November Grocery & Coupon Tally & Festival of Trees

We took my stepdaughter to the Festival of Trees this weekend where all the proceeds go to a charitable hospital foundation. The crowds were large but we enjoyed ourselves.

Birds and feathers were a popular theme as well as black and white trees.

(look closely, those are peacock feathers)


One of the biggest attractions was this tree made of plastic zip ties - over 40,000 were used in the construction.

Onto November results:

November Food Budget (Thrifty Plan) $426.57 plus surplus from October budget
$1.05=$427.62

Actual $427.24. Woohoo made budget with .38 to spare which is added to December's Budget

Coupons used $28.68
Coupons year to date used $487.90

Meat including products that included meat(like soup): $71.40
Even lower than last month but I still managed to stock up-the cupboards are fuller at the end of this month than last knowing we will be here for at least four months I managed to stock up a little. I got a great deal mid-month on pork tenderloin for $18 that was then cut into portions for 7 porkchop meals for two in the freezer. I also bought 20lbs of potatoes and 10lbs of onions which are inexpensive staples good to have on hand.

This month I will be looking for sales on Turkey, shrimp and chocolate chips.

I had several apples that were starting to get soft so made a nice batch of apple crisp last week. I threw in some raisins and sweetened dried cranberries I had on hand - it was a hit.

My Amish friendship cinnamin loaf (see previous post here)turned out great - but no photos as it is 98% eaten. I have started another batch to bake in 8 days time.

I did manage to sneak back to Goodwill and pick up the four Andy Warhol butterfly dishes(as mentioned in previous post) for $1.98 for all four (I left tags on as proof!)The are safely tucked away in a box packed for Vancouver Island.

I found another item to take to Goodwill this week: Oversized wreath (2' x 2') which is simply too big to pay to ship to another Province. No, this one is far too big for the front door to replace the one wrecked by the wind last week. This used to go over our downstairs fireplace mantle. One less piece of Christmas crap to deal with and hopefully some crafter will pick it up on the cheap (originally bought at Michaels with a 50% off coupon of course)
.

The house is decorated, over half of the Christmas shopping is completed and the Christmas cards were sent out. Now I can relax a little bit.