March 2018 Grocery Review

02 Monday Apr 2018

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It has been an up and down month with rather high and rather low spending weeks, nothing in between.  We’ll see how that worked out!

This week was high.

On Monday, I spent $46.00 at Shaw’s (left) and $37.56 at Stop & Shop (right).

On Wednesday, I went to BJ’s for the second time this month because my coupons were going to start expiring.  I spent $296.59.

Finally, I spent $96.64 at Wegman’s on Saturday bringing the week to a total of $476.79.  And that closed out the month.

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Let’s see if we’re making up for the light spending in February.

March TOTAL: $1,127.49

  • Stop & Shop: $144.43
  • Wegman’s: $439.52
  • BJs: $460.47
  • Other: $83.07
    • Local: $13.97
    • Star Market/Shaw’s: $46.00
    • Trader Joe’s: $0
    • Target: $23.10
    • Other: $0

That is high, but seems very reasonable for a month with two significant trips to BJ’s.

This is the last week before spring sports kick in.  And, yet, it is a bit of a mess because we had activities push from the various snow days into this week.  Glad to get them done before soccer/baseball season really kicks off though.

Monday:
Homemade fried dumplings, rice, broccoli stir-fry

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

Wednesday:
Chicken noodle soup, homemade bread

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, green beans
Middle (yes, even worse than usual): pizza at an event
Late: Indian take-out

Friday:
Early: Kentucky Fried Chicken
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Shepard’s pie, green beans

Sunday:
Grilled tri-tip, baked beans, homemade bread, cole slaw, carrot sticks

Walt Disney World 2018 – Pandora

30 Friday Mar 2018

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This was our first visit to Pandora as it had not yet opened when we were last in Florida.  Because Pandora is still relatively new, we opted for two days in Animal Kingdom so that we could get Fast Passes to both Pandora rides.  This turned out to be a good idea as even the Na’vi River Journey line was over an hour.  The line for Avatar Flight of Passage was at least four and sometimes six hours!

Next time I would not feel the need to use a fast pass for Na’vi River Journey.  It’s not a bad ride, but there are a few reasons.  First, I expect the lines in Pandora to decrease with time and it will be at least two years before we are back.  Second, I suspect if you kept an eye on the app you could find a time with a relatively short line; forty-five minutes would be reasonable.  Third, it was not our favorite indoor boat ride and, because one cannot book Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey fast passes on the same day, it would require a second day in Animal Kingdom which we probably won’t do next time.  Of the two new family boat rides (both with movies we have not seen), we strongly preferred Frozen Ever After in Epcot to Na’vi River Journey in Animal Kingdom.  We’ll use our extra day next time in Hollywood Studios after Star Wars and Toy Story lands open.  We only spent one day there this year since so much of it was closed.

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Avatar Flight of Passage is fabulous!  It is like a modern, more intense Soarin’.  People who get motion sick should keep this in mind.  Even without seeing the movie it was a great experience that we would have been happy to go on multiple times.  We were able to appreciate both the unique ride motion and the graphics/storyline.

Another great addition to Animal Kingdom in Pandora is Satu’li Canteen.  The menu is a bit daunting when you first look at it.  But, between all of us we tried most everything, in many combinations, and everyone came out happy.  We will definitely be back.  It was substantially less crowded than any other Disney quick service restaurant we experienced.  I also appreciated that, while you were not allowed to claim your seat until you had your food, the lines were wide enough for double strollers and large groups.  Plus, tables were reserved for parties of six or larger, which can be very hard to find throughout Disney.

The only bad thing we found in Pandora was the Night Blossom drink.  We all found it to be far too sweet and generally just not good.

Even if you do not choose to ride anything in Pandora, it is worth a visit.  The scenery is spectacular and not something you see every day. And, Satu’li Canteen is worth the hike all the way in.

The Week in Review – Week 12, 2018

27 Tuesday Mar 2018

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First things first.  It did not snow!  Well, it did a very little bit, but not enough to cancel anything which is what really counts after so many snow days.

We’re gearing up for the later winter to spring sports transition.

  • Middle school baseball kicked off with an organizational meeting last week
  • We had the last Sunday winter baseball session for our oldest
  • He also went on a school field trip
  • He had two other baseball sessions
  • We got the fourth grade concert in on schedule (some snow, but no cancellation)
  • The boys also went to math morning and before school sports
  • They went to a friend’s house
  • The middle four kids had a swimming lesson
  • Our youngest went to gym class

Among all of these things, I

  • went to a doctor appointment.
  • fixed a book.
  • started rearranging one of the bedrooms.
  • got back on track with the cleaning.

Finally, we celebrated the last birthday of the winter season.

We also watched them demolish an old fire station.  We just happened upon this.  It’s one town over so I don’t know what they’re planning to do with the land.

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Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 12, 2018

26 Monday Mar 2018

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After a rather large amount of grocery shopping last week, this past week was very light.

I spent $27.26 at Wegman’s on Wednesday.

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Then on Saturday I spent $13.97 on broccoli crowns, green beans, and raspberries at the farm stand.  That’s $41.23 for the entire week!

This coming week I’ll be at BJ’s again plus stops at Stop & Shop and Shaw’s (at least) so I expect things to be back on the higher end.

Our meals came out pretty normal, despite the low budget, as there was plenty in the house from previous weeks.

Monday:
Chicken pot pie

Tuesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, broccoli
Late: French onion soup, Caesar salad

Wednesday:
Tacos, corn

Thursday:
Early: Hot dogs, carrot sticks
Late: Homemade pizza

Friday:
Early: Boxed macaroni & cheese, broccoli
Late: Homemade macaroni & cheese

Saturday:
Spaghetti & meatballs

Sunday:
Coq au vin, homemade bread

The Disney Dining Plan – 2018 Update

23 Friday Mar 2018

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I last wrote about the Disney Dining Plan in 2015 (and most of those points are still valid).  To recap, I’m referring to the standard dining plan which is one table credit and one quick service credit per night of your stay, plus snacks.

My complaint in 2015 was that there were too many desserts – one with every meal.  Now, thankfully, desserts are no longer included with the quick service meals.  Instead they’ve increased the snack credits per day from one to two.  We found this to be a ridiculous number of snacks, but still a better option than desserts we didn’t eat.

There are a few reasons this is a better option:

  • Disney meals are big so eating a dessert afterwards is not always possible.
  • Most quick service restaurants only offer one or maybe two dessert options.  You might just not like them.
  • If you want dessert, you can now use a snack credit for one at the quick service restaurants thereby getting exactly what you would have under the old system.
  • It opens up the whole range of snack options for whenever or whatever you wish to eat during your stay.

That said, it does have some downsides also.

First, two snacks per day is a lot, especially if you consider that you’re probably not actually in the parks one “day.”  (Disney counts “days” as the number of nights you are staying so if you fly in one evening and out early another morning you will have one table service credit, one quick service credit, and two snacks that need using.)

Second, like Disney meals, Disney snacks can be pretty large.

As in the past, we purchased a few items – mostly milk for breakfast and bottled water – from a grocery delivery service.  With the new number of snacks, I would recommend using your snack credits for bottled water in the parks instead.  It’s not the most bang for your buck in the snack department, but you will have plenty.  Note that if you are fine drinking Florida tap water, you can get it free in any quick service restaurant.

The second significant change to the Disney Dining Plan for 2018 is that now all meals (quick and table service) include one alcoholic or specialty beverage, if such are available at that location.  Note that quick service restaurants in the Magic Kingdom do not serve alcohol.

There are pros and cons to this.  The most obvious con is that Disney charges adult meals to anyone 10+; clearly those under twenty-one cannot purchase alcohol.  I’m not sure there are any specialty beverages that come close in price.  On the plus side, it is nice to have a drink included with table service meals.

Finally, I do have two requests for Disney regarding the meal plan.

  1. Juice boxes are available as a snack credit in all of the quick service restaurants.  However, they are not available at the ubiquitous drink/ice cream stands.  This should change.  Kids should not be forced to choose between soda and water (in large bottles) when juice boxes are available on property.  And, adults should not have to stand in long restaurant lines to get such a simple item.  Make them available at the carts!
  2. Figure out how to process meal credits, snack credits, and cash in a single transaction at quick service restaurants.  Note: online ordering through the app wasn’t quite rolled out when we went so it may be that this option solves this problem.  Somehow table service restaurants can take a single order and break it into meal credits and cash.  It is a real pain to all parties involved (including those waiting in line behind) to have to complete three transactions to get meals, snacks, and cash items in the quick service lines.  And, just about everyone has this issue eventually as their party runs out of meal credits at the end of their stay.

In summary, we still like the Dining Plan, and probably view the two changes as a net positive.  But, figure out if it is best for your group.  Make sure you will use your meal credits.  Make table service dining reservations; they are almost always necessary.  Paying for a few extra meals is better than paying for meals you don’t use.

Fall 2017 Pantry Challenge – March 2018 Update

22 Thursday Mar 2018

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I thought I should post a pantry update to go with last week’s freezer update.  To be clear, these things aren’t going bad, but they’ve been around for a while and I’d like to use them up before we switch over to summer foods.

As background, my goal is to eat down these things consciously so they don’t just sit there taking up space.

Recipes:

  • 1 jar of pesto, 1 package of sea salt, 1 package of sugar in the raw – These came in gift boxes.  We can use all of them, it just needs to be conscious planning.  I used about a third of the pesto with steak.  It’s still in the fridge.
  • 0.5 bag of marshmallows, 1.5 boxes of graham crackers – Probably waiting for next summer’s smores season.
  • 3 pecan pumpkin quick bread mixes – We like this.  I just need to remember to make them.
  • 2 single serve cups of pineapple tid-bits  I made two pineapple upside down cakes.

I’ll eat them eventually:

  • 5 2 single serve packages of plain oatmeal – I need to finish them off.
  • Dates, whole & chopped – Progress has been made, but some are still there.
  • 2 single serve brownie mixes – These came from a Friday Freebie coupon.  There were four in the box and I had one.  It was ok.  I will eventually eat the rest, but they’re not tasty enough to actually spend money on.

Kids snacks:

  • Ritz crackers – Sent these in as school snacks.
  • 6 pk chicken ramen – I bought these as snacks for the oldest.  I need to introduce them to him, but he hasn’t been snacking as much as one might think for his size/age.
  • Whole almonds, whole cashews – The boys used to snack on these, but they haven’t recently.  I cook with cashews occasionally so I’ll just need to plan to use these up.  Not sure yet what to do with the almonds.
  • Coconut oil, dried apple rings – I had planned to make granola with these, but haven’t.  Maybe I will actually get around to that.

I don’t feel like I need to add more to the list at this point.  There are a few perishables that we need to consciously eat through:

  • 1.5 packages 1 package of English muffins – I rarely buy these.  But, did bite when it was buy 1, get 2 free.  I realize I could freeze them if necessary.
  • 50 lbs of Russet potatoes – These were under 20¢/pound last week plus I had a few on hand already.  Again, I know they can be stored for a long time, but I don’t have a properly temperature-controlled space for long-term.  That being said, we usually eat 3-4 pounds of potatoes with a meal so it should not be a problem to use them.  Mindfulness really.
  • 6 lbs of yellow onions – I was almost out and these were buy 1 get one free.  So, more that I would normally buy, but its winter and lots of soups/stews/etc. call for onions so we should be able to use them up too.

On the one hand I didn’t make as much progress as on the freezers.  On the other hand, we don’t actually need to.  I may touch on the pantry in the final freezer post, but I think we’ve made good progress here.

The Week in Review – Week 11, 2018

20 Tuesday Mar 2018

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This week’s post could almost be a carbon copy of last week’s.  Two more snow days (bringing our total to 7 before the next storm hits tomorrow) washed out swimming lessons, postponed kindergarten registration, and postponed the 1st grade concert for the second time!

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But, Mother Nature will not win.  We did get that concert in last night.

Ironically we’ve had substantially less snow this year than in 2015, when we had a total of 5 snow days.  I think the timing must just be worse.  We keep having snow days in pairs this year because the storm doesn’t leave until the morning hours.

This was from one storm.  And look how the wind brought it into the porch.

Scheduled items that happened:

  • Gym class for the youngest
  • Kindergarten orientation meeting for me (and I got his registration done this morning)
  • Two rounds of baseball lessons
  • Math morning & Before school sports for the 4th graders
  • Poetry night for the 6th grader

The oldest and youngest boys had time off school for professional days over the last week making things feel even more choppy.

We got the gutters cleaned (professionally as one side is over 3 stories off the ground).  It was the first time in this house and we weren’t sure how much was actually up there.  Now we’ll have to see how much impact it had.  There was snow on the roof, but that didn’t seem to keep him from accessing the gutters.

I got a few house things done.

  • I finally got everything put away after our trip.
  • I threw out many socks (10+, I lost count) and one pair of pants with holes in them.
  • I repaired a book.
  • I took care of a few of the lingering electronics setup items.
  • I got one of the sets of birthday party thank you notes mailed.  One more set to do.

Grocery Update & What We Ate – Week 11, 2018

19 Monday Mar 2018

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This was a big week – many stops and big dollars.  It did include my (roughly) monthly trip to BJ’s, but I still hope things will level out.

In advance of the latest Nor’Easter I went to Target, BJ’s, and Wegman’s on Monday.  I spent $23.10 at Target on juice and raisins.

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Since there is no need to refrigerate this, and BJ’s and Target are close together but not particularly close to me, I went directly to BJ’s where I spent $163.88.  Frankly, for BJ’s that’s not that bad.

I went home, put this all away, and ate lunch.  Then after the preschool pick-up we went over to Wegman’s and spent another $39.44.

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I’m glad I got all this in because Tuesday and Wednesday were indeed snow days.

On Thursday I spent another $36.51 at Wegman’s.  My primary goal had been to replenish the eggs and coffee, but I got items for the weekend dinners also.

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Then on Saturday, I spent $33.65 at Stop & Shop on mushrooms and items that were on sale this week.  The chocolate bar was my Free Day item.

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Finally, Sunday night we went to Wegman’s yet again.  I had thought I’d make this trip today, but we ended up going at night.  We spent $65.56.

All that made for a big total – $362.14!

So, what did we do with it?

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

Tuesday:
Chicken noodle soup, homemade bread

Wednesday:
Braised pork, mashed potatoes, green beans

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

Friday:
Early: Pancakes
Late: Tuna noodle casserole

Saturday:
Crock pot chicken with wine sauce, pan fried potatoes, spinach salad

Sunday:
Green tea poached salmon with soba noodles

Fall 2017 Freezer Challenge – March 2018 Update

16 Friday Mar 2018

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No post yesterday.  I really have a hard time getting anything done when the kids are here.  After two snow days last week, Tuesday & Wednesday were snow days this week and then yesterday they had a planned half day.  Fingers crossed that next week’s Nor’Easter doesn’t materialize so we can all get back on track!

Some background on the freezer challenge:

  • I kicked it off in November and updated the status in January.
  • The goal was not to stop shopping, but to use up things that had been in the freezer for a while.  I’m allowed to make new purchases and buy things to complement what I’m using up.

Items on original meat list left after January update:

  • 6 packages (3-4 per pk) of chicken thighs with bones & skin
  • 1 5.5-lb package of chicken thighs with bones & skin (1 meal for us)
  • 8 5 packages (2-3 per pk) of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
  • 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 9 packages (4-5 per pk) of thin-sliced chicken breasts
  • 3 lbs chicken wings (These are probably waiting for summer smoking.)
  • 3 1 3-lb chuck roasts (We need two for a meal so I’m hoping this goes on sale one more time before summer so I can grab one more to use this up.)
  • 4 salmon fillets
  • 4 lbs of tilapia fillets
  • 5 lbs 1 lb of ground turkey (We always use 2 lbs so I’ll purchase another 3 lb pack from BJ’s to use this up.  Then everything will be fresh.)

New meat that has appeared since January:

  • 5 salmon fillets (I purchased a new bulk bag because there wasn’t enough for us in the old one.  But, I plan to use these this weekend so the salmon will stay freshly turned over.
  • 4 lbs pork loin chunks cut for stew
  • 1 pork tenderloin
  • 1 bag of beef bones for stock
  • 1 package of chicken nuggets

As you can see the picture on the left is pretty organized, but the freezer on the right is where the remaining trouble is!

Obviously we still have a bunch of chicken to eat up.  I’ll supplement this with other proteins.

Ingredients left after the January update:

  • Partial BJ’s bag of sliced almonds
  • Partial BJ’s bag of walnuts (I have used some of these, but there’s still about half a bag left.)
  • 7 1-cup packages of blueberries (these are ones we picked and I froze in vacuum bags)
  • 9 basil-in-chicken-broth cubes
  • 12 bags of egg whites, mix of 4-ct and 8-ct
  • 3 8-oz blocks of cream cheese

Clearly I used next to nothing in this category, probably because we were sick for most of February.  A lot of these will be used for desserts which don’t make the top of the list when you’re sick.

Miscellaneous items left after the January update:

  • ½ box of popsicles (these are waiting for summer)
  • 13 7 loaves of banana bread
  • 18 17 servings of butternut squash ravioli (I might be off on this count as I didn’t remove everything from the freezer, but its a lot.  These will be lunches for me.) I did eat a few, but I obviously didn’t count them all because there are still this many left!
  • 2 loaves of gingerbread

I did slightly better here, but most all of these need to go before summer as they won’t get eaten then.  Obviously the popsicles can wait.  And, a few of the butternut squash ravioli would be fine.  But nothing here will age really well.

I’ll do a final update in June before we switch to the summer diet.  I better be done with all the meat (except maybe the wings) and all of the miscellaneous (with the few exceptions mentioned) by then!

Next week I’ll update the pantry situation, although nothing there is nearly as critical as the freezer was.

The Week in Review – Week 10, 2018

13 Tuesday Mar 2018

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This has not been a productive week, unless you count extra time with the kids because of snow days!  We had two snow days last week.  Today is another snow day.  And, if the forecast holds I don’t see us having school tomorrow (not my decision, though).  We also lost power for 16 hours last week, which was about middle of the road for our area.

Here’s today’s “view” courtesy of wind driven snow.

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We did get a few regular things in:

  • Swimming for the middle four
  • A playdate for the preschooler
  • One of the baseball sessions
  • Math morning

But, most things were washed out.

The older three finally went to see the Black Panther movie.  They’ve been seeing all of the movies in that chain and wanted to make sure they got this in before the next installment comes out.

I got my oldest’s team baseball bag embroidered with his name.  Otherwise they all set their stuff down and its hard to just grab yours and go.  Probably some others will do the same with either names or numbers.

I went to the Math Placement discussion last night to learn about the middle school math levels and how kids are placed in them.  They touched on 9th grade also, but it was mostly middle school.  The most interesting assertion is that kids can move between the levels rather freely in middle school.  Apparently the higher levels represent a deeper dive into the same topics so if you’ve matured enough to handle the deeper dive next year, you are ok having not missed an actual topic.  Interesting.  My experience in school was that it was very difficult to move out of one’s track; near on impossible to move up.

As for what didn’t happen.  In theory Ninja night for the fourth graders and the first grade concert will be rescheduled.  The first grade concert is rescheduled for tomorrow, but referencing my first paragraph that is looking rather doomed.  I’m sure they’ll push it out again.

Unfortunately, today’s swimming and last week’s gym and baseball classes won’t be rescheduled.  They’re just gone.