Call the po po, ho!

Despite my earlier warnings on keeping a cool, couponing head, I might have gone on a spree.

You see, in addition to his gatorade/powerade habit, mr man is also a huge fan of Coke Zero. In my money saving zeal, I talked him down from his can preference and showed him the wisdom in switching to two liters. I still have to buy two containers every few days, but a $1.50 two liter is decidedly less expensive than a $4 12 pack.

Dude, that was a really long way of saying that I need to buy this man a couple two liters every few days in order to save my poor children's lives from the wrath of caffeine depravity. So of course, when confronted with bright red coupons dangling from the cap of that tell tale bottle, I snatched one, delighted by my find. $1 off 2 two liters!! The heck I will!

Then I got to the aisle and suddenly it occured to me that I could take more of these coupons. I mean I always grab more than one when they are affixed to a glob of glue on the shelf, yes? So why not just pluck them right off the bottle?

Yeah, I stole coupons and I'm glad, glad I tell ya!!

Okay, so perhaps this is way more exciting in my own mind but I told you couponers were crazy, mmmkay? Don't be surprised that I caught a case of the savings sniffles myself.

Let's just talk about this week's grocery list instead.

$48.03 forr one week!! This might be my most glorious grocery related accomplishment yet! (Oh the joys of parenting, right?) But it's pinky's birthday party this weekend and I need the extra scratch. So lest you think my poor babies are eating ramen and stone soup like some sort of English orphan, without further ado, I present, my menu.

Sunday: Smoked sausage with squash, zucchini, mushrooms, and rice

Monday: Stroganoff Hamburger Helper with salad

Tuesday: Spaghetti with salad and garlic bread

Wednesday: Dinner at church but since mr man works nights, I'll be feeding him leftover Sunday dinner

Thursday: Split pea soup with cornbread

Friday: BLT's/grilled cheese and tomato soup

Saturday: Vaguely Spanish rice with chorizo and peppers

So how exactly did this miracle occur? Weeeeellllll, take a deep breath and prepare for grocery store strategery/hot mess word vomit.

Smoked sausage was on sale for $2.50, I had a $ .55 off coupon, and I only use half in any given recipe so I split it between Sunday and Tuesday meaning I spent a dollar for the protein for each meal. Also for both meals the squash and zucchini that was 10lbs for $10 that I only needed half a pound each, which works out to two each, one for each night. Add $1.67 for eight oz of mushrooms, also split between the two meals. I'm sitting on a jar of prego in the cabinet and added a large can of crushed tomatoes to the cart for for $1.15, half of which I'll be reserving for the Spanish-ish rice on Saturday.

Also already in the cabinet, a bag of split peas, boxes of cornmeal and spaghetti noodles, and a couple cans of tomato soup. I've had half a tube of chorizo in the freezer since the Awesome Cuban Stew Discovery of June and the new crop of peppers in my garden will be ready to harvest by Saturday.

Just to round things out, I added salad instead of my usual frozen veggies as side dish for two of my dinners when I decided to have BLT's. It helps that I forgot to make guacamole to grace my quesadillas last night leaving two avocados in the crisper drawer.

Add two boxes of cereal, powerade, the adorementioned Coke Zero, some powerade, and a couple other extras and there you go, $48.03.