Things are returning to normal, in fact more than normal as evening sports are phasing out for the year.  The last one is tonight.  So, we’ll hopefully be having more family meals.

I went to Stop & Shop again this week.  Frankly, I can’t think of the last time I went two weeks in a row!  But, they had some good things on sale.  The Coke, juice, and Oreos were the big coupon items of the week.  Pasta, bacon, cheese, and sugar were on sale.  The cans are tomato sauce, which was on sale though not the best of the year sale.  I’m out so I only bought what we’ll use soon.  English muffins were buy 1, get 2 free (which is the only time I ever buy them).  Finally, Hood ice cream was on sale and if you bought that you could get a store brand ice cream free.

The next day I went to BJs.  The apples (better the grubby hands get their own bags vs a big grab bowl) and bananas are for soccer snack this past weekend.  The frozen pizzas are probably enough to last me through the winter – adds to my lunch options.  They were out of pizza dough or I would have gotten that too.

Thursday I went to Shaw’s, primarily to pick up the pizza dough BJs didn’t have.  But, oatmeal & cheese were on sale so I bought them out of those two items.  The candy was a post Halloween sale and we somehow got next to no Kit Kats this year.  Since they’re a family favorite I thought I’d grab the sale bag.

Finally, on Friday I went to Wegman’s.  I’d thought I’d take the week off, but the boys were asking for dried strawberries (for which there was a coupon this week, and which I forgot to put in the picture).  So, I also got two chickens and lemons for dinner over the weekend, as well as a few things that are usually cheaper than Wegman’s.  Since I had both younger boys with me I didn’t attempt to work on the price book.

Here’s the menu plan for this coming week.

Saturday:
out for Japanese Hibachi

Sunday:
Spatchcocked lemon chicken
baked potatoes
Brussels sprouts

Monday:
Kids: mac n cheese, broccoli
Adults: homemade pizza

Tuesday:
fish (not sure which yet, I’ll decide what inspires me when I’m there)
salad
rice

Wednesday:
spaghetti
potato bread

Thursday (I’m out.):
eggs

Friday:
Out at a preschool event.

Since we emptied the fridge (largely) before going on our trip, I had some restocking to do this past week.

First I went to Wegmans.  Nothing particular out of the ordinary here, except that the bananas are organic.  I had a coupon for $1 off organic produce and while I would have preferred to use it on strawberries (couldn’t find organic ones) or tomatoes (price difference was too high), the bananas made the most sense.  So I got this batch for $0.19.  We can’t tell the difference other than they spoil very fast.

The next day I went to BJs.  Again, most is self explanatory and things you’ve seen before.  The Skittles are for Halloween; the Hershey’s kisses are for winter baking.  There are three beef roasts because I bought a primal and had them break it down and trim it.  I’m actually going to break it down further to make one batch of beef stew this week, and one batch of beef chunks I’ll freeze for beef stew sometime in the future.

Then, over the weekend I took the older four boys to the farm stand for pumpkins and the hay maze.  Plus we got some in season produce.  Obvious exception is the bananas since they don’t grow around here.  This farm stand is a big one, open year round, and imports produce from all over.  The green beans are no longer local either (sigh); they’re from Georgia.

The two bags of green are broccoli and green beans.  There is some local apple cider.  The two paper bags are seconds bananas.  I took them out and sorted them in the second picture.  Those on the left could be eaten if its done fast enough.  Those on the right will be turned into banana bread more quickly.  It turned out there were 30 bananas at $3.00, or $0.10 per banana, which is pretty good.

Here’s the menu plan for this coming week.

Saturday:
leftover beef stew

Sunday:
Chinese take out

Monday:
Kids: leftovers (mix of pizza & Chinese)
Adults: homemade pizza

Tuesday:
tacos

Wednesday:
succulent braised pork
mashed potatoes
green beans

Thursday:
Kids:  shrimp, green beans
Adults: homemade mac n cheese

Friday:
Kids: hot dogs
Adults: homemade pizza

Things have gotten a little hectic recently, but I’m back!

And, I did do some grocery shopping last week.  Actually, quite a lot of stops.

First I went to BJs.  Not much variety here, but lots of quantity.

Later in the week, I went to Wegman’s.  (This somewhat makes up for the lack of produce from BJs.

I picked up a few items at Stop & Shop when I stopped in to pick up two cakes (not pictured).  Yes, it was taco night.  And yes, taco ingredients were on sale this week.

Finally, I made a second trip to Wegman’s.  Since this was over the weekend it was actually a different week for Wegman’s coupons so I got to use both week’s allotments.

You’ll see a lot of the above items in this week’s menu.

Saturday:
out at a party

Sunday:
tacos

Monday:
Kids: chicken nuggets, carrots
Adults: homemade pizza

Tuesday:
spatchcock lemon chicken
green beans
corn on the cob

Wednesday (husband is out):
take out pizza

Thursday:
Kids:  shrimp, broccoli
Adults: beef tenderloin fillets, hash brown potatoes, salad

Friday:
Kids: eggs
Adults: homemade pizza

Even though it was the first week of preschool, meaning very short days, I did do some grocery shopping.

First, I went to BJs.  It was nearly 100 that day so I got premade desserts for my get together that evening rather than running the oven.

Then I went to the farm stand.  I was hoping for local peaches, but was out of luck.  Broccoli & green beans are in season, though, so I bought those along with some of their chicken salad.

The same day I went to Wegman’s.  They have a display from local farms there and I was able to get local peaches (which have been good).  Interestingly, I also saw green beans from the same farm as above, and the ones at Wegman’s looked terrible.  I try not to the same place quite this close together, but the mini bagels proved to be quite popular so I went back primarily for more of those.

Then, Sunday I went to the farm stand again for corn on the cob (and picked up a few other things).  It’s a little hard to see what’s in the bags, but under the cauliflower are two tomatoes, one pear, and two apples.

Here’s what we did (with much of that) this week.

Saturday:
take out Chinese

Sunday:
nacho chicken
corn on the cob
green & wax beans

Monday:
Kids: chicken nuggets, broccoli
Adults: tuna noodle casserole

Tuesday (I’m going out.):
take out pizza

Wednesday:
Flank steak
Roasted cauliflower
Salad

Thursday:
Kids:  shrimp, carrots
Adults: homemade mac n cheese

Friday:
Kids: eggs
Adults: homemade pizza

This month was pretty normal.  Baseball ended the second week so we had more typical weekday dinners.  We were out a bunch for weekend BBQs, but often brought something so I don’t think that is skewing the data much.

Some observations about this month.  First, its substantially higher than recent months.  Frankly, I attribute this to eating better.  Fish and nice cuts of meat are more expensive than chicken nuggets, pizza, and pasta which were finding a lot of space in our diets with the hectic schedule.  Second, Wegman’s has swung firmly ahead of Stop & Shop.  I’m not sure if this will continue or not.  There are still some items that are better to buy at Stop & Shop and it is much closer (plus I don’t have to pass the mall at Christmas).  But, Stop & Shop didn’t do themselves any favors this summer.  For the first time in many years there were not weekly coupons for money off/free items.  Second, my specific location just made shopping difficult by replacing the easily accessible bag stands with semi-reuseable bags that on had to pay for.  Since I take very few bags when I shop and use those that I do regularly, I didn’t appreciate having to take time to scrounge for bags upon arrival.  The most recent two times this problem seems to have been addressed, though so maybe it was temporary.

• August TOTAL: $1046.93
  • Stop & Shop: $111.60
  • Wegman’s: $219.81
  • BJs: $399.22
  • Other: $316.30
    • Local: $170.91
    • Star Market: $95.98
    • Trader Joe’s: $27.99
    • Target: $21.42
    • Other: $0

I only made two shopping trips this week.  Frankly, I’m looking forward to taking fewer people shopping so some of this is putting off the inevitable until the boys are in school.

I was at Stop & Shop mid-week.

Then, over the weekend we went to Wegman’s.

I expect to visit BJs later this week, but I’m not sure I’ll have to go to a grocery store again until next week.  We’ll see.

Here’s the menu plan for this week.  You’re seeing fajitas again because they got postponed from last week.  In general, the schedule dictates that the kids are going to eat by themselves Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays through soccer season.

Saturday
Fajitas

Sunday:
Grilled steaks
Pan fried potatoes
Green beans
Salad

Monday:
Beef clod
Potato salad
Salad

Tuesday:
Shrimp
Green beans

Wednesday:
Nacho chicken
Corn on the cob
Salad

Thursday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
Adults: Homemade mac n cheese

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

This has been a busy week – for reasons both expected and not.  So, posts got delayed.  But, more of that on Tuesday’s post.

I did my big shop of the week at Wegman’s.  The mac n cheese I was buying for the boys (because it was the only one they’d eat) seems to have been discontinued so I bought one box of what seemed like the most similar kind.  We’ll see.  The cans are beef broth.  The paper contains tuna steaks, which we had for dinner.  As you can see I also tried having them cut up my pork shoulder.  Oddly, they charged me less once this had been done, I guess they reweighed it minus the bone.  BUT, it wasn’t trimmed which meant I had to do a bunch of work at home and probably lost some good meat in the process so I won’t have them do it again.

I went to Shaw’s again to actually stock up on pizza supplies, since this time I could get home more promptly to get it in the fridge.

Friday I went to BJs.  This was part of a big trip with all the boys that also included Target for school supplies.  We had success there for everything except a small flexible binder (the list was pretty short so this wasn’t very difficult) that we had to get at Staples over the weekend.

Under the bread is more milk.  The long meat packages are ribs for our Sunday BBQ.  The hot dogs are for the Saturday BBQ (isn’t summer great!) and the other meats are for later.

Finally, over the weekend we went to Tomato Fest at the farm stand.  I had planned to buy tomatoes, but the boys won a bunch playing various games so that was unnecessary.  Obviously I got plenty of other items though.

There are a dozen ears of corn, a bunch of swiss chard, a dozen apples (split among two varieties), wax and green beans, chicken salad, as well as many more easily identifiable items.

My original menu plan got disrupted by the unexpected events, but I can supply the actual one here since I’m late to the party getting this posted.

Saturday
BBQ hot dogs

Sunday:
BBQ party –
ribs
corn on the cob
deviled eggs
cinnamon apples
baked beans
biscuits
bread (a guest brought this)
cookies (a guest brought this too)
apple cake (a guest brought this too)

Monday:
Kids: leftover BBQ
Adults: homemade pizza

Tuesday:
leftover BBQ

Wednesday:
Cod with potatoes & swiss chard
French bread

Thursday:
Fajitas

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

I made a fair number of grocery stops last week – hitting all of the major grocery chains.

Early in the week I was at Wegman’s, primarily for milk.  Their price is comparable to BJs, and they’re much closer.  I also was low on baby carrots and bottled water (I haven’t bought that in years as for a while Stop & Shop was giving it out free in the summer.  But, we finally ran out and we do use it sometimes, so I hope this will last a while.).  While there I picked up a few other things.  The bag contains dried strawberries and pineapple, which were free with the weekly coupon set.

The next day I made a quick stop at Shaw’s for pizza dough (still haven’t found a recipe we actually like).  Bread & oatmeal were on sale so I got quite a few of each, and I picked up a pack of tortillas to have with our tacos for dinner.  I didn’t notice until checkout how 100% carb-loaded this trip was!

Finally, over the weekend I made it to Stop & Shop.  Just about all of this was on sale.  The exceptions being the bananas, parsley (green stuff in bag), and oregano (black lid).

Spring baseball ran into summer baseball (with a brief respite for our vacation trip) so its been a long time since I’ve posted a menu.  But, now that our evenings are more back to normal, I’m going to try to get back to it.  So, here’s this week.

Saturday
4 @ baseball game -> ballpark food
2 preschoolers -> chicken nuggets & dried strawberries/pineapple
me -> butternut squash ravioli (nobody else will eat it anyway)

Sunday:
pizza (after being out at a bbq all day)

Monday:
Tuna steaks
     Red potatoes
     Green beans

Tuesday:
Braised pork
Mashed potatoes
Carrots

Wednesday:
Spaghetti

Thursday:
Chicken chili
Tortilla chips

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

I made two relatively small grocery trips last week.  First, I went to Stop & Shop.

This purchase just tipped me over $50 to use a $5 off $50 coupon.

Later in the week I went to Wegman’s to use my $7 off there.  I spent just over the necessary $25 to use all the coupons.

There’s nothing particularly remarkable in either purchase.

This coming week is the first week of baseball season, meaning baseball games, baseball practices, soccer games, and soccer practices all start competing with dinner.  I’ve posted my menu plan for this week, but since we’re not going to get many/any family dinners for the next 6 weeks I’m taking a hiatus from menu posting.  Otherwise it will start to look pretty boring as this might be the plan every week.

I will still photo and post grocery trips and generally comment on the week.

Saturday
Fajitas

Sunday:
Chicken with artichokes
     Salad
     Potato bread

Monday:
Kids: Macaroni & cheese
     Adults: Welsh Rarebit

Tuesday:
Shepard’s pie
     Green beans
     Bread

Wednesday:
Kids: Hot dogs
     Adults: Steak filets, potato

Thursday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
     Adults: Tuna noodle casserole

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza

The first shopping trip last week was to Wegman’s.  This was a mix of things we were running low on that are regularly at a good price and items for which there were specific coupons this week.  The pastry in the front right, for example, was free.

Second, I went to Star Market.  This is a pretty representative trip there for us – lots of oatmeal, pizza cheese, and pizza dough.  I haven’t been so happy with their pizza dough lately (It’s not Star Market specific.  I bought a package at Stop & Shop recently of the same brand that was equally disappointing.).  Hence I’m going to try the Wegman’s pizza dough.  I’ve been meaning for a while to get back to making my own dough.  This might just push me over the edge.

I got a few pre-made items – Turkey dinner and rotisserie chicken – for the fast meals I needed last week.  I got rye for the Reubens as Wegman’s didn’t have any of the brands we prefer.  And, I picked up a few items on sale.  The goldfish had a store-specific coupon that made it cheaper than Wegman’s, but I could only buy one.  The Pringles were free with the Cheez-It purchase, which were the same price at Wegman’s but without the Pringles.

It’s a holiday week here – Patriot’s Day – so meals should be a bit more relaxed with no after school activities.

Saturday
Kids: Eggs
     Adults: Homemade pizza

Sunday:
Hamburgers on the grill

Monday:
Steak
     Red potatoes
     Salad

Tuesday:
Take-out pizza

Wednesday:
Chicken with artichokes
     Sweet potatoes

Thursday:
Kids: Chicken nuggets
     Adults: Homemade macaroni & cheese

Friday:
Kids: Eggs
Adults: Homemade pizza