Easter

I've been struggling with how to deal with Holidays on this $50.00 budget. I REALLY enjoying the cooking and eating part of Holidays, and we're usually having a decent sized get together with anywhere from 20-50 people. Obviously, I need to be able to pull my weight of the food preparation, and we STILL have to eat for the rest of the week. Plus, I usually have to commit to what I'm bringing before I can see the sale ads! Usually I can kind of guess on some good, affordable recipes. For Thanksgiving, I think I allowed an extra $50.00. Can't remember what I did for Christmas, and for Evangeline's birthday, I think I just ended up spending like an extra $30.00. Not bad for 50 guests! I ended up spending just over $50.00 last night at one store. (I had a $3.00 credit from last week, so I was right on track.) BUT, I forgot cream cheese (a necessity,) and I have a few freebies and cheapies I was intending to get somewhere else. I think I'm just going to do $50.00 + whatever small amount I spend on my second trip tonight. I know that's not sticking to any kind of hard fast rule, but this is my project. I make (or bend) the rules as needed, I guess!

And, for the record, my part of the Easter meal is two key lime pies, strawberries with cream cheese dip and broccoli salad with homemade red wine vinegar dressing.

So, I didn't take a picture of my stuff from yesterday. It was TOO MUCH STUFF to organize. Instead, this is a list of what I got...

1 big bag of Twizzlers - $1.00
3 Roberts half gallon OJs - $.99 (except I guess the limit was 2 because one cost $2.25. BOOO!)
1 Birdseye Steamfresh - $.53
2 Cool Whips - $.99 each
1 can of Minute Maid limeade concentrate $1.38
Eagle Brand Milk $2.35
Lays Wavy Rach $1.67
2 cans of generic kidney beans $.77
1 can of generic pinto beans $.68
1 can of generic corn $.50
2 Keebler graham cracker crusts $1.50 each
1 wide mouth jar of Kraft mayo $2.49 (I had a coupon on top of this, but I can't remember how much it was for)
1 big bag of Mama Lupe's tostadas $1.89
1 Glaceau Vitamin water - free
1 box of family sized El Monterrey chimichangas $1.50
2 Oscar Meyer honey ham slices $2.00 each
1 box of State Fair corndogs $2.00
2 bags of Kraft all natural mild cheddar $1.88 each (less a $1.00 coupon)
1 8oz brick of Kraft mild cheddar $1.88
About 3.5 lbs of broccoli $5.00 (wish I could have gotten a better deal on this!)
2.38 lbs of Pink Lady apples$2.36
8 lbs of strawberries $9.02 (Mom and I were just saying we wondered if we would be able to get strawberries at $.99 ever again. I said in-season I bet we could. This came close though!)

Total after taxes was $55.99. Overall, it was an ok trip. The holiday foods like the condensed milk and ghe broccoli were WAY too much, but I'll get over it. ; )