Chocolate and other stuff

Hello friends on The Grocery Cart Challenge! My name is Chris. I'm Gayle's guy. I'm a man who consumes no less than one sixth of her frugalities. You might say, "heck, that guy could eat more like half the household consumables." You may be right (especially when I claim marital rights to half the chocolate!). Yes, during the past almost fourteen years of marriage, Gayle and I have grown to enjoy our chocolate together. Chocolate chips, chocolate kisses, chocolate cake...oh' and speaking of chocolate cake...Gayle makes this dense stuff she calls 'depression cake' - don't know if she's mentioned it before - but the name just doesn't do it justice. It's one of my favorite foods on the planet. I really don't have a clue what goes into it...other than chocolate, or how she makes it (she usually giggles and says that it's really cheap). Anyway, I like it...a lot!

Now that we have established that I'm borderline chocoholic let's move on to more weightier matters. Not more important mind you, just heavier, dude. Yeah, I'm talkin' bout cash flow. What guy isn't concerned about money matters in the family? Let me brag on Gayle a bit (some might call it brown nosing since I'm a guest blogger. Let the chips fall where they may). She really does an excellent job running the house, keeping us fed, clothed, clean and all that domestic stuff within a very tight budget. I chuckle and shake my head when I see a five gallon bucket of Gayle-made laundry detergent or zip lock bags washed clean and hanging up to dry. I thought I was smart by picking up pennies on the ground, but she really attacks her domestic duties with a vengence. We're talking like Stallone as Rocky or Gibson in the Patriot! Yeah, I'm pretty proud of my gal. Not only is she gorgeous and funny she's a good wife too. It is impressive how she bargain shops and creates. Maybe someday her supervisor will wake up, smell the coffee and give her a raise!

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

We eat lots of pancakes and waffles and things that require syrup at our house. We can go through at least one bottle of syrup per week for the six of us, but you may have noticed that it is never in my Weekly Shopping Trip pictures. That's not because we tap our own trees but it's because I use a recipe for homemade maple syrup and then refill our old giant Costco bottle and stick it back in the cupboard.

I've been doing it for months and the kids just now noticed.

Cheap Homemade Maple Syrup

4 cups white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups water

2 teaspoons maple flavoring (sometimes I use vanilla)

• Mix the water and sugars in a pot and simmer for 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and stir in flavoring.
• Cool and pour into container.
• Does not need to be refrigerated.

To Participate:

• Post a recipe on your blog with a LINK BACK HERE. PLEASE REMEMBER THE LINK!
• Fill in the Mr. Linky with your name and recipe title and on the second line put the link directly to your recipe post, not your general blog address.
• Then go look at all the other links and get great ideas for next weeks menu.

Weekly Shopping Trip

So, as I mentioned yesterday and for those of you who might be reading for the first time, this won't be a normal shopping trip since I'm hitting the road for about 4 days and leaving my family to fend for themselves. A husband who won't enter the kitchen unless he's getting his coffee and a teenage son and daughter who are only willing to cook omelets and scrambled eggs can get old after four days. And since I won't let the 5 and 8 year old loose in my kitchen, it's quite clear that a little Chef Boyardee is in order.

Oh and just as a teaser, and because I'm really excited about this, I've got a few guest bloggers lined up to keep you frugal minded until I get back. So here's the line-up...

Friday - Our regular Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

Saturday - I know I don't normally post on the weekends, but I couldn't resist the guest blogger who was willing to post. I think it's going to be quite enlightening.

Monday - I won't be here for Menu Plan Monday but I found a blogger that has an AMAZING website about frugality that you are going to love. She has graciously offered to share her wisdom with us.

Tuesday - I'll be home

If you want to follow along on my adventures, head on over to my other blog HERE where I'll be chronicling my cross country visit with some bloggy friends beginning on Friday.

So without any further ado, here's the breakdown of this weeks shopping trip...

S & S Grocery Liquidators

2 jars of Peanut Butter $1.98
Cream of Mushroom Soup $.34
1 Giant can of Baked Beans $1.99
2 cans of Chili $1.18
3 cans of fruit and 2 of Sports Spaghettios $3.45

Total $8.94


Grocery Outlet

8th Continent Soymilk $1.87
Large pkg of Smoked Sausage $3.99
Strawberry Preserves $1.99
Tortillas $2.19
Frozen Burrittos $2.99
Huge bag of Coffee Beans $7.99
Fishsticks $5.49
20 lbs flour $4.99

Total $31.50


Win-co

5 dozen large eggs $7.09
Bulk Equal packets $.90
Gallon Milk $2.73
Frozen Tater Tots $2.08
Bulk Corn Flakes $1.34
Vanilla Yogurt $1.78
1 lb Sausage $2.58
Bananas $2.40
2 boxes Mac & Cheese $.64
Giant jar of pickles $2.98

Total $24.52

Grand Total $64.96

Menu Plan Monday

I somehow have become the only adult in this family that knows how to prepare food. It happened somewhere between the starry eyed courtship phase and the first child. My husband spontaneously forgot how to turn on a stove, open a can or even pour himself a bowl of cereal.

It's a proven fact that if it weren't for me, my family would starve.

So what's a girl to do when she's got exciting travel plans for four days and there is no one at home to man the kitchen? No one to feed the starving children? No one to boil a pot of water?

She buys Chef Boyardee and frozen burritos, that's what.

For this weeks menu you're going to see some things you've not seen on my menu's for a long time. Things like fish sticks and cold cereal.

You can't imagine how excited my children are. It's like Christmas around here.

But I can guarantee I won't come home to children who haven't eaten in days.

Breakfasts

Oatmeal
Waffles (doubled and put in freezer for days I'm gone)
Breakfast Burritos (extra for freezer)
Apple Pie Muffins (extra for freezer)
Cereal and Milk
Freezer Breakfast while I'm gone
Freezer Breakfast while I'm gone


Dinners

Soup and Bread from freezer
Vegetarian Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and gravy, peas
Beef and Noodles, green salad
Bean Soup and Rolls
Mac & Cheese and Fish sticks
Hot Dogs and Tater Tots
Frozen Burritos

(can you guess which days I won't be here?)

Check back tomorrow to see how I did with all the convenience food in my budget this week.

Oh, and don't forget to follow the link to the Homeschool Blog Awards (on the top left sidebar) to nominate your favorite website for Best Thrifty Homeschooler!(wink, wink)

I'm totally shameless, aren't I?

Grocery Cart Challenge Recipe Swap

My kids are always wanting something to snack on. So I came across this cheap recipe a while ago and it fills that urge for them.

Lentil Snacks

1 cup lentils

1 quart water

2 tablespoons of oil

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon curry powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

• In a pan, bring water and lentils to a boil. Cover, remove from heat and let stand 15 minutes.
• Drain and spread out on towels to dry.
• Preheat oven to 425 and line a jelly roll pan with greased foil.
• Toss lentils with oil and spread out flat on pan.
• Bake for 10-15 minutes stirring often until crispy.
• Mix up remaining spices and gently stir into lentils.
• Cool and eat.

What's cooking at your house this week?

To Participate:

• Post a recipe on your blog with a LINK BACK HERE. PLEASE REMEMBER THE LINK!
• Fill in the Mr. Linky with your name and recipe title and on the second line put the link directly to your recipe post, not your general blog address.
• Then go look at all the other links and get great ideas for next weeks menu.

Frugal Stripper

First off I'll just start by apologizing for that title, but I just couldn't resist. If you're some weirdo who got here by a nasty word search than go away.

Everyone else...carry on.

So, my parents just bought a new house. It's amazing and huge and older so it's got all kinds of wallpaper and paint issues. I'll be spending the next few days (weeks?) updating paint and stripping old wallpaper off the walls.

I am an experienced wallpaper stripper. When we bought our house it was full of the freakiest wallpaper I'd ever seen; naked anatomically correct stick figures, red velvet panels, huge raccoons, giant orange roosters. I probably could have e-bayed the stuff for a fortune if I'd labeled it "vintage".

To get it off I bought a scoring tool that poked holes in the paper and then a very expensive bottle of wallpaper remover that cost nearly $4 each. It took me at least 4 bottles per room to get that wallpaper off. I spent A LOT of money!

So when my mom's new house needed some wallpaper removed I knew exactly how to do it. But the thought of all those expensive bottles of remover were a huge hindrance. Then a friend who is a drywaller gave me this priceless tip.

He said to get a cheap bottle of liquid fabric softener and fill a spray bottle with 1 part fabric softener and 2 parts water and then to score the wall as usual. Next spray the fabric softener mix over the holey wallpaper and let it soak in for 20 minutes. Use a paint scraper to begin peeling the paper off the walls. It comes off so much easier and cheaper.

So if anyone out there needs to peel some nasty wallpaper from their walls, here is your frugal solution.

For more great ideas visit Rocks In My Dryer.

Weekly Shopping Trip

My sister, fount of all bargain knowledge, let me know of a clearance sale on meat at our local Safeway on Sunday so I high tailed it down there and dug through the meat that was marked down 30% to 50% off to try and find some deals to stash in my freezer.

I managed to get....

1.5 lbs of bottom round roast $3.30

1 lb round steak $2.19

2 1lb packages of thin cut boneless pork $4.57

1 Kid FREE!

Total $10.06

Then I hit my regular haunts on Monday....

S & S Grocery Liquidators

5 cans of diced tomatoes $1.95

12 double rolls of Toilet Paper $4.99

Total $6.94

Grocery Outlet

16 oz Cottage Cheese $1.99

Frozen Peas $.79

Bacon $1.69

Macaroni $1.49

Total $5.96

Win-co

Margarine $1.94

Vanilla Yogurt (I know, shoulda made my own) $1.68

Peanut Butter $1.98

Vanilla Soymilk $1.18

Fels Naptha Bar $1.12

Powdered Buttermilk $4.37

Frozen Raspberries $1.98

Bulk Corn Flakes $.89

Bulk Powdered Sugar $1.09

Bulk Onion Soup Mix $1.20

Bulk Granola $1.85

5 lb potatoes $1.88

Bananas $2.17

Apples $2.12

Tomatoes $1.26

Bulk Chocolate Chips $2.41

3 Yellow Onions $1.37

1 sweet onion $.81

Red Grapes $2.02

Bulk Butterscotch Chips $1.68

Total $35.00 (even....Wow!)

Grand Total $57.96