Menu Plan for the Week of 3/9/09

Menu Plan Monday is hosted at Orgjunkie!

All three of us slept in this morning without meaning to. It was soooo nice! Unfortunately I think my daughter ...who is now 17 months old!!.... is sick again. She slept almost 12 hours, which is about 3 hours more than normal. Ah well...at least Daniel and I are rested for once:)

Breakfasts: Sourdough pancakes (keep forgetting to use my starter), whole wheat cranberry orange scones

Lunches/Snacks: leftovers, fruit, yogurt, cold cereal

Dinners:

M: Soup and Sandwiches-Daniel's eating on the road

Tue: Chicken Tenders and Fries possibly...we have company with 3 little ones so I am asking about food allergies/preferences today:)

Wed: Red Lentil Curry over Brown Rice

Th: Quiche (based loosely on this recipe)

F: Calzones on the road...heading to Spokane for the weekend for a long overdue trip to visit friends and the church we met at/got married at!!

Sat/Sun: in Spokane...we'll be packing lots of meals on the go and probably have a few out/a few at friends' houses

What's on your menu this week?

More of the Reading Buddies and Preg. update

My sweet MIL suggested we take some pictures with me in them so baby O and the rest of us can remember this stage. So soon to come will be an updated preggo photo, although I am not looking particularly forward to posting it!

With M's pregnancy and this one (baby girl "O":) I have gained the recommended amount of weight....before 30 weeks! Not awesome. But I am clinging to the hope that as with last time I will lose all but 10 pounds within the first few weeks. Yay for the eat all you want breastfeeding diet:)! Please tell me it works as well the second time around;)

I am getting to the not-sleeping-well, heartburn most of the afternoon and night point in the pregnancy. My only other complaint is that whenever I find the motivation to take a nice long walk, I pay for it that night and the next day or two afterward. Some sort of misalignment issue with my tailbone and surrounding areas causes everything to get all irritable and it hurts to move. Same with last time, but I realize if this is the worst of my problems--I really am blessed!

Aren't they cute together? My lap is almost non-existent so its nice that M can read with daddy in the evenings and on the weekend. And they can play "chase"...M's favorite giggle-filled game.

Safeway NW Deals for 3/4-3/10/09

* I almost forgot to mention this, but the frozen food deal (Buy $25 worth of participating products, get $10 off your next purchase of frozen foods) is still on!

48 hour sale-Saturday & Sunday only(I am going to take advantage of these!)

Safeway Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts, 4lb bag for $6.76 ($1.69/lb!)

Carrots, Potatoes or Onions, 5 lb bag only $0.99 each

Safeway Refresh Water 24 pack $2.99

MD Bath Tissue or Sparkle Paper Towels $4.99

Good Deals (no coupon needed!)

Pork Shoulder Blade Roast $1.15/lb

Fresh Express Supreme, Ready Pack Salad Bowl or Complete Salads, $1.98 each

Navel Oranges $0.36/lb (10 lbs bag)

Lucerne Milk Gallon $1.99 each when you buy 2

Mix N Match Promo -Buy 5 save $5(must buy five to get this price)

**Edited to Add: There is a $4 on your next order catalina printing when you buy 4 or more Post Raisin Bran Cereals! If you buy 4, plus one more cereal in the promo (if your store accept printables there is one for Quaker life cereal floating out there!) you should be able to get Raisin Bran for close to free!! Thanks Marie!

Quaker Life Cereal, 15 oz $0.99
Use $1.00/2 coupon from 01-04 R1
Final Price $0.49

General Mills Honey Nut Cheerios, 12.25 oz $1.99
Use $1.00/3 coupon from 03-08 S
Final Price $1.66

Post Fruity Pebbles, 13 oz $1.49
Use $1.00/2 coupon from 01-25 S
Final Price $0.99

Post Raisin Bran, 20 oz $1.49
Use $1.00/2 coupon from 01-25 S
Final Price $0.99

Kelloggs Corn Flakes, 12 oz $0.99
Use $0.70/1 coupon from 02-22 RP
Final Price $0.29

Kelloggs Frosted Mini-Wheats, 18 oz $1.99
Use $0.70/1 coupon from 02-22 RP
Final Price $1.29

Super Coupons (min $10 purchase)

Digorno Pizza $3.97

Oreo Cookies $1.29

Classico Pasta Sauce $1.37
Use $1/2 coupon found here
Final Price $1.74 for 2!

Simply Juice, 59 oz $1.99
Use $1.00/1 coupon from 01-25 S
Final Price $0.99

Knorr Lipton Sides or Sides Plus Veggies, 4.3-6.4 oz $0.88

SeaPak Seafood Selections, 8-20 oz $4.99
Use $1.00/2 coupon from 03-01 RP
Final Price $4.49

Coupon Match-Ups

Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage, 14-16 oz BOGO free $2.50
Use $0.35/1 coupon from 01-25 RP
Final Price $2.15

Celestial Seasonings Tea, 20 oz $1.90
Use $0.55/1 coupon from 02-08 S
Final Price $1.35

Budding Lunch Meat, 12 oz $3.00
Use $1.00/1 coupon from 01-18 RP
Final Price $2.00

Kelloggs Special K Bars, 3.8-4.6 oz $2.50
Use $0.70/1 coupon from 02-22 RP
Final Price $1.80

For a meal idea using Safeway Sale Items this week (for under $5) see here!

What other deals or match-ups do you see?

For more shopping deals visit BeCentsable!

Bargain Meal of the Week for Safeway NW 3/4/09

Each week at $5 Dinners there is a huge gathering of bargain meals using ingredients at one particular store. Lots of stores are represented! I cover Safeway (the NW region)! Click on the menu items for a few recipe ideas.

This week's bargain meal:

Crispy Chicken Tenders
Spicy Home Fries
Carrot Sticks
Dole Fruit Bowls

Shopping List/Prices

Skinless Boneless Chicken Breasts 1 1/2 lbs (buy on 48 hour sale this weekend for $1.69/lb = $2.54
Potatoes (use 3-4 for recipe, buy on 48 hour sale- $0.99 for 5 lb bag=$0.25)
Carrots (use 3-4, buy on 48 hour sale-$0.99 for 5 lb bag= $0.15)
Egg (for chicken tenders-approx. $0.25
Corn Flakes (sale for $0.99 when you buy 5, lots of coupons out there!=1 cup $0.10)
Spices $0.25 approx.
Dole Fruit Bowls (super coupon for $1.67 for 4) $1.67

Total $5.21 (serves 4)

Bonus Idea: Use leftover Chicken, potatoes and carrots along with some chicken broth to make a chicken soup the next day! Pair with a Fresh Express Complete Salad for $1.98 to make a complete meal!

Cost: Varies depending on leftovers, but very cheap!

Diaper Cake

This past Saturday there was a baby shower at our church that I almost forgot about. On Thursday morning the soon-to-be grandma reminded me of the shower, but I had zero time to go to the store and pick out a gift. I barely had time to get groceries for the week even!

Since I had been stocking up on baby things for our soon-to-arrive baby girl, I had some extra things. Nothing that really made for an acceptable gift though (although I contemplated putting some diapers/wipes in a bag and calling it good:)! Finally I remembered seeing diaper cakes on the internet.

All you need is a huge pack or two of diapers, a topper (cute stuffed animal works) and some little things to tuck in as decor. Also needed: an anchor of some sort (I used huggies baby wash I got for free last year with coupons!), wide ribbon, rubber bands (I used ribbon and string for some because I ran out of rubber bands) and that's it! Mine could be called a "mini-cake" because usually there's another layer. I ran out of time and things to tie up the rolled diapers with, so that's what I ended up with. I thought it was fairly cute-and it cost about $5 in supplies I already had on hand, maybe less.

If you're interested in doing this, there are tons of tutorials if you google "diaper cake". After you get the general idea of rolling up diapers, securing them with rubber bands, then securing them in cake-like layers, there's not much to it! This would be an amazingly cheap gift combined with next week's Walgreen's Huggies Diaper deal!!

Special Walgreen's Deals

I had a couple questions about my Walgreen's trip, so I thought I would share in more detail. Plus, I just read about a great deal (from Hip 2 Save) on Johnson's baby products so I thought I would share that one too!

Dove Deal: this is one of the best deals because you can just walk in and do it...no coupon hunting required. Pick up 8 individual Dove bar soaps, grab the weekly sale flier from the front of the store and give the cashier 1 $0.99 sale on Dove ind. bar soap coupons. You will spend $7.92 + tax and get $10 in RR back! Easy money maker of almost $2!

Sambucol Deal: Use this printable coupon first, then use the $10 off coupon from the EasySaver rebate book at the front of the store. This products is typically $12.99 (at my store) so you'll make $1 on this deal and get free cold/flu meds (I didn't know what Sambucol was before going to the store:)

Johnson & Johnson Baby Products Deal: Spend $25 worth (many are priced $3.36 this week after sale) and get $10 back. Use printable coupons found in this great post at Hip 2 Save plus the Johnson's coupon in the coloring book at WAGS and you'll spend as little as $0.88 for all 8! I may be back at Walgreen's later this week to stock up for our new girlie on the way!

Colgate is another easy money maker: Buy the specially marked Colgate toothpaste (for $3.29 at my store) and receive $3.50 in RR back! There are coupons out there, but I didn't have any:)

Weekly Shopping Trips for week of 2/28/09

My shopping was mainly done at Safeway, with a trip to Save-A-Lot for a free Spaghetti dinner thrown in plus a great trip to Walgreen's. For groceries, my weekly total was right under $39, with a $20 trip to Walgreen's for toiletries etc.

I had a fun trip to Walgreen's this week. Two of my coupons didn't work, but the rest did and I got several free items!

Freebies:
Mylanta -on clearance for $1.89, used coupon from EasySaver book for $2 off, adjusted down to make it free!
Extra Gum (from RR coupon)
Blink Tears (after RR is factored in)
Colgate (after RR, plus overage!)
Sambucol (got overage)
Dawn Dish Soap (after coupons and Sambucol overage)
Glucerna Cereal
Dove soap (free after RR!)

The diapers weren't free, but cheap! $4.50 per pack, so a good stock up price:)

Safeway finally had some great deals, including a $10 off any $50 purchase, $10 off your next order of frozen food when you buy $25 worth of frozen food AND $5 off instantly when you buy 2 bags of frozen fries and 2 bags of frozen fish. With the help of lots of other money saving sites, I combined the three deals, plus used a few super coupons and manufacture coupons for a total of $36.xx. Plus I have $10 to spend this coming week on frozen food!
I was able to get lots of fresh food in the this trip for good prices as well: asparagus, eggplant, mandarin oranges, cabbage, organic mini carrots etc. The pepsi was free, the butter was $.99 and the soup was a little over $.50/can, mini wheats were $0.29 after coupons! The Activa yogurt was $1.00 after markdown.

Finally, Save-A-Lot! I've never been here before, but the free spaghetti dinner fixin's drew my friend Marie and I in! It was worth it. I bought a little produce that was super cheap, and the total for all of the below was $2.52!
Speaking of the spaghetti dinner, we added some meatballs I made and froze last week. Here is my daughter enjoying it last night.

Visit Grocery Cart Challenge and Money Saving Mom to see more shopping trips!!