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.