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!