Grocery Tally October

We had 51 little scary creatures visit us (trick or treaters) last night, a considerable increase from the 30 we had last year.  I hadn't planned on that many as we have had the 2nd rainiest October on record since they started keeping track of these kind of things and thought that Halloween would be doomed to rain as well.  I was wrong.  It rained in the morning and stopped and there were lots of kids out on this dry night.  They enjoyed our window decorations, done on the cheap of course.  We set set up the skeleton and zombie on Sunday afternoon so all we had to do was turn everything on yesterday.  I hand out candy from 6-830 pm then lights out as you only get teenagers after that who are up to no good.  We spent $32 on candy (and we ate some of it and still have a very small amount left) and $4.99 on Halloween spooky noises and music that we amplified into the neighborhood.  Yeah, our neighbors love us lol.  Apparently hubby downloaded 250 Halloween songs/sounds for $4.99.  At least we will be set for a few years on that front as he had no idea how many came for that price until he looked at the massive download.  Hubby now expects me to find another skeleton or zombie to fill out our other front window for next year.  At garage/thrift store prices of course.

$2 garage sale skeleton (from 2014) plus some Christmas lights and a black tablecloth

.50 cent thrift store zombie (2016) plus a flashlight

On to October grocery results:

The monthly budget including all food, over the counter medications, cleaners and personal products is $550 for the two of us less $55.12 previous months overage = October budget of $494.88.  We ended the month at $505.34 which means I have reduced our year to date overage down to $10.46 which will come off the November budget.  That amount does not include Halloween candy as that comes out of my personal cash spending.  I did a Shoppers Drug Mart point redemption for $60 worth of groceries and $20 worth of PC points.  Add that to a couple of coupons and I got $87.24 in free groceries this month and there are still a few points that can be used towards November and December gifts and groceries!  I love me some freebies.

The fridge, freezer and pantry are 3/4 full although today I do need to go get a couple of items as hubby is cooking dinner tonight and never seems to want to cook what we already have (seriously, does your spouse or family do that?).

Thanks to all your meal suggestions, I intend to try and make some won tons and creole shrimp plus I found some new recipes to try this month.  The goal is to make at least a couple of the following:

Slow cooker Texas pulled pork

Baked Scallops (*only if I can find some inexpensive scallops, a little goes a long way)

Pork Chops Stuffed with Feta and Spinach (low calorie)

Herb and sausage stuffed peppers (low calorie)

Sweet and Tangy Short Ribs (low calorie)

Potato, bacon and corn chowder

Southwest stuffed chicken breast

Vegetarian Mexican casserole (gluten free too)

Aztec Turkey Quinoa Burgers

Avocado Strawberry Salad (*strawberries out of season, may substitute mandarin oranges)

Moroccan stew (*likely will use chicken instead of lamb due to price, will use raisins & apricots)

Spicy Kale and Coconut Stirfry (vegetarian)

On the thrifting front I am now on the lookout for a party outfit as we have been invited to a Christmas party for the company that I used to work at and temped at over the summer.  We will have fun as a lot of those people are my friends and there is always a lovely meal.  I also have to look for more vintage Christmas goodies to resell and for vastly discounted Halloween ghouls for our next years windows.

I have started Christmas shopping as intend to be mostly finished by the end of November.  I find that part of Christmas stressful so try and get it over with as quickly as possible.

November has shaped up to be our busiest month of the year work-wise so I may post less.  We are having a very strong ending to 2016 and 2017 is already shaping up to be a good business year.  This morning hubby was contacted by a film production in Vancouver to possibly do sales coaching for an actor.  They did not tell us the name of the production but by some investigative work on my part I have figured out both the name of the movie and the actors in it, some of which are quite big names although who knows if anything will come of it but either way, it is neat even to be considered.

Have a great week everyone!