Saving at the grocery store!

This isn't exactly a typical Owen post, but that is ok. :o) Chris and I have been trying to stop spending so much money at the grocery store, and as a way to make myself more accountable, I am going to try and post our dinner menu for the week, each week. We shall see how long I keep up with the posting! Our grocery spending was getting out of hand. We would go, wander around the store with no list, no plan, and spend $150 at least every 5 days. Waste.Of.Money. And all of that money would be spent on maybe 2 meals, and the rest would be junk. SO, we joined Costco and started buying things that we use a lot in bulk. Here is what we always buy from Costco: chicken breast (they come in about 6 lb packages, but each pound is individually vacuum packed and sealed, so you just tear off one package when you need one pound. It is $2.99/lb this way)...chips for lunches, Owen's fruit cups, juice boxes, breakfast bars, Rotel, canned veggies, shredded cheese (HUGE savings!), bread, peanut butter, Goldfish, fruit snacks, snacks to give to O's babysitter, gum,mac and cheese and some other things I am forgetting. Then we make a weekly trip to Price Chopper to get what we need to complete our weekly menu. Plus fresh fruits/veggies/milk, etc. So, with that said, here is our menu this week.

Sunday-Spinach, Artichoke, Chicken Pasta. (More pricey meal at around $9, but it makes enough for Chris and I both to have lunch the next day...plus we have hearty appetites, so if you are as big of an eater as we are, you will probably have enough for 2 nights of this)

Monday- Chicken Pot Pie (This is a Bisquick recipe, and is really inexpensive at around $5.50! Plus it will give Chris and I lunch the next day!) And as a bonus, since I had the George Foreman grill out to grill the chicken for Sunday's pasta, I went ahead and cooked the chicken for this dinner as well, so it will be a cinch to get dinner ready tomorrow!

Tuesday- Manwich sandwiches, Mac and Cheese, and green beans. (This is a bath night for Owen, and I have an appointment for my back today, so we needed something quick! This dinner runs about $5.50-$6.00, and it will give me lunch the next day)

Wednesday- DiGiorno Pizza and Salad (laundry folding day! This is about $7, the pizza is expensive!!!)

Thursday- Company Chicken (this is delicious! And cheap! About $6, and Chris and I will both have lunch the following day.)

Friday- Mexican Lasagne (This is a great meal, I half the recipe though, because I usually can't eat Mexican 2 days in a row with my heartburn. It is about $8 and will give Chris lunch the next day.)

Our grocery bill was about $65 this week at Price Chopper, and that includes fresh produce (apples, bananas), Owen's string cheese (pricey, at $4 a package, but hey, he eats it), Owen's yogurt ($3.99 for 6 servings...again, pricey but he eats it!), milk (2 gallons), bread, popsicles for Owen, PopTarts, and a new box of Bisquick. We generally go to Costco 1x a month, and spend between $150-$200, but it is never all on food. I challenge ANYONE to go to Costco and not buy random things, lol. We have a real weakness to that store. So much stuff that we never even knew we needed!

So, this post wasn't exactly thrilling, but I am hoping that by posting this weekly, I will start saving even more money at the grocery store! Have a great week! I will be posting pictures of our...finished basement...later this week!! It is AMAZING. I am so proud of my husband for doing such a great job and working so hard on it!

Christmas 2009

Owen's 2nd Christmas was a great one! He was really into the presents this year! Santa brought him a train table. :o) Unfortunatley, it was not put together, so daddy had to put it together Christmas Eve...it took like 2 hours! This thing has a million pieces! We had it all set up and ready for O to wake up and see it on Christmas morning. When he walked out into the living room, he gasped and said, "OH! Shoo-shoo rain???" He was in shock, lol.

He didn't even know what to think! He went over to the table and started playing with the trains. Here is where I feel like a grinch. He got so frustrated with the train table eventually, because the trains were magnetic instead of hook-together, and they wouldn't stay together, they kept falling off of the track, the bridge kept falling over, etc. Each play session included lots of frustration screams, tears, etc. SO, a few days later, daddy decided that the train table was going back to Toys R Us...errr...the North Pole. We got him a Geotrax set instead, and he LOVES it. He can play independently with it, and he even has some remote control trains that go with it! He is in "shoo-shoo rain" heaven now. :o)

Here he is, picking out his next present!


A football! Just what he always wanted!! :o)

His new monster tent! This thing is hilarious.The opening of the tent is the monster's mouth, and you can zip his mouth up to close the tent. Owen loves to do this. He goes, "bye, mommy!" and will attempt to zip it up. He also likes to play trains or puzzles in the tent, and zip it up. It gets quite stuffy in there, especially when he insists that all 3 members of our little family are in the closed tent playing.

His next gift was the Let's Go Fishing game. He really loves this game! He has figured out how to cheat, too. He will pick up a fish from the pond, put it on his pole and go, "YAY!!!" I'm on to you, O...

In between presents he had to take train breaks.


Here he is opening his next present...Marley and Me! That is his FAVORITE movie. Oh my, that child is obsessed with Marley. He thinks that dog is the funniest creature EVER. During the part where Marley is drinking out of the toilet, Owen will go "EWWW! YUCK!!" and then start cracking up, because obviously that is the funniest movie scene EV-AH!

Surveying his loot...he was obviously happy!


Here is his new puzzle holder. He loves to do puzzles and is very, very good at them. He is so smart! Do you love his Christmas pajamas? Oh wait, he didn't get any. I tried to buy him some, but he *really, really, really* didn't want them. He kept saying, "NO! Nigh-nor! Nigh-nor!" (Dinosaur, for those of you who don't speak Owen's language!) So, we wound up with new dinosaur jammies for Christmas Eve. :o) Gotta love little boys!