I had the afternoon off and decided to do grocery shopping early. I usually do it on Saturday. Apparently, I had previously loaded e-coupons for $3.00 off meat if I spent $15.00 on meat and also a coupon for chicken and totally forgot about it. There were various other small ones, too and they all totaled to $13.20. But where I normally used to spending $80-$100 at that store, I spent $59.76! It was funny, because I had looked at the clerk's monitor and saw 70 something dollars. So, I was searching through my wallet to get out four twenties. When I looked back up, it said $59.76. What a surprise. At Dollar General, I spent $18.65 using two coupons. At another store, I spent $20.45. At Big Lots, I spent $2.50. I didn't spend much there, but they are the only ones in town that carry the brand of bread my husband eats. It does not have HFCS in it and he is trying to lose weight, so I make a special effort to buy it. Altogether, I spent $106.42 and most of it was in cash. This dependence on cash for grocery shopping is good for me. It makes me think about what I am putting in my cart. And I wasn't depriving myself of anything and even stocked up on dishwashing liquid (bought at Dollar General for $1.00 minus $.50 coupon), more dried beans, and extra canned tuna. I'm loving this.

I took my coin jar to cash it in. I had a total of $2.02. I split up the $2.00 and deposited $1.00 each to the house account and trees account.

I don't have my whole week's menu figured out yet, but I am going to having the following:

1) leftover pea soup from last week. This was my first venture into making pea soup. All pea soup I had ever even smelled just had an awful smell and so I wouldn't even try it. I decided to try making it myself and it turned out wonderful. That will make 3 lunch meals for me.

2) Broccoli slaw with albacore tuna and garbanzo beans. It probably sounds a little weird, but it's quite delicious. I mix in some mayo and some kind of seasoning. This will probably make 2 lunch meals for me.