Living Frugal, Not Cheap

I did good not going wild with the food this week:

juice x3 1.24 ea
beans 1.18
crackers x2 2/4*
tea 3.52
tea 3.29
milk 1.29*
cottage cheese 2.37
cheese 3.99*
bananas .34*
cauliflower 1.38*
garlic .58
apple .42
green beans .45*
grapes .99*
tomatoes .99*
mayo x2 2.50* ea
cucumber .69*

food: $34.20 plus tax
non food items: $20.61 plus tax


We had some excellent sales on produce this week, grape tomatoes at 99 cents! (normally $4-5) bananas and grapes are usually cheap and they were cheaper this weekend. I didn't see any must-have deals on meat so I didn't buy any, we'll just use stuff from the freezer stockpile. I have lettuce and radishes coming in from the garden now, too.

I was a little irritated to find, when I got home, that the store nearest me had a coupon for a free 12 pack of soda with $25 purchase. Of course I didn't go to THAT store because I had to go to the other location to get cat food. And of course, the coupon didn't arrive until after I got home. But we don't drink soda normally so we haven't lost much. Next week the coupon is for free eggs. I guess I better use up the 18 I have now.


Menu plan:

-- pot roast, mushroom risotto (last week's shrooms), salad
-- tortilla soup (left from last week), chicken* quesadillas, salad
-- bbq rib tips, potato salad (potatoes from several weeks back)
-- meatballs* marsala, cauliflower, salad
-- ??, green beans
-- leftovers

Short one night this week because after we moved all that furniture over the weekend DH took me out for dinner.

* uses up a freezer challenge item