I MADE ELEVEN DINNERS FOR LESS THAN $66 LAST WEEK!!

THIS WEEK I GOT TWO WEEKS WORTH OF FOOD FOR $54 A WEEK!! 

$100.40 SPENT TOTAL

This is both Farmer's Market and Winn Dixie (my store card saved me $41.57.) This does not include my milk or eggs. Milk will be $6.78 (two gallons) and eggs are $2.74 (two dozen) making my total  $109.92 for 2 WEEKS!

Winn Dixie has a lot of great sales this week and I am always pleased with the meat quality and sale variety from week to week.

Winn Dixie has a lot of great sales this week and I am always
pleased with the meat quality and sale variety from week
to week.

   I started, of course, by looking at the sale items and considering what my family needs for this week. Really, I already have taken care of Wed night with the BBQ pork and tonight I am making mashed potatoes to finish the pork roast off. I have two nights worth of chicken thighs in my freezer, leaving me only 3 nights that I do not have dinner for this week. I normally just use my computer but, Mom had an appointment so I stole her ads when I picked her up and browsed them while I waited.

   This week's first stop was Bailey's Farmers Market on Davis Hwy. (Since I was already so close with Mom that it wasn't out of my way as usual.) I love the Farmer's market but, remember their prices are not always lower than at your grocery store. I do find a lot of great deals and great produce. Don't be scared of the "CLEARANCE" table, these products are not spoiled or rotten but, they need to be used or frozen quickly. I picked up 2 very nice packages of yellow squash and zucchini for only $1.50 each. I will blanch (blanching is not hard or very time consuming, directions can be found online) and freeze these into servings within the next 2 days. After spending $17.78, I walked out with everything I needed for fresh veggies and salads all week plus some to freeze.

  My next stop was Winn Dixie! Let's get some MEAT.   

   London Broil roasts are on sale this week BOGO...now let's check the price per pound, only $1.89. I now have two london broil roasts for $11! The roast is very multi-purpose. I can already tell you that, with this cold weather, we will be having beef stew this week, I can slice some off to make fried steak fingers (and I still have an un-opened bag of french fries from last week), I can cut thicker slices for steak dinners (its no filet mignon but its still beef), I can make another roast but, we just had roast this week ;-) and we want to be more versatile so that our families and ourselves don't get bored. (If you have a food processor you can grind up the meat smaller for great pots of chili!)

   I also found pork chops on sale....

I bought 10 porkchops for less than $5. I will get these split up to 3 freezer packages (2 three packs and one 4 pack.) Use your computers to find yummy new recipes for your pork chops, no one wants to eat fried pork chops every time. 

   Now let's look at sides. I only purchased ONE item that was not on sale this week (and truth be told I know it is cheaper at the discount grocery store but, I had to have my creamer today!) Many of the noodle and rice dishes were on sale for $0.98 this week at my local Winn Dixie. I stocked up on these because of the price and versatility. I am lucky that I only need one regular sized box of noodle sides for my family at dinner...for larger families, I would suggest checking bags of noodles and jars/cans of sauce you can make a LOT more for less than the prepackaged sides. And remember, you do not have to use fettucine with alfredo sauce-it can be any noodle so buy the big bag of an sale noodles.

Here are the non-weekly purchases that I made this week....these are items that we need in our house but, don't use up in 7 days.

THIS IS $25.53 OF MY TOTAL $82.62 

Tea bags, cooking oil, condiments, coffee (it was actually cheaper this week to buy the 2 bricks on sale for $5 than to get one name brand and one store brand), freezer bags, flour, sugar and pancake mix - I would normally make pancakes from scratch but, the pancake mix was only $1!  

(I only purchased the ketchup and mustard cause they were $1 off.)                                                                                  

Here are the items that we didn't "need" but, I love my family and want them to be happy. (I also love carrot cake.)

This is $22.56 of my total $82.62.

My little girl loves her lunchables and when they go on sale for $1 I grab her some. The hot chocolate was BOGO for $2.99. Everyone loves bacon only $2.99 this week instead of $5.99. Blueberry muffins, cake and brownies are a great treat and have a lot more servings in them then a $2 - $4 box of cookies. (I added in my creamer back at the back, I only buy 1 a week and when it's gone, I cry a little, and use milk & sugar the rest of the week.)

One more thing in my cart this week was the ingredients for my wet dog food. 

   Two cans of mixed veggies, chicken liver, chicken gizzards and 2lbs of rice. A total cost of $4.86 - this will make a stock pot full of wet food to mix into their dry food. This encourages them to eat it all instead of guarding it all day, it also adds a nice warm extra 1/2 - 1 cup of food to their bowl, hence cutting down on the amount of dry food needed. This only has to be made once every 2 weeks.

SO, OUT OF MY $109.92 ONLY ABOUT $60 IS NECESSARY FOOD-AND I SHOULD BE ABLE TO GET 2 WEEKS OUT OF WHAT I HAVE PURCHASED AND THE REMAINING GROCERIES FROM LAST WEEK! 

SIMPLE MATH (USING MY ACTUAL SPENDING AMOUNTS) SHOWS US THAT I HAVE MANAGED SO FAR TO SPEND ONLY $58.83 A WEEK FOR GROCERIES FOR 3 WEEKS!! 

IF YOU DIVIDE THAT BY THE THREE OF US THEN IT IS ONLY $19.61 PER PERSON A WEEK THAT I HAVE SPENT FEEDING MY WHOLE FAMILY!!