Week 1 - $23.17, 18.32 eating out, 4.85 groceries
Week 2 - $ 4.97, 00.00 eating out, 4.97 groceries
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
grapes
handful of walnuts

Lunch
large salad w/egg, and tomato and low-cal ranch dressing
baked potato w/low-cal honey mustard dressing
1 glass skim milk

Dinner
ham sandwich
tomato soup
2 handfuls of goldfish pretzels
1 glass skim milk

I see everyone has cherries on sale this week. I'll have to get some.

Finished reading the library book Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris. Paranormal - very good.

Week 1 - $23.17, 18.32 eating out, 4.85 groceries
Week 2 - $04.97, 00.00 eating out, 4.97 groceries
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
grapes
handful of walnuts

Lunch
2 soft tacos
1 glass skim milk

Dinner
ham sandwich
carrots
handful of goldfish pretzels
1 glass skim milk

Snack
peanut butter and celery

Ran errands this morning, library, bank, walgreens and king soopers.

Walgreens

7.29 - 6 pack Boost
3.64 - 6 pack Boost b1g1 50% off
.99 - macadamia nuts
------
11.92
-6.00 - 2 $3 q's for Boost
-4.50 - RR from last week
-----
1.42 - paid with Walgreens gift card from last week's RRs.

King Soopers

Spent 4.97 and bought 1 gal milk, 2 tomatoes and some grapes.

I finished the library book Hosts by F. Paul Wilson. Adventure - pretty good

Week 1 - $23.17, 18.32 eating out, 4.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
grapes
handful of walnuts

Lunch
Ham sandwich
carrots
1 glass skim milk

Dinner
large salad
baked potato
1 glass skim milk

Snack
peanut butter and celery

My mom goes to Curves with a woman who works at the local food pantry. She thinks things are getting better around here because last week they only had 3 new applications for food. She said at the height of the recession they were getting 30 apps a week. A month ago they were still getting 10 a week. We'll see, personally I think we've had a lull when things get a little better and then it will get worse again.

I finished reading my book Freedom's Landing by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good

I also finished reading the library book Inked. Paranormal short stories - excellent. There were two writers I haven't read before Karen Chance and Marjorie M. Liu, both stories were so interesting I put some of their books on hold at the library. The 3rd writer Yasmine Galenorn didn't impress me. The fourth writer was the reason I got the book. Eileen Wilks writes a werewolf series that is very good. She also writes under the name Sunny and has two very good series under that name.

Week 1 - $23.17, 18.32 eating out, 4.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 banana
handful of walnuts

Lunch
went to 3 Margaritas and had a cheeseburger and fries. They have THE best cheeseburgers. $8.50 w/tax and tip

Dinner
celery and peanut butter
banana
glass of skim milk

So week 1 is over with for the challenge. 50% is based on cost, 25% health and 25% creativity. I did ok in the cost department. I think most of my meals were healthy, except for the cheeseburger/fries yesterday. Not so sure about creativity. My meals aren't very creative. I'm going to say the creativity was in buying so much food using coupons and sales.

Overall I feel pretty good about the challenge, except I think about food all day long. Since I'm eating 2 snacks each day, which I don't normally do, I eat every 3 hours or so. It feels like that's all I do, eat, think about what to eat, buy stuff to eat, fix stuff to eat, eat. Then trying to meet all the health recomendations just piles up more thinking time. 2 fruits, 3 veggies, protein with every meal, 3 dairy, 6 whole grains, eat fish several times a week, it's never ending. Maybe if I do it thru the whole challenge it will become easier and I won't need to think so much.

I finished reading the library book On the Edge by Ilona Andrews. Paranormal - excellent

Week 1 - $14.67, 9.82 eating out, 4.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 banana
handful of walnuts

Lunch
ham sandwich - 2 slices whole wheat bread, mayo w/olive oil, sliced onions and tomatoes, cheese and ham
carrots
radishes
grapes
1 glass skim milk

Dinner
taco salad - 1/2 bag Dole salad, 1/2 tomato, 1 cup taco mixture, light ranch dressing
taco mixture - 1 lb hamburger, 1 onion, 1 can chili beans, 1/2 package taco seasoning
1 glass skim milk

Snack
celery and peanut butter

The salad, ranch dressing, cheese slice and taco seasoning were free.

I went to Safeway this morning and spent $1 towards groceries and found a dime in the parking lot.

1.00 - Fresh Express bagged salad
1.76 - 2 bags Goldfish pretzels
-----
2.76
-1.76 - 2 .50 Goldfish q's doubled to .88 cents
-----
1.00

More free goldfish

I have 10.33 left to spend this evening if I want to. Mom wanted to go to dinner so I'll see if she still does. If not I may go buy some more milk and grapes.

I finished reading my book The Scarletti Curse by Christine Feehan. Romance - excellent.

Week 1 - $13.67, 9.82 eating out, 3.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 high protein Boost drink

Snack
1 banana
handful of walnuts

Lunch
tuna wrap
handful of Goldfish pretzels
1 lemon pudding
1 glass skim milk

Dinner
2 eggs scrambled with a little cheese
baked steak fries w/ketchup
half a can tomato soup
1 glass skim milk

Snack
celery and peanut butter

The tomato soup, cheese and goldfish pretzels were free.

I'm reading the blog of someone else doing the challenge, but not sure how healthy it is. Doesn't seem like very many fruits, veggies or dairy. But interesting anyways because of all the free stuff.

Week 1 - $13.67, 9.82 eating out, 3.85 groceries
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 c mandarin oranges

Lunch
ate out at Texas Road House - $9.82 early bird special
1 roll w/cinnamon butter
salad with eggs, tomatoes and ranch dressing
baked potato w/ butter
6 oz Sirloin steak

Dinner
1 slice wheat bread w/peanut butter and grape jelly
1 glass skim milk

Went shopping today and got various good stuff

Walgreens

$15.00 - Walgreens gift card
.34 - 1 can Hunts Tomato sauce w/WAG in-ad q
4.49 - Gillete Body Wash
5.49 - Gillette Deodorant
6.00 - 6 Dentyne gum single packs
.86 - taxes
-------
32.18
-15.00 - 2 $7.50 RRs from ReNu purchases earlier
- 4.99 - free Gillette body wash wyb Gillette DO
- 2.00 - Gillette DO
- 6.19 - 6 $1 Dentyne Gum q's
------
4.00 paid with gift card got back another $4.50 RR for Gillette body wash. Body wash, deodorant and tomato sauce goes to Food pantry. 2 Gums go to mom, (they are cinnamon) other 4 not sure yet. May go to nieces, may go to food pantry. They are peppermint.

Walmart

2.84 - 2 bottles KC Masterpiece BBQ sauce
2.48 - Walgreen brand antacid
.20 - tax
------
5.52
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's for KC BBQ sauce

BBQ sauce goes to mom - she will pay the .84 cents it cost.

King Soopers

3.58 - 2 bags Kroger frozen steak fries
1.98 - 1 gal skim milk
1.99 - 1 lb baby carrots - kroger brand
2.43 - 3 vidalia onions
3.23 - 4 potatoes
3.59 - 1 bag Dole salad
1.15 - 1 doz eggs
1.20 - grapes
.99 - 1 bunch radishes
1.07 - 3 parsnips
.70 - 1 bunch celery
2.50 - 2 packages Goldfish - pretzel kind
-----
24.41
- .10 - 2 reusable bags
-3.00 - King Sooper home mailer q wyb $15 in produce
- .70 - 2 .35 Goldfish q's doubled
- .50 - Goldfish e-coupon
- .75 - Goldfish e-coupon
-3.59 - free Dole salad - KS home mailer q
- .50 - KS Home mailer q on carrots
- .55 - KS Home mailer q on frozen potatoes
-12.00 - 3 $4 OYNO q's from buying Reach toothbrush last week
-------
1.83

The gold fish were a .15 cent moneymaker. All of these groceries were for me.

Safeway

1.06 - 6 bananas
1.97 - 3 tomatoes
2.99 - Welchs juice
-----
6.02
-1.00 - SW e-coupon for Welchs
-2.00 - $2 q for Welchs
-1.00 - $1 OYNO q from last week
-----
2.02

The Welchs was free. All of these groceries are for me. I've spent a total of $3.85 on groceries this week. Now I have over $11 left so I could go out and eat one more time. I do want to go to Safeway this weekend and get a bag of salad for .99 cents - still leavs me $10 to eat out. Not sure what I will do. Hate to leave that money on the table, but there isn't very many good deals to spend it on for groceries this week. I don't like to buy groceries unless I get a very good deal.

I got 2 samples in the mail yesterday. One was Kraft Sandwich Shop mayo; chipotle and garlic and herb. The other was Ritz crackerfuls cheddar cheese and bacon. They will either go to the food pantry or someone in my family. Need to ask if anyone wants them.

I finished reading the library book Holiday with a Vampire III. Romantic Short stories. The first one by Linda Winstead Jones was good, the other 2 were boring.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 deviled egg - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper
1 banana

Lunch
tuna wrap - tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar lemon pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 1/2 Stouffer's individual meatloaves
green beans sauteed in olive oil, w/ garlic salt and pepper
mandarin orange coleslaw - shredded cabbage with carrots, mandarin oranges and juice from oranges, mayo with olive oil, splenda, salt, pepper and cashews
1 cup skim milk

Snack
1 deviled egg
1 snack pack of Weight Watcher pretzel things with olive oil and rosemary.

Mom gave me the box of Weight Watcher snacks so they were free. The lemon pudding was free also.

This is fairly boring listing menus everyday, but haven't been shopping in a few days to post something more interesting. Plan to go tomorrow since I'm almost out of milk and veggies. Making my list and gathering q's today.

Finished reading the library book Demon Bound by Meljean Brook. Paranormal - excellent.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu, there's going to be a lot of repetition, especially for breakfast and lunch

Breakfast
1 c oatmeal w/splenda, cinnamon and walnuts
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
1 deviled egg - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper
1 banana

Lunch
tuna wrap
tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar vanilla pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 baked potato w/light honey dijon salad dressing
1 can Chunky Chicken Noodle soup
1 cup skim milk

Snack
1 deviled egg
1 apple

The oatmeal and salad dressing were free on top of what was listed yesterday.

I got $5 of gas yesterday, just enough to get me thru the end of the month. Next month both my credit cards are giving 5% back on gas so I'll wait till then to fill up.

I finished reading the library book In Bed with the Duke by Christina Dodd. Romance - good.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

Here's yesterday's menu

Breakfast
1 1/2 c cheerios
skim milk
1/2 c juice

Snack
2 deviled eggs - mayo, mustard, salt and pepper

Lunch
tuna wrap
tuna, hardboiled egg, radishes, mayo with olive oil, flour tortilla, pepper
no sugar vanilla pudding cup
1 c skim milk

Dinner
1 1/2 Stouffer's individual meatloaves
green beans sauteed in olive oil, w/ garlic salt and pepper
mandarin orange coleslaw
shredded cabbage with carrots, mandarin oranges and juice from oranges, mayo with olive oil, splenda, salt, pepper and cashews
1 cup skim milk

Snack
banana

The cheerios, juice, tuna, mayo, tortilla, pepper, pudding, garlic salt and pepper mix, mustard, splenda and mandarin oranges were all free items.

Yesterday I went to Walgreens before going to mom's to walk. I converted my RRs from last week to a gift card and got this week's moneymaker. I had 3 $6 RRs and 1 $4 one.

Transaction 1

20.00 - Walgreens gift card
1.00 - 3 Hunts tomato sauce 3/$1 with their q
7.49 - ReNu contact solution
.52 - taxes
------
29.01
-22.00 - 3 $6 RRs and 1 $4 RR
- 2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
5.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

Transaction 2

7.49 - ReNu
.52
------
8.01
-2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
6.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

Both contact solutions and the tomato sauce go to the food pantry. The reason for buying the tomato sauce was so each RR has an item to go with it. This is called a filler - per Walgreens policy you can not have more than 1 coupon per item.

This morning I went again and converted the 2 $7.50 RRs I got yesterday into a gift card

Transaction 1

15.00 - Walgreens Gift card
.34 - 1 can tomato sauce - using Walgreens q
------
15.34
-15.00 - 2 $7.50 RRs
------
.34

Transaction 2 and 3

7.49 - ReNu
.52
------
8.01
-2.00 - $2.00 ReNu q
------
6.01 - paid with a gift card and got $7.50 RR

So still have 2 $7.50 RRs. I made 1.49 on each bottle of contact solution. I plan to buy 1 more this week making $7.45. I will put 2 more RRs on another $15 gift card later this week also. These 2 bottles of contact solution go to my brother.

I finished reading my book Nimisha's Ship by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

Week 1 - $00.00
Week 2 - $00.00
Week 3 - $00.00
Week 4 - $00.00

The All You grocery challenge starts today. I'm not officially entering, just doing it for the heck of it. The rules are:

You can only spend $25/week, per person for food. That includes all meals, snacks and eating out. If you go to someone's for dinner or a party, then that is ok as long as you don't get free meals for all your meals.

If you have leftover money from one week, you can't use it in another week.

You can use your garden, your stockpile, your coupons, catalinas and register rewards.

Part of the challenge is judged on being creative and eating healthy.

I didn't do anything special to get ready for this, such as buy a bunch of produce and vegetables ahead of time. I did buy milk and bread last Friday because I needed them. I'm low on fresh veggies right now so will need to get some this week. My pantry and fridge are full, but they always are. I consider that part of the challenge.

I fixed several things today in preparation for later in the week. Oatmeal, deviled eggs, coleslaw and tuna salad.

I plan to still buy food for the pantry on my regular grocery receipts and just deduct that from the total. I will also deduct anything that is not food, such as paper products, cleaning supplies and personal care items. Only food that I eat counts.

I will be tracking what I eat each day and posting it the following day. Eating out will be the big challenge for me. I hope I can make it past week 1

I finished reading the library book Dragon Heat by Allyson James. Romance - OK

I finally finished updating my financial notebook and made copies of the information to give my parents to keep in case of emergency. It makes me feel very vulnerable having all that information in one place. All my assets are listed and how to access them. If someone unfriendly got ahold of it, it could ruin me. But on the other hand unless I do that, my parents would have no idea where many of my assets were or how to access them. For example, my I-bonds are electronic thru Treasury Direct. I never get mail or email concerning them. Without access information they wouldn't know they even existed, let alone how to cash them in.

Now that I have that done I need to get my will updated. I might do one on the internet. The last time I did it my nieces were very young and I didn't include them in the will. Now I plan to cut out my sister and brother and leave everything equally to my mom, dad and 2 nieces. My nieces are still young and I really don't think it's good for their character for young people to have money handed to them in their 20's and 30's or younger. I think people learn more when they have to struggle a bit to get money and make choices about what's more important to them when spending money. Easy money is a sure way to ensure they don't value money, or the work that goes into getting it. So hopefully I will still be around for at least another 20 years or so

I finished reading the library book Nauti Deceptions by Lora Leigh. Romance - very good.

I've been playing the King Soopers Summer Savings game for a week and I finally won for the first time yesterday. 1 free 4 roll pack of Angel Soft toilet paper. I got it when I went to the store this morning. The game is still good for the rest of the summer.

I also got:

5.00 - 4 more Reach toothbrushes
.40 - taxes
------
5.40
-1.25 - BOGO q - no overage this time
-1.00 - .50 q doubled
-2.00 - $2/2 q
-----
1.15 - got back another $4 OYNO q - made 2.85. 3 toothbrushes go to mom and dad and 1 to food pantry. I have 9 for food pantry so far and will try to do one more deal next week.

1.76 - 2 Luna bars
-1.76 - 2 .50 q's doubled to .88, cost of bar
------
FREE - the bars go to the food pantry. These coupons came from coupons books that CURVES is giving out. My mom has been giving them to me. This book also has No Yolks coupons, which I love. Hope there's a sale on these soon.

1.98 - 1 gal milk
2.50 - Sara Lee bread
.72 - bananas
-----
5.20

Last night mom called while dad was in the other room. Wanted to know if I would go to Staples today and get a letter opener for him for Father's day. Only thing she could think of to get for him. There is a 15% off coupon on Staples good thru tomorrow so I printed it off and went this morning. The most expensive one I could find was under $5, but I got it and used my 15% coupon. Ah well, she'll have to figure out something else, or make do

Finished reading my book Fire and Ice by Julie Garwood. Romance - excellent.