This Week's Shopping trips

First, I went to Albertson's for their spend $30 on selected products, get $15 to spend on your next order deal. They also had a deal where you spend $30 on diapers and such and get $20 for your next order (in the form of a catalina coupon at checkout).

I spent over $50 this week on all these transactions so I decided this would be my shopping for two weeks, minus any freebies (or almost free) and fresh milk and produce. I did get 6 packages of Pampers for those first few months of bleary-eyed no-sleep newborn care, which is in less than 5 months!!

Lots of muffins mixes, Fiber 1 bars and other convenience items will come in handy at that time too. Low sugar yogurt and canned soup has already come in handy for quick food for my toddler. The last transaction you see which is included in the second picture has the items we need for this next few weeks. I used the final $15 catalina for those things including chicken, bell peppers, oranges, bananas, celery, onions, butter, french bread and sour cream. It was a fun couple of trips!
Transactions #1,#2, #3:

Transactions #4, #5, #6:


My trip to Walgreen's was last, with lots of freebies. The Splenda was free with internet coupons, so were the Reese's Whipps bars (thanks for the coupons, Marie!). The two Christmas candies were on 90% off and were for fillers in case I had too many coupons. The dish soap we actually needed, and was $0.54 after coupons. Oh, and if you look closely, I included one of the FAR items, Revlon blush, which was $9.99 and I put that on my rebate gift card. Total oop: $0, and I will receive over $10 on my gift card for next month!

If you want to see some of the meals I will be making this week using up these groceries, visit here.

Visit the grocery cart challenge (a fellow Pacific Northwesterner!) to see other shopping trips this week!

Tonight's dinner and sick baby in the dryer

For dinner tonight I am making Farmhouse Chicken Casserole. This is a really good casserole, but is more labor intensive than the typical casserole that I make. I made it healthier with organic whole grain stuffing (on clearance!) and extra veggies. Here is a picture since I thought to snap it:

And for bonus fun, here is my baby girl, who is sick and kept her poor mommy (yes, trying to elicit sympathy here:) up most of the night (check out the snotty nose:) whose favorite "hide out" is now the dryer. She likes to pull the door almost all of the way shut! Not one of my safest play spots for her, but I keep a close eye when she heads that way:)

Menu Plan for the week of January 11th, 2009

For breakfasts I am trying to go for more variety than I have in the past. Here goes:

Breakfasts: Fiber One Muffins X 2, Amish Baked Oatmeal X 2, 1/2 whole wheat waffles X 2, corn muffins and yogurt X 1

Lunches: Leftovers

Snacks: yogurt (from the great Albertson's sale!) and fruit, Fiber one bars (also from the sale:)

Dinners:

M: Farmhouse Chicken & Salad (I got some organic whole grain stuffing on clearance so I knew I had to make this recipe that we love!)

Tue: Crockpot Mexican Casserole and Peas

Wed: Rainbow Bean Soup and Corn Muffins (from my friend Marie!)

Th: Pakistani Kima (More with Less recipe...we loved this recipe the first time we made it a month or two ago!)

F: Homemade Cheese (or maybe hawaiian) Pizza and veggie sticks)

Sat: Cheesy Potatoes and Baked Beans (more with less) and broccoli

Sun: Pasta Carbonara and green beans

Orgjunkie has hundreds more menu plans!

This week's frugal highlights

This has been an interesting week. We listed a ton of books on Paperback Swap and will soon have close to 10 credits! Any good book recommendations?

I have received lots of nice comments about my Really Good Beans & Rice. If you haven't tried it, try it tonight! Its cheap, reasonably healthy and tastes so good.

Another tip this week that will save you money on late fees and make you thankful you are not as cool as me is to check closely to make sure you are putting mail in the blue mailbox, not the blue garbage can:)

And finally, we've switched to cloth diapers at night as well.

Here are my financial (and personal) goals for the next few months, before girlie #2 is born.

Visit Biblical Womanhood for more frugal friday!

Earthy Crunchy (sorta) again

Me and girlie numero uno in my supa-cool new Ergo

With some Christmas money and some money my sweet in-laws sent a looooong time ago, I invested in something I've wanted for an even loooonger time. The Ergo Baby Carrier. Its already been a lifesaver this past week when M has been super cranky and I had to get something done instead of holding her in my arms. I have had a hard time getting her on my back on my own, but its doable. I think I need to watch the video again to make sure I am doing it correctly. I can't wait to try it out with our new little girl!

Another crunchy-ish thing I did was use money from an old piggy bank my dad gave us plus some of our own money (with Daniel's blessing) to buy two more Bum Genius diapers for night-time and traveling. I have now switched over to cloth diapering at night! Its worked well so far. Two wonderful friends from church, the Goodings and the Thomases have gifted us their used pre-folds (which were different kinds and both are nicer than what we had) so we are set! I am planning on using disposables with our new girl for the first month or two of life, so the money I am not spending on M's diapers is helping me to stockpile. Hopefully I will not have another C-section and will feel up to getting into cloth right away, but am not planning on it just in case. I am also building up a stockpile of mixes and and canned foods so that my first month with new baby will go smoothly no matter how much help I have.

Goals for the New Year

At Biblical Womanhood and Money Saving Mom, they are discussing goals for the New Year, financial and otherwise. I had been thinking about personal and family goals for the new year (at least those that I can make headway on before the baby comes!) so I thought I would share them here.

Financial:

1. Get back to writing our monthly expenditures down. We have not had much success in keeping up with computer programs to track these, but I can use a simple spreadsheet or pen and paper!

2. Decide what to do with our savings. When we were planning on serving with New Tribes Mission, we had set aside school and living expenses for the year. Since we were accepted to Wycliffe Bible Translators (as a part of JAARS)!!! this week, we will need to decide how to allocate that money...whether it be in retirement or for helping to buy a place to live once on the mission field. (Wycliffe is set up differently than New Tribes in that we'll already be members receiving support when we head out to train with them next year).

Personal:

1. Finish re-reading the Old Testament. Read two "substantial" books a month, biographies or learning a new skill for example.

2. Dust off my workout dvds and use them for at least 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week (or a walk if the weather is ever nice:)

3. Begin writing notes to my husband in his lunch box, at least once a week. I used to do this almost every day, but got out of the habit when M was born.

Parenting:

1. Spend more time reading with our daughter, and be more intentional about what I read with her. We are still looking for more suggestions on good books for her-eductional or Christian oriented.

Safeway NW Deals for January 7th-13th, 2009

A few good deals:

20% off all meat!

Fresh Express Salad BOGO free

Northwest grown apples (3lb) $4.99 each BOGO free

Lucerne Milk 2/$4.78

Quaker instant oatmeal 2/$5
Use $1/1 coupon here!

Yoplait Yogurt 10/$5

Safeway Butter Top Breads 2/$5

Buy Any 5 Save $5!

Selected Juice Drinks including Ocean Spray which are $1 after you buy 5! Use $1/1 coupons here (may need more than one computer to print 5) to get all 5 for free!! If you cannot print that many Ocean Spray Coupons, you can print V8 Fusion coupons here to make those $1 each!

Super Coupons (limitless, but with min. $10 purchase)

Cheerios-honey nut or multigrain $1.50 each

Jennie-O Turkey Store Ground Turkey $2.49 each

5lb bag Red delicious apples $1.99 each

Nabisco Tray Packs $2.99

The following are from the Sunday Ad and are still good:

Bagel Bites $4.99

Dole Fruit Bowls $1.67

Lucerne String Cheese $5.99

Totino's Pizza Rolls $2.99 (coupon for $1/1 found here)

Slim Fast Optima Shakes $4.99 (6 pack) Print $2/1 and $3/1 coupons here

Irish Spring or Softsoap 8ct bar, 18 oz. bodywash or 32-40 oz refill $2.99

Crest or Colgate, selected varieties $2.49 Print $1.50 off coupon here

Pampers or Huggies Box Diapers $28.99 (coupons in various inserts)

Dove Skin Care $4.99

Garnier Fructis Shampoo, Cond, or Styler $2.49 (lots of coupons in various inserts icluding this week's)

Pepcid and Tylenol PM $8.49

Fresh Step Scoop Litter 21 lb. $6.99

Glad Trash Bags 25-80ct. $5.99

Hormel Natural Choice Lunchmeat 6-8 oz. $2.39 each

Gorton's Seafood selections 14-25.5oz. $3.49 each Print coupon for $0.75/2 here

Nature Valley Granola Bars $1.50 each Print Coupon for $0.60/1 here

Skippy Peanut Butter $1.49

Chips Ahoy Cookies $1.88

6 pack Pepsi, Aquafina or Propel $1.99

Tostitos Tortilla Chips $1.88

Pop Tarts $0.99 (various peelies on whole grain poptarts for $1/1 found in stores!)

Hostess Multipack Snacks $1.99

What other deals do you see? For more grocery deals visit BeCentsable!