Author Archives: Nora

July Grocery Review

01 Monday Aug 2016

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With the move coming up, July was predictably lower.  Not ridiculously low as we did still have to eat.  But, no stocking up means no big trips to BJs.  Plus we are our way through any remaining proteins in the freezer.

  • July TOTAL: $1012.66
    • Stop & Shop: $360.14
    • Wegman’s: $287.20
    • BJs: $131.62
    • Other: $233.70
      • Local: $113.44
      • Star Market: $120.26
      • Trader Joe’s: $0
      • Target: $0
      • Other: $0

On Tuesday, I made a trip to Wegman’s for the last batch of milk before the move, and a few other items.

Then on Wednesday, I went to Shaw’s and the farm stand.  The juice stock up is for the period we won’t have a fridge.

On Saturday, I made a quick trip to Stop & Shop for that night’s dinner.  We needed one more package of chicken to round out what came out of the freezer.  I also got a few purees for the baby as she doesn’t seem to wait on them until after the move.

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Grocery Update

25 Monday Jul 2016

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On Thursday, I made a small trip to Wegman’s.  As you may have wondered after last week’s post, yes we eat a lot of granola bars.

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On Friday, I went to Stop & Shop …

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… and the farm stand.  This was all largely for one night’s dinner!

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Then, on Sunday, I went to Shaw’s.  Meals are starting to boarder on short order cooking as the move is only two weeks out.  I don’t want to stock up.  I’ve packed many of the kitchen items.  And, I don’t have much time to clean up after big meals.

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Grocery Update

18 Monday Jul 2016

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The older three boys are in camp this week, so I’m trying to get a lot of stuff done.

One stop was at BJs.  I expect this to be the last trip there before the move.  I got quite a few snacks for the pool and some everyday items.  There’s no meat as we’re eating down what we have.

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On Wednesday, I went to Wegman’s.  It was a pretty small trip.

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Last Week’s Accomplishments – BBQ Time

13 Wednesday Jul 2016

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Summer rolls on.

  • Swimming and golf lessons continued.
  • We BBQed some more – hamburgers this time.  We were going to BBQ the turkey also, but the rain forced that into the oven.
  • I reviewed the light fixtures at the new house and saw some of the paint.

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  • I cleaned out more of the school year papers.
  • I packed a few more boxes.

June Grocery Review

11 Monday Jul 2016

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There were fewer receipts this month so I had hoped that the total would be on the low side.  But, we did have some extra nice dinners so some of the Wegman’s receipts were rather high.  All in all though, its close.

  • June TOTAL: $974.91
    • Stop & Shop: $122.91
    • Wegman’s: $393.38
    • BJs: $224.78
    • Other: $233.84
      • Local: $142.56
      • Star Market: $63.08
      • Trader Joe’s: $0
      • Target: $28.20
      • Other: $0

With the holiday last week, we’ve got two weeks of groceries this week.

We got about 8 lbs of strawberries via strawberry picking.

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I went to the farm stand.  The English peas and kohlrabi are local.

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I also went to BJs, but got very little food.

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I went to Stop & Shop.

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And, I went to the farm stand again.  That was just the first week.

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Thankfully, the second week did not involve as much shopping.  I went to Wegman’s first and we had some nice tuna steaks.

On Wednesday I went to Wegman’s and we had the tuna steaks (paper wrapping) for dinner.

Finally, yesterday I went to Stop & Shop.  As you can see we’re entering the baby food phase, which I expect will be short.  The water, cheese, and strawberries were on sale.

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Last Week’s Accomplishments – July 4th 2016

05 Tuesday Jul 2016

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Happy 4th everyone!

Since Monday was a holiday, I’ll cover two weeks of groceries plus the June summary next Monday.

For now, we’ll look back at last week:

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  • I ordered more lighting and cabinet hardware for the new house.
  • I caught up on the missing March Monday posts (apparently I missed a few weeks of pictures so there’s not much I can do about that).
  • I did a paint walk through for the new house.
  • We BBQed three times over the holiday weekend:
    • Friday: hot dogs, chips, potato salad, strawberries
    • Saturday: chicken, baked beans, corn on the cob, biscuits, salad
    • Monday: steak, pan fried potatoes, creamed spinach, veggies

Lawn Ornaments

01 Friday Jul 2016

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I’m not sure if they fall in “the best things in life are free” category, but large kids items can often be had for little or no money.  This is because folks don’t want the big items taking up space – in or out – and they outlast one, or even a few, kids.

For Exhibit A, I present our backyard collection.  The hockey net was a present.  But, for the rest of it I paid a sum total of $25.  That’s one big wooden structure, one small plastic structure, two 6-seat kids picnic tables, one play house, one basketball hoop, and one plastic kids basketball hoop.

It was all herded onto the driveway for winter and so as not to kill off the grass while we sold the house.  Similarly the attachments are off the play structure until it gets to its new home.  Everything was worn, but in good repair; some things we’ve had for 8 years now.

Strawberry Picking

30 Thursday Jun 2016

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Our summer days seem to fall in one of two categories – we either do a lot or we don’t do much.  Yesterday was a lots day.

Our entire day was planned around heading to New Hampshire for strawberry picking.  The weather was questionable, but held.  And, while humid it wasn’t so sunny that our strawberries got cooked before we got home to eat them.

First we went strawberry picking.

In total we picked just over 8 lbs of strawberries.  Many were eaten after paying but before returning to the car.

Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch.  This has been a requested summer outing and it seemed like an opportune time to fit it in.  Plus the New Hampshire McDonald’s play area is different from the one closer to our house.

Third, we dropped off a few items at someone’s house while we were in the area.  If I can get it out of the house I am, in preparation for the move.  These items were permanently leaving our possession.

Fourth, we stopped at Lowe’s to pickup our online order – lighting for the new house.  Customer service took forever though.  I’m fairly sure I could have walked to the lighting department, found all the items, and gone through the regular checkout line faster.  I think this is an issue that both Lowe’s and Home Depot need to address as I’ve had the same issue there.  Online ordering with store pickup (where you could potentially buy more things) should be the best of both worlds for them, and fully encouraged.

Then we ran across the parking lot (I did move the car.) to BJs for a few items.  And, on the way home we stopped at the dry cleaner and the gas station.

All in all a very productive day and we were only gone from 10-3 so still plenty of summery downtime.

Last Week’s Accomplishments – School’s Out 2016

28 Tuesday Jun 2016

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The moving date is closing in on us so, with school / sports largely done, things are pivoting in that direction.

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  • We attended one birthday (fairy garden) party and one end-of-year party.
  • The last day of elementary school occurred, which resulted in the inevitable onslaught of paper.  Normally I just deal with this in September, but not wanting to move it I’m about 75% through sorting keep from recycle.
  • I made it to a monthly twins meeting for the first time since December.  It was nice to see folks again.
  • We went to the pool.  I still have one water unfriendly child but he’s not water unsafe, just water averse.
  • After some hiccups, we finalized the kitchen counters and bathroom lighting fixtures.
  • The house is moving along with retaining walls starting to appear.

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  • I packed 6 boxes.
  • I sorted many things for Goodwill/recycling/trash.
  • I updated the grocery postings for February.  I have the pictures and receipts so I’m going to go back and fill in just the Mondays that I missed as it is a good record for me and seems to be popular reading.