Grocery shopping and menus, July 21-27

This week was a little different since we ended up going to more stores than usual AND though most of these items were on sale we didn't use a single coupon. Ha! I was extra busy with graphic design work deadlines and other things going on, so didn't have a lot of time to put towards menu planning based on items already in the pantry/freezer. And we needed to make several items for a church get-together. It's been ages since we've spent this much in one week! But...in the spirit of keeping it real around here - this is what a "bad" shopping week looks like for us. :)


What we bought
Aldi shopping trip

• Sour cream (16 oz) - 1.29
• Seedless grapes (2 lb) - two boxes at 1.98
• Raspberry preserves - 2.29
• Roma tomatoes, 20 oz. - 1.29
• Bing cherries, 1 lb - 1.99
• Flour tortillas, 10 count - 2 packages at 0.99
  
• TOTAL - $12.40
  

Fareway shopping trip
Peanut butter was on sale yet again this week, so we stocked up on a few more jars. Haven't seen it lower than $1.99 for over a year, and we do go through quite a bit of it. Hard to know how much to stretch the budget for stock-up items like this, but it does keep really well and we have enough now to last us quite a while.

• Fresh spinach, 9 oz. - 4 bags at 0.99 (sale)
• Peanut butter, 16 oz. - 5 jars at 1.48 (sale)
• Orange juice, 64 oz. - 0.99 (sale)
• Fresh peaches, 5.34 lb at 0.78/lb - 4.17
• Multi-grain sandwich bread - two loaves, marked down to 0.79/loaf
  
• TOTAL - $22.54
  

Hy-vee shopping trip

• Vanilla ice cream, 1 quart - 1.77 - we used to get this only when it was on sale for 0.99, but I haven't seen it that low since sometime last winter. Finally went ahead and got some with this sale to make root beer floats as a spontaneous treat. :)
• TOTAL - $1.77

Dollar General shopping trip

• A&W Root beer, 1 liter plus deposit - 1.45 - Not the cheapest price out there, I'm sure, but it was a rare treat. Summertime isn't complete without root beer floats. :)
• TOTAL - $1.45

Aldi shopping trip #2 (later in the week, with new sales)
These vegetable prices were way too good to pass up! We're grateful for the way Aldi allows us to eat a lot more produce than we could afford otherwise, and most of it is great quality, too.

• Sweet corn, 4 ears - 2 packages at 0.99
• Green peppers, pack of 3 - 2 packages at 0.99
• Snow Peas - 1.49
• Zucchini, pack of 3 - 0.99
• Onions, 3 lb - 0.99
• Penne pasta - 0.99 - We had other pasta on hand but needed to make a specific Penne recipe for a church meal and Joe's a stickler for following recipes exactly. ;)
• Yogurt, 32 oz - 1.99
• Milk, 1 gallon - 3.09 - Joe wanted to start making smoothies again, and my family doesn't have a ton of extra goat milk right now.
• Powdered sugar, 2 lb - 1.29 - To make a dessert to take to church.
• TOTAL - $16.28

Fareway shopping trip #2 (later in the week, with new sales)

• Cottage cheese, 32 oz - 3 at 1.69 - this is pretty much the cheapest it ever goes on sale for any more. I miss the days of the 0.99 sales!
• Coffee-flavored chocolate spread - 2 jars, marked down to 0.99 - a treat for Joe :)
• Romaine lettuce - 1 head at 1.29
• Bartlett pears - 0.99 lb at 0.99/lb (two) - 0.98 - these are for Lukas to try...
• Grape tomatoes, 1 pint - 1.49 - I kicked myself for getting these, as I found them slightly cheaper at Fareway. Oh, well.
• Lemonade, half gallon - 0.99 (sale)
• White sugar, 4 lb - 3 bags at 1.68 (sale)
• TOTAL - $16.85 

WEEKLY TOTAL - $71.29 - saved $0 with coupons (saved quite a bit with sales, though!)

Some patriotic-looking strawberry shortcake from a few weeks ago. :)

 
What We Ate

• Sunday: Buffalo chicken mac & cheese (one of Joe's specialties), and veggies. For supper, we went to a church potluck/picnic and took a second pan of the mac & cheese. Later that evening, root beer floats. :)
• Monday: Sandwiches (cheese, tomato, sandwich meat from the freezer), fruit
• Tuesday: Spaghetti pie, garlic toast, green salad
• Wednesday: Beans (cooked from scratch and frozen) with BBQ sauce, cornbread, fruit salad
• Thursday: Pizza Hut (with a coupon and birthday-freebie breadsticks), leftover fruit salad
  
• Friday: Tammy's Oriental Chicken Salad
• Saturday: Grilled veggies and brats, with homemade whole wheat and rye buns
• Breakfasts: Peaches, homemade yogurt, banana bread

Grocery shopping and menus, July 14-20

It's been an extra busy month here for my design work, so I'm quite late in getting this post together. I'll keep it simple, but hopefully it'll still be of interest to at least some of you. :) Joe did  most of the shopping for us this week, which was a big help to me. The total ended up being more than I shoot to spend in a week, but since we were under budget last week it'll even out. Nice to stock up a bit on the cheese and peanut butter when we get a chance, and produce at these fabulous summertime prices is hard to pass up!

What we bought
Target shopping trip
This was my first time stacking manufacturer coupons, store coupons (including mobile coupons) AND the new "Cartwheel" program deals. When these are also combined with sales, it makes for some pretty amazing deals. Fun stuff! I'm tickled that the free wifi in Target stores allows me to use my ipod to take advantage of these mobile coupons - no smart phone needed! Sorry there's no picture here...I was going to take one, but we were out most of the afternoon and I had to take care of a tired baby as soon as we got home.

• Earthbound Farms organic carrots, 1 lb - 1.09 - used $1/1 mobile coupon
• Sandwich bread, 1 loaf - 1.41 - used $1/1 mobile coupon and 5% off cartwheel
• Canola oil - 3.29 - used $1/1 mobile coupon
• Gala apples, 1.08 lb (3 apples) at 1.39/lb - used $1/1 mobile coupon and 5% off cartwheel
• Van's gluten-free frozen waffles - on sale for 2.50 - used 3.00 man. coupon (0.50 moneymaker!)
• Frozen raspberries, 1 lb - 2.79 - used $1/1 mobile coupon and 20% off cartwheel
• Hand soap - 0.89 - used 0.50 Target coupon and 5% off cartwheel
• Paper towels, 1 roll - 0.99 - used 0.50 Target coupon (and apparently something mobile applied, too, since the receipt says they worked out to be free. Yay!)
• Kashi cold cereal - 3 boxes on sale for 2.66 each - used two $2/1 and one $1/1 man. coupons, $1/2 Target coupon, and 10% off cartwheel
• Fresh strawberries, 1 lb - 1.79 - free with purchase of 3 boxes of Kashi (store promo deal), so if I'm figuring this right, we paid $1.68 for three boxes of supposedly-healthier cold cereal AND a pound of strawberries. Can't beat that! :D
• TOTAL - $5.85 - saved 19.79 with coupons and the 5% off for using our Target debit card, more if you count sales!

Hy-vee shopping trip

• Frozen veggies, 1 lb bags - 8 bags at 0.77 each (sale)
• Cheese blocks, 8 oz. - 3 at 3/$5 (store coupon)
• Cranberry honey nut trail mix, half a pound - 3.05 - a birthday splurge for me :)
• Gourmet olives, a little over half a pound - 6.23 - a treat for Joe :)
• TOTAL - $20.44 - saved some with the sales.

  WEEKLY TOTAL - $26.29 - saved $19.79 with coupons (more with sales)

What We Ate

• Sunday: Fried chicken salad (a quickie to throw together, since Joe had to work that evening)
• Monday: Potato and bacon soup (with the bacon Joe just finished smoking!), garlic breadsticks and cinnamon breadsticks, veggies
• Tuesday: Tuna sandwiches, veggies
• Wednesday: Baked chicken, wild rice, lima beans (seasons with barbeque sauce - turned out great!), veggies
• Thursday: Tried a new recipe for a country fritata. Turned out okay, but not a keeper. Also had a green salad.
  
• Friday: Joe went out and fetched Subway so I wouldn't have to cook on my birthday - awww! <3
• Saturday: We enjoyed a tasty meal at a local place, Cozy Cafe - another birthday treat. Yay for Groupon deals! :) We were still full at suppertime so just had popcorn.
• Breakfasts: Peaches, homemade banana bread (from the freezer), homemade yogurt (yum!), cold cereal with goat milk

Grocery shopping and menus, July 7-13

It's been an extra busy month here for my design work, so I'm quite late in getting this post together. I'll keep it simple, but hopefully it'll still be of interest to at least some of you. :) Joe did  most of the shopping for us this week, which was a big help to me. The total ended up being more than I shoot to spend in a week, but since we were under budget last week it'll even out. Nice to stock up a bit on the cheese and peanut butter when we get a chance, and produce at these fabulous summertime prices is hard to pass up!

What we bought
Fareway shopping trip

• Shredded cheese, 8-oz bags - got 8 bags at 1.50 each (sale)
• Pork and beans (regular sized cans) - got 3 cans at 0.50 each - used 0.50/3 store coupon
• TOTAL - $13.00 - saved 0.50 with coupon, quite a bit more with sales (not sure what regular prices are)

Hy-vee shopping trip

• Jiffy peanut butter - got 4 jars at 1.48 each (sale)
• Ocean Spray cranberry lemonade - on sale for 1.99 - used $1/1 man. coupon
• Barilla pasta - got 4 boxes at $1/box (sale) - used two $1/2 coupons (but I think one didn't scan right, as it's not showing on the receipt - you have to watch closely sometimes!)
• Colgate toothpaste - got 2 at 2.00 each - used a $2/2 coupon and also earned 0.05/gal gas at Hyvee's station
• Yellow peaches - 2.23 lb at 0.99/lb - 2.21
• White peaches - 1.68 lb at 0.99/lb - 1.68
• Red grapes - 2.36 lb at 0.99/lb - 2.34
• TOTAL - $18.48 - saved $4.00 with coupons, more with sales, plus we'll get a little back with the gas deal

Hy-vee shopping trip #2 (since the first Hyvee was out of TP)

• Charmin toilet paper, 12 double roll pack - on sale for 4.88 - used a $3/1 man. coupon
• TOTAL - $2.17 with tax - saved $3.00 with coupon, not a bad price for TP!

Aldi shopping trip

• Seedless grapes - 1.98
• Strawberries, 1 pound - 0.99
• Canteloupe - 1.19
• Bananas - 1.58 lb at 0.44/lb - 0.70
• Grape tomatoes, 1 pound - two boxes at 1.49
• Tortilla chips - 2 bags at 1.19
• TOTAL - $10.22

 Aldi shopping trip #2 (later in the week, with a new round of sales)

• Artisan baby lettuce, 4 small heads - 1.49
• Grape tomatoes, 1 pound - 3 boxes at 0.79
• Multi-colored bell peppers, 3-pack - 1.49
• Cucumbers - 6 at 0.25 (these were huge, and SO yummy, I wish we'd gotten more!)
• Canola oil - 2.69
• TOTAL - $10.52

Gifts from my family 
Their generosity is such a blessing to us!

• 8 quarts raw goat milk - I used half of this to make yogurt
• 1 dozen eggs
• TOTAL - FREE!

 WEEKLY TOTAL - $54.39 - saved $7.50 with coupons (more if you count sales)


What We Ate

• Sunday: Visiting my family.
• Monday: Mediterranean quinoa (my favorite way to fix it - so good!), canteloupe, sourdough garlic toast
• Tuesday: Pepperoni spaghetti pie, garlic/cheese toast, green salad
• Wednesday: Fish sticks, fried rice, tomato/cucumber salad, strawberry shortcake (yum!).
• Thursday: Tortilla wraps with leftover rice and gravy from the freezer, canteloupe, toasted tortillas with sugar and cinnamon. My sisters came to visit this day, so I fixed spaghetti with sauce/ground beef and fresh veggies for a quickie supper.
• Friday: Bean/beef/tortilla casserole, green salad. My sister was still visiting so she made us cheese and tomato sandwiches on leftover homemade buns for supper.
• Saturday: Joe made his amazing chili, cornbread in a cast iron pan (the best!), and veggies for lunch - my parents and sister joined us. For supper I made a quick Dutch Baby/Finnish Pancake and we also had some grapes.
• Breakfasts: Peaches, cinnamon/raisin English muffins (from the freezer), homemade yogurt (yum!)

Grocery shopping and menus, June 30-July 6

This week was much less eventful in the area of shopping and cooking - and much busier for me, thus my delay in getting a summary posted. I'll keep this brief, and will hopefully be back in a few days with a post about this week.

What we bought
Fareway shopping trip

• Honey-wheat pita pocket bread (10 ct) - marked down to 0.99
• Red delicious apples, 4.05 lb at $0.88/lb - 3.56
• Kraft Miracle Whip, 30 oz - 2 jars at 2.49 each - used $1/1 man. coupons and $1/1 store coupons
• Reynolds foil baking cups - 2 at 0.99 - used $1/1 man. coupons, so FREE!
• Pork and beans - 4 cans at 0.29 each (sale)
• TOTAL - $7.79 - saved $5.00 with coupons (more with sales and markdowns)

Hy-vee shopping trip

• Honey Nut Cheerios - 4 boxes at 4/$9 - used $4/4 store coupon and two $1/2 man. coupons
• TOTAL - $3.00 - saved $6.00 with coupons
  

Paul's Grains shopping trip
My family generously gives us some of the items they raise on their farm, as well as letting us in on discount prices for items they purchase in bulk. This is a huge help to our budget, and definitely helps us afford to eat much more healthy than we could otherwise! We made a trip out to the farm this week, so I went "shopping" while there and got the following items:

• Whole wheat flour, 5 pounds - free, since they grow and grind it there
• Unbleached all-purpose flour, 5 pounds - 3.65
• Quinoa, 3 pounds - 6.75
• "Spike" seasoning blend, 1/2 pound - 3.00
• "Real Salt", 2 pounds - 4.32
• Raw goat milk, 4 quarts - free
• Free-range eggs, 1 doz. - free
• TOTAL - $17.72

WEEKLY TOTAL - $28.51 - saved $11.00 with coupons (more, if you count sales, markdowns, and gifts)


What We Ate
Since we were visiting with my family from Thursday through Sunday, I got half the week off from menu planning. Yay! Here's what we ate here before the trip:

• Sunday: Taco salad (quick and easy, since church was in the morning and Joe had to work the evening shift)
• Monday: Fish fillets baked with creamy sauce, whole grain noodles, green salad
• Tuesday: Whole wheat biscuits from scratch, gravy with fresh rosemary and ground pork, tomato/cucumber salad
• Wednesday: "Date" lunch at Village Inn - fun, but we weren't terribly impressed even with the free pie and probably won't go back.
• Breakfasts: Apples and peanut butter, bananas, raisin English muffins (from the freezer)

Grocery shopping & menus, June 23-29

All of this from Target for only $4.52!

Thanks to everyone who left comments and encouraging feedback on last week's grocery shopping post! I had fun putting together this week's totals because I was able to catch some extra-good coupon deals. This is not really a typical week, but it's exciting when we do see savings like this. Definitely helps the budget and enables us to stock up on staples that rarely have coupons.

What we bought
Target shopping trip
We used to go to Target all the time up in Rochester, but after moving to Des Moines we have to drive quite a bit further to get to a Super Target, and some of the other stores nearby have prices that are good enough to not bother trekking to Target as often. Once in a while, though, I get a stack of coupons and deals that don't work anywhere else. This was such a week, and it really did pay off! Here's what I got:

• Kandoo flushable wipes, 50 pack - 2.49 - used a $2/1 coupon (unfortunately they were out of the $1.49 packs that would have been free with the coupon, but this was a good enough deal anyway as we go through a lot of wipes and the coupon expired soon)
• Earthbound organic carrots, 1 lb - 1.09 - used a $1/1 manufacturer coupon
• Earthbound organic carrots, 1 lb - 1.09 - used a $0.75/1 man. coupon
• Celery, 1 bunch - 1.49 - used a $1 off any fresh vegetable Target mobile coupon
• Bananas (4), 1.78 lb - 0.57/lb - used a $1 off any fresh fruit Target mobile coupon
• Gala apples (3), 1.09 lb - 1.39/lb - used a $1 off any fresh fruit Target mobile coupon (I would have bought more, as we go through a lot of apples, but I try not to pay more than 0.99 a pound, preferably closer to 0.80 or less. Last month we snagged about 14 pounds of near-perfect apples marked down to 0.59 a pound - yay!)
• Ronzoni veggie-enriched pasta, 4 boxes - 1.00/box - used two $1/2 man. coupons
• Market Pantry pasta, 2 boxes - 1.04/box - used $1/2 Target mobile coupon
• Dannon Activa yogurt 4-pack - 2.00 - used $1.50/1 man. coupon
• TOTAL - $4.52 - saved $12.25 with coupons 

Fareway's total: $8.69.

Fareway shopping trip
This was an extra-fun week at Fareway since they had some produce markdowns. Yay! We'd been out of bell peppers for a few weeks (no good sales), so finding a bag at 0.49/lb was perfect. I wish they had more marked-down things more often, as it helps our grocery bill a lot.

• Green bell peppers, 3.4 lb (9 peppers) - marked down to 0.49/lb - 1.67
• Ripe bananas, 5.98 lb - marked down to 0.39/lb - 2.33
• Turkey franks - 4 packages at 0.98 - used two $1/2 manufacturer coupons (Don't judge, lol. We rarely eat hot dogs, but I like to get a few packages when they're super cheap this time of year, as they come in handy in a pinch when I don't have any other meat cooked ahead of time and need something to flavor soup or a casserole.)
• Farmer's Garden pickled veggies - 2 jars at $2.49 each - used two totally free manufacturer coupons, yay!
• Reynolds foil baking cups - 4 packages of 32 at 0.99 each - used four $1/1 manufacture coupons, so totally free (I'm excited about these, as I hate to wash muffin pans and can't bring myself to buy the baking cups at regular price. Now I can actually make muffins, lol!)
• Miracle Whip - 2 jars at $2.49 each - used two $1/1 manufacturer coupons and two $1/1 store coupons, so only $0.49 each! Would have gotten more, but they limited it to one per customer. We'll go back in a few days for a couple more.
• Pickling and canning salt - 5 lb at 1.59 - Joe plans to use this for the bacon he is currently learning how to cure.
• Regular white table salt - 10 oz at 0.49 - I'll use this in the dishwasher detergent I make. We use Real Salt for cooking/eating, but cheap stuff works fine for cleaning.
• TOTAL - $8.69 - saved $13.98 with coupons

Hy-vee's total: $12.11.

Hy-vee shopping trip
Normally we get Hy-vee's deals at Fareway since they match prices, but this week there was a Hy-vee specific coupon that we needed to use to make the deals worthwhile. So we braved the big store and managed to (eventually) find all we needed. ;)

• Ocean Spray Cranberry Lemonade - 1.99 - used $1/1 manufacturer coupon, and planned to also get $0.50 off with the Ibotta app. This didn't work out, unfortunately; I discovered that though Hyvee does participate in the Ibotta program, they don't accept receipts from iPod 4s, which is what I have. Bummer.
• Tilafia (fish) fillet - two 4-oz packages at 1.19 - Joe was in the mood for fish and this seemed to be a decent enough price for fillets; a treat, as we rarely splurge on fish.
• Country Time drink mix canister - two at 2.49 each - used $1/2 manufacturer coupon
• Philadelphia cream cheese - four at 1.69 each - used two $0.50/2 manufacturer coupons
• Kraft salad dressing - four at 1.67 each - used two $1/2 manufacturer coupons. I do make our own dressing fairly often, but when it's this cheap we go ahead and get a few.
• --and then used a $6 store coupon, applicable when buying 10 specific items. This knocked $0.60 each off the drink mixes, cream cheeses, and salad dressings. Subtracting the manufacturer coupons as well, we ended up paying an average of 0.84 per item, which is pretty decent.
• TOTAL - $12.11 - saved $11.00 with coupons

WEEKLY TOTAL - $25.32 - saved $37.23 with coupons (more, if you count sales)
I had to chuckle when I tallied everything up and realized I squeaked in under my monthly budget by only 75 cents. I was hoping to spend no more than $117 this month since we'd gone a little over $150 the last couple months. Glad to have achieved that - and now I have a whole 75 cents to add on to next month's $150. ;) We have a few things to stock up on, including paying my family for some beef and pork, so it'll be interesting to see how it works out. One of my goals for next month will be focusing on using items we already have in the pantry and spending most of our budget on fresh fruit and veggies that are in season.

What We Ate
I only make loose lists of menu ideas, based on what we have on hand, starting with things that need using (particularly produce). Once in a great while we'll go out and buy specific ingredients for a recipe we want to make, but generally we just go with the flow of what's on sale and what we already have on hand. Saves a lot of money! And I work hard to keep our pantry pretty consistently stocked at any given time, so there are always endless options of things to make.

So here's a peek at what we ate this week. I'm not one to enjoy spending lots of time in the kitchen, so I generally only make one simple, from-scratch meal a day, large enough to feed us for 2+ meals. Leftovers get served up for the second meal (packing Joe's lunchbox), and breakfast is a help-yourself affair. We eat quite a bit of fruit as snacks, as well as popcorn. And Joe likes his chips and salsa now and again, too. :)

• Sunday: Grilled veggies and brats on homemade whole wheat and rye buns
• Monday: Ground beef and potato soup, leftover cornbread, green salad
• Tuesday: Chicken dumplings, cantaloup and grapes
• Wednesday: Leftover pizza rolls, fig bars, yogurt (I was out most of the afternoon, so kept things simple.)
• Thursday: Mixed beans (cooked myself and flavored with BBQ sauce), leftover cornbread (yes, I made a big pan of it last week!), tomato/cucumber/mayo salad. Joe was off this day, so for supper we had a "date night" treat of Pizza Hut. :)
• Friday: Chicken & rice pilaf with almonds, green salad.
  Saturday: Roast beef, tomato, and cheese sandwiches on homemade buns, veggies and dip.
• Breakfasts: Apples and peanut butter, bananas, whole wheat banana bread

Grocery shopping, June 16-22

On one of my favorite frugal-living blogs, my friend Crystal often posts about her grocery shopping trips and weekly menu plans. It's fun to see the coupon and sales deals she's been able to put together, and it's also a great way to learn how to budget and plan better myself.

We currently have a grocery budget of $150/month for our family of three (not that Lukas eats much at all yet, at 7 months), and so far this year we've been able to stay on track with that pretty well. I thought some of you might find it interesting to see how we spend that money each week. We're not using all that many coupons right now as it's a little harder with a baby in the mix, but by watching the sales ads each week and planning menus accordingly we're still able to eat quite well, even relatively healthfully, with this budget...and with a very minimal amount of couponing effort.

A disclaimer: Obviously every family's dietary needs and priorities are different, and prices vary widely from area to area. No one's in a contest to see how little can be spent each month to keep your family alive (we could live on a lot less than we are, but probably wouldn't be very healthy!). Yet I do find it a fun challenge to be the best steward I can of what God has provided to us. I'm learning a lot all the time myself, and am glad to pass along what I know, too.

So here's this week's round-up. If enough of you are interested (comment, please!), I'll try to continue with posts like this. Maybe I'll even take a picture of all we buy...didn't get to that this time. :)

Week of June 16-22

Aldi shopping trip
We were out of town the previous week and had used up most of our produce before the trip, so it was time to head to Aldi and restock the fridge. Their produce is almost always great quality and the prices are pretty hard to beat!

• Cucumbers - 3 @ 0.39 - 1.17
• Onions - 3 lb - 1.69
• Grape tomatoes - 1.49 (for Joe's lunches)
• Snow peas - 1.99 (ditto)
• Roma tomatoes - 2 boxes of 9 @ 1.29 - 2.58
• Cantaloupe - 1 whole melon - 1.19
• Red grapes - 2 lb. - 1.98
• TOTAL - $12.09

Fareway shopping trip
We like Fareway because they match ads from several other local stores, the clerks are always cheerful and helpful, and the smaller stores are easy to get around. The best part, though, is that they have marked down items and we never know what we'll find! No big finds this time around, sadly, but these prices are pretty good and we needed to restock our supplies of peanut butter and shredded cheese.

• Skippy peanut butter, 16 oz - 6 @ 1.88 (wish there'd been a coupon available for this!)
• Shredded cheese, 8 oz - 6 @ 1.50
• Corn on the cob, pack of 4 - marked down to 1.09
• Leaf lettuce, large heads - 2 @ 1.29
• TOTAL - $23.95

Menards shopping trip
This is the first time we've ever bought groceries at Menards, hehe, but Joe saw they had brats on sale this week and the Wisconsin boy in him got all excited. ;) Maybe not a steal of a price, but it's decent and these will be good for grilling this summer. The Klements brand is supposed to have no MSG, nitrates/nitrites, etc., so that's nice.

• Klements brats, 5 per package - 5 @ 1.99 
• TOTAL - $9.95

Walmart shopping trip
We don't go to Walmart all that often, but I had a few coupons that were supposed to be best used there and Joe said he didn't mind stopping by while he was out getting the brats and the things at Fareway. Unfortunately he was only able to locate one of the items for the coupon deals...seems to be the way things usually go for us at Walmart. Just one more reason we rarely go there. :P

• Kraft BBQ sauce - 6 @ 1.00 - used three $1/2 coupons
• TOTAL - $3.00

Total for the week - $48.99
This is more than we spend most weeks, but since we'd bought basically no groceries the week before due to our trip it'll still work out well for the month as a whole. And with the cheese, peanut butter, brats, and BBQ sauce we did a fair bit of stocking up for future weeks, too.

What we ate
I didn't keep very detailed notes on this, but can do better next time if anyone is interested. Made several big green salads and had fruit several days, and for main dishes I made pizza rolls, tuna sandwiches, chicken and asparagus casserole, red rice, and potato-corn-beef soup. Joe grilled veggies and brats one day (I made whole wheat and rye buns to go with the latter), and we had leftover homemade sour cream spice cake and apples with peanut butter most breakfasts.

Question of the week
What's your favorite way to use BBQ sauce? I haven't done a lot with it before, but now have a bunch in the pantry. ;) Ideas, please!