.97 (On sale for $.99 each.  This is THE best sale price I've seen for Ragu! There was only a limit of 3, otherwise I would have gotten more.  There are usually coupons for Ragu, but none this week.)

3 jars Old El Paso salsa $2.40 (On sale for $1 each, which is a good price for 16oz of salsa.  I had a $.60 off 3 coupon, making these $.80 each!)

Kraft singles $2.50 (I've seen these go for $2 for 16 slices, but we were running low so I bought one anyway.)

Baby applesauce $.89

Big Red Gum $2

Bigelow tea $2.39 (Usually goes on sale for $2, but John needed some.)

Spent: $32.08
Saved: $41.52!
Total for the week: $41.61

Menu for 4/27-5/4
Slow cooker sausage and peppers
Slow cooker chicken and potatoes 
Sour cream chicken enchiladas (Doubling the recipe and freezing half)
Leftovers
Potato saute
Corn chicken chili (Doubling recipe and freezing half)

All the recipes above can be found at 5 Dollar Dinners!

Crying babies and learning patience

Oh boy, today's been rough. Really, the past few days have. Allison's 6 month checkup was Tuesday, along with her shots, which always makes for a fun day. I mentioned to the doctor that Allison had a bunch of prominent lymph nodes behind her ears, and the doctor ordered bloodwork just to get it checked out. I decided to wait till Wednesday because Allison was still fussy.

Wednesday morning I took her to get her finger stuck. It was just as painful as watching her get the shots, maybe worse because it took a few minutes to do. Thankfully she was great when we got home. A few hours later I got a phone call saying her white blood count was high and an appointment was made with another pediatrician that same day. Of course I started to freak out. More doctor visits, possibly more bloodwork... it's way too much for a little one to handle.

As far as we know now, she's perfectly healthy! The type of cells that were high are associated with allergies, so we just need to keep an eye on her to see what happens.

I think the past couple days have taken a toll on her now, though.  She woke up this morning at 6:30 completely grumpy and whining about everything. Didn't want to sit in my lap, didn't want to watch My Little Pony, didn't want to nap even though she was tired, cried at her toys, cried because she can't crawl yet... the list goes on. The problem with babies is that it's so hard to tell exactly what's wrong! She just had her second tooth pop through this morning, so that might be it. Could be a growth spurt, could be just really tired.. or she could just be a baby!

Sam's and GFS run! Plus menu

We finished our huge run to GFS and Sam's today! Friday was our GFS trip, where we got a few things that were a little cheaper than Sam's. We also had a $10 off coupon we were able to use. 

-10 pounds of ground beef ($2.99/lb. Not horrible, but it's been cheaper. Compare to $3.50/lb at Sam's.)
-10 pound bag of fresh chicken breasts ($1.99/lb. I'll only buy if it's that price or cheaper.)
-5 pound bag of shredded cheese
-1 case of fries (Kind of excessive, but our last case lasted us a whole year!)

-1 jug of pancake syrup

Then today we went to Sam's Club while our dear friend Cheryl watched Allison for us.  I thought we'd need two carts, but somehow we made it work!

-5-pack of spaghetti noodles

-3 pound container of sour cream

-2-pack of coffee creamer (Will get $1.50 back using the Ibotta app!)

-3-pack of DiGiorno pepperoni pizza

-Pancake mix

-3-pack of 5 bacon and cheddar chicken sausage

-8-pack Rotel tomatoes

-12-pack cans of chicken broth

-Quart freezer bags

-Gallon freezer bags

-2-pack peanut butter

-Formula (Free after a $25 gift card I redeemed from Swagbucks!)

-Wipes

-2 10-packs of tuna

-2 20-pack 6-inch tortilla shells

-6-pack assorted peppers

-6-pack frozen corn

-4-pack frozen broccoli

-10 pounds red potatoes

-3-pound bag baby carrots

-4-pound bag chocolate chips

-36 eggs

I'm very happy with this turnout!  This will give us over a month of dinners. You'll still need to buy little things each week, like salad, dinner rolls, etc. We'll also be making lots of pancakes to freeze for breakfasts.  Since there's only two of us, there will be plenty of leftovers for lunch.   Here's a sample of what our dinners will be next week:

Monday: Slow cooker chicken and sausage stew

Tuesday: Tuna quesadillas

Wednesday: Loaded potato frittata

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: BBQ Meatball sliders

Saturday: Burritos

Sunday: Tuna sandwiches

My entire menu for the next month is thanks to 5 Dollar Dinners!  She has two different Sam's $150 dinner pages, and includes a shopping list and recipes for all the meals! 

Brownie Batter Overnight Oats

It took me awhile to come up with a name for this blog, mostly because the other ones I wanted were taken! Being the nerd that I am, I thought of a quote from Final Fantasy VII. The main characters were on a train heading to a mission, and one said, "There ain't no getting offa this train we're on." Besides the literal meaning, he meant there was no escaping their mission, their ultimate goal. And that's kind of where I am right now. I made this commitment to lose weight, and now I need to stick to it. No getting offa this train I stepped onto!

I found a recipe last week for brownie batter overnight oats. If you've never had overnight oats, you're missing out on a delicious, filling, healthy, and easy to make breakfast! The best part is you can customize it with whatever fruit, chocolate, etc. you want. I'd never had Greek yogurt before trying overnight oats. The plain flavor is kinda gross by itself, but mixed in with the other ingredients, you can't even taste it. Plus, it's filled with protein to keep you full! I get mine at Aldi for $4 for a 32 ounce container, which so far is the best price I've found.

Recipe:

1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or regular milk)

1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt

2 tbs cocoa powder

1/8 tbs salt

2 tbs baking stevia or sugar subsitute

1 cup old-fashioned oats

1/4 cup protein powder (or more oats)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, then pour into two containers.  Let them sit overnight in the fridge, and you now have amazing oatmeal!  You can eat it cold or heat in the microwave for a few seconds.  Best part, one serving is about 273 calories.

Recipe taken from this website! 

One Week In

Well, here I am a week into my lifestyle change. I hate calling it a diet, because I can't just go back to stuffing my face after I lose my weight. So far, I feel like I'm doing good!

Before I got pregnant with Allison, I weighed 130 pounds. 6 months later, I was still up to 148. Not terrible, but I knew I could do better. I want more energy. I want to look good for my husband. I want to be in shape to play with Allison when she gets older. So last Sunday, April 6th, I decided it was time for a change. I found the app Noom, which helps track everything I eat, and track any exercise I do. I'm loving it because it categorizes food into green, yellow, and red. You want to fill your day with more green, so it's been fun trying to get my chart more green color.

So here's the deal. I get only 1260 calories a day; 1300 if I do some walking. That's been the biggest challenge. I've found that I need to plan each meal carefully so I don't get too hungry between meals, and so I have enough calories to get to dinner, which is usually the bulk of my food. I've had to eat straight lettuce and dressing because I didn't have any calories left for things like cheese and croutons.

The second challenge is spending only about $37 a week. Allison's formula is expensive, so we've opted to eat cheaply until she's no longer on formula. It's so difficult to find both cheap and healthy foods. Eventually I'll try to grow my own food, but for now I'm relying on Aldi and coupons. I'll try to post our shopping list each week if I'm able.

This morning I weighed myself and I'm down to 146.2! I'm very excited and can't wait to see the effects this lifestyle change will have on my body and mindset.