Frugal March chatter (Marching on with Savings) cont'd Frugal Feb....

[jasperandchar]

I do the same thing if I underspend 1 week I add the left over $ to the next week and so on this way it all balances out atleast that is my hope.

Sounds like you are well stocked up for baking which is awesome.

After taking a few deep breathes and getting a cup of tea I sat down and added up our groceries from today. In total we spent $82.83 which is $12.83 over. Normally our budget is $50/week but I had $20 left over from a couple of weeks ago when I only spent $30 on groceries.

Maybe it is just the way I do it but if we come in under I like to keep the money off to the side in case it is needed later. I am hoping that this year when we get to Christmas instead of increasing our grocery budget I will have extra money we can use.

What blew my budget was flour (I spent almost $25 on flour this week - 2 x 10lb All Purpose 1 x 2.5Kg Bread Flour 1 X 2.5kg Cake & Pastry Flour and 1 x 2.5kg Whole Wheat flour) and almost picked up 3 roasts which were not on my list. I knew I would probably grab one to cook for dinner tomorrow night but we ended up with 3 so 2 will go in the freezer for later.

[SassyAshley]

The 10 lb bags are on sale at No Frills for $8.77 and I had $1 off coupons so I got them for $7.77/bag

The 2.5 kg bags are on sale at Giant Tiger for $3.97 and I had $1 off coupons so I got them for $2.97/bag

I do some baking not a lot, the bread flour is for me and my bread machine. Mom does a lot more baking as she makes cakes and other goodies. I am trying to get into making more of my own snacks to take to work but I highly doubt that will happen this month since it seems like every weekend there is something someone points out I need to do. Since I am going between locations for the month, I was hoping to spend weekend at home but right now looking like this won't happen.

All and all it was an awesome week for baking supplies as we also got Crisco Shortening for $0.99 and Crisco Oil for $2.99. Now I just need to find a home for all of these items.

Sounds like you still did great with all of that! Where is flour on sale?
Are you a big baker?

[jasperandchar]

Today is my baking day but since it's ds's birthday, I've already made the cheesecake filing and I guess I will do my baking later this afternoon or maybe I should just get too it now............okay I think I need to do it now as I know I will be too tired after the drive back & forth and then all the socializing which tires me out with my health issues.

So off to make choc. chip cookies now before I wimp out!

[SassyAshley]

Oh how I feel you, I have been sitting here for 2 hours thinking of everything I should do. So far I have made tea and that is all.

Today is my baking day but since it's ds's birthday, I've already made the cheesecake filing and I guess I will do my baking later this afternoon or maybe I should just get too it now............okay I think I need to do it now as I know I will be too tired after the drive back & forth and then all the socializing which tires me out with my health issues.

So off to make choc. chip cookies now before I wimp out!

[Frugal Lisa]

Baking!! I love baking, a few weeks ago flour went on sale for $5.99 (10kg) their no name brand. I bought 3!! Than last week yeast was on sale for $3.99 so I got two of those. I usually make our bread and buns, and most of our treats so it was a great stock up for me! If you want to make buns or homemade pizza this is the recepie that I use.

http://www.frugalfamilytimes.com/201...-in-5.html?m=1

[macw1960]

Oh how I feel you, I have been sitting here for 2 hours thinking of everything I should do. So far I have made tea and that is all.

LOL...I have been on this computer longer and like you all I have done is make tea but I do have cookies to make also for the cookie monster (DH) in the house for work.

[lecale]

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[SassyAshley]

Most No Name brands are name brands you just need to figure out who packages for who. Still looking for which No Name Brand is Old Tyme Syrup, most are Aunt Jemima and not a big fan of their syrup (I know I know I am weird).

We have tried Five Roses flour and it is not the same as Robin Hood and I have heard No Name and Five Roses are the same. So I just spend the little extra to get Robin Hood. Plus Robin Hood offers the most specialty flours at the best prices.

A note about flour, dh used to work in a flour mill at one point and they bagged flour for any company...both no name and brand name came from the same huge silo of flour. They would get bags shipped in from the companies that wanted flour and changed which bags they ran on the machinery but it was all coming from the same silo. I buy no name flour now because of this.

[SassyAshley]

I got an awesome deal on Milk yesterday. I was shopping in Superstore and just kind of wondering around and found a big yellow BLOWOUT Sticker on the TruTaste 4L Skim Milk. I had a couple of the Coupon Zone $1 off any TruTaste Milk. So I made $0.01 on buying Milk. I know Superstore is not supposed to give overages and even pointed this out to my cashier but since it was a Coupon Zone coupon she scanned it and it took a $1 off so she shrugged her shoulders and said it scanned at a $1.

The milk goes bad in 3 days but we are going to freeze it and Mom will use it for her baking. I wanted to pick up a few more bags but Mom would not go for it since we are trying to empty our freezer.

[Insane]

Making a turkey tonight. I love making turkey. Although it's expensive initially we get SO many meals out of it. I always by the BIGGEST turkey I can find.

[jasperandchar]

3 dozen + 10 cookies, atleast it's done (lol) - I will make some later tonight as I need to defrost some butter.

Today is my baking day but since it's ds's birthday, I've already made the cheesecake filing and I guess I will do my baking later this afternoon or maybe I should just get too it now............okay I think I need to do it now as I know I will be too tired after the drive back & forth and then all the socializing which tires me out with my health issues.

So off to make choc. chip cookies now before I wimp out!

[SimplifiedMommyTips]

I spent $20.33 for lunch today for our 11th year anniversary , it's been a while since we ate a prepared meal so that was a treat for me and DH and of course for the kids, my eldest son help me bake a banana cake for snacks and will be making white bread for breakfast tom. yesterday I stocked up for baking supplies hopefully to last until the next sale for flour, spent a little bit more but will not be buying bread that will save me more money than what I spent for the baking stuffs. Tried making donuts yesterday from pizza dough and it can out okay, will try to improve the recipe, practice makes it perfect, trying to teach my eldest son how to bake, he is very interested in helping me bake, there is a left over from the pizza dough so will make some pretzel for tomorrow's snack to bring for their soccer game.

[Caseythegoalie]

I had planned on baking this afternoon but apparently somebody used up the butter and didn't tell me........(not naming any names here DH). Not going out now, will head out tomorrow.
I was supposed to go grocery shopping this morning but just couldn't get it going...so we will eat from the pantry tonight. Or a frozen pizza. I bought some fresh fruit, milk and eggs yesterday so we are ok for school lunches too
I went to No frills because they had milk on sale $3.88 with a tear pad coupon for $1 beside which of course was empty GRR! I could have cried

[jasperandchar]

good to know lecale, thanks for sharing

A note about flour, dh used to work in a flour mill at one point and they bagged flour for any company...both no name and brand name came from the same huge silo of flour. They would get bags shipped in from the companies that wanted flour and changed which bags they ran on the machinery but it was all coming from the same silo. I buy no name flour now because of this.

[jasperandchar]

I sure wish I knew who packaged Heinz ketchup, when the kids are not around I fill the `HEINZ`bottles with the no name ketchup (me bad) and they don`t say anything BUT if they take the no name ketchup out of the bottle - they always say Heinz ketchup tastes so much better ! I`m evil!!!

Most No Name brands are name brands you just need to figure out who packages for who. Still looking for which No Name Brand is Old Tyme Syrup, most are Aunt Jemima and not a big fan of their syrup (I know I know I am weird).

We have tried Five Roses flour and it is not the same as Robin Hood and I have heard No Name and Five Roses are the same. So I just spend the little extra to get Robin Hood. Plus Robin Hood offers the most specialty flours at the best prices.