This morning's trip to the store was a little crazy. It was just SO crowded. At least they had really good samples. The girls and I dined on smoked salmon and ham, mashed potatoes, pizza, pears, brie and eggnog (or eggmog as my three year old calls it!) Who can complain!

Our trip didn't work out as exactly as planned. They were out of the buy 1 get 1 free fish sticks. They offered to sub out the bigger boxes, which was great, but it put me over budget. Looks like they also forgot to ring one of my four coupons for a free 2 liter of Coke. Not cool. For some reason my transaction alone at the store took a good 20 minutes. I thought I was watching pretty closely, but the missed coupon got by me!

Here is what we got --

4 Beechnut baby foods (free + profit from UPromise)
4 big boxes of fish sticks (2 were free)
2 cans of Rotel
4 2 litres of Coke (3 were free)
2 2 liters of Mountain Dew
1 1/2 gallon of hormone free milk
18 eggs
1 1/2 gallon of Ruby Red grapefruit juice (My favorite!)
1 bag of Ore-Ida fries
3.5 lbs of organic pears*
2.82 lbs of bananas
2.10 lbs of Granny Smith's

*One of the best (and easiest) "ideas" I've read for saving money on your grocery bill is to buy produce in bulk and to actually WEIGH the bags. I've tried this several times now. Not only do the bags typically weigh more than the specified amount, but you can also choose one sometimes that weighs significantly more. I've bought three lb bags of apples that actually weigh in at about 5 lbs more than once. Effectively, this reduces the amount you're really paying per pound. Try it out.

My pre-tax total came in at $30.00 even. I had a $10.00 gift card, I was $20 out of pocket. Over-budget by $10. I'm not going to beat myself up over it. I did good on the self-control factor. I just got taken by oversized boxes of fish sticks and a careless checker. I still saved about $29.00.

We have kind of an usual week coming up. I have Mon-Wed off work, but I will be studying very seriously for a continuing ed-type of exam on Thursday. The only days I'll really be working are Thursday afternoon and for a few hours Friday morning. (How did I get so lucky???) I'm not entirely sure what is on the menu for the week. I am making and FINALLY documenting "baby's favorite" as I write this. I also know we'll be having salsa soup tomorrow. Since we'll be home all day, we'll likely bake something. Aside from that, I'm going to be studying away from home, so daddy and the girls will be on their own for the better part of Mon-Wed. We have a a LOT of food right now, but it's sort of a strange conglomeration of things. Oh well. At least we have a lot of chicken and fish sticks.

See this week's other trip here.

For other frugal tips, see LifeAsMom. Join in the menu planning fun at orgjunkie.com.