Menu Plan for the week of 04/09/2012

We had a very busy Monday.  Chris and I drove to a family friends house to show her all my Scentsy stuff and organize a fundraiser for the organization that she is very passionate about.  We had a great time catching up.  We made it about 10 minutes from her house to discover that I left my purse at her house- oh my. Uturn and go back.  We made it to my dad's house with enough time to throw all my Scentsy stuff and 1 of the carseats in his house, made a sandwich to eat on the way and away we drove to the airport to pick up my dad and 2 of my aunts.  Picked them up and drove back to my dad's house, he fixed my busted headlight and loaded up all the Scentsy I had brought with me and the carseat.  We finally made it home about 2 hours passed when we normally eat dinner.  I had a very nasty headache- combination of sinuses, being tired and not eating on time.  Thankfully it is Spring Break here- no set alarms.  Hoping to sleep in.  After a good nights sleep, I woke up this morning refreshed and hope to have a nice relaxed week.  We shall see how that goes:)

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Breakfast
Banana Chocolate Chip muffins X2
Breakfast Burritos
PB Banana Toast
Banana Bread with Pear Butter X2
Cinnamon Sugar Toast with fruit

Lunch
Sandwich, Popcorn & Apple slices

Dinner
Homemade Mac & Cheese with green beans
Black & Kidney beans tomato chicken corn taco bake
Italian black beans & rice with green beans
Waffles with homemade syrup
Rice, tomato & sausage with green beans
Alfredo noodles with corn
Spaghetti with green beans and bread

Snacks
Apple Slices
Celery with PB
Banana
PB Crackers

Walgreens deals for the week of 04/08/2012

Things to keep in mind when shopping at Walgreens:
1) You must have as many items as manufactur's coupons
2) Register Receipts (RR) are considered manufactur's coupons
3) You are allowed 1 Manufactur's coupon and 1 store coupon per item
4) Cannot use RR printed from item to pay for same item and get RR's again~
For example- If you were to purchase Colgate for $3 and get $3 RR, if you purchase the Colgate again and use the RR's earned from the 1st Colgate purchase you will not earn the RR's again

General Mills cereal- $5/2 and get $1 RR
$1/3 General Mills cereal cpn- 03/11 SS
$1/2 General Mills cereal cpn- 03/11 SS
$0.50 General Mills treats, Cocoa Puffs, Lucky Charms, Golden Grahams, Chex, Milk 'N Cereal bars cpn- 02/26 SS

Keebler, Kelloggs Special K cracker crisps, Nutrigrain bars, Special K bars, Rice Krispies treats or Cheez-Its- $10/4 and get $3 RR
$0.55 Keebler Fudge Strips dark cpn- 02/19 RP

Finish dishwasher products- $3.99 and get $1.50 ECB
$0.75 Finish Jet Dry cpn- 03/11 SS
$0.50 Finish dish washer cleaner cpn- 03/11 SS
$1 Finish Quantum cpn- 03/11 SS
$0.75 Finish Powertab cpn- 03/11 SS

$2 cpn when you buy $10 Nice products

Glade air fresheners- Plug In, Sense & Spray, Candle, oil candle, Carpet & Room Odor Eliminator, Relaxing Moments spray, Decor warmer or 2pk Decor refill- $6/2 and get $1 RR
$1.50 Glade Plug In twin refill or 2 single packs cpn- 03/25 SS
$3 Glade Sense & Spray kit cpn- 03/25 SS
$1/2 Glade jar or oil candle cpn- 03/25 SS
$1 Glade Plug In warmer cpn- 03/25 SS
$1 Glade Decor holder or 2 Decor refill cpn- 03/25 SS
$0.55 Premium Room Spray cpn- 03/25 SS

All- $11.99 and get $1 RR
$1 All cpn- 04/01 RP
$1 All cpn- 03/04 RP

Luster toothpaste- $4.99 and get $4 RR
$0.75 Luster White cpn- 03/18 SS

Reach Total toothbrush- $2.99 and get $2 RR
$1 Reach toothbrush cpn- 03/04 SS

Spend $30 and get $10 RR when you buy Secret Clinical deodorant, Venus Embrace, Gillette deodorant or Gillette Fusion ProGlide refill
$1/2 Secret cpn- 04/01 P&G
$5 Venus/Olay, Embrace, Breeze or Bikini cpn- 04/01 P&G
$2 Venus razor, refill or disposable cpn- 04/01 P&G
$1 Gillette bodywash or deodorant cpn- 04/01 P&G
$3 Gillette Fusion ProGlide razor when you buy Fusion ProGlide refill cpn- 04/01 P&G

Gillette Venus/Olay razor- $8.99 and get $4 RR
$5 Venus/Olay, Embrace, Breeze or Bikini cpn- 04/01 P&G
$2 Venus razor, refill or disposable cpn- 04/01 P&G

Schick Quattro or Intuition razor- $8.99 and get $3 RR

Similac- $24.99 and get $2 RR

Spend $15 and get $4 RR on the following Walgreens brand:
Sinus, Allergy or Cold, Wal-Phed or Soothe- $4
Ibuprofen or Jr, Pain reliever, Childrens or Anti-Diarrheal- $5
All Day pain relief or Reusable cold compress- $7

CVS deals for the week of 04/08/2012

Don't forget to....
1) Go to cvs.com/email and sign up for the ExtraCare email and receive a $4/20 cpn
2) Stop by the Red ExtraCare coupon center and get CVS cpns
3) You can use a manufacturer's cpn along with a CVS cpn
4) You can use a B1G1Free cpn along with a B1G1Free sale to get both products for free:)

Gatorade Recover, Starbucks double shot or Frappiccino- $4/2 and get $1 ECB

Spend $25 and get $10 ECB Loreal cosmetics or hair products
$0.75 Loreal Vive shampoo or condition cpn- 04/01 RP
$0.75 Loreal Studio Styler cpn- 04/01 RP
$4/2 Loreal Excellence cpn- 03/25 RP
$1 Loreal eye liner or shadow cpn- 03/25 RP
$1 Loreal eye cpn- 03/25 RP
$2 Loreal Preference cpn- 03/18 RP
$2 Loreal Sublime Mousse cpn- 03/11 RP
$1 Loreal EverStyle cpn- 03/11 RP
$1 Loreal Ever Series Treatment cpn- 03/11 RP
$1 Loreal Ever Series hair care cpn- 03/11 RP

Spend $25 and get $10 ECB Beyonce, Halle, Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, Shakira or Heidi Klum fragrances

Speed Stick- $2.99 and get $1.50 ECB
$1 Speed Stick cpn- 03/25 SS

Spend $15 and get $5 ECB on the following:
Curel or Jergens lotion- $7.50
$1 Curel cpn- 03/04 SS
$3/2 Jergens cpn- 03/04 SS
Jergens Natural Glow- $8.99
John Frieda hair care
$3/2 John Frieda Full Repair cpn- 03/04 SS
$2 John Frieda cpn- 03/04 SS
$3/2 John Frieda Root Awakening cpn- 02/12 SS
$3/2 John Frieda cpn- 02/12 SS
John Frieda Precision Foam- $11.99
$2 John Frieda Precision Foam cpn- 03/04 SS
Biore- $15/2
Buy Biore Pore Strip and get free Biore cleanser cpn- 03/04 SS

Spend $30 and get $10 ECB ROC skin care

Spend $15 and get $5 ECB on the following:
Caress, Dove or Lever bar, Dove bodywash or cream oil lotion- $6.97
$1 Dove bodywash cpn- 03/25 RP
$0.75 Dove bar cpn- 03/25 RP
Dove Men Care bodywash- $5
$1 Dove Men Care face or bodywash cpn- 03/25 RP
Dove or Degree body mist, Ultimate, Ultra Clear, Adrenaline, Dove Men Care deodorant or Dove hair care- $6.97/2
$1 Dove Men Care deodorant cpn- 03/25 RP
$1 Dove hair cpn- 03/25 RP
$0.50 Degree Adrenaline cpn- 03/25 RP

$10 ECB when you buy Crest 3D Professional, Intensive or 2hr- Limit 2
$1 Crest 3D Professional, Intensive or 2hr cpn- 04/01 P&G

Spend $10 and get $5 ECB Crest or Oral B Clinical Gum Protection- Limit 2
$0.25 Crest toothpaste cpn- 04/01 P&G
$0.25 Crest rinse cpn- 04/01 P&G
$0.50 Oral B Clinical Pro Flex toothbrush cpn- 04/01 P&G

Efferdent or Effergrip- $3.99 and get $1 ECB- Limit 2

$3 ECB when you buy Colgate multipack manual toothbrushes, Regular, Total or Advanced Whitening toothpaste twin pack- Limit 2
$0.75 Colgate toothpaste cpn- 03/25 SS
$0.40 Colgate manual toothbrush cpn- 03/25 SS

Venus, Hydro 5, Hydro Power, Quattro Men or Hydro 5 or Quatrro Men refill- $9.49 and get $4 ECB
$5 Venus/Olay, Embrace, Breeze or Bikini razor cpn- 04/01 P&G
$2 Venus razor, refill or disposable cpn- 04/01 P&G

Radiant Tampax or Radiant Always- $3.99 and get $2 ECB
$1 Tampax Pearl, Compaq or Radiant cpn- 04/01 P&G
$1 Always Infinity or Radiant Infinity cpn- 04/01 P&G

Spend $20 and get $8 ECB when you buy Dr Scholls foot care

Duracell- $11.99 and get $2 ECB
$0.75 Duracell cpn- 04/01 P&G

Spend $25 and get $10 ECB Neutrogena skin or sun care

March 2012 Goal Update

Lets see how we did with our goals for the month of March:

Here are our 2012 Goals: (in no particular order)

1) To not eat out or at least to not pay out of pocket, with the exception of tips. If we want to treat the family to a meal out, we will make sure we have a gift card to cover all of us.
We did fabulous with this goal.

2) Pay off 2 credit cards
We are so excited that one of our credit cards will be paid off next month- so close and so excited- will explain tomorrow:)

3) Not to use any of our credit cards for 2012. To pay cash for everything.
We did great with this and used cash for our purchases in March.

4) To lower our grocery budget. Our current grocery budget is $400 month for our family of 6. Our goal is to lower that amount and to save the remainder.
We went over last month by about $25.  We are working hard this month to stay below budget by having alot of bean and rice meals, which the boys love:)  Plus we hope to stay below budget even helping our church stock the food pantry.

5) To create a monthly meal plan for our family, to use leftovers more efficiently and to make use of everything in our pantry and freezer.
Doing great with this for March- use leftovers wisely and wasting less. With 4 boys, leftovers are not being left over as much.

6) Unclutter the house and become more organized:)
We are doing great with this.  I consigned alot of baby stuff in March.  Still have alot of baby stuff that will go into the fall consignment sale.  I have made a list of must declutter areas and have broken them down into smaller jobs. That makes me feel not so overwhelmed. I have a tendency to look at my massive to do list and have no clue where to start and then nothing gets done. So, I have made a big to do list and broken it down into smaller chores for myself. So far so good.

7) Lose weight- I need to get motivated to lose this baby weight- my goal is to lose 20 lbs this year.
I was excited last month when I thought I lost 4 pounds- wrong.  Someone messed with my scale- so not nice.  But I am happy that I have lost 2 pounds.  I also have found a kick boxing video and an exercise dance video on Netflix that I am loving and am doing everyday, along with going to the gym 6 times a week:)

8) Morning devotions, prayer time and more bible reading
Doing great with this:)

9) Monthly date night with hubby- whether we go out or stay at home, pop popcorn and rent a movie
Didn't do so well with this in March.


10) To spend quality family time together. With everyones schedule and us running all over creation, I would love to spend more quality time together- no tv- us playing games, talking, enjoying each others company.
Not so great with this goal- will make more of an effort to make this happen.

11) Not to use our dryer to save on electricity and lower our electricity bill
Doing fabulous with this goal and when our electric bill came in it was $15 lower- YEA!!

12) To make a better effort to blog more regularly and to make a blogging schedule
Started out doing great with this but then surgeries, doc/dentist appointments, etc came up and made blogging more difficult. But everything is quiet so far, so I have been consistent in blogging:)

13) To make much needed house repairs
Making a list of house repairs to do when the weather warms up

14) To fix the car that is sitting in our driveway so that whoever gets their drivers license first will have a car to drive or share if they both get their license at the same time
We are actually going to nix this goal as we are going to sell the car.  My father is going to sell me my mom's van.  It is too painful for him to have around the house, so we are not going to need the car after all.  We soon will have 2 vans:)

15) To do 1 project a month and blog about it- will post the list of projects soon
Doing great and having a blast with this.  March project done and successful:)

Monthly Spending for April 2012

Here is where I will keep a list of our spending for the month of April.  Remember our monthly budget is $400 for everything for our family of 6 and 2 pets, not too mention our 2 bird feeders outside. We didn't do that good last month. The money we don't spend out of our grocery budget gets put aside and saved. We were able to save $0 from last month (we kind of went over budget last month). Lets see how much under budget I can get for this month.

03/31/2012
$124.14- Walmart
$2.16- Martins
$5.50- Kroger
$12.40- Dollar Tree
$9.49- Food Lion
$1.27- CVS and got back $5 ECB's

03/10/2012
$3.94- Martins
$1.28- Target
$4.20- Dollar Tree
$1.96- Food Lion
$0.00- Walgreens and got back $7 RR's
$77.94- Walmart

04/16/2012
$79.83- Walmart
$6.25- Dollar Tree
$2.77- Martins
$2.76- Martins

04/21/2012
$4.10- Food Lion
$0.00- Kroger
$2.26- Walgreens and got back $2.99 RR's
$5.25- Dollar Tree
$0.99- CVS and got back $2 ECB
$52.39- Walmart

$400.88- Running Total for April
Well getting better, only went over $0.88 this month.  Will be working harder next month to get this down.

My Shopping Day

Due to having to get up super early and taking my dad and 2 aunts to the airport and Michael having to work out of state this week, we went grocery shopping on Saturday. 

I wanted to post this yesterday but for some unknown issue my computer was having issues and I couldn't even access the Internet.  It looks like all is fixed now:)

Here is our shopping trip:

CVS
$1.00- (2) Milky Way bunnies
$9.99- Hydro Silk razor
$10.99
-.25/2 CVS Milky Way cpn
-4.00 Hydro Silk cpn
-0.99 ECB
-5.00 ECB
$1.27 Total and got back $5 ECB's

Kroger
$0.39- Bananas
$2.98- 2 dz eggs
$2.00- (2) pkgs Sausage links
$1.49- Stride gum
$4.89- Ben & Jerry ice cream
$11.75
-1.49 Free Stride gum econ from Kroger game
-4.89 Free Ben & Jery ecpn from Kroger game
$5.50 Total

Martins
$2.16- (4) loaves bread at $0.54 each

Food Lion
$3.00- (2) pkgs Strawberries
$4.00- (2) bags apples
$2.26- Grapes
$9.49 Total

Dollar Tree
$1.00- Easter egg dye kit
$1.00- Quick eraser
$1.00- Tissues
$1.00- Freezer bags
$1.00- Shampoo
$6.00- Easter candy
$1.00- Qtips
$12.40 Total

Walmart
$11.16- (4) gallons skim milk
$11.98- (5) lbs ground beef
$3.92- (4) bags frozen green beans
$0.98- Frozen corn
$1.42- Frozen OJ
$1.36- Frozen Breeze juice
$2.32- Lunchmeat
$4.00- Shred Cheddar cheese
$1.38- Lettuce
$2.14- Coconut milk
$1.48- Coconut milk
$2.00- (4) boxes Mac & Cheese
$1.92- (4) boxes pudding
$2.44- Tortillas
$6.67- Nosestrips
$1.00- Whole Wheat Penne
$1.68- (4) Strawberry Gelatin
$1.68- Tortila Chips
$0.97- Paper Towels
$1.00- WW Elbow macaroni noodles
$1.00- WW Penne
$1.00- WW Spaghetti
$4.76- (2) pkgs Chocolate chips
$4.96- (2) big bags Black beans
$1.48- Kidney Beans
$0.97- Batteries
$2.56- (2) bags brown rice
$2.98- Mouthwash
$6.00- (6) boxes WW pasta
$1.00- Onion
$2.44- Ketchup
$1.24- Tomato sauce
$4.70- (5) cans Spaghetti sauce
$2.00- Juice boxes
$1.68- Cheese sauce
$0.60- Diced tomatoes
$1.76- (2) boxes Crackers
$1.12- Cornmeal
$1.24- Tomato sauce
$0.60- Diced Tomatoes
$1.98- Mild Salsa
$1.68- Alfredo sauce
$1.98- Mild Salsa
$1.24- Tomato sauce
$3.08- Sugar
$0.77- Bananas
$2.42- Cocoa Cereal
$124.14 Total

**With our Walmart trip, you probably notice alot of boxed items we normally don't buy.  Our church has asked us to fill a paper grocery bag full of non perishable items to stock the food pantry.  We bought alot of items with this trip and have not filled the bag to the top so we will be buying more food items next week.**

This shopping trip has been added to our April Monthly Spending post, where I keep track of what we spend for the month of April.

Menu Plan for the week of 04/02/2012

This morning started out way to early.  I had to get up at 5am to get myself and little Michael ready to go and pick up my dad and 2 of my aunts and take them to the airport.  They are visiting my other aunt in Florida.  I am happy that they are going.  I think spending time with my mom's sisters really helps my dad deal with my mom's death.  They are all leaning on each other which makes a huge difference.  I am glad that they have each other:)

With Michael gone for work for the week, it is hopefully going to be a nice calm not too rushing around kind of week- at least lets keep our fingers crossed:)

Here is our menu plan for this week:

Our yummy homemade yogurt with rolled oats and honey

Breakfast
Banana Bread X2
Homemade yogurt, rolled oats and honey
Pancakes X2
Banana PB Toast
Egg sandwiches

Lunch
Sandwiches, Banana & Popcorn

Dinner
Bean & rice tacos with peas
Pancakes with homemade syrup
Mexican Lasagna with corn
Pasta with cheese sauce and green beans
Chili
Haystacks with corn
Leftovers

Snacks
Strawberries
Grapes
PB Crackers
Apples