Happy Long Weekend

Homemade pizza last night

Another shopping trip to Food Basics

Meat and proteins.......$26.92

Boneless, skinless chicken was on for $3.44 a lb. I don't usually buy chicken this way because it is expensive, but I decided to splurge. Bacon was 2.88 and the four 1 lb. packages of lean ground beef was $15. The ground beef was not on sale but I am completely out. Omega 3 eggs were on sale for $2.47 a dozen but they were sold out. There will be more tomorrow.

             Produce and juice.........$ 4.34  

Each cauliflower cost  97 cents each. The grapes were on sale for 97 cents a pound.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Dairy........$12.42

Gay Lee whipped cream was on sale for $1.99. The blocks of cheese cost $3.97 each, and the spreadable cream cheese was on for $2.49.

Household cleaners.............$12.99

This dishwasher detergent is usually $4 more. Although I don't need it right now, I took advantage of the price. I have made my own dishwasher detergent in the past, and I will use it in a pinch, but I do not like it as much as this stuff. This comes out of my grocery budget. 

Hallowe'en candy...........$38.97
Miscellaneous.........$13.36

The Hallowe'en candy comes out of my food budget. Do I need so much? Yes I do. Because we live right on the Main street of our village, we often get well over 100 kids. I generally give out 2 bite-sized candy bars or 2 small bags of candy.  If there are any left, I will use them as candy gifts for the Advent calendars. The bandaids and toothpaste would normally come out of the budget as well, but in this case, I will wrap them up as Advent gifts. The money spent on these will come from another source.

Total groceries spent today is $95.64
Total spent to date is $193.63

I also stopped at Michael's with a 50% off coupon to pick up some red tape (super strong adhesive tape) for putting my little boxes and Christmas packages together. I also picked up a couple of items for Advent gifts. I am feeling very tired. I want to lie down for a bit, but I also need to wash, cut up and freeze my three heads of cauliflower. I should also shred my cheese for the freezer. Otherwise, I may discover it gone before I can use it in dinner recipes. I'll sleep first, then work. 

Dinner last night at my friend's house was so delicious. She made a wonderful salad and quiche from which  she shared the leftovers with me at the end of the evening. I had the quiche for lunch today, and there is enough salad for me to share with my guys at dinner. 

Cheque for $30 from Pinecone Surveys

Milk in bags

A bag of milk

Quick update to October Shopping

Shopper's Drug Mart........$50.00

Shopping in October

After following Nathalie's Blog for quite some time now, I have decided to become more like her. *laugh*

She accounts for every dime she spends on groceries and knows how much she saves by taking advantage of sales, coupons, rebates, reward points, etc.She also divides her purchases by food groups to make it easier to see where the bulk of the money is going. The savings are impressive. I, on the other hand, tend to pick up loss leaders for the most part. I don't have a specific grocery shopping day. I seldom remember to check for coupons until after I get home. Because my husband is often in town, I will ask him to pick up loss leaders or items from my grocery list on his way back from somewhere. Shopping ends up being kind of "hodge-podge". On the other hand, I keep my $300 budgeted money in a jar at home, and when it is gone, it is gone. We take the money out of the jar, and return the change left over as well as the receipts and put them back into the jar. But I haven't been writing it down. So because it is the beginning of October, I will post my grocery shopping here, by categories and amounts. This is my first shop of the month. 

Produce and juice......$10.21

Perennial hibiscus. Isn't this a gorgeous colour?

A friend of mine took her dog to the "Doggie Spa" this morning in Napanee. I went along for the ride. After dropping  the dog off at the groomers, we headed over to Denny's for their grand slam breakfast. MMMM-mmmm. We took a little drive into the country to see that the leaves are just starting to turn (sorry...no photos). We checked out Dollarama so I could get some more ideas for Advent calendar gifts, and I picked up a couple of items as well. 

When I got home, I discovered my husband went out as well. We were gifted this turkey from one of his friends, so I will cook it up tomorrow. I have no room in my freezer to hold this. That is fine by me, as we all love turkey here. I also got some FREEBIES in the mail today. I have a copy of Chatelaine magazine and a packet of washable markers from Crayola (another Advent present). 

I jumped right into the job of washing, peeling, coring, and slicing apples from the second plastic bag of Macintosh apples. I didn't quite get through half the bag, but my crockpot is full to the brim again. Applesauce is going to be easier for me to freeze because it cooks down quite a bit. I am using up the chicken stock I made this week to make a split pea soup for dinner tonight. It is sunny but cool today. Soup is going to feel so good.