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Busy in the Burbs

Category Archives: Menus

August 2019 Grocery Review

17 Tuesday Sep 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Grocery Spending

I’m not sure how the numbers for the month will bear out since we spent a chunk of time on vacation (during which food goes in the vacation numbers).

First, the spending and eating from last week.  I had two trips to Wegman’s and our Farmer’s to You box.

The first trip to Wegman’s was a bit of a whopper at $201.88!  There were a lot of proteins, and not particularly inexpensive ones.

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On Thursday, I picked up our Farmer’s to You box for $39.10.

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Finally, on Sunday I made a more typical trip of $67.18 at Wegman’s.

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That brought the weekly total to $308.16.

Bonus: this week I remembered to write down what we ate!

Monday:
Meatball subs, tater tots, veggies

Tuesday:
Shepard’s pie, green & wax beans

Wednesday:
Early (3): Macaroni & cheese, spinach salad
Late (3): Tuna noodle casserole

Thursday:
In (6): Chicken nuggets, veggies
Out (2): Ballpark food

Friday:
Early (3): Take out pizza at an event
Late (5): Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Salmon in puff pastry, green beans, oatmeal bread

Sunday:
Pulled pork, veggies, deviled eggs

And now a look back at August.

August TOTAL: $493.37

  • Stop & Shop: $66.62
  • Wegman’s: $163.71
  • BJs: $0
  • Local: $89.24
    • Farmers to You: $82.65
    • Other Local: $6.59
  • Other:  $173.80
    • Star Market/Shaw’s: $56.32
    • Target: $30.90
    • Other: $86.58

Even with the understanding that it accounted for only half the month, that’s a nice low total.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 27, 2019

22 Monday Jul 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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For the first time in a long while, we had an interesting menu and I kept track of it!

Nice meals for the first time in a few months resulted in many grocery stops, each of which only covered a meal or two.  Planning will come later.  I also went to BJs for the first time in over a month.  All in all, many, many stops.

On Tuesday, I spent $236.92 at Wegman’s and $48.22 at Stop & Shop.

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Because of the holiday, our Farmers to You pickup was on Wednesday this week.  It came in at $45.03.

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On Thursday (July 4), I spent $305.08 at BJ’s.

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On Friday, I spent $56.11 at Star Market.  Eight packages of pizza dough didn’t make the picture.

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Finally, on Sunday I spent $16.06 at the farm stand and $113.25 at Wegman’s.

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That brought the total to a whopping $820.67!

The Wegman’s trip was quite late and really to cover my not going to the store on Monday or Tuesday this week.  But, otherwise, you can probably guess what we ate by the rather day by day pictures.

Monday:
Ok, this one I forgot.

Tuesday:
Early (5): Ham, raisin sauce, sugar snap peas
Late (3): Tuna noodle casserole

Wednesday:
Meatball subs, raw veggies

Thursday:
Grilled beef tenderloin roast, guacamole, french bread, sugar snap peas

Friday:
Early (5): Chicken nuggets, strawberries
Late (3): Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Braised halibut, bok choy

Sunday:
Hamburgers, watermelon, chips

March 2019 Grocery Review

02 Tuesday Apr 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Grocery Spending

Let’s cover last week’s shopping first.  As I mentioned yesterday, it was a big week because I went to BJ’s.

On Monday I did a fairly standard trip to Wegman’s, spending $107.86 (including a baguette that didn’t make the picture).  It’s been a few weeks since Wegman’s has actually had everything on my list, so I’m going to start mentioning those things too in the vain hope that their stocking folks come across this.  This week they had no parsley (bought elsewhere), family size tater puffs (bought the smaller size), or standard size sub rolls (bought the larger size and cut them in half).

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Tuesday was the big trip to BJ’s.  I spent $248.27 on mostly sale items.  Conveniently this was the last day of the March coupon cycle and the April coupons had already been released.

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I also went to the farm stand on Tuesday because it was the third school’s fundraiser day.  I spent about $20 (seem to have lost that receipt).

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I moved my Farmer’s to You pickup back to Thursday this week.  The box (of mostly meat) was $37.43.

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Finally, on Saturday I spent $43.11 at Stop & Shop.

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That brought my weekly total to $456.67.  Let’s see what that did to my month.

March TOTAL: $1,097.23

  • Stop & Shop: $215.56
  • Wegman’s: $416.45
  • BJs: $248.27
  • Local: $186.98
    • Farmers to You: $166.98
    • Other Local: $20.00
  • Other: $29.66
    • Star Market/Shaw’s: $0
    • Target: $29.66
    • Other: $0

That was a good month!  And, no receipts are hanging over to affect this month so a clean slate going forward.

So, finally, what did we eat last week?

Monday:
Salmon with soba noodles

Tuesday:
Meatball subs, tater tots

Wednesday:
Tacos, corn

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets; spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Friday:
Husband was out.  Plus it was the first day of soccer.  Pickup was at 7:00 so I took advantage of the pizza place we drove right past to get take-out pizza.

Saturday:
Husband got home late from the trip.
Early: Macaroni & cheese, tomatoes, applesauce
Late: Homemade pizza

Sunday:
This was a big cooking day!
Beef tenderloin roast, parsnip puree, french onion soup, green beans

 

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 12, 2019

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Today would normally be the monthly summary for March, but I’m behind again so that will post tomorrow.  Here we’re covering two weeks back.

And, that was a very small week, so this will be brief.  On Wednesday, March 20, I picked up my Farmer’s to You box for $41.20.

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I usually pick up on Thursdays, but I wasn’t available this week.  So, I had the option to skip a week (no charge), donate, or pick up on Wednesday.  The advantage of picking up on Wednesday is that I was able to get the Raisin Walnut bread which isn’t available on Thursdays so I took that option.

Then, on Friday I spent $48.22 at Wegmans for a total of $89.40!  You’ll see in tomorrow’s post that I more than counterbalanced that this past week.  There have been some big swings in March so the monthly total will be interesting.

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Our meals were mostly eaten from things already in the house.

Monday:
Spaghetti & meatballs, spinach salad

Tuesday:
Husband was out so the rest of us finished up the leftover BBQ.

Wednesday:
Fish tacos, guacamole, pico de gallo
I tried the corn tortillas with the fish tacos and I quite liked the flavor/texture contrast. The rest of the family still prefers flour tortillas though.

Thursday:
Picadillo con Espinacas (ground beef with spinach), potato cubes

Friday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Pork roast, mashed potatoes, corn

Sunday:
I forgot to write it down and I have no recollection.  But, it was all eight of us together.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 11, 2019

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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I had relatively big stops at Wegman’s at the start and end of this week.

I did my main shop of the week on Tuesday: $107.59 at Wegman’s.  I intended to buy Wegman’s Tater Puffs, but they were out of all sizes.  That’s been a real issue lately.  I can’t remember the last time I went when they actually had everything I wanted; there are always some things are out of stock.

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I went to Stop & Shop on Thursday mostly for milk and sale items.  I spent $70.42 total including five gallons of milk that didn’t make the picture.  Cheese, Doritos, onions, and spinach were buy one, get one free.  Strawberries were buy one, get two free!

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Thursday afternoon I picked up my Farmer’s to You box for $43.40.

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On Sunday I was back at Wegman’s to pick up some items for an afternoon birthday party.  It was so busy!  I spent $91.64 on grocery items to use this coming week, including six gallons of milk and two baguettes that didn’t make the picture.  This time they were out of bulk limes so I ended up with organic limes because in bulk they were still less than loose limes.

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That brought my total for the week to $313.05.  Hopefully, though, I won’t be doing much shopping this coming week.

Monday:
Pan fried chicken, brown rice, salad

Tuesday:
Roast beef sandwiches, tater tots, carrots

Wednesday:
Tacos, corn

Thursday:
Hearty fish stew with chorizo

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Take out BBQ (because summer can’t come fast enough)

Sunday:
Pizza at the birthday party.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 10, 2019

12 Tuesday Mar 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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So, here we are with last week to get back on schedule.

I only made three stops this week.

First, I was at Target on Wednesday so I picked up a few grocery items for a total of $29.66.

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On Thursday I picked up my Farmer’s to You box for $44.95.

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Finally, on Thursday I spent $102.03 at Stop & Shop.  Admittedly, I had to purchase a few extra items to get this number.  But, I had coupons for $4.50 off $90 and triple gas points for a $100+ purchase.

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We had a bit of a cobbled together set of meals because we weren’t always home for regular dinners.

Monday:
Chicken pot pie, broccoli

Tuesday:
One child had a concert (for which two more were stage hands) and another had baseball practice so take out pizza for all whenever they were available to eat.

Wednesday:
Lasagna, homemade white bread, salad

Thursday:
Early: Hot dogs, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Friday:
Husband was out of town so we had take out Chinese food.

Saturday:
Husband came home late.
Early: Chicken nuggets, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Sunday:
Pork roast, mashed potatoes, carrots

February 2019 Grocery Review

11 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Grocery Spending

This post should have gone up last week, but we had a snow day Monday, Tuesday’s are always busy, and then things got far enough astray that I decided just to wait for this week.  But, while I’m here I’ll post “today’s” weekly update for tomorrow.

The end of February resulted in a big shopping week, mostly because I went to BJ’s.  Only the second Wegman’s trip was actually in March so you’ll see most of this worked into the totals at the end.

Tuesday was another shop the local farm stand day.  I spent $28.10 this time.  I’ve got another one of these coming up at the end of the month (three schools total).

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I also spent $59.43 at Wegman’s on Tuesday.  And, yes, I knew the snow was a high probability event at this point.  You’ll see more eggs below; most all got eaten over the extended weekend.

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I spent $246.03 at BJ’s on Wednesday.

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On Thursday I picked up my Farmer’s to You order; $43.25 this week.

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Finally, on Friday with the storm looming I made another trip to Wegman’s.  I spent $61.45 on groceries, but this was mostly driven by non-grocery items (ie, diapers) that we were lower on than would carry us through the weekend.

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At the end of all this, our secondary fridge looked like this:

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I meant to take a picture after the weekend, but suffice it to say most of this was gone.  I did make it to the middle of the following week before having to buy milk again.

That brought my total for the week to $438.26, $192.23 excluding BJ’s (which can throw off the weekly numbers because its a large, irregular hit).

This time I remembered to write down what we ate! (Which ended up being particularly important given how late this post is going up.

Monday:
Roasted chicken, fingerling potatoes, carrots

Tuesday:
I was out.  Everyone else had take out pizza

Wednesday:
Chicken noodle soup, croissants

Thursday:
Hearty fish & chorizo sausage chowder, homemade French-style country bread

Friday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Coq au vin, homemade French-style country bread (I made two, but only one loaf got eaten the first time.)

Sunday:
One child had pizza at a birthday party.  The other kids had chicken nuggets and broccoli.  The adults had homemade pizza late.

And, finally, what did all this mean for the monthly spending?

February TOTAL: $1,303.64

  • Stop & Shop: $92.81
  • Wegman’s: $355.25
  • BJs: $530.09
  • Local: $227.61
    • Farmers to You: $164.85
    • Other Local: $62.76
  • Other: $97.88
    • Star Market/Shaw’s: $81.30
    • Target: $16.58
    • Other: $0

Well, that was obviously a very low month for Stop & Shop!  Despite that, the two trips to BJ’s carried us a bit over the goal for the month.  But, added together with January, we’re still below target.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 8, 2019

25 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Grocery Spending

I had another low grocery week!

My biggest spend was $88.45 at Wegman’s on Tuesday.

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I made a small trip – $21.37 – to Stop & Shop on Wednesday.

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Finally, I picked up my Farmer’s to You box on Thursday.  It came to $35.85 this week.  Yes, we’re supposed to purchase at least $40 each week.  However, some items are charged by the pound.  So, when you order they estimate a price in the middle of the range, but the final price is based on the actual weight.  I ended up with two smaller than average packages of chicken which brought the total under the recommended $40.  Sometimes one ends up with larger packages so I think it all evens out eventually.

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That brought my total to $145.67.  Next week I’ll total up the month and we’ll see how the one really big week balanced (or not) the three small weeks.

Monday:
It was another week where not everyone was home every night.  Today husband so the kids and I had chicken and dumplings.

Tuesday:
I really don’t remember.  I know I thawed some meat for it.  And, I know we ate together.

Wednesday:
Early: Hot dogs, spinach salad
Late: The adults went out for a belated Valentines dinner.

Thursday:
Hearty vegetable & pork soup, oatmeal bread

Friday & Saturday:
We were staying with family so meals were covered.

Sunday:
Fajitas, corn

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 7, 2019

19 Tuesday Feb 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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Well, a big week was thankfully followed by a very small week.

I made two stops.  First, on Thursday, I picked up my Farmers to You box for $43.55.  Yes, that is some pricey chicken.  But, it is oh so tasty.

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Then on Friday I spent $66.60 at Wegman’s.  Admittedly, this was not the most organized trip.  We were out of milk so I tried to think of what else we might need, but I didn’t do up a full meal plan before leaving.  If I had fully thought through things I would have gotten some bananas.

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That gave me a total of $110.15!  Excellent, though I’m sure my two high weeks this month will be more than balanced out by last week’s big spend.

Now to remember what we ate.  Unfortunately I didn’t write it all down.

Monday:
I usually do the cleaning myself, but hired someone to deep clean the house on Tuesday.  We had take out pizza so I could focus on tidying up to maximize the use of their time.

Tuesday:
Husband was out.  Kids had hot dogs.  I had leftover pizza.

Wednesday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Pan fried chicken, 5-grain wild rice & mushroom stuffing, salad

Friday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Pork roast, baked potato, canned peas, carrot sticks

Sunday:
Husband was out again.  Kids had chicken nuggets and broccoli.  I had ravioli.

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Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 6, 2019

11 Monday Feb 2019

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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I knew this was going to be a big week.  I planned to go to BJ’s because it was the end of the coupon cycle.  I had a $6 off coupon at Star Market/Shaw’s and oatmeal was on sale.  It was the elementary school fundraiser day at the farm stand.  Plus, we hosted a birthday party yesterday so I needed to stop and two grocery stores late in the week for supplies.

There was also the issue of our milk/eggs/kitchen overflow fridge looking like this:

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Of course, I made a few other stops too!

On Monday I spent $66.84 on a restocking trip to Wegman’s.  This was my first grocery trip of February.

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Then I tried to go to Shaw’s, but they were out of stock on oatmeal and other things I had intended to get to fully utilize my coupons.  So, I spent $32.50 on items basically for that night and called it quits.  And apparently I forgot to take a picture.  I bought strawberries, grapes, and bananas, all of which I had specific coupons for.  And, I bought three packages of (expensive, because they didn’t have the regular ones) hot dogs and three pizza dough balls.

On Tuesday, I used my coupon and did buy $54.63 at Star Market.  Apparently I should never go to Shaw’s (same company and same distance from our house) because Star more reliably has what I want.  I again failed in the picture department, but the big hitters were oatemal, pizza dough, and pizza cheese.

Wednesday was the school fundraiser day.  I really don’t need much from there this time of year so there were some splurges.  The jam was the only need.

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My total at BJ’s was $284.06.

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That brought the backup fridge back to normal.

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On Thursday I picked up my Farmer’s to You box for $42.20.  The fruit & veggie pickings are quite slim this time of year so I took advantage of some Valentine’s Day chocolate specials to make the $40 minimum.  I can tell you both are quite tasty.

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On Saturday I made a small trip to Target while I was in the lot to pick up party supplies.  I spent $16.58 on one package of cheese sticks and lots of raisins.

Then I went over to Stop & Shop to get this week’s specials and bottled water (not pictured) for the party.  I spent $71.44 with a total savings of $44.17.

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Finally, I went to Wegman’s on Saturday to pick up the cake.  While I was there, I spend $73.93 on other groceries.

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That brought the total for the week to $642.18!  That’s quite big, but with the low week last week and the trip to BJ’s it should end up being in line for the month.  I also don’t anticipate doing any further shopping until at least Wednesday.  For one, it’s supposed to snow tomorrow.  And two, I have plenty in the house now.

Since there were only seven of us most nights this week, meals tended to be on the more kid-oriented side.

Monday:
Spaghetti & meatballs, salad

Tuesday:
Hot dogs, strawberries

Wednesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, grapes
Late: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Turkey soup with rice

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza
We do plan for split dinners on Friday just for a break before the weekend.

Saturday:
Shepard’s pie, spinach salad

Sunday:
Roast beef sandwiches, tater tots

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About Me

Welcome! I’m Nora. We have 5 boys and 1 girl. I write about the practical stuff that we call life – managing school, sports, and all things suburban. I get everyone where they need to be, with their stuff, when they need to be there and write about how that all gets done.

Recent Posts

  • October 2019 Grocery Review November 25, 2019
  • September 2019 Grocery Review November 18, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 36, 2019 September 24, 2019
  • Grocery Update – Week 35, 2019 September 23, 2019
  • August 2019 Grocery Review September 17, 2019

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