Breakfast:

I had a super busy morning and was so caught up in what I was doing, I forgot to eat breakfast. Ooops! Meanwhile, A friend had made a batch of cookies and gave some to us, so Jai had Macadamia Nut cookies as his “Brunch” and I enjoyed some later on, too!

Lunch:

I scrambled an egg and added leftover rice and stir fry from the previous night’s dinner, to make my own take on egg fried rice:

Dinner:

Nachos & corn on the cob:

To make these, I cooked a package of ground pork seasoned with taco sauce and layered it on top of tortilla chips. Then I added two cans of black beans from my stockpile, copped onion & cilantro, sour cream, and cheese. Frugal tip: I had several packets of taco sauce in my fridge from Taco Bell – any time I go there, they give me way more sauce packets than I could ever put on one taco. I used this as the seasoning, and we enjoyed it!

This made a huge mound of nachos, and it was very good. Since the nachos were so plentiful, I cut one corn cob in half and just served that as the side. It’s cheaper to buy 3 corn cobs at Safeway than 2, which is why I always end up with an uneven amount!

This would be a great meal for a larger family. Since there’s just two of us, we’ll be enjoying the leftovers!

Here’s yesterday’s menu:

Breakfast: Oatmeal. Remember all the boxes of oatmeal I got for .07 cents back in November? We are still enjoying that stockpile.

Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches and mandarin orange pieces. I didn’t have time to start the breadmaker, so I decided to serve it on hamburger buns instead.

Jai and I both have hectic work schedules, so we don’t always eat at the same time. If you just see one plate in the photo, then that means that Jai had the same thing later, unless I note otherwise.

Dinner: Yesterday afternoon, Jai fixed a computer for a good friend of ours. To thank him, she had made him some of her special lo mein noodles. So I guess this would go under the “bartering” category!

I went to the store last night to pick up some half-and-half for $2.29. This brings our running total to $8.14.

Here’s our menu for Day 8 –

Breakfast: Yogurt and oatmeal. We also got a bag of coffee for $5.85, our first purchase of the week.

Lunch:

I made egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread. Jai took his to go:

I had mine with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of Crystal Lite iced tea.

Dinner:

Leftover garlic chicken and roast potatoes:

We have tons of chicken left, but my plate looks pretty sad because I didn’t have much of an appetite. Jai got home from work pretty late so there’s no picture of his plate.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Here’s our menus for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday:

Friday –

Breakfast: I had yogurt, while Jai opted for leftover casserole.

Lunch: I had a piece of pizza leftover from the night before, along with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of coke.

Jai had more casserole. He could have eaten something else, but he really liked the casserole!

Dinner: I opted for my favorite quick-and-easy stockpile meal for hectic nights – Pasta Roni. I used a box of Nature’s Way Mushrooms in Cream Sauce, and added two cans of tuna and some green olives. I served this with some salad that needed to be used up.

(The second plate is empty because Jai hadn’t gotten back from work yet!)

Saturday –

Breakfast: I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I skipped breakfast. Jai ate the rest of that casserole!

Lunch: Since I was still feeling a bit off, I just wanted something simple and plain for lunch – so we had fresh, warm homemade bread served with a choice of butter, jam or peanut butter and applesauce.

Dinner: That afternoon, I went to the store and bought chicken, pork, and a gallon of milk for $7.86. This was my last shopping trip for the week, bringing my final grocery total for the week to $16.90 – far below our $50 allotment. Since I’d had a pretty rotten week, we decided to take the leftover money in our budget and have some fun. We went out for dinner to a restaurant we like:

We spent $21.55 for two hamburgers and fries, a beer, and tip. After dinner, we also got two ice cream cones for $3.08. Our final total for the week was $41.53.
It was a fun night out – sticking to a budget doesn’t necessarily have to mean sacrificing things you enjoy.

Sunday –

We had a nice brunch of pancakes:

When I’m making pancakes for just the two of us, I find it easier to make one big pancake and cut it in half. (When I have company over, I make smaller ones and keep them on a warm plate in the oven until they’re all finished.) I had a lot of batter left, and there were several more pancakes made after I snapped this picture!

Dinner:

I used the chicken I had bought on Saturday to make a big pan of Garlic Chicken and Roast Potatoes:

This chicken is slow-cooked, and so good, especially with fresh-pulled garlic from my garden.

This is an example of one way to save on meat. This package of drumsticks only cost $4.01, and makes a big meal – especially when combined with potatoes, a frugal staple. You could make this meal for about $5, and you get a lot of food for your money. Since there’s only two of us, we’ll get a few meals out of leftovers from this dish, but it could easily serve a larger family.

Click here to access a “Try-Me-Free” rebate form for Tyson Skillet Creations. They also have printable coupons available on that page for $1 off – this would lower your initial out-of-pocket investment, and who knows, it could possibly turn it into a money-maker, although I’m not sure.

Thanks to Coupon Cravings and everyone else who posted about this deal!

This morning I got the news that my Grandma has passed away. So this is dedicated to her memory – the photo you see above is a snapshot of her holding me as a baby. We love you, Grandma.

Today we have a post from Mercedes of Common Sense With Money! Her blog is one of my daily reads for the scoop on the latest deals and coupons. Here she shares her tips for saving money on clothes by shopping at consignment stores.

About Mercedes:

Hi, I am Mercedes of Common Sense with Money. I am a Certified Public Accountant and MBA who left the workforce to become a stay-at-home mom for my two sons ages 3 1/2 years and 10 months old. I was born and raised in the country of Honduras where I grew up learning how to be resourceful with the limited income that we had.

I started my blog in October of 2007 because I wanted to share my money saving efforts with other people. We are a family that lives a frugal lifestyle while still being able to achieve the goals we have set out for our future. I wanted people to see that you can not only “make it on one income” but you can thrive on one!

As much as I like to bargain hunt up until recently I did very little consignment store shopping. Regularly I save money by buying clothes on clearance at the store or online, shopping off season at the outlet stores or by hitting garage sales .

However, as my children get older, I am finding that it is getting harder and harder to predict their size next summer or next winter. Suddenly that coat I bought at the end of last winter is still too big for my oldest to wear or the winter clothes that I had saved from my first are too small on the baby. Last month I needed to find a winter coat for my oldest right at the beginning of winter season but I didn’t want to pay the premium price from shopping for the item when there’s the most demand for it.

I was lucky enough that a consignment store recently open here in my town. I figured it was time to explore this new possibility for saving money. I was pleasantly surprised. After speaking to the store owner I found out that you can save money at consignment stores because you can find gently used clothing at a deep discount. This appealed to me because usually when I go to garage sales I find very worn items of clothing. But at a consignment store the owner usually selects items of clothing that are in good shape to sell in the store. After all it is the store’s business to make sure that an item sells and worn out items don’t appeal to anyone.

But the savings don’t stop there. You can make money too by bringing your own gently used clothes and leave them for sale on consignment. By doing this not only are you making sure that you get more for your used clothes than you would probably get at a garage sale but you also get money you can use in the place where you can stretch it even further.

This post originally appeared on Common Sense With Money in November 2008.