First Little Girl Dress

I have never attempted to make clothes before and I found an adorable pattern The Abbey Dress made by Shwin & Shwin. She has the most adorable little girl clothing and shoe tutorials. What's great about this dress is it can be worn as a top the next year.

So, here's the finished product and I think it turned out well especially for my first try. I want to make the pleated mary jane shoes too so someone hurry up and have a girl for me to dress!

Cake Mix Cookies

Orange Cake Mix Cookies

1 box (18-19oz) Cake Mix any flavor

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup vegetable oil

2 Tbsp of water

1/3 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

1/4 cup powdered sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 375. Combine cake mix, egg, oil, and water. Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes or until light golden brown. Sprinkle cookies with powdered sugar if desired.

Makes 3 Dozen

Lil Man giving his seal of approval!

Milk

We go through 2 gallons of milk per week! Did I mention that we are a family of THREE? I can't imagine how many gallons everyone else is going through. My husband keeps joking that with milk prices rivaling the price of gas (ridiculous) that we should invest in a cow. Too bad we live in town. It would be tempting. I have been researching other ways to save on milk. I found an article that shared a way of saving on milk that I had never even considered. The article can be found Here.

Another tip about saving on milk is buy it when it is the cheapest. Right now the cheapest I can find it is $2.19. If you are really super duper lucky you can once in a blue moon find it for $1.99. When you buy it at these prices STOCK UP! You can FREEZE Milk! The trick is to drink a glass before placing it in the freezer to allow for the liquid to expand as it freezes. If you don't you will have a serious mess.

If you have any tips on saving on milk I'd love to hear them!

Freezer Cooking Day

After I lugged all the meat into the house I got busy! Lil man thought it was a holiday because I let him watch movies to keep him entertained while I was in the kitchen.

The Pork Blade Steaks were seperated into 2 freezer bags, labeled, and dated. There were 4 huge steaks in the package and that will easily make 2 meals for our family.

I did the same thing with the Pork ribs.

There were 2 Pot Roasts in the package so one was placed in the freezer while the other one was thrown into the crock pot. Might as well conquer dinner now. I cut up 3 potatoes and dumped in some carrots too and "POOF" dinner is done!!

Now the 8lbs of hamburger. Out of it I made;
1 Meatloaf
12 extra large meatballs
4 hamburger patties
6 Enchiladas
1 Lasagna
1lb cooked taco meat
2 (1lb) bags of unseasoned cooked hamburger (to be used for spaghetti, chili, sloppy joes, etc.)

Extra Large Meatballs

Lasagna

Enchiladas

Pot Roast

My Freezer. We have a chest freezer in the garage too.

From all of the meat we will get a total of 13 meals, plus leftovers. The total of the meat alone was $36.02. When you divide that by 13 it comes out to $2.77 per main course. When you divide that by the total number of people you are feeding it becomes even smaller! In our family that's 3, which makes it $0.92 per person! On top of the money it saves it also saves me TIME! The most dreaded question of my day is, "What's for dinner?" Now we just have to pull something out and pop it into the oven. No prep work involved and minimal dishes!  You might say this is time consuming but, it really wasn't. I started at 9am and had prepared everything, stuck it in the freezer, and did all the kitchen clean up by 12pm. Plus, there were many interruptions and also lunch during this time. Don't get me wrong I was really tired after and took a nap when my son took his. Later that night I froze 1 quart of corn and 3 quarts of green beans from our garden. Then, I made homemade blueberry ice cream. This is not a normal cooking day for me. I hope this encourages you in your efforts to freezer cook.

IGA Meat Sale

I have slowly worked myself into freezer cooking. I started out with little things like chopped onions and peppers. Now, I'm doing main courses. Yesterday, lil man and I went to IGA. This is his fav place to shop because he gets to drive the car at the front of the cart plus, the cashiers always give him a sucker. They were having their family pack meat sale. This is my fav sale! Here's a run down of what I bought;

Hamburger 8lbs- It was on sale for $2.49/lb but, I got there early and got the reduced price meat for $1.99/lb = $15.52

Pork Blade Steaks - $3.76

Beef Chuck Pot Roast (2)- $8.48

Pork Boneless Ribs- $8.26

Pillsbury Biscuits 10/$10- I bought 6 and used 2 $0.30MCs, making them $0.90 per tube

Parkay Stick Margarine 10/$10- I bought 2 and used a $1.00MC, making them $0.50 each

Hamburger Helper 10/$10- I bought 8 and used 2 $0.80 off 4 MCs, making them $0.80 per box
I haven't bought Hamburger Helper in a long time but my husband likes to make it when he cooks so, if I get a night off of cooking I won't complain!

I spent a total of $47.32    According to the receipt I saved $17.90 or 27%. But, they didn't include the sale meat into that so, I saved more than that!

Shopping Results

Lil Man and I went shopping today!

*The prices and coupons for Meijer and County Market can be found on the previous post.

I spent a total of $50.47 at Meijer and saved $40.70 For that I bought:
12 Old Orchard Concentrate Juices
4 dozen eggs
3 packages of Chi Chi Tortillas
3 Peter Pan Peanut Butters
3 pints of blueberries
2 packages of Bar S hot dogs
5 Pillsbury Grands Biscuits
5 large cans Hunt's Spaghetti Sauce
2 lbs organic carrots
2 cans Dole Tropical Fruit Salad
3 packages of Knorr Rice Sides
2 bags of Pretzels
6 cans of Healthy Choice Soups
and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!!

I spent $23.31 at County Market and Saved: $25.05
4 boxes of Cheerios
1 Cantaloupe
12 Prairie Farms Yogurts
32 rolls Scott TP
8 rolls Scott Paper Towels

I spent $19.06 at Aldis and bought;
2 packages Hot Dog Buns  $0.79 per pack
Celery $0.99
Strawberries $0.99lb
3 pack of sweet Peppers for $1.49 (they were $1 per pepper at Meijer)
2 packages Turkey Bacon $2.29 per pack
Saltines $0.89
Vanilla Wafers $1.39
Cheese Crackers $1.49
2 bags Potato Chips $1.39 per bag

The fridge, freezer, and pantry are overflowing. I couldn't fit everything in the pantry! This is a great problem to have. I won't have to buy anything except for milk until late next month or even later!

On the way home there was a porch swing sitting in a lot for sale. I took a chance and called and we will be picking it up tonite. It was a fantastic bargain for $20! Can't wait to post pics!

I'd love to hear how your shopping trips go this week. Feel free to link up!

Tabitha

Grocery Finds Week of: July 24th

*These prices are for the Urbana, IL area

I am very excited about my grocery shopping trip tomorrow! Here's my list:

County Market:
Cantaloupe $1.79
Bananas (usually on Mondays they are $0.39/lb)
Cheerios B1G1 Free + I have (2) $1 off 2 boxes MC
Prairie Farms Yogurt $0.29 + I have (4) B2G1 Free MCs from http://www.prairiefarms.com/ This makes yogurt $0.19 per cup!!
Scott Paper Towels 8 count $4.99
Scott Toilet Paper          I have a MC for $2 off both products

Meijer: I LOVE Meijer's 10/$10 Sale! They give the 11th item FREE!
Large Eggs $0.99/dozen
Old Orchard Juices 10/$10 + (3) $1 off of 4 = $0.66 per juice!
Pretzels 10/$10
Knorr Rice Sides 10/$10
Hunts Pasta Sauce 10/$10
Healthy Choice Soups 10/$10 + (3) $1 off 2 = $0.50 per can!
Dole Tropical Fruit 10/$10 + $0.50 off 2 = $0.75 per can!
Peter Pan Peanut Butter 3/$5 + (3) $0.50MC = $1.08 per jar!
Bar S Hot Dogs 10/$10 + $2MC = 2 FREE packs of Hot Dogs!!
Carrots 10/$10

Aldi:
Strawberries $0.99/lb
Chips
Snack Crackers
Canola Oil

I really like http://www.thekrazycouponlady.com/ She has a searchable database of all the coupons available everywhere and they are in alphabetical order. It save me soooo much time!! That is where I got most of these coupons today!