Week 3 Budget Review

I was over last week by quite a bit and started this week off with $73.78 to spend. So, I looked over my local Sprouts flyer, printed off my coupons, piled into the car with my daughter, and headed out to make some deals.


The receipt is outrageously long, so I'll summarize for you:

• Frozen pizza crust dough, Sprouts, 1.79


• 2 dozen eggs and a gallon of organic milk


• Grated romano cheese, 2.79


• grated mozzarella cheese, 2.47


• Sashimi Grade Tuna, 2,70 and 2.92


• Bread crumbs


• Cereal


• Soy Milk


• oat flour


• pirate booty


• snackimals


• Kashi crackers


• 2 small bottled water


• Beef stew


• chicken tenders


• chicken sausage


• pork sirloin roast


• grape tomatoes


• red apples


• red grapes

The total rang up to be $64.82. Not bad at all!

The menu for the week I'm working on is:

1. Cheese Pizza served with fruit.

2. Chipotle Roasted Pork Sirloin with roasted vegetables and mashed potatoes.

3. Beef Stew made in the crockpot.

4. Eggplant Parmesan and baked potatoes.

5. Something with the chicken tenders and the produce we have left at the end of the week.

I was really able to stock up on some meat. I got nearly 2.5 pounds of chicken, which will last for quite a while. I have a feeling there will be some that will be available for next week.

Week 2: Shopping on the Budget

This week I spent more than $110, but it was Urban Acres pick-up week and I took advantage of some great sales at Sprouts. Sprouts was having a sale on certain Thanksgiving items (20% off). I stocked up on olive oil, a big ticket item. It's normally $10 a bottle, but I was able to get it for $5.60.

Two of the items on sale were Organic Pumpkin Puree and organic whole wheat frozen pie crusts (two in the package). The puree had a recipe for pumpkin pie on the label, which I will make this week or next. I'll use the other pie crust to make a quiche with our Urban Acres produce.

Urban Acres, $50

Sprouts, $79.08

The recipe is like a hundred foot long scroll, so I'll just summarize what I got without individual prices. I did save $12.37 by using coupons and taking advantage of 20% off sale.

• Sprouts organic bread
• Sprouts frozen pizza crust dough
• Bulk black beans
• Bulk semi-sweet chocolate chips
• Bulk granola
• Bulk ground cloves
• Bulk brown rice
• Stoneyfield Yogurt
• Organic butter
• Organic eggs (2 cartons)
• Organic sour cream (1 carton)
• Organic Valley mild cheddar
• Goat cheese
• Frozen organic pie shells
• Organic cane sugar (Florida Crystals)
• Pacific organic cream of mushroom soup
• Pacific organic chicken broth
• Pacific organic vegetable broth
• Active dry yeast
• Chipotle seasoning
• 2 bottle Sprouts olive oil
• 1 can organic pumpkin pie puree
• Rye flour
• Beef flank steak
• Chicken breast tenders
• Grape tomatoes
• Organic apples

We made a Walmart run for tortillas to go with the crockpot fajitas I'm going to make this week, raisins to make Cranberry Raisin Bread (my daughter brought the recipe home from school), and the pumpkin pie. When I was standing in the middle of the store I couldn't remember whether the recipe called for evaporated milk or sweetened condensed milk, so I got both. I didn't want to have to run out to the store again.

Walmart, $9 (I can't find the receipt, so I'm estimating here)

• Freshly made tortillas, $2.50
• Raisins, $1.38
• Evaporated milk, $.98
• Sweetened condensed milk, $1.98

Whole Foods, $14.33

• Buffalo Steak (1 pound)
• Organic Valley Milk (1 gallon)

Total for Week 2: $79.08 + $9 + $14.33 +$50 = $152.49 - $6.19 overage from last week = $146.22.

This leaves me with an overage of $36.22 for next week, which won't be a problem. Next week isn't a produce week, so $73.78 should be plenty.