Menu with what's on sale for the week of Feb. 23-Mar. 1

Such an up and down week. Do you ever have those? I have a mystery, energy zapping illness(taking antibiotics, I will be 100% soon) and I can be fine one minute and the next reduced to tears. Also the baby boy turned his mission papers into SLC on Wed. Even as we speak someone is throwing a dart to a map of the world to determine his fate. Just kidding, that's not how they do it. So, this morning, as I'm sitting in the church parking lot watching the kids go to their cars after Seminary, I almost burst into tears again. Not sure why or how or whatever. Maybe this is just how it's going to roll for awhile. So, the good news is that you can get the total down this week if you want to omit the Sunny D juice for $1 at Albertson's. Also, see my post several down for how to get a coupon that you can use at Fry's to save you $10. I had to bump the total up over $81 when I realized that I only had 1 doz. eggs listed and no way were you going to make muffins, cookies and have egg muffins and eggs with just 1 doz. eggs. Have a great week.

$82.04

Breakfast
1-Muffins, yogurt
2-Egg biscuit, Sunny D juice
3-Grapefruit half, toast
4-Oatmeal
5-Muffins, yogurt, strawberries
6-Oatmeal
7-Eggs, sausage, toast

Lunch
1-Bologna sandwich, orange
2-Tuna sandwich, apple
3-Bologna sandwich, carrots, cheetos
4-Tuna sandwich, apple
5-Tuna sandwich, cookie
6-Macaroni and cheese
7-Hot Pockets, Coke or Sprite

Dinner
1-Crockpot lasagna (recipe on right side), green salad, baguette
2-Macaroni and cheese with hot dog coins, canned vegetable
3-Chunky soup, garlic toast with leftover baguette
4-Beef chunks and mushrooms (Beef Burgundy, recipe on right side) over mashed potatoes, biscuit. Or make your favorite stew recipe over mashed potatoes. Just use a little diced onion for flavor instead of spending more on frozen whole onions.
5-Oven fried chicken (recipe on right side under chicken), canned vegetable, cabbage/ramen salad (recipe on right side)
6-Pasta salad using tomato, broccoli, olives, olive oil and lemon juice, and basil with leftover chicken in it. Or use a creamy ranch dressing or mayonnaise instead.
7-Banquet TV dinners.

Dessert:

cookies

Albertsons
Sunny D, $1
Maruchan Ramen noodles, 6/$1, buy one at .17
Bumble Bee tuna, .69, buy 3
Fresh broccoli crowns, $1 lb.
Romaine, $1
$5.24

Bashas

Cross rib roast, $1.98 lb., buy 4 lbs. at $7.92. You'll need to ask for about a lb. and a half of the roast to be ground into ground beef. The grocer will do it, if you are not shopping at night and asking him to do it after the equipment is cleaned. You might be able to get by with less than 4 lbs. of meat. You know what your family needs and you can see how they have it packaged.

Driscoll's strawberries, $1.49, actually Fry's has them for $1.25, a little cheaper

Gala or red apples, .79 lb., buy 4 lbs. at $3.16

Mushrooms, .99

Brown onions, .49 lb.

Idaho potatoes, 5# bag, .99

Libby's vegetables, 20/$10, buy 2 cans

Bar S meat franks, .88

Bar S bologna, .88

Food Club cheese, $2.77, cheese for lasagna

Barilla pasta, 10/$10, buy one

Bashas chicken, .87 lb., buy 4 lbs. at $3.48

Lasagna noodles, I've allowed for $1.99

Bashas cottage cheese, $1.39

tomatos, I've allowed for $2.00 lb.

Olives, I've allowed for $1.50

$31.93

Fry's

My total came to $44.08, a little short to use the Fresh and Easy $50 coupon, so you may want to buy some of the things that are not on sale at Bashas at Fry's to get it to $50 and then save $10. Or used the $3 off Fresh and Easy coupon. Every little bit helps.

Fry's milk, $1.59, buy 2 at $3.18

Pink navel oranges, .75 lb., buy 4 lbs. at $3

Green cabbage, 2lbs./$1

Kroger mini carrots, .99

Texas grapefruit, 2/$1
LaBrea baguette, .99

Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4 at $3.52

Beef broth, I've allowed for .89

Eggs, $1.39, buy 2

Buy 10 deal

1-Pillsbury Grands, .99

2-Pillsbury Grands, .99

3-Yoplait yogurt, $3.69

4-Banquet Brown & Serve sausage, .58

5-Banquet Brown & Serve sausage, .58

6-Hot Pockets, $1.69

7-Hot Pockets, $1.69

8-Betty Crocker muffin mix, $1.69

9-Kraft Macaroni and cheese, $3.19

10-Ragu spaghetti sauce, $1.28

1-Banquet dinners, .58

2-Banquet dinners, .58

3-Banquet dinners, .58

4-Banquet dinners, .58

5-Betty Crocker cookie mix, $1.69

6-Betty Crocker muffin mix, $1.69

7-Chunky soup, .99

8-Chunky soup, .99

9-Cheetos, $1.69

10-Coke or Sprite, .99

$44.08

Sprouts

Oats, .79 lb.

Items not on the grocery list:

Flour

sugar

butter

mayonnaise

salad dressing

whole little onions

Parmesan cheese

bread crumbs

ranch dressing

veg oil

vinegar

Copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup

Copycat Olive Garden Minestrone Soup
By Todd Wilbur, Recipe #77585
Recipezaar

Serves 8
3 T. olive oil
1 cup minced white onion (about 1 small onion)
1/2 cup chopped zucchini
1/2 cup frozen cut italian green beans
1/4 cup minced celery (about 1/2 stalk)
4 teaspoons minced garlic (about 4 cloves)
4 cups vegetable broth (do not use chicken broth)
2 (15 oz.) cans red kidney beans, drainged ( I don't use this)
2 (15 oz.) cans samll white beans or great northern beans, drained (I only use one can)
1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
1/2 cup carrot, julienned or shredded
2 Tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cups hot water
4 cups fresh baby spinach
1/2 cup small shell pasta

Heat 3 T. olive oil over medium heat in a large soup pot. Saute onion, celery, garlic, green beans, and zucchini in the oil for 5 min. or until onions begin to turn translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients except the spinach and pasta, bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the spinach and pasta and continue to simmer for 20 minutes longer.

$10 off at Fry's

Fry's is accepting competitor's coupons this week. In today's paper there is a coupon for $3 off of a $30 or more purchase for Fresh and Easy. I checked my email and I had an ad from Fresh and Easy with a printable coupon on it for $10 off of a $50 or more purchase, that can be used at Fry's this week. If you don't get these coupons through the internet, because this is a good one if you are planning on spending $50 at Fry's, I can forward the email to you through Fresh and Easy. Just leave your first name and email address in the comments under this post. The coupon is good until March 7. I don't know how long Fry's is accepting competitor's coupons, maybe just this week.

Menu with what's on sale for the week of Feb. 16-Feb. 22

You might be able to play around with the Fry's grocery list and get it down to only ten deal items and be able to save more $ this week. I was getting frustrated trying to make it all work and I know that there is a ton of food not being used. Like the bag of potatoes is only used for one meal, so you will have those left, and you will most probably have chicken left that you can use for sandwiches or throw into the Chunky soup if you get a chicken variety. I thought that coleslaw would be good to top the BBQ pork sandwiches or use as a side but ran out of $ for cabbage. So if you think that is a good idea, you can swap out something else or go over budget by a buck or two. The buy ten deals at Fry's, they really lock you into buying a lot with those. You will probably have yogurt to go with a lunch or as a snack also. Instead of leftovers one night, if you needed another entree, add a Food Club pasta to your list at .89 from Bashas and swap out a buy ten item at Fry's for Ragu, $1.28 and you have spaghetti one night. My husband never gets tired of spaghetti. I do. Also, check prices on cereal at the grocery store. I did the buy four Kellogg's cereals deal and get a juice, sausage and eggs free. You may be able to do better buying cheaper cereal and then buying your eggs, juice and sausage in addition.

$79.04

Breakfast
1-Muffins, yogurt, juice
2-cold cereal, milk
3-cold cereal, milk
4-cold cereal, milk
5-Egg and cheese biscuit
6-Eggs, sausage, toast

Lunch
1-Lunch meat sandwich, cheetos
2-Lunch meat sandwich, grapes
3-Lunch meat sandwich, carrot sticks
4-Lunch meat sandwich, apple
5-Cottage cheese and blueberries
6-Ravioli
7-Chunky soup

Dinner
1-Roasted chicken, roasted or mashed potatoes, carrots
2-Hot dog
3-Panfried Pork chops, steamed broccoli, green salad. Cut half of the pork loin into chops and use the other half to make BBQ pork.
4-Chunky soup, biscuit
5-BBQ pork on baguette slices
6-Quiche with bacon and cheese. Pineapple, orange, banana salad.
7-Leftovers

Dessert:
Brownies or cookies from a box

Grocery List:
Bashas
Whole chicken, .69 lb., limit 5 lbs. Buy 3 lbs. at $2.07
Dole Pineapple, .39 lb., limit 5 lbs. Buy 3 lbs. at $1.17
Bashas large eggs, .99 (you should have 2 doz. eggs when you leave the grocery store)
Bananas, .59 lb., buy 3 lbs. at $1.77
Baguette, .79 Buy hamburger buns if you prefer softer bread with your BBQ pork
Farmland Bacon, $2.99

Purchase 4 Kellogg's cereals, 2/$5, so $10
Get for free: 1 doz. Bashas eggs
64 oz. Langer's juice
8 oz. Farmer John links

$21.65

Fry's
1/2 Pork loin, $1.88 lb., buy 4 lbs. at $7.52
Seedless grapes, .88 lb, buy 2 lbs. at $1.76
Kroger shredded or bar cheese, $1.48
Fry's half gal milk, .78, limit 4, buy 4 Lemonade and choc. milk also .78
Hot dog buns, I've allowed for $1.50
Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4
Broccoli, .99 lb.
Romaine, .99

10 items
1-Cheetos, $1.69
2-Chef Boy R Dee Ravioli, .69
3-Chef Boy R Dee Ravioli
4-Chunky soup, .99
5-Chunky soup
6-Chunky soup
7-Chunky soup
8-chunky soup
9-Oscar Mayer lunch meat, $2.49
10-Oscar Mayer lunch meat
1-Betty Crocker brownie or cookie, $1.69
2-Betty Crocker muffin, $1.69
3-Pillsbury Grands, .99
4-Pillsbury Grands
5-Pillsbury Grands
6-Best Foods Mayonnaise, $2.89
7-Oscar mayer meat franks, $2.19
8-Yoplait yogurt, $3.69
9-Kraft BBQ sauce, .69
10-Ravioli, .69 I added another can of ravioli because it was cheap. If you don't need it, buy something else
$50.38

Sprouts
Blueberries, .99
Apples, .88 lb, buy 3 lbs. at $2.64
Organic carrots, 1 lb., .88
Organic potatoes, 5lb. bag, $2.50
$7.01

Items not on grocery list
butter
sugar
flour
salt
herbs and spices
pie crust

Menu with what's on sale for the week of Feb. 9-Feb. 15

$78.51

Breakfast
1-Oatmeal
2-Egg in the hole
3-Oatmeal
4-toast
5-Oatmeal
6-French toast with blackberries, use leftover stale baguette if any left
7-Oatmeal

Lunch
1-Tuna sandwich, orange
2-PB&J sandwich, carrots
3-Tuna sandwich, orange
4-PB&J sandwich, carrots
5-Chicken wrap
6-Egg salad sandwich
7-Tuna sandwich, cookie

Dinner
1-Fish tacos, rice a roni mix
2-Pork chops, couscous, veg, salad
3-Salad with cold pork and baguette
4-Grilled cheese sandwich, tomato or chicken noodle soup
5-Spaghetti with cheese sauce, vegetable
6-Banquet pot pie
7-Chicken enchiladas, salad, cornbread. Make a white sauce out of flour, butter and either milk or the chikcen liquid from the bottom of the pan used to cook the chicken. Or if you had chicken noodle soup for one night, strain out the noodles and use the rest of the chicken soup broth, if you have any, as the liquid in the white sauce for the chicken enchiladas. Put a little green salsa in the sauce, then build with chicken dices and cheese and pour sauce over top, top with cheese and bake until hot.

Dessert:
Strawberries, dipped in sour cream, then in brown sugar, Valentine's dessert
Cookies

Albertson's
Ragu cheesy sauce, .99
Albertson's tuna, .59, buy 3
Banquet pot pies, .79, buy 4
Strawberries, $1.77, buy 1
$7.69

Bashas'
Boneless pork chops, $1.97 lb, buy 3 lbs. at $5.91
Dole Classic salad, .77, buy 3 at $2.31
Bashas sandwich bread, .99, buy 3 at $2.97
Krusteaz cookie, cornbread, brownie mix, 2/$3, buy one cookie, one cornbread
Flav R Pac Vegs, 5/$5, buy 2
Food Club butter, 2/$5, buy 1
Daisy sour cream, .99, buy 2, for enchiladas and tacos and strawberries
Mini peeled carrots, .99
Campbell's Family size chicken noodle or tomato soup, 2/$3, buy 1
Eggs, I've allowed for $1.69/doz., buy 2
$26.54

Fry's
Chicken, $1.77 lb., buy 3 lbs. at $5.31
Fy's milk, $1.59, buy 2 at $3.18
Kraft Shredded or bar cheese, 3/$5, buy 3
Gorton's fish, $3.99
Baguette, 2/$3, buy 1
Herdez or LaVictoria Salsa, $1.88
Mission soft taco tortillas, $1.88, buy 2
Welch's jelly, $1.88
Kroger Value Peanut butter, $1.49
Navel oranges, $4.99 ea for 5# bag
Blueberries or blackberries, 2/$5, buy 1
Near East Rice or couscous, 2/$4
Rice A Roni/Pasta Roni., .88
Fry's spaghetti, I've allowed .88
$41.12

Sprouts
Oats, .79, buy 4 lbs.
$3.16

Items not on grocery list:
Mayonnaise
syrup
brown sugar
sugar
flour
pickle relish
herbs and spices
Olive Oil

Saving money by menu planning

There are a lot of different aspects to saving money with the food we eat. Buying items you use only when they are on sale and stockpiling them, using coupons, ad-matching at Wal-Mart. Menu planning is something not everyone consciously chooses to do to reduce the outgoing flow of cash from one's wallet. Because we are a regular American family with family members coming and going all at different times and meal time can be a state of confusion, if I fail to plan ahead for dinner we end up in the drive-thru of a fast food restaurant. For us that cost is aproximately $20 every time we do so. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but always around that number. So if you figure doing that once a week for four times a month, that is $80 per month spent on eating fast food. That is money for a week's worth of groceries! Consumed just in four meals! It's groceries for 21 meals eaten at home. Yearly it would be $960. Or 12 weeks worth of groceries! If you eat out once a week at a casual dining place you may be spending $50 per meal for your family. That is $200 per month or broken down into groceries/week, it's 2 and a 1/2 weeks worth of groceries or 52 meals eaten at home. Yearly it would be $2400. Or 30 weeks worth of groceries! Over a half of a year's worth of groceries for your family. How much does your family spend on out of home dining each week?

Menu with what's on sale for the week of Feb. 2-Feb. 8

I am so confused right now, I hope that I got all of the numbers right below. There were no milk prices in the ads that I could see this week and I haven't been to Bashas or Fry's yet this week, well, I guess I was at Bashas yesterday but didn't price milk. I've allowed for $5 to be spent on milk in the totals. The menu looks a lot like last week's menu. A lot of the same items are on sale. Feel free to move lunch to dinner and visa versa, whatever you need to do to make it work.

$83.33
-$5.00 from $5 off of $25 coup from Fresh & Easy. Fry's taking competitor's coupons still
$78.33 TOTAL

Breakfast
1-Cold cereal, milk
2-Oatmeal, apple juice
3-Oatmeal, apple juice
4-Cold cereal
5-Muffins
6-Oatmeal
7-French toast

Lunch
1-PB&J sandwich, goldfish, orange
2-Tuna sandwich, apple, chex mix
3-PB&J sandwich, orange
4-Chicken/avocado wrap, bugles or chex mix
5-PB&J sandwich, apple
6-Hot Pockets
7-Pizza, carrots

Dinner
1-Dinty Moore Stew, garlic toast
2-Cheese omelet, muffins
3-Chicken, Uncle Ben's rice mix, zucchini. Use some leftover chicken in wraps for tomorrow
4-Mac & cheese, jello, vegetable
5-Hot dog, bun and chips
6-Soup, garlic toast, salad
7-Chef's salad with hard boiled eggs, cooked chicken strips or dices, leftover vegs, cheese toast

Dessert:
Ice cream
pudding

Groceries
Bashas
Chicken breasts, or leg 1/4's, .97 lb. It saya a family pack, I figured it out for 7 lbs. at $6.79
Hass avocados, 4/$1
tomatoes on vine, .99 lb.
Bashas hot do/hamb. buns, $1.29, use the coup from last Sundays newspaper and it's .99
Starkist tuna, .69, buy 1
Apples, .99 lb., buy 2 lbs.
Milk ???????, I've allowed for $2.50/gal., buy 2 at $5

Fry's
Use the $5 off $25 purchase from Fresh & easy coupon when you go
1-Red Baron Pizza, $2.49
2-Kellogg's cereal, $1.97
3-Kellogg's cereal, $1.97
4-Hot Pockets, $1.49
5-Hot Pockets, $1.49
6-Kraft Mac & cheese, .49
7-Kraft Mac & cheese, .49
8-Jello, .75
9-Jello pudding, .75
10-Gold fish, .99

1-Uncle Ben's rice mix, .99
2-Uncle Ben's rice mis, .99
3-Krusteaz muffin, $1.99
4-Krusteaz muffin, $1.99
5-Chex mix, $1.49
6-Bugles or chex mix, $1.49
7-Mott's apple juice, $1.49
8-Dinty Moore stew, .99
9-Dinty Moore stew, .99
10-Dinty Moore stew, .99

1-Birdseye vegetables, $1.49
2-Dreyers ice cream, $2.47
3-Progresso soup, .99
4-Progresso soup, .99
5-Progresso soup, .99
6-Hebrew National hot dogs, $2.49
7-Garlic toast, $1.99
8-Garlic toast, $1.99
9-Pepsi, .89
10-Pepsi, .89

Kroger mini carrots, $1
Kroger Value bread, .88, buy 4 ?
Eggs, I've allowed for $1.99/doz., buy 2
Cheese, 50% off, I've allowed for $1.99
Flour tortillas, I've allowed for $2.99
Kroger Value peanut butter, $1.50

Sprouts
Cucumber, .49
Radishes, .49
zucchini, .88 lb.
oranges, .49 lb., buy 4 lbs. (aprox. 7-8 oranges depending on size)
green leaf lettuce, .99, buy 2
Oatmeal, .79 lb., buy 2 lbs.

Items not on grocery list
butter
flour
sugar
herbs and spices
mayonnaise
jelly
syrup
condiment for hot dogs, ie., ketchup, mustard, pickle relish
oil
salad dressing
salt & pepper

Super Bowl Party

Menu for 6-8 people

Hot dogs and buns
Pizza
Green salad with croutons and dressing
Tortilla chips
Guacamole
Salsa
Potato Chips
Pepsi or Pepsi products
Cake

Total $37.05 If you use the $5 off $25 purchase Fresh & Easy coupon at Fry's, minus $5 to take it down to $32.05 and if you use 3 Wholly Guacamole coupons found in the SmartSource of 1/23/11, if you got multiple papers, it will take the total down to $29.05

Fry's
Buy 10 deal
1-Pepsi, .89
2-Pepsi, .89
3-Pepsi, .89
4-Red Baron Pizza, $2.49
5-Red Baron Pizza, $2.49
6-Red Baron Pizza, $2.49
7-Red Baron Pizza, $2.49
8-Ken's Salad Dressing, $1.49
9-Hebrew National beef franks, $2.49
10-Hebrew National beef franks, $2.49

Lay's potato chips, $1.77
Dole Salad, $1, buy 2
Wholly Guacamole, $1, buy 2, use coupon from SS 1/23
Wholly Salsa, $1, buy 1, use coupon from SS 1/23
Doritos tortilla chips, $1.99, buy 2

Bashas
Bashas hot dog buns, $1.29
there is a coupons from Sunday's paper for hot dog buns, limit one at .99, so two total, only one will be .99
Duncan Hines cake mix, $1.25
Duncan Hines frosting, $1.79
Mrs. Cubbison's croutons, .99 with coupon from Sunday's paper

If you wanted to supplement the menu with a pasta salad, buy Food Club pasta for .89 with coupon from Sunday's paper, buy some frozen or fresh vegetables to put in it with a lemon and oil and garlic vinaigrette.

Or an Alternate Menu
Lasagna
Green salad

Go to Smart and Final using the coupon in their ad and buy the Party size Stouffer's lasagna for $7.99. It says it will feed 12. Not sure if that's true but that's what it says

Get a couple of the bags of the Dole Premium salad at Fry's and spend $2-$3

So Total is $10.99 for dinner for 6-8 people. Add garlic bread for another $4-$5

Super Duper Bowl Snacks

I've just been thinking:

Get a cheap pizza, the Red Barons at Fry's this week on the 10 item deal are cheap and if you're not having pizza for the main dish, then cut a pizza in little snack sized squares for one of the appetizers.

Use the egg roll idea in the appetizer section of the recipe list but instead of using cabbage and whatever, fill a crescent roll rectangle, or smaller, with shredded or diced meats and cheese. Add Bar B Q sauce if you're feeling wacky. Seal up. Bake to package instructions. You could also do cooked taco meat. Pepperoni, cheese and pizza sauce. Or go oriental and with chicken or pork and hosein sauce. Or corned beef and sauteed cabbage/carrot mix. Or pastrami and some saurkraut that the moisture has been taken out of.