Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for mid-January

Monday's supper -- I used snippets of the rosemary,
 from the plants I brought indoors for winter

Friday
hamburgers on homemade buns
w/mushrooms and mozzarella cheese
seasoned, oven-fried potato wedges
green beans

Saturday
homemade mushroom, olive and onion pizza
frozen peas
baked apples

Sunday
tortilla chips, salsa (chips from Dollar Tree, salsa a Christmas gift)
refried beans (made extras) and cheese
brown rice
carrots sticks
oranges

Monday
rosemary potatoes
kale and onion frittata, with mozzarella and topped with leftover pizza sauce
baked tiny squashes

Tuesday
crockpot ham, potato casserole
frozen green beans
pumpkin pie (from freezer)

Wednesday
Shepherd's pie (beef/turkey blend, onions, garlic, celery, corn, tomato-based sauce, covered in mashed potatoes), made 2, froze 1  (My family thought it was good, but I just didn't care for it. Maybe it was the smell of the meat cooking, but I was feeling quite ill by the time it was ready.)
frozen peas
leftover pumpkin pie

Thursday
refried beans from freezer, rice and cheese burritos in homemade tortillas
corn medley, with green peppers, onion, garlic and chunky tomato salsa
carrots sticks
apple cobbler, made with frozen apple chunks


I was so looking forward to Wednesday's dinner. Comfort food -- who wouldn't want some?! But then the cooking. Browning of the meat was making me quite queasy. Sometimes the smell of meat just puts me off from eating it. This happened once when I was a young adult, living on my own. It was so bad that I became a vegetarian for a couple of years after that. When I was pregnant, all meat smelled rancid to me. I remember not being able to cook dinner one night, so I sent my husband out to get McDonald's for himself, just an orange soda and fries for me. When he walked in the door, he offered me a bite of his Big Mac. I nearly declined, as the thought of meat would send me gagging all the way to the bathroom. But I did take him up on his offer, a bite, I thought. I could handle one bite, for the sake of the baby (iron and all, from the beef). I ate his entire Big Mac and had to send him back to McDonald's for his own dinner. But that's how powerful a bad meat smell can be for me. So, Wednesday, really looking forward to this supper, and wowsers, was it ever awful in my mind. The second one in the freezer will be set aside for a night when I have alternate plans for my own supper.

But it does reinforce a point that I am common to make -- learn to enjoy your own cooking and you'll have enough money for the things that really matter in your opinion. I think my sister would be shocked that our family eats at home, almost every single night of the year. We grew up in a family where dining out was a regular event. And she, now, stills eats out, a lot, IMO. I'll be chatting with her while she's in the drive-thru at a favorite So Cal burger joint. Sometimes she'll ask what I'm having for lunch. It's usually something humble, like a banana and oatmeal, or peanut butter on toast. I do occasionally salivate over the burger and fries lunches she gets. (I did get my burger and fries meal for Friday supper.) But there are things that my not spending money on take-out has afforded me.

In looking back at my many Cheap & Cheerful Supper posts, I really didn't see many restaurant dinners. And I'm okay with that. The foods we eat on a daily basis are just humble foods. I try to make sure it's tasty. I don't keep up with many food trends. And, as far as spending time on gourmet recipes, I'd rather spend my time in other endeavors.

Do you know what I love about tea?

You can make yourself a nice cup of tea, pour more boiling water over the bag or leaves, and make yourself another cup, for nothing more than the cost of the boiling water.

Or, if you've made tea for two, but a third drops in, you can stretch that tea with extra water, and let it steep just a bit longer. You can't do that with milk or soda.

What was in my cart at Walgreen's this week? (And what was my minor blunder?)

In an attempt to reduce my spending on all household goods and health and beauty items, I am reading sales ads very closely and trying to match with coupons found online.

Last week, I made a bottle of spray glass and window cleaner, using ammonia, isopropyl alcohol, dish soap and water. My daughter does the windows, here. And she told me it worked very well. So that's a keeper. (recipe here) At 12 cents a pint, it cost less than half of what the large refill jug of window cleaner costs per pint at Dollar Tree.

This week, I thoroughly went through Walgreen's online Sunday ad, to find their deals.

So, the daughter who does windows (yay for that!), prefers spray cleaner, a squeegee, and paper towels. Who am I to argue with her supply list, if the result is I don't have to wash windows? So, the other week, I bought paper towels for the first time in years. My best deal, on the spur of the moment, was Cash & Carry at 69 cents per 65 sheet roll. That's .0106153 per sheet. Walgreen's has their house brand of paper towels, on sale for 50 cents per 56 sheet roll, or .0089285. I bought 4 rolls and saved just under 38 cents.

Cerave is my moisturizing cream and face wash (I "wash" with the cream). I've been paying about $12.49 per container, when on sale, at Bartell's. Walgreen's has it on sale this week, as a BOGO1/2 off. The shelf price is $15.49. BOGO1/2 off gives me a price of $11.615 each. I went online to find a coupon, and printed out 1 coupon for $2 off any purchase of two Cerave items, bringing my cost down to $10.615 each. I bought 2 containers and saved $3.75. On top of the savings, these were bonus packs. each canister of moisturizing cream came with a trial bar of their moisturizing soap. Yay for useful free stuff!

When I'm paying, I use drug store cosmetics. When someone else is paying (the birthday freebies that I get from Sephora, or birthday/Christmas gifts from family members), I am happy to use department store cosmetics. (Both my son and my husband gave me Sephora gift cards for Christmas this year.) Anyways, drug store cosmetics can be quite good, even for someone like myself who is allergic to many ingredients in cosmetics. I like Neutrogena's loose mineral powder as a very light foundation. I've been buying it at Target, when on sale, for about $12.99. Walgreen's has all of their Neutrogena cosmetics on sale this week at BOGO1/2 off. Their shelf price for this powder is $14.79. They only had one compact of my shade. I inquired, and the cashier said she would sell me 1 compact at 25% off (which is what the BOGO1/2 off works out to). Good deal, as again, I had gone online and found a coupon for $1 off any 1 Neutrogena cosmetic item. My powder came to $10.09, after coupon, saving me $2.90 on that item.

In December, Walgreen's had cream cheese on sale with in-ad coupon for 99 cents each 8-oz brick, limit 4. I tried a couple of stores and found very little stock, so I requested a rain check. I used one of my rain checks and bought my 4 packages.

So far, so good. With these next 2 items I made minor blunders. 1000 sheet bathroom tissue was on sale for 50 cents/roll. When I bought bath tissue through Staples last spring, I paid (pre-tax) just under 48 cents per roll. But the other day, I mistakenly compared the after-tax price, of 51 cents per roll. I bought 6 rolls of Walgreen's 1000 sheet bath tissue at 50 cents per roll, pre-tax, costing me an extra 2 cents per roll, or 12 cents total.

And with facial tissue -- Walgreen's has boxes of their house brand facial tissue on sale for 99 cents. I usually buy facial tissue at Dollar Tree for $1. I thought I'd be saving 3 cents total, on 3 boxes of tissues. However, the Dollar Tree brand boxes contain 175 tissues per box (or .0057142 per tissue), whereas the Walgreen's boxes contain 160 tissues (at .0061875 per tissue). This minor blunder cost me just over 22 cents, total.

Despite my two minor blunders, overall I had a healthy savings of $6.69 (not counting the savings from the cream cheese rain check, as I wouldn't buy cream cheese if it were priced over $1, anyway).

The benefit of making small blunders, like these, is they create a mind-set of vigilance in me, preventing me from making similar blunders in the future. I'm not likely to make the same mistake on facial tissues again. And now I know, Dollar Tree does have a good price on tissues.