Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for the week of Christmas

Friday

• fully-loaded baked potato soup
• bread
• orange juice-cranberry sauce smoothies
• pumpkin pie

Saturday (Christmas Eve)

• spaghetti and meatballs in marinara sauce
• canned green beans
• leftover pumpkin pie

Midnight snack

• hot cocoa, sitting by the tree, after the late Christmas Eve church service

Sunday (Christmas Day)

I served 2 meals on Christmas Day, brunch and dinner. I've included the menus for both of those meals.

Brunch

• turkey bacon (on clearance for $1.39/12 oz package earlier in the week)
• canned pineapple chunks
• the almond-filled pastry that I made, in this link
• saved pineapple juice from canned pineapple, blended with orange juice, as mentioned in this link
• copious amounts of coffee

Dinner

The inspiration for our casual, snacky Christmas dinner was a frozen package of marked down Lil' Smokies, the tangerines that I bought for putting in stockings and a gift card to Jack-in-the-box. We split 1 order of chicken strips, 1 order of egg rolls and 2 orders of onion rings. With everything else we had, it was enough.

I required everyone to participate in putting this dinner together, as I did for our Thanksgiving dinner. My 2 daughters made the pie, I made the dip and washed/peeled the carrots and celery, my husband cut the celery and carrots into sticks, and my son and his girlfriend simmered the cocktail sausages in the bbq sauce while I ran out to get the Jack-in-the-Box. No one person carried the entire burden of a holiday meal on the holiday.

• Lil Smokies cocktail sausage in bbq sauce
• tangerines
• carrots and celery sticks, with Ranch dip
• Jack-in-the-Box snacks -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls
• pecan-chocolate chip pie
• hot tea and milk

Monday

• homemade cheese and olive pizza, using the leftover marinara sauce from Saturday's spaghetti and meatballs combined with leftover bbq sauce from Sunday's cocktail sausages, as the pizza sauce
• cole slaw
• last of the pecan-chocolate chip pie

Tuesday

• baked acorn squash
• baked potatoes, topped with cheese, Ranch dip, butter and Lemon-Rosemary finishing salt
• applesauce
• Christmas cookies

Wednesday

We were invited to friends for a Christmas tree candle lighting (real candles on their tree). There were lovely appetizers and desserts, enough to completely fill us. So no need to make any dinner tonight.

I don't know if you remember one of my shopping trips at Kohl's over the summer, with a $10 off coupon. I brought this box of candles, tied up with a red ribbon, as a hostess gift. I paid 38 cents at Kohl's, after coupon. (Oh and by the way, my 32 cent "holiday" entry mat, in the background, has been making merry at our front door, all season!)

Thursday

I still have 3 more get-togethers with family/friends, in the next couple of weeks. This afternoon, I was baking 2 pumpkin cake rolls, and assembling and wrapping the last couple of gifts. Whew! Dinner was fast and easy. 

• corn tortilla, black bean, salsa, olive and cheese thing (no other word than "thing")
• leftover baked squash
• Christmas cookies

I hope your week was jolly. Just a few more days and then it's back to routine, which will be welcome. Have a wonderful weekend.

Happy New Year!

December 2016 Grocery Spending Journal

I'm posting the end of the month grocery spending journal, now, as I'll be posting our weekly Cheap & Cheerful Menus, tomorrow, and then it's on to New Year's! So, closing out December's budget today, and anything I spend between now and January 1st will fall into January's budget.


Dec. 2 Cash & Carry for all-purpose flour, 50-lbs on sale for $9.99. I had planned on buying 2 bags (100 lbs), but they only had 1 bag left, and that bag had a tear. They offered me $3 off that bag. They taped it up. It didn't look like much had leaked out, no more than 1 lb. So, I bought probably 49 lbs of all-purpose flour for $6.99, or about 14 cents/lb.

Dec. 3 Dollar Tree, I buy 1 box of graham crackers, 1 box of Wheat Thin type crackers, and 1 box of Ritz type crackers -- spent $3

Dec. 9 WinCo -- I buy 8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips, at $1.68 each, 1 bag of coconut for $1.38, 2 bags of marshmallows for 98 cents each, and cocoa powder, for $2.06. I received 12 cents in bag credit.Total spent -- $17.72

Dec 10 Fred Meyer, Senior discount day. I bought half-gallon of almond vanilla milk for $1.99. I received a 16 oz jar of roasted peanuts, free, a bottle of Kraft BBQ sauce, free, and a small bag of Werthers caramel candies, free. I spent $1.99

Dec. 13 Fred Meyer, another Senior Discount day. I bought 4 15-oz jars of natural peanut butter, at $1.35 each, 1.27 lbs of salted, roasted almonds, at $4.49/lb, less a $2 off coupon, 3 packages of hot dogs for 80 cents each, 4 packages of flour tortillas for 89 cents each, 2 8-oz bricks of cream cheese, for 89 cents each, less a 45 cent coupon, 4 red-tape bananas at 49 cents/lb, 1 head of cabbage for 49 cents/lb, 6 half-gallons of whole milk and 4 half-gallons of orange juice, at 89 cents each. I spent $27.37

Dec. 14 Target, picking up stocking stuffers. I also buy the 70 oz bottle of Market Pantry Medium Salsa, for $4.99

Dec. 14 WinCo for some items for a veggie platter. I bought broccoli crowns ($1.10), baby carrots (98 cents), celery (98 cents), grape tomatoes ($1.48), Ranch dressing mix (58 cents) 16 oz mini-marshmallows (98 cents), 28 oz bag of tortilla chips ($2.98). Total spent $9.08.

Total spent for December, so far -- $71.14

Dec. 19 QFC for shank hams, unsliced, at $1.29/lb, limit 2. I also find turkey bacon on markdown for $1.39/12 oz package. I bought 7 packages. Total spent $39.64

Dec. 20 Fred Meyer for another bonus Senior Shopping discount. I bought a half-gallon almond milk for $1.79 (coupon plus discount), 2 lbs of BarS Meat franks, marked down to 79 cents/lb (went into the freezer right away), 5 lb box of mandarins for $5.99 (this will be the only box of mandarins I buy this year, likely, as they are so much more expensive than navel oranges), 1 bundle of celery at 69 cents/lb (83 cents for a the bundle), box of white cake mix (Friday Freebie), 2-liter of 7UP soda (Friday Freebie), package of Tim Tam cookies (Friday Freebie).  Total spent today -- $10.19

Total spent for December, so far -- $120.97

Dec. 25 I bought a $15 gift card to Jack-in-the-Box, at Fred Meyer, for the bonus fuel points. We used this gc on Christmas Day, along with $3.95, for a total of  $18.95

Dec. 26 at Fred Meyer for discounted items. I bought candy for Valentine's Day and next Christmas, but the cost of these will come out of our holiday budget. I also bought a 16 oz container of marked down candied glace cherries (the kind used in baking and fruitcake), for $1.79

Total spent for December 2016, $141.71

What I bought:

Produce

4 bananas
1 head of cabbage
4 half-gallons of orange juice
70 oz jug of tomato salsa
3/4 lb broccoli crowns
1 lb baby carrots
2 bundles of celery
3/4 lb of grape tomatoes
5 lbs of mandarin oranges (tangerines)

Dairy

2 half-gallons of almond milk
2 packages of cream cheese
6 half-gallons of whole milk

Meat

4.25 lbs of mixed meat hot dogs
23 lbs of bone-in ham
5.25 lbs of turkey bacon

Pantry

1 box of graham crackers
1 box of Wheat Thins type crackers
1 box of Ritz-type crackers
8 packages of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 bag of coconut
2 bag of mini marshmallows
2/3 lb cocoa powder
16 oz jar of peanuts (freebie)
Kraft BBQ sauce (freebie)
bag of Werthers candies (freebie)
4  15-oz jars of natural peanut butter
1.27 lbs of smoked almonds
4 lbs of flour tortillas
Ranch dressing/dip mix
28-oz bag of tortilla chips
1 box of Pillsbury cake mix (freebie)
1 package of Tim Tam cookies (freebie)
2-liter of 7UP soda (freebie)
49 lbs of all-purpose flour
16 oz glace cherries

Other

Some fast food for Christmas snacky dinner -- chicken strips, onion rings, egg rolls


Not nearly as extensive a list of foods this month, compared to November. Our pantry, fridge and freezer are simply too full, right now.

My budget coming into December was $190 plus a carry-forward surplus of $11.84, for a total amount available to spend of $201.84. I spent $141.71. I now have $60.13 in surplus to roll over to January.

Our fridge, freezer and pantry continue to look full. We received a Honey-Baked ham, still frozen, as a Christmas gift. As we'd already planned our Christmas dinner, I put the ham in our freezer. We now have 4 hams. I'll use one on New Year's Day, that will leave 3 half hams for this next year. I also have 1 whole turkey and some turkey leftovers, still in the freezer, plus some turkey bacon, ground beef and hot dogs. We're set for meat, unless I find a great price. We seem to be well-stocked in baking ingredients and canned goods. I'll need vegetable oil and yeast, soon, but nothing els, really on the "need" list.

Later, next month, I'll do some planning for special meals this spring (birthdays, Valentine's Day and Easter), to make sure I set aside some of the meat and goodies for those specific meals.

I hope your budget fared well this month.