Safeway NW Deals for the week of Oct. 29th, 2008

Campbells Condensed Soups, 10.5 to 11-oz. $1.00
Use $0.40/3 coupon from 10-05 CA
Final Price $0.80

Birds Eye Steamfresh Meals for 2 $4.99
Use $1.50/1 from 10-12 S
Final Price $3.49

Progresso Vegetable Classics Soups, 18.5 to 19-oz.
Use $0.50/2 from 10-05 GM or $1.10/1 found here
Final Price $0.75 or FREE!!

Reeses or Kit Kat Snack Size Bags (Wednesday, Thursday & Friday ONLY... hurry!) $1.50
Use $2.50/2 coupon from 09-14 S
Final Price $0.25 each

Dannon Yogurt, 6-oz cup - cpn for Light n Fit $0.70
Use $1.00/6 coupon from 08-17 S
Final Price $0.53

General Mills Cheerios, 18-oz. Cereal (buy 5 get $1 off EACH box)
Use $1.00/3 or use $1.00/1 coupons here
Final Price $1.66 or $0.99 each

Orville Redenbachers Microwave Popcorn, 3 ct BOGO $1.75
Use $0.40/1 coupon from 10-12 S
Final Price $1.35

See any other deals worth mentioning?

Meals, Smiley girl, and Crochet

With no car for the week and one brief opportunity to get groceries, I had to plan well for our meal plan this week. Due to the circumstances and time constraints of our shopping trip, I had to deal with some less than stellar prices and had to stick to my shopping list even though it was based on a different store's sales flier!



My slightly crazy kitchen helper, who likes to hide under the kitchen sink.


Even so, we managed to spend just under $70 for 6 days worth of food for 3 people, one being a very small person:) Basically all we started out with was some salt and pepper, so I thought we did pretty well. This is definitely not the healthiest week ever, with our consumption of whole grains taking a nosedive (who knew they don't sell whole wheat flour in small town North Carolina?!?!?) but we are eating protein, some whole grain, dairy and fresh fruits and veggies every day.

Here is non other than the veggie-chopping diva herself, making homemade veggie soup.

If you want a low-cost menu for 4-6 people, the Hillbilly Housewife has a great breakdown of how to do it. The prices aren't realistic for my neck of the woods, but its a good place to start from and gives lots of food for thought:)

Here is my original meal plan, and what we are actually eating, day by day is listed below. Although as usually this will bore our friends and family to tears, I thought it might interest others who are looking for frugal food ideas a bit more:)

Sunday:

Breakfast for the first day was provided: cereal and juice boxes, bread for toast, jam and butter packets, some powdered milk and 3 eggs.

>Lunch: out with our new friend to a great local italian place. Not in our original budget, but worth it to get to know another missionary and to say thank you for the ride to the grocery!

Dinner: Homemade veggie/noodle soup and tuna cheese melts. I chopped up a 1/2 cup onion, and 2 cups of carrot/broccoli and sauteed in a little margarine. After the veggies were tender, I added several cups of water, 2 veggie bouillon cubes, 1/2 cup dried whole grain pasta (from home) and simmered until the noodles were tender. It actually was pretty good, and my 1 year old loved it. Daniel made the tuna melts, which were also very good:)

Monday:

Breakfast: Pancakes from "Jiffy" mix with honey and margarine and milk/coffee

Lunch: Leftover soup, tuna melts and italian food

Dinner: out to a JAARS family house (tacos and pie:)

Tuesday:

Breakfast: Pancakes from Jiffy mix, scrambled eggs, milk/coffee and tangerine for me

Lunch: Tacos with ground beef (stretched this with onions and oats, but was still good!), cheese, sour cream, salsa (forgot beans and lettuce)

Dinner: Tuna Noodle Casserole (using tuna packets from home, as well as whole grain pasta from home:)

Wednesday:

Breakfast: Blueberry muffins from mix and leftover eggs with tangerines and milk/coffee

Lunch: Leftover Tuna Noodle Casserole

Dinner: With JAARs family

Thursday:

Breakfast: Pancakes with Honey and Margarine, bananas, milk/coffee

Lunch: More Tacos from leftovers

Dinner: Beef Stroganoff with Steamed Broccoli

Friday:

Breakfast: Pancakes, Eggs, Coffee/Milk

Lunch: Leftover Beef Stroganoff with Steamed Broccoli

Dinner: Frozen Cheese Pizza with Carrot Sticks/Dip

Saturday: Coming home! We'll have whatever's left all day. Probably a few tangerines, a few slices leftover pizza, some granola bars we brought, PB&Honey Sandwiches, quesadillas, carrot sticks, etc. I also brought a chicken flavored rice mix from home that didn't end up in a meal so I may mix that up with leftover meat, veggies and cheese for our lunch before leaving for the airport. Airport food is so overpriced! If you have flown recently you probably noticed that you are lucky to get peanuts and a soda now, much less a meal even for longer flights. So we always try to pack more food than we think we'll need.

Oh and a tip...don't forget that pudding, dips and yogurt all count as liquid at the airport! Sadly, about a third of our food was thrown away at security because I was thinking of actually liquid, not stuff like pudding:(

On another note, my friend Marie is re-teaching me to crochet. I have been wanting to do a rug (actually with old t-shirts, but that is next) for a long time, but couldn't figure it out from online tutorials. So this has been a fun diversion while away from my normal tasks:) Thanks Marie!


M's newest thing is when she falls she will just lay down for awhile and be silly. Here is a demonstration:

Psalm 100- Praise

This psalm has come back to me several times the past few days in different forms.

Psalm 100


100:1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his; [4]
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

In North Carolina

We do indeed have internet here at the JAARS campus in Waxhaw, so pictures will be soon to come! The plane ride(s) were fairly uneventful and on the second leg we were seated with another passenger in our row of three but when he noticed free seats elsewhere in the plane he offered to give us more room and moved! It was an amazing blessing. Not only that but seated behind us was a Wycliffe member from Canada who then proceeded to be on the van ride home with us.

While driving to the JAARS campus we found out there would be no way for us to get the groceries we needed for the week until Monday (we arrived late Saturday night) and were wondering what to do. Our new friend then offered to not only take us to the nearest grocery on Sunday but to show us around the small town of Waxhaw. God took care of the details, as usual:) We asked our new friend about good restaurants in the area and took him out to show our appreciation...but the italian food was so good we were the lucky ones! And the southern hospitality at the restaurant was like none I had ever experienced.

God has been working in our hearts regarding missions for several months now in various ways. We are excited to see what He does, whether it involves going with JAARS or elsewhere in missions!

Favorite Picture of M thus far

The odds are usually about 1/10 that a picture will actually take with our current camera issue, so when a picture takes when M is doing what I was hoping to capture its practically a miracle! This picture makes me smile when I look at it:)


Another cute face of M:


Well, in another hour we're off to North Carolina to do an evaluation with Wycliffe (JAARS)! Hopefully I will be able to update while there, but not sure yet.

Other news, we had our first ultrasound and everything looks good so far! Heartbeat was 160, and the measurements lined up with our EDD. Praise the Lord!

Saving even on healthy foods/useful stuff

One of the objections people often have for not using coupons is that coupons are only for "name brand items" which is often true, or that they cook from scratch. I thought the same thing until I realized that you can get name brand, relatively healthy food (with the occasional junk splurge for treats) at great discount when you combine sales, coupons and catalinas. Here is a picture of a recent trip to Fred Meyer, where I got fresh Spinach for $0.99/bag, turkey sausage for $1.50 each, and Smart Taste Pasta for $0.33/box. Not bad for healthy food we'll use!


Here is a recent trip to Walgreen's where I spent under $9 out of pocket, but recieved $15 in register rewards back! It was great for getting some items I really needed. The medicine was just a bonus. Anyone nearby need any cold medicine?:)
And for the grandma's who don't care about my deal pics, but really want grandbaby pics, here is M, drinking out of her straw-sippy.

Meal Plan while at JAARS for evaluation

Since I need to do our meal plan for next week anyway, I thought I would share it with you all. We will rent a JAARS car the first day we are there (Sunday) and make a trip to the nearest grocery store. From what we can tell, the kitchen will be equipped with the basics, so this will be a lot easier than cooking during our trip to Texas! The goal is to buy what we need for 5 dinners, 6 lunches, and 6 breakfasts and not have to throw anything away. Yet I need meals that will be relatively easy to prepare no matter what I find in the kitchen.

Here's what I came up with so far:

Breakfasts: Toast w/jam, cold cereal (will bring some if room), eggs, milk and coffee

Lunches: Leftovers, Sandwiches (bringing PB), Quesadillas

Dinners:

*Soup and Grilled Tuna Melts (bringing tuna pouches)

*Roast Chicken, mixed veggies and instant brown rice mix

*Ground Beef Stroganoff with frozen peas

*Tacos (sourcream, salsa, cheese, canned beans, lettuce, chicken from roast chicken meal)

*Tator Tot Casserole (canned soup, ground beef, green beans topped with tator tots) and salad

*Frozen Pizza and carrots

Snacks: Carrots and dip, fruit, PB& J on toast, cheese and crackers (bringing these)


Grocery List:

2 cans soup (tomato)
2 lbs cheese
Uncle Dan's ranch mix
lettuce
carrots
2 containers sour cream
salsa
jam
tator tots (frozen)
3 cans cream of mushroom soup
ground beef (2 lbs)
milk
bag frozen green beans
canned mushrooms
cream cheese
small whole chicken
bag frozen mixed veg
bag frozen peas
bread
tortillas
canned beans
eggs
small tubs margarine
fruit