Hopelessly Over Budget Again

I am once again frustrated by where my $50 got me this week. We made a trip to two different stores this morning, and I had an impossible time with coupons. Very few sale match ups that I could come up with. I also had an inconsolable 2 year old screaming through the majority of my trip to Hy-Vee. Not fun! I even tried to bribe her with hot dogs, Pringles and a balloon. Didn't work.

Our first trip to Price Chopper was pretty successful! We really only went there because I needed apples to make baby's favorite. I needed a LOT of apples. My new crock pot is BIG. I picked up the other really good deals while I was there. I got:

1 BC cake mix

10 lbs of apples

2 jars of organic Ragu

1 24 oz bag of American Beauty pasta

1 bag of Gold Medal flour

1 bag of generic sugar

My pre-tax total was $15.29. I saved $17.56. Not bad!

Really, my problem was having $35 at Hy-Vee. Knowing that we actually needed food that we could eat for meals, and that I didn't have all that much cash left was frustrating! I needed to be able to think things through really clearly, but with the screaming little one, it was totally impossible. We got:

1 dozen eggs

2 1/2 gallons of generic OJ

1 lb of frozen peaches

1 Jack's piza

1 Carnation evaporated milk

1 Earthgrains 100% whole wheat bread

1 Hunts ketchup

1 generic raisin, nut and seed trail mix

1 lb of generic spaghetti

1 can of generic tomato sauce

1 can of black beans

2 bottles of Old Orchard juice

1 can of Pringles (expensive baby bribery)

1 package of Sara Lee bagels

1 Sobe Life Water (free)

1 package of Oscar Meyer hot dogs

2 bags of Tyson frozen chicken breasts

1/2 gallon of generic 2% milk

2 tubs of Robert's cottage cheese

2 bags of generic shredded cheese

7 lbs of bananas

All in all, we should be able to eat just fine this week. The problem is just that we went overbudget at $46.00 pre-tax on this trip alone. There are definitely a few things I could have and should have put back, but I just didn't have the clarity of mind to do so.Oh well!

I did make a huge batch of baby's favorite last night. It took all 10 lbs of the apples and 1 lb of frozen peaches easily. Evan with apples at $.69/lb, it got expensive! I miss my free apples! They just eat SO much of it, but I can't justify not making it when it's so healthy and they like it so much.

Our other meals this week will include Mexican crockpot chicken and cranberry crockpot chicken. I'm also going to share a recipe for Pumpkin Pudding that I got from my mother in law. Hopefully we'll make that tonight! We'll otherwise be snacking on hot dogs, cottage cheese, bananas, scrambled cheesy eggs, etc. I have. We're also thankful to have a few events going on this week where we will be fed! Love that!