I spent most of my time getting everything ready for a grocery run. It's the first big one I've done since last August.
This time, I changed things up a bit. It's in the learning curve stage, but I think it's going to work out quite well. Once I run with this procedure one more time to get out the kinks, I'll be sure to share it. It should wind up saving me about six to eight hours of prep and an hour of shopping time. Well worth it.
Today's haul was not bad. I have nearly everything we need for meals until September. I will need to pick up a little bit of produce here and there, along with some dairy. I also need to get some of the meat rounded up. I'm planning on doing that tomorrow. (It's taking a trip to a second store...the prices at my primary store were terrible on anything beef.) As of right now, we're sitting at just under $600. I've saved over $100 in simple couponing. I've changed the way I do that too, so it's less chaotic. We no longer have a newspaper subscription and I get all of my coupons online. I don't use as many coupons, but it's pretty close. And the prep work takes me a lot less time.
Anywho...how about we get this show on the road and see what I accomplished this week?
Posts I Posted: It was the big finale of the A to Z Challenge. X, Y, and Z finished it all off with a bang.
X was for Xilinous and a Boise State Rag Quilt.
Y was for a Yarn-haired Doll.
Z was for a ZigZag Monster.
After that, I did a Month in Review for April, including links to all of the A to Z projects.
I introduced May's theme and gave a little refresher on the Book of the Year process.
I celebrated my Liebster Award nomination and passed the baton off to a few other bloggers.
Recipes I Tried: Nothing terribly creative this week. We went with a few old standbys. I did make sure to put in a few new recipes for the upcoming meal plan (which we start tomorrow), so I'm sure I'll have a few good things to share over the upcoming months. There's a lot of Crockpot meals. That makes me very happy. I'll also be tackling the list this week to see what prep I can accomplish and freeze. The easier I can make it on myself, the better.
Books I Read: I have started off May right. I have finished one book already. Go me! I had a bit of an existential crisis when Goodreads crashed earlier this week, but I was able to post my completion and review of Acts of Contrition by Jennifer Handford. It was a really good read. I'll be putting a full review up here on the blog later in the month. Keep an eye out for it.
I'm now reading A Shining Space by Ailsa Fabian. I'm not quite sure what I think of it yet. The writing is good, but the story is a little different. I don't not like it, how's that?
Projects I Worked On/Finished: I did a simple little project as a present for my cousin's birthday. She turned eight this week. When Darian turned that age, my brother gave him a pile of candy for a present. He loved it. So I did the same for her.
Based on a gift we got from one of the orthodontists I refer to, I sat down at lunch and busted out a rainbow jar of Skittles. It took four of the large bags and a little over an hour. I think it turned out pretty.
She opened her present and promptly shook the jar. Her mother was embarrassed. I laughed.
Favorite Pin of the Week: I'll admit, I have no idea if I'll be able to gather the skill it would take to pull this one off, but I love this adorable Sock Dragon by Joanne over at Craft Passion.
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And that's a wrap on this week! Tomorrow (a few hours from now) will bring a brief return to the A to Z Challenge for a reflections post and then it's right back into book season. I'm actually quite liking it. I will need to be hanging out in the sewing room over the next few weeks though, if I want to get my Etsy shop ready to roll. Maybe this week will see some project completions. One can hope!
One of my grocery stores is pretty picky about online coupons that I print out. If it won't scan they won't take it, no matter what. Sort of wreaks havoc on my planning.
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