Nashville Grocery Shopping - Wowsa

I am waiting for all the charges to come through on my card. I think I spent about $420 on HBA and groceries this weekend. We visited Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Costco and Aldi.

I've been having cooking issues, that is why we've been going out so much. I needed variety, I needed something different. So I went a little nuts. Part of me was like nooooo don't do it! Then part of me was like its not the end of the world, buy your stupid groceries (those darn voices again). Instead of spending $15 on Chinese, I'll grab some of the chicken I cleaned and froze and I'll make a quick sauce with some of my new goodies and take care of that craving.

The bulk of what I bought is stuff I normally don't get. I am interested to see what sort of new things I can come up with :)

Please keep in mind, anything from Costco was like huge! The pictures are misleading you know? (and ignore the unfinished countertop, maybe I'll get that done in March).
25 pounds of rice for like 7 bucks. I love costco.

A kajillion craisins, 4 shaving gels, a dried fruit/nut medley, 2 pds brussel sprouts & coffee filters for like 2 years. (not pictured, a huge bag of trashbags and a new rice cooker).


1.5 liters of organic olive oil, 4.5 pds of raisins, 3 pds almonds, 2 pounds of jerky, 2 huge jars of baby dills, 50 ounces of kisses (the huge jars of dills were the same price as the little jars at home - we love them and I never buy them)
Some fruit/veggie juice I got because it looked good. Organic whole wheat pasta, organic maple syrup (big bucks), everyday spice, 2 pds organic fancy rice, 1 pd walnuts and a TJ bag

This is trader joes loot (in hind-site, I should have shopped at costco first)
9.2 pounds of whole bean coffee..heee heee heeeeee (4 teeny new bags of star bucks are going back to walmart- that $30 actually pays for 3 of the 4 bags above. Lesson learned - coffee at costco is CHEAP!)
This is also costo except my violets from kroger.
2 of the lemon juices are for my Mom (Costco). The bags are my whole foods bulk buys. Everything is organic. I got about 3 pounds of chick peas, some wheat berries, cheese snack crackers, popcorn, steel cut oats and black beans.
Asian market - cilantro, red bell peppers, ginger, shredded black mushrooms, red potatoes
Lots more red peppers. Hoisen sauce, sweet soy, regular soy, tahini & adobe (mom). Also a nice tray of shallots.
2 packs of the best smelling corn taco shells in the world. I have to subdivide them and freeze them. 1 pound total of shitake mushrooms (expensive!), 2 pds red lentils, 12 ounces of dried hominey (never bought this before, it has a soup recipe on the bag that sounded good) & 2 kids of rice noodles.
aldi, 99 cent tomatoes, 99 cent onions, cheap bananas, 3 peppers for 1.50, 2 pounds of carrots for a buck & I think the seasoning packets were 39 cents. I was in cheap food heaven.

Spending - Week Eight (Feb 19-25)

This is about the time of year where I give up on this blog lol The little voice in my head is telling me it's stupid to track all my money. But the practical voice is screaming early retirement! beach condo! new furniture! a greenhouse! All stuff that I can eventually afford if I stick to budget for a few years.

So anyway, my spending has been pretty crappy this week. The stock market tanked, that always put me in a foul mood (I have a 5 year plan that I get very impatient about - I know stuff will go back up). I'm being belligerent to myself, seriously, like arguing in my head. I scold myself for stupid spending (like the movie above) then the angry teen in me say to back off, it's my money and if I want to waste it I will. The voices in my head really don't get along :)

Anyway, here it is in all it's glory.

Gas at BP Thursday
Japanese on Thursday & coke 7.90 1.25
Tuesday - la caretta and a sprite - 4.87 1.25
oil change 32.94
chicken tenders 2.18
oranges 1.08
groceries at beginning of week 15.82
ice tickets - $49
cotton candy during ice show - $10
subway after ice - $7.67
movie theatre $43
march of dimes - $5
target 62.07 - 3 shirts, half and half (I need to find the receipt, this is only half of it)
taco bell 3.59
subway 7.67
chinese 11.35
walmart vday stuff - 30.16


I obviously didn't cook this week. And I'm obviously going to run out of eating out money for the year. Yay me.

Dear Movie Theatre,

Last night my future hubs, my DD and myself went to a 3D movie during matinee pricing. With a couple of cokes and popcorn, the bill came out to $43.

$43 is...
more than enough for a tank of gas
2/3 of a cruise day in the off season
3 happy hour meals at O'Charleys
39 sausage biscuits
our share of a room at Myrtle beach plus lunch
78% of what I needed to do my bulk oats order
almost 5 tshirts for me for summer
86 paperback books from yard sales
and the list goes on and on.

I feel stupid. I won't miss you.

Spending - Week Seven (Feb 12-18)

Um...well..ok so here it is. I did go out of town for a day where outlets were involved. What I can't get over is how much food I bought at the store, then turned around and ate out a whole lot. (not making excuses so much as just perturbed at myself)

McDonalds - 4.92 + 6.48 (I don't even remember eating there twice, but my CC doesn't lie)
Groceries - $41.51
vday drink for daycare - $3.60
goodies for friends $10
Cats - $10.49
Fundraiser - $100
Breakfast $3.23 (I had an hour to kill so I ate breakfast at the grocery store deli - it was delish)
dollar general - 2.76 (drinks for the roadtrip)
Kirklands - $21.93 (2 pictures for my kitchen)
Japanese - 14.29 (dinner out on outlet day)
gas - $27.50
Walmart - 75.79 - this was for valentines day stuff, 3 sets of rechargable batteries (big bucks!) and a present for my boy. I can't find my receipt and I can't account for $20 of it so I'll mad money all of it. (losing receipts and not being able to categorize my purchases - this perturbs me too!)
Carters - $9.20 - a dress for Natalie and a dress for a present.
coke - $1.50 - at the outlets
Burger King - 7.21 (for me, mom and Natalie)
Disney Store - 51.22 (booyah - see below....)

$51.22 at the Disney Store bought.....(and because blogs aren't any fun without pictures....)

4 Rapunzel polar fleece embroidered blankets

3 pairs of dress up blinkie shoes

3 mulan crowns

1 set of blinking tinkerbell wings

a tinkerbell crown

Some of it was for gifts, some of it was for Christmas and some of it was for Natalie because it was cute :)

Meal Plan Mooonn..um...February

Yet another edit - I can't plan portions to save my life. We ate tacos for THREE dinners. I guess that makes sense, there are 12 shells in a box, if I eat 3 and she eats 1, then there you have it, three dinners.

(I am making changes as I go. Boy do I stink at meal planning. And just for fun, I'm adding pictures of some of our meals.)

You know, maybe my plan should be for a month instead of a week. I mean it's not like the weekly thing is working for me lol

I'll need 23 meals this month because of date nights. I need to do better at eating dinner leftovers at lunchtime the next day. Breakfast will be standard fare, oatmeal, eggs, cereal etc.

Meals (not in any order)
chef salad w/eggs/chicken/cheese/peas
Brats/carrot/cabbage/onion stir fry (We ate this once, it could have been 2 dinners and 1 lunch. But disorganized Kim didn't get the leftovers properly froze. Boo.)
bbq chicken on bread rounds & slaw
grilled cheddar cheese & home made chicken noodle soup
chicken & rice soup for the sickies in the house (chicken stock - gone!)
Italian sausage spaghetti & salad
breakfast casserole
Japanese style chicken with carrots & brown rice
tacos

(I scraped away like half of that sour cream lol)

Ham/bean/cheese soup with garlic cheese bread
Ham/bean/cheese soup with garlic cheese bread again
chicken spaghetti & salad
bacon/egg/cheese omelets on bread rounds (this is so good, it's my fav quick meal now)
ham subs on wheat rolls
french toast and baked apples
meatloaf and frozen veggies (at moms)
chicken salad on bread rounds and pasta salad
chicken broc cheesy rice casserole
hamburger mac & cheese with peas
no bun hamburgers & chips

(this was a big hit, little hamburgers with cheddar and pickles)

raisin bread french toast
Brats/cheese/onions on buns with cheese popcorn (hey - they all can't be winners)

Kung Pao chicken with celery, carrots & brown rice

$238

I think I mentioned I've been working on my kitchen for like a year. I thought I was just replacing ugly stuff with pretty stuff. What I discovered was water damage and a lot more work.

A post or two ago I mentioned I'm trying to keep my house at a certain amount $wise. The bulk of my kitchen remodel was rolled into the original 50K that I've got in the place. So it's time to start tapping into the 20K grand remodel budget.


This is my sink! I paid $238 yesterday to have water cut off valves put in and my new sink to be installed. You can see I've really been working on the granite top too (ignore the dark spots, it was still wet). You can also see the color of the solid wood oak cabinets (minus the trim). My oak floors are a little darker but they are the same tone.

(lets digress for a minute...the person I bought these cabinets from, replaced them with maple ones...except only the doors were maple, the rest was man made wood...why..even if you don't care for the color or grain in them, would you yank out real wood and put in fake wood? Duh?)

Oak was not my first choice for cabinets. To get a real wood substitute, like maple, it was big bucks. I don't have my sheet anymore but I believe a kitchen remodel with real maple cabinets, laminate countertops, the same sink and faucet, a new stove, new microwave range unit and dishwasher was right at 12K.

You don't put 12K into a 70K house.

So my compromise:
a used stove - $100 (I had a 1960 cooktop and wall oven)
a used 3 month old microwave - $100
used cabinets - $400
granite tile countertops - $600
a new dishwasher - $400
a new sink - $200
a new faucet - $100
2 new saws plus misc pieces and parts like screws - $400
electrical outlets and wiring - $350
new copper pipes for the kitchen - $390
----------------------------------------------
I'm at about 3040 give or take a little.

I am so pleased with how it turned out, I'll post more pictures as I finish :)

$1,248.72 - ouch (and other stuff)

Eeck! lol

I've apparently had my student loans for 5 years now and my super cheap payment is no more. I have to pay $162 a month. The yearly difference? $1248.72. Um...ouch?!?!

I was talking to a guy, from who knows where, who was trying to console me about the payment. I was like....dude what is my interest rate? 2%. Then I'm good. I don't care if I pay $162 for another 15 years as long as the rate is so low. He was actually like "14 years 10 months" in a peppy little voice. Lay off the coffee call center guy!

Anyway, it seems like I'm constantly changing my spending categories. I'm not sure if that is normal or not.

My bedroom remodel is being moved into the 20K remodel project (which isn't coming from my yearly budget, it's complicated lol). So is the roof. With all repairs, expansion etc, I don't want to have more than 70K in my house. If you put on a 3K roof plus a $500 bedroom, that will push me over. I know I'm being paranoid but I don't want to price my house out of the neighborhood. It is a street of little cottage houses and my basement expansion is going to make it huge compared to most. But if I can keep it under my tax assessment (often used as a guideline in my area for appraisals etc) then I am comfortable in improving my little cottage.

I found out my medical is going to be $260 instead of $279.64 so I'll fix that.

I discovered my house for sale had a $200 credit on it's budget billing power account. So I had them move that to the house we live in. And our bills really are running $107 avg and I've got that $200 buffer, so I am reducing the power column down to $1284.

Netflix is actually running $10.94, I forgot about tax.

Just to be anal, my cable modem is 19.99 instead of 20 a month.

School Supplies/Learning Materials column got a little less complicated. My Mom can now watch Natalie on Thursday, the day I lost from daycare. So $1538 is an insane number for this section now. I know I'll have to buy classroom supplies, but I think I can do that out of my mad money. My goal was to have more columns but it seems like my misc one is getting bigger and bigger.

I think that is it. I have a lot of work to do in my sidebar.

Spending - Week Six (Feb 5-11)

Not a very exciting week. Not in spending, not in living. So meh. I'm glad it's over!

• $20.65 - Groceries (gallon of milk, 2 pds brown rice, 1 pd ground round, 1 container OJ, 2 avacados, 1 container sour cream, 4 large whole wheat subrolls (fancy kind with seeds and nuts), 1 pd ham, 1 doz eggs, 6 bananas)
  
• $4.21 bread store
• $18.48 - Playdough set
  
• 31.76 gas
• $18.44 Family dollar trip, junk food and playdough toys (it was a very junk foodie week)
• $4.70 lunch @ work
• $24.89 2 tshirts for me for summer, 1 pr of pjs for Natalie for next year (75% off) plus half & half
• $3.72 - McDs breakfast
• $3.60 - McDs smoothie run
• $3.42 Kohls
• $5(ish) Burger King before gym (waiting for charge to appear on CC)
  

So this week obviously shows that when I am bored, mad, meg, blah and just general over everything, I spend money on a ton of little stuff.

We have an out of town trip tomorrow planned to outlet shop. Yikes!

Lettuce - take 2

So my first batch didn't make it past week 1. So I threw some more lettuce seed in the tub of dirt, moved it to a new window and watered it a lot more (I was worried about drowning the seeds).

Tada! Take two has made it a week and each tiny stem has 2 leaves. The other websites I've read says I can harvest leaves after 3 weeks. This stuff is going to have to take off big time to meet that timeline. But hey - it's still alive! lol

I'm feeling rather smart (and frugal)

I bought 4 awesome pillows at TJ Maxx several years ago. They were slipcover style with a duck feather insert. Super nice, I loved them.

Till my cat yaked on them. And me, being the young-non-martha-stewart type, tossed them in the washer.

Oops

Ever washed a feather pillow? Imagine a big stinky dog. Like the size of a house. So I pulled out the inserts, tossed them and rewashed the outer covers and put them away.

I never got around to getting new inserts. I had no idea pillow inserts were so expensive. I was saving up money for Natalie's adoption and I didn't have $10 to stick in a pillow. I thought I'd just stuff them with something else. Um ya, I never did that. Until tonight!

A couple of weeks ago, I posted that I bought Christmas stuff at Dollar General. They had marked everything down to 25 cents. That's my kind of sale. I bought 8 of these:


See where I'm going here? I squeezed them in the store and thought..ooooooohhh...squishy like a pillow. I flip over the bag and guess what? 100% polyester. The same as polyfill.

Score!

So I used 4 of my bags of poly fill to go from this:



to this:



For $1, my favorite pillows return! Yay me! lol

On Budget - YAY me lol

Natalie's birthday budget was $120. I know for some families that is really high. Compared to what I got, it's peanuts.

For her 4th birthday, there were three separate events I had to buy things for.
1. Preschool cupcakes.
2. Playdate to a bounce house on her birthday plus pizza for lunch
3. Chuck E Cheese on her birthday.

Broken down by $
birthday misc stuff (cake mix, frosting, cupcake liners, M&Ms, candles etc) - 24.10
minus 5.56 for felt going back to the store
Birthday Bounce House, snack & lunch -18.96
Presents - 16.73 on 2 Leapster games, 4.47 on pink fur stole
new favors - $1.07
Chuck E Cheese - 2 large pizzas, 12 drinks, 165 tokens, $53.26
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
$113.03

The extra $6.97? I'll move it to my mad money - woot!

Cheap Party Favors

So I didn't make the hats. I just couldn't get a good pattern made out and I ran out of time. Then Natalie asked for a ribbon wand like Angelina Ballerina. So I thought - sticks - ribbons - glue...I can SO do that.

I spent $1.06 on wooden dowels at walmart. They came in a pack of 8 and were various widths and about a foot long.

Remember my cheap ribbon? First I picked out 4 of those spools. A couple of mine weren't full, I'd say if you were buying ribbon, you'd need 1 full spool per wand. Hobby Lobby has this ribbon for $1 on sale all the time. My cost? About 50 cents for all of my ribbon because of that fab deal.

I used hot glue to cover the dowel with ribbon. Then I took three strips of ribbon, folded them halfway and sewed them on the crease. I glued them pointing down (to have 6 streamers instead of 3) then wrapped another ribbon around the tip to hide the sewed part. The longest streamer was about 2 feet, the shortest, about a foot. It is hard to see, but I have ivory, pink and turquoise streamers and yellow on the dowel. I was trying to use up open spools.

The hairbows were from my etsy store collection. I'll be selling triple loop bows for $3 soon. I've been saying that for a couple of months now...sigh....

Anyhoooo - sticks + ribbon = 3 favors for $1.56. And they really liked them :)

Spending - Week Five (Jan 29-Feb 4)

First things first, boy am I glad this week is over. Too much stuff going on. Tomorrow is day 9 of rush rush rush. Work & home life have whipped me over the last 1.5 weeks.

Oh ya and......

新年快樂

(happy new year!)

Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year tickets - $17
Chinese fun twirling handkerchief - $10
burger king afterwards 4.16
---------------------------------------------------------------
Ross $4.37. I had a leftover store credit from who knows when. I got myself a shirt (wooohooo!) and a pair of tights for Natalie's clothes next winter.

Ross #2 $13.78 on two large photo albums. I have at least 1200 pictures printed and not in albums. They are in little sad boxes in the TV cabinet.

Target - negative $5.48. Cool huh? I bought an adorable fancy dress for $10, 50% off. Danged if it didn't got to 75% off 2-3 days later. So I brought in the dress and they returned it and resold it to me without even swiping my card. Target...I love you.

Target - $22.26. I was in a wandering mood and I have to find the receipt. I bought even more little girl clothes (thank goodness the clearance racks are empty now, I'm a crazy woman) and some shampoo. I can't remember the rest so I might have to edit this entry.

--------------------------
birthday stuff (cupcakes, party favors, candles) - 24.10
(I have some stuff to return, I changed party favors.)
Birthday Bounce House & Lunch -18.96
Birthday - 16.73 on 2 Leapster games I hadn't counted yet
new favors - $1.07
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Walmart
groceries - 20.01 (eggs, milk, pears, onions, garlic, cabbage, bbq sauce, diet coke, little french breads, paprika, taco shells, bananas & apples)
clothes - 4 prs of tights - 8.76
seeds - 5.26
cats - 21.06
Christmas (Natalie) - 5.48
The one on the right was marked down to $5, half off! She already had the left one.

Allowance - so I decided to do something that will prob bite me in the butt in a few months. They had a Melissa and Doug train set on clearance tonight. With the extra car set for it, it all came out to $76.64. I asked Natalie if she wanted it with her money (she plays with it every single time we go into that toy store) and she said yes. So I decided to advance her allowance to her. I told her she'd get less every month and she seemed ok with it. Now at four, does she really understand? I say no lol

She hasn't noticed Jan's contribution to her piggy bank was low ($3 instead of $10 down from $20 last year). So I'm thinking as long as I give her something (in dimes, her favorite), and we continue to work on money counting then we are good. I am a super wimp when it comes to after Christmas clearance sales.

Look how awesome it is :) I am going to glue the suspension pieces together so she can put it together herself.


Walmart - $17.06
I went in for wooden dowels and fray check (different post). I also ended up getting chicken, potatoes and egg rolls from the deli. And another wooden bridge for the trains set. I am sure there are a couple of other things too, I need to find this receipt. When I am stressed, I spend. Then I feel guilty about blowing money and that stresses me more.

The reason I am stressed? Daycare dropped our spot. I have the PERFECT schedule. I had every hour planned during the week and it was like a beautiful dance. Natalie has school certain hours, had art& playtime certain hours, baths were certain times on certain days. Gymnastics and Ballet were worked in the mix perfectly. My Mother went part time and revamped her schedule in order to accommodate our new one.

So daycare decided they weren't taking one day kids and we'd have to increase our days. And you know what? I'm not willing to put her in the daycare enviroment for more than what she's been doing. Her attention span (no crappy food) has increased, her attitude has been great and everything has been pretty awesome since I started my remote work schedule in August.

So now I'll have an extra $900 which I'll move to learning materials. This column will now cover any activities I plan on Thursday for her. I have some ideas and I'll need more ideas. But I'm blabber along about that on another post.

(holy cow I spent a lot this week...don't add it up)

My January 2011 Summary

Monthly roundup! Bullet style!

Jan 7.7% of total, 4 of 52 weeks reported

• Groceries 1405.60/1560 = 9.9% - over just a little bit, I'm not surprised.
  
• HBA 142.82/180 - 20.66% - oh good grief. I see my future mad money visiting this column
  
• Mad Money - 2171.57/2238 - 2.97% - really? excellent lol
  
• Gas 706.23/780.00 - 9.46% but I have half a tank of gas right now so it's right on target
  
• Daycare 900/960 - 6.25% - I was sick one day and kept the little one home with me. I pay per day. Not cool that I was sick, but cool I was sick on a day I could save money LOL
  
• Cat - 404.39/420 - 3.72% - that is pretty good. I am sad to say I've not seen three of my strays for most of the winter. I home they have found nice warm homes with lots of cat chow.
  
• Clothes - 471.07/600 - 21.49% - I knew I'd spend a lot in Jan on clothes with the clearance sales. Hopefully I can restrain myself until the end of summer clearance (which should happen in May right? Don't you hate when stores have clothes out?)
  
• Eating out - 418.26 /460.55 - 9.18% a little over. If I can keep our eating out to 460.55 for the year it will be a small miracle.
  
• Christmas - Other - 290.69/300 - 3.10% - this was just for bags, bows, paper etc.
  
• Birthday - Natalie - 115.53/120 - 3.7% - the bulk of this expense will be in Feb.