Back to the Grocery Store: Couponing for 6/6

So we made it 2 weeks with NO trips to the grocery store, eating off of what we had in the stockpile (granted we were out of town for some of that time).  Because I had not been to the store in so long, I was really anxious that this week would be a pretty pricey grocery store trip since we did not have ANY fresh foods in the house.  I must say I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the trip.  I had Monday off for Jefferson Davis's Birthday (thank you random Alabama State Holidays!), so I plenty of time to put my coupons together before I went. So here it is.....

I was able to get a bunch of frozen lunches and dinners which are coming in really handy this summer. Between softball games, trips, training for the CRIM, and dance classes which are starting up soon, finding time to cook can be difficult.  I was also able to get a bunch of fresh produce and some things I needed for dinner this week.

My haul this week included:  

4 boxes of Lean Pockets for $.84 ea = $3.34

2 Healthy Choice Steamers Meals for $2 ea = $4

4 Bird's Eye Voila! Skillet Meals for $.50 ea = $2

2 packs of Nestle Break-and-Bake Cookies for $.34 ea = $.69

3 tubs of Country Crock Butter Spread for $.34 ea = $1.03

2 blocks of Cabot Cheese for $2 ea = $4

2 bottles of Heinz 57 Sauce for $1.99ea = $3.98

2 bags Fresh Express Salad for $1 ea = $2

1 bag Keebler Chocolate Chip Cookies = $1.75

1 pack Toufayan Wheat Sandwich Wraps = $1

4 boxes Healthy Harvest/Garden Delight Ronzoni Pasta for $.45ea = $1.78

1 bag Uncle Ben's Ready Rice = $.60

1 jar Marie's All Natural Cesar Dressing = $2

1 can PET evaporated milk = $1

Ritz Crackers = $1.75

Yellow Squash = $2

Mushrooms = $1.50

Vidalia Onions = $2

Bananas = $.89

Green onions = $.60

1- 18 count eggs = $2.55

I had my $5 off a 30 purchase to use also, and my grand total that I paid was $41.33.  

I SAVED $72.73, a 64% savings!  

I am pretty proud, considering I was basically refilling our refrigerator.....Mission Accomplished!   

New Card Design

This is a new card design I came up with recently.  It has proved to be quite versitile as I have used it for both a birthday card and a card for a wedding shower we went to recently.

Here is the birthday card one.  I wanted to use the pearl brads that I used on the other one on this one, too but I figured it would be a little difficult to mail since they stuck out quite a bit.

This is the wedding shower card. I used the same template, just different colored paper and different brads.

The inside of the card.

This Week's Couponing

My grand total for savings this week was 100%! 

No, I have not gone all TLC Extreme Couponing.  I simply have not been to the grocery store.  We were out of town for Memorial Day and we are heading back to the beach for a wedding this weekend, so decided that we could simply eat off of what we already have for most of last week and this week.  So far it has worked our fairly well for us.  We have not gone hungry and only ate out one night, only because I had been in Birmingham and Huntsville all day for work and did not get home until after 6pm.  Needless today I was NOT cooking after a 12 hour work day.

It was nice to be able to use what we had stocked up already.  Last night we had some Trigger Fish that we caught this weekend and froze.  It was soooo good.  I am sure we will be eating off of the fish we have from that trip and hopefully we will be able to bring home some Red Snapper this weekend if the boys get a chance to go out and catch any.

My goal is to not go back to the grocery store until Tuesday of next week (Monday is a holiday for me--yay!--so I going to try to avoid having to drive into Montgomery).  Publix has a couple of new ads and promos out this week, plus I will be able to rack up on the 1st Sunday of the month coupons before I go, so hopefully it will be a great trip!

Adventure Dining

I get to do a bit of traveling around the state with my job, mainly in the spring/early summer for site visits with my grantees.  I find these trips quite interesting, not being from Alabama, because I really get to see the state. And I am quite sure that if it were not for my job I would have no clue where any towns, aside from the major ones, are in the state.  

I had 2 site visits yesterday, one in Birmingham and one in Huntsville, which is where we ended up for lunch.  The office we went to was a couple of blocks from the downtown courthouse square.  It is a really cute downtown.  I have been there before but they were working on re-doing the sidewalks for what seemed like years.  This year it had been completed and it is now a delightful square filled with historic landmarks, lawyers' offices (conveniently placed across the street from the courthouse), and of course cute, non-chain restaurants.

Downtown Huntsville

Historic I. Schiffman Building where American actress and talk-show host Tallulah Bankhead (1902-1968) was born and lived early in life.

Since these site visits are in such random towns, we usually have 2 choices for lunch: familiar chains or random, local hole-in-the-wall joints.  We like to opt for the latter and have settled on calling this practice "adventure dining".  We never know what we are going to get, but it is usually quite an adventure.  We have ended up at some great places, like the Basketcase in Dothan (southeast AL), or the place on the bay in Mobile (can't remember the name of it but hopefully we will go there next week when we are down there) which we go back to every time we are in those cities, and some not so great places like the BBQ place that charged $3 for a BBQ sandwich and $3 for one side, oh yeah and did I mention they ONLY take cash?  NOT cool....this is 2011!

As I said, we were in Huntsville yesterday and had a wonderful adventure dining experience.  We drove around the square and spotted a little Greek place called Papou's.  I didn't recall ever having been to an authentic Greek restaurant so we decided to give it a try.  

It was EXTREMELY authentic.  I wish I had taken a picture of the inside.  It was like stepping into a cafe in Greece (or what I would image that would be like).  The walls were painted bright blue and they had giant columns painted randomly on the walls.  They had the HUGE (wall-sized) murals of the Greek coast and even had some statues placed randomly around the restaurant.  

The food did not disappoint either.  I had one of their daily specials:  Yia Yia's Chicken.  It was baked chicken seasoned with lemon juice, oregano, and garlic.  It came with some kind of stuffing that had a delicious hint of cinnamon to it; orzo, which looked like giant rice pieces that were more like pasta with finely chopped olives and red peppers, tossed with some balsamic vinegar; and spinakopita which was a layered filo pastry filled with spinach, scallions, dill and feta cheese.  Did I mention the entire meal was FANTASTIC?!?!  I would go back there for sure!  

Spinakopita