Last Week’s Accomplishments – the Christmas Aftermath

13 Tuesday Jan 2015

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I didn’t get much done between Christmas and having everyone off work/school for two weeks. So, last week I felt like I got a lot done.

Did a fair bit of Christmas cleanup:
- Took down both trees and put out on the curb for pickup
- Put away all ornaments, lights, and other tree stuff. Threw out a set of mini-lights that died after they got put on the tree (thankfully they were at the very bottom so we didn’t even notice).
- Put wreath out in the trash
- Cleaned out most of the Christmas packaging
- Packed up most of the recycling for this week when it hopefully won’t be so windy
- Returned one item that didn’t make the cut.
Everyone made it to work/school on Monday on time, despite our being very lax with the schedule during the break
Six errands during preschool on Monday so I only had to take the youngest with me
- One was to move our prescriptions to a local pharmacy from a chain where the customer service was intolerable
Two very well planned trips to the grocery store
Seven nice, homemade dinners
Put away all outgrown clothing, threw out worn clothing, and audited available clothing for the youngest
Reconciled all accounts for December and did the budget update (Because so much of our life revolves around the school year our plan starts July 1. This was just the monthly update and halfway review.) Set up/paid January bills.
Signed the boys up for spring activities

Weekly Menu & Grocery Update

12 Monday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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There aren’t so many coupons this week, but there are a few good sales. I did a stock up trip to Shaw’s that should last 6-8 weeks. The photo below is my visit to Stop and Shop ($57.97 after savings). Tomorrow I’ll be going to BJs and Target (more for birthday presents vs groceries).

Winter baseball has started which interferes with Saturday dinner so I’m going to have to think about how we’ll handle that going forward. This week we just repeated a Friday menu.

Here’s the meal plan for this week.

Saturday:
Kids: Pasta
Adults: Homemade pizza

Sunday:
Leftover leg of lamb
Brussels sprouts
Mashed potatoes

Monday:
Leftover beef stew
Green beans
Portuguese Corn Bread

Tuesday (I won’t be home for dinner.):
Chinese take-out

Wednesday:
Tacos

Thursday:
Macaroni & cheese

Friday:
Kids: poached eggs
Adults: homemade pizza

Christmas Generates a Lot of Trash

09 Friday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Home

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I don’t think this is news to anybody if you stop to think about it, but for some reason it really hit me this week. Perhaps it was because we missed trash day last week. And perhaps it was because it was really windy on trash day this week so I didn’t put out as many recycleables as I could of lest they blow around and make a mess.

But, we had 6 bags of trash (covering 2 weeks). Two were exclusively Christmas:

Wrapping stuff that doesn’t recycle
Broken / old (non donate-able) stuff getting replaced by new stuff for Christmas
A few strands of mini-lights (old ones that finely went and are being replaced by LEDs, but we still have one left after this Christmas)
Gingerbread houses
Packing material that doesn’t recycle from whatever’s been shipped to us
Plastic envelopes from whatever’s been shipped to us (we got a lot of those this year and they don’t recycle them here)
The wreath – they don’t recycle these here because of the metal frames they’re built on

Plus there is a lot of extra recycling:

Wrapping paper
Tubes from used up wrapping paper
Shipping boxes
Greeting cards
Toy packaging
Cans/jars/etc from Christmas cooking
Bottles/cans from Christmas drinking/entertaining

Anyway, I felt a bit odd when I put a 7^th bag of trash in the can as I returned it to the garage. And, I filled half our recycling bin on the way to the garage 10 minutes after the truck emptied it with items I didn’t want flying off. It will go eventually, but goodness that felt like a lot. The boys did/will play with a lot of the recycling until it gets too banged up to be useful. I still have a lot in the house that will make its way out over the next month.

The Other Grocery Run

08 Thursday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Groceries

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I went to Stop & Shop for my main visit yesterday. I needed a bit more than the $64 I mentioned Monday so to maximize my savings / coupons I went through twice. The first time I stopped scanning at just over $57 and had $11 in coupons plus got 300 bonus gas points.

The lamb was obviously the big ticket item, on a great sale. It might be hard to tell but the white block in front is wrapped fish (cod) and there’s a bag of lettuce.

The second time through I got yet another bag of potatoes. To use the coupon for it and the oil I needed to spend $25 after coupons so I stopped scanning at just over $27. Once again the oil and potatoes were the great deal this week. The tomato sauce sale is ending so I stocked up on that too. It’s regularly $1.19 each, but is on sale 3/$1 which is the lowest it ever gets.

The total of all this plus Monday’s visit was still under $100.

Next Man Up

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Family, Home, Twins

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I spent some of yesterday sorting and packing my outgrown pile. My youngest is moving to the next clothing size so I needed to get out shorts and long pants for him. I took the opportunity while I was repacking to put everything else that’s been set aside since someone needed a new clothing size away. A few items went to the baby boxes (outgrown by everyone), but most went into the appropriate bin for the next boy in line.

In the process I discovered I have a lot of NWT Carter’s pjs that I know I bought on sale. I find some seasons I like a lot of their designs, but other times I really don’t like any. I only have one child left to wear them, and I may have more than he needs. I think I need to remember to tone down the post-twin replacement purchases to singleton levels.

A Return to Normal

06 Tuesday Jan 2015

Posted by Nora in Groceries

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It has been amazing having everyone back to their normal schedules (including here). After preschool drop off yesterday, the little guy and I got through a bunch of errands including the small grocery run.

For comparison sake I ran this set of groceries through the Wegman’s app to see what it would have cost me had I gone there. I saved $2.50 on this basket of stuff shopping at Stop & Shop, plus I got a few gas points. The flour and applesauce were slightly more expensive, but only $1 total. The great deals on potatoes and oil more than made up for that.

Weekly Menu & Grocery Update

05 Monday Jan 2015

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Another set of Stop & Shop coupons became available this week. They have excellent deals on potatoes and oil with at least a $25 purchase so I’m going twice for those. I also have two $5 off coupons plus 300 gas points if I spend $50 so one of those trips will be somewhat larger. I have a few other coupons to use so I need to scan $28 before coupons once and $64 before coupons the second time, which will result in actual spending of $25 and $45 respectively. I suspect I’ll go slightly over this, but not by much.

Here’s the meal plan for this week.

Saturday:
Shepard’s pie
Bread machine bread
Green beans

Sunday:
Chicken & dumplings
Leftover bread

Monday:
Beef stew
Oatmeal bread

Tuesday:
Fajitas

Wednesday:
Baked cod
Sweet potatoes
Salad

Thursday:
Leg of lamb
Brussels sprouts
Baked potato

Friday:
Kids: poached eggs
Adults: homemade pizza

Grocery Update

29 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Nora in Groceries

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I did pick up a fresh turkey locally. Otherwise no actual shopping this past week. And, I don’t anticipate going to the grocery store this week either. But, I did go to BJs for diapers, milk, and a few other items.

December TOTAL: $1012.58
Stop & Shop: $236.76
BJs: $292.80
Other: $483.02
Local: $234.90
Wegman’s: $105.95
Star Market: $135.87
Trader Joe’s: $0.00
Target: $6.30

Christmas Week

22 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Nora in Family

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Friday was the last day of preschool in 2014. The older ones have two days this week. We’re had our holiday gathering over the weekend so things are getting busy. It’s nice to have everyone home with largely no place to go. And, the weather is going to be fairly nice for late December. (If its not going to snow I’d far prefer warmish.)

It feels like everything revolves around food this week. We’re hosting Christmas so to the extent possible I’m making things in advance. Dinners will be simple, except Christmas. The sausage stuffing is already done. Posts will be brief this week as there is a lot to do!

The boys decorated small gingerbread houses. This is the second year I’ve gotten the “village” kit. We don’t eat them, they just go on display.

Our Christmas menu:

Two types of smoked turkey
Sausage & chestnut stuffing
Apple & cranberry stuffing
Gravy
Cranberry sauce (the canned stuff)
Mashed potatoes
Green beans (with and without mushrooms)
Brussel sprouts
Butternut squash

Can One Have Too Many Groceries?

15 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by Nora in Groceries, Menus

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If it was summer I’d be in big trouble. But its not so our mudroom is relatively cool and good for storage. As such I have an entire table of food.

We will eat a bunch over the next two weeks and then it will slowly get packed into the pantry. The exceptions will be the two open topped boxes you see as I’ve found this to be the best winter storage solution for potatoes, onions, etc. It doesn’t work in the summer heat, but that’s not an issue right now.

I did make a regular trip to the grocery store this week too.

Here’s the plan for this week.

Saturday:
Smoked beef clod
Pickles
Deviled eggs
Pasta salad
Fruit salad

Sunday:
Salmon cakes
Potato bread
Peas

Monday:
Kids: Tortellini
Adults: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Chicken with walnuts
Green beans

Wednesday:
Rib eye roast
Roasted cauliflower
Whole wheat bread

Thursday:
Chili
Corn muffins

Friday:
Kids: poached eggs
Adults: homemade pizza