I had a reader/friend say this week that he wasn't quite sure HOW I was getting the deals that I blog about. It's totally valid feedback. I don't write much about that aspect of this $50/week grocery project simply because I feel like there are lots of people that already do that. More so, my intent is to show what it looks like to eat and cook well on a tight budget. That being said, the resource I use the MOST is www.moneysavingmom.com. I usually also check out the Hy-Vee sales at www.couponmom.com. I also frequent coupons.com (although I do not currently have a printer), the coupon previews at www.thecouponclippers.com (to determine how many papers I think I need) and just the general Sunday circulars. That's about all I have time for! Actually, if you could see my coupon mess right now, you would know that I don't even have time for that!

Publish Post

Now, moving on to this week's trip. Hy-Vee had some super great sales. We got there pretty late in the evening, and they were pretty picked over. It's not so bad though. I love picking up rain checks for weeks when the sales may not be so great. I came home with four really good ones tonight!

Now, here's a breakdown of what I got. (Sorry the picture is blurry. I was having a hard time getting my spokes model to stand still.)

2 4-packs of Jumbo muffins
1/2 gallon of Robert's OJ
1 big tub of Hy-Vee cottage cheese
1 Smart Balance butter(ish) spread
1 Smart Balance sour cream (free)
1 box of Smuckers Uncrustables (free)
2 Valley Fresh broccoli and cheese Steamers
2 Freschetta pizzas
1 Crisco with DHA (love this stuff)
2 boxes of chocolate Chex
1 can of Hy-Vee black beans
1 4 lb bag of Hy-Vee sugar
4 cans of Hy-Vee mandarin oranges
1 Jif Natural
1 bag Hy-Vee powdered sugar
1 bag of Mission tortillas
1 bag of Nestle's chocolate chips
2 boxes of Pillsbury brownies
2 tubs of Pillsbury frosting
1 bag of Pillsbury flour
1 can of Rotel
3 jars of Smuckers Simply Fruit
1 Always Infinity (free)
1 gallon of Organic Valley milk (FREE!)
2 8 oz bags of Hy-Vee cheese
1 Kraft Singles
1 Dole Baby Spinach
5.22 lbs of pears
5.89 lbs of Apples

My pre-tax total was $51.05! I saved right around $35.00 with coupons. (That is SO my best coupon total on a $50 budget EVER!) I don't know exactly what my sale savings was, but it should have been pretty good! I'm guessing I very easily came in at saving 60+% of the total cost, which is pretty good considering this is all of the shopping I'll be doing this week. It's easy to have a high savings when you're making lots of little purchases -- not so easy when you're on stop shopping!

We're staying home tomorrow to cook for the week and get the house cleaned up a little. We're going to make breakfast cookies and salsa soup. I also STILL have not made "baby's favorite," but I will on Sunday or so when my pears are ripe. I also got a super great sounding maple pear upside down cake recipe from a friend that I think we'll give a whirl. (I will certainly be sharing all of these recipes tomorrow and through the course of the week.) Also, my daughter takes snacks to preschool this week, so we'll be making pumpkin muffins.

As far as our other meals go, we have a few functions at church, my mom's and my work where we will be fed. We'll be eating meals of things like taco soup, tuna noodle salad, tortillas with black beans and cheese, baked potatoes with broccoli and cheese, fish sticks and fries, frozen pizza and whatever other goodies I can come up with! We'll be snacking on biscuits and jelly, muffins, breakfast cookies and cereal. Lunches, as usual, we'll be brown bagging!

See last week's $50/week grocery project here.

See also cha-chingonashoestring and orgjunkie.com.