Welcome! If you are new to Dahoney Designs, let me start by saying....I am no pro-blogger, or pro-photog, or pro-couponer. I am simply a SAHM who likes to share my resources with my friends and family. I post because I am asked to, so please forgive my lack of know how. That being said, I hope you'll find that I save a lot of money and time by using the tricks I write about and I hope you will benefit from being here with us.
So, let's get to the good stuff!! Now since, like a lame-o, I went shopping on the last day of a sale cycle, many of the deals I snagged are no longer good. So, I won't bore you with all the details, just the high points and stuff that you can look out for on your own, mkay? I highly recommend that you follow www.saveathomemommy.com for all the best deals around!!!
I'll say it again....This week I spent $100 on groceries and I came home and made up over 60 meals!!!! Oh, and I did this in about 2 hours while my 22-month-old kiddo slept! Not too shabby!
Here's where the money went:
- $8.62 (after $4 catalina back) at Albertsons. You can see that trip over at Save At Home Mommy here.
- $22.71 at SaveMart. They are selling boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.59/lb on Tuesdays!!! And, they had some Lamb on sale that needed to be cooked or frozen within the next 2 days, so I snagged that up. Yes I did.
- $53.33 at Winco. I like to use Winco for anything I don't have a coupon or "deal" for. FoodsCo is also a great choice, but Winco has bulk bins with healthy ingredients and they carry a greater non-processed food selection.
- $13.66 at Smart & Final. $0.25 for a can of Hunts Tomato Sauce. Don't mind if I do!!!
Total $98.32 + the soda I bought to keep me going (DaHubby calls this "the cost of doing business")
= $100 for everything pictured above. These deals were achieved by following www.saveathomemommy.com. I used some coupons, but mostly looked for great deals and took full advantage of them.
Now, you'll notice if you look carefully, that there are things that aren't going into my freezer meals. For instance, I do no intend to eat paper towels or garbage bags and coffee, tofu noodles, and Pringles don't fair so well in a crockpot. Well, maybe coffee. I haven't tried that. ...Hmmm.... Anyhoo! I'm not deducting the cost of these items because I want to be fair to my readers. I do pull items from my stockpile to create these meals. I count things like milk, some spices, flour, etc. as staples that you should have on hand. But, if you're new at this sort of thing, I don't want you to be discouraged that you can't really make this happen for $100. Call it my budget-padding grace to you. ;)
Here's where the food went/is going:
- 16 Freezer Burritos from Save At Home Mommy, recipe here. (Please note that I buy rice and beans at stockup prices in like mega-quantities so I already had these on hand. Do yourself a favor and do the same, cuz once you try these burritos, you'll be making them all the time. I recommend buying them at Smart & Final or FoodsCo. I've figured this out several times, and the price per burrito is usually about $0.50 each!!! I serve them with fresh fruits and veggies.)
- 4 (4 serving) bags of Chicken, Broccoli, and Rice Casserole from Money Saving Mom, recipe here. (She has a great series on Freezer Cooking that can be done over the course of 4 weeks that I loooo-ooove!!)
- 1 (8 serving) bag of BBQ Chicken for Pulled Chicken sandwiches from Eating Well, recipe here. (You won't see this in the picture because it was already in the slow-cooker!! I will be splitting this with another family and we'll still have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.)
- 1 (4 serving) bags of Chicken n' Cherries from Mama And Baby Love, buy her Ebook here.
- 2 (4 serving) bags of Healthy Mama BBQ Chicken from Mama and Baby Love, seriously it's worth the few bucks to get her Ebook!!!
- 2 (4 serving) bags of Morrocan Lamb from Mama and Baby Love, ok, please just visit her darling site here.
- Smoothies- not pictured, but our favorites include Green Monster found here and the super charged Coffee Protein Shake found here.
- Sandwiches- you saw bread, one is frozen, the other is in the process of being used with the meat and cheese you see in the "grocery" picture above. My little monster loves his "butter-sanich" too, aka Peanut Butter, which is always in the stockpile.
- Extras- I always have things like oatmeal, pancake mix, eggs, etc. on hand, and occasionally, I'll whip up some homemade protein bars from here. (So good! It's like cake!)
60 meals plus the sandwiches, smoothies, and extras made from stuff on hand and the fruits, etc in the picture up top!!!!! Since each bag contains 4 servings and most of these meals go into the slow cooker, my life is going to be pretty easy in August... well, in the kitchen, it will be easy. There's no telling what kind of other crap is gonna pop up. ;) Each night, when I dish up dinner, I put a serving on each plate for Dahubby and I, and 2 more servings into individual tupperware for lunch tomorrow. I pull out a smoothie and let it defrost in the fridge overnight. So, in the morning, all Dahubs has to do is grab his smoothie, his tupperware of lunch, and some apples, carrots, almonds, etc for snacks!! Easy. Peasy.
Since I do this on a regular basis, I'll be adding these meals to a few I've already got in the freezer. That means.....you guessed it! I don't have to cook for the rest of the month!!!!! If you weren't motivated before, I think you might be now. Plus, I have the rest of the month's grocery budget to buy fresh fruits and veggies, milk, and stockpile items for next month. Can you say "snowball effect"?!?
Puh-leeeeaaase make sure that you gather all your recipes before you start. Plan meals and shop according to what you have on hand, what you can get on sale/with a coupon, and then what you need to fill in the gaps.
Have fun! I hope you get a freezer full of healthy goodness!!! Love, Dahoney
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