Success!
This week's groceries totalled $89.12 - precoupons and "store loyalty card" it was $126. Had I not needed two packages of batteries, I could have kept it to under $75 (dayum, batteries are expensive these days! even on sale).
There were a lot of fresh fruit sales this week, which made me happy. Even happier was that immediately upon unpacking the bags, Coop wanted to try the cantelope (which he loved).
I made two loaves of yummer honey whole wheat bread, and am feeling more confident in my bread making skills. Also, as with all of my "fresh cooking" it is so nice to know exactly what is going in our food.
I found the local health food store that sells things in bulk - grains and flours and spices, oh my! I didn't really buy much, but I'm so glad to know there is that option. It is something I have missed greatly since moving to the burbs.
I rotated our two freezer stashes to insure we are eating older foods before newer - while I like to only have about 2 freezer meals a week, it is safe to say we could exist with NO fresh-cooked dinners for about 3 weeks if we had to. We are also down to a nearly zero pre-packaged foods in the freezer stash as well - the only things that were not made at home are: Fresh Fruit popsicles, frozen veggies, Trader Joe chicken nuggets (1 package), a few english muffins, and a box of pierogies. Everything else has been homemade and frozen with love.
Next project is rotating the pantry, working really hard to use the existing prepackaged stuff I have there (ie the bottle of store bought marinade? why did I ever buy this - full of high fructose corn syrup). I am stocked with about 10 different grains (brown rice, wild rice, white rice, quinoa, couscous, israeli couscous, etc) and pastas (whole wheat, regular, lasagne noodles, egg noodles).....
and then of course, trying to figure out how to feed us all for Passover this year. Of all the holidays, THIS is not an easy one to feed a picky family during. Especially with the overlap of Easter with all of its appealing (junky) treats!!