Thursday - Errands

In an effort to save some money, I've been running all my errands on one day each week.
Yesterday was the day.
I had lunch with my favorite handsome little man.

And then, since Sweet Tooth Fairy was right across the street... (Coincidence? I'll never tell.)

Jaxon had the "grasshopper" cupcake. That was the one he chose the first time we went there and it's the only one he'll ever get. If it ain't broke, don't fix it I guess.
Next stop: Best Buy. In another bold move to reduce our costs, I am leaving Verizon. Ack! Scary, right?
I bought a new phone. A prepaid plan will give me more features for half the price I was paying Verizon.

 Touch screen. woohooo! Look at me being all 5 years ago!
Of course, it's not set up yet. I wanted to keep my old phone number but the half dozen Best Buy associates at the cell phone desk were WAY too busy discussing the impending BYU basketball game to be of any assistance to little old me. Pfft! So I'm doing it on my own. If you need to call me...you might want to try the home phone for a couple of days.
Stupid sports!!!
Next stop was the bank.
Then the water place. No matter how much I want to save money, I CANNOT drink the water that comes from our tap. Gag!
Then on to Comcast to deliver one box full of expensive television paraphernalia.

Another cost cutting move.
I'm not gonna lie. I had some anxiety while disconnecting all this stuff. With each wire I removed I was thinking about the 15 episodes of Castle that I DVRed but never got around to watching. And the 12 episodes of The Upside Down Show that Jaxon has watched about 30 times each.
But we still have basic cable and now we have Netflix streaming in whenever we want, so I think we'll be okay.
We'll be okay, right? *whimper*
Next stop was the airport to pick up Dad returning from a business trip.

Can I just say that people who don't PARK to wait in the PARK and wait lot really tick me off?
It's already a pretty tight squeeze in there and they just kind of pull off to the side of the entry and exit lanes and make it even harder to maneuver around when your pick up is ready. Grr!!!
The rest of the evening was spent having some dinner and getting the TV's hooked back up with basic cable.
Refreshingly simple task when you decide to go "old school" with television.
Dave Ramsey would be so proud. I'll be calling his show to yell, "We're debt free! FREEEEEDOOOOMMM!!!!" if it kills me.

Another RENEWAL!

I've decided to renew my fabric envelope business.


I can't believe it's been almost 3 years since I started making these. I've had a lot of people asking about them over the past year or so. It seemed like a good time to make them again.
A little extra snow, ya know?

What we did today

Unloaded one very used up rattle trap van which served us well for 9 years and a hundred thousand miles.
And brought home a new baby.

Five big leaps in our baby steps to financial peace!

It's bonus time for Roger.
The good kind of bonus. Worked hard for and earned by honest people making an honest living.
Not the kind that turns entire economies upside down and puts words like "bail out" and "stimulus" on the tip of every tongue. ugh!
So today we took five big leaps forward.
Five accounts paid in full.
Five steps closer to being debt free except for the mortgage.

We've been "living sacrificially today, to pay off our past and change our future" for just over two years now.
It feels so good to be nearly done. To be modeling something positive for our kids. Teaching them to clean up their messes, be responsible and make good choices going forward. And to be proud of themselves for working hard and doing the right thing. Even when the world says you "deserve" more than you can afford. Who "deserves" the stress that debt brings with it?
I hope our example helps them get a better start at life as grown ups. I hope they won't make as many mistakes as we did before they learn that there's a better way.

Ahh...it's a good day today. :)
We should PARTY ALL NIGHT!!!
But...Kenzie and Roger are at the dentist right now. Both getting some serious stuff done. And they're both miserable with colds. So is Jaxon., And there are errands to do, meals to prepare, laundry that needs washing.
You know...life. Just another day here in paradise.
But we can at least have some party music right?
Here are a few PARTY ALL NIGHT selections for us to enjoy while we get busy on those last few steps to debt freedom.
*Man! The 80's were good for party songs, huh? I enjoyed the 80's. ;)







Something a little newer...


WHEW!!! That was fun! Makes me wanna go make my hair all big. ;)

This and That (Weigh in too!)

What a week! Have I ever gone a whole week without blogging since I started this thing? LOL
I've been keeping very busy.

~Monday I went over to my friend, Paula's, house. We cooked some lunch and had a nice, long visit. She seems to be doing really well. I was so worried about her after her daughter passed away earlier this year. And she continues to be challenged by people in her life who ought to know better, care more, be more compassionate. But she is strong. Stronger than she has ever given herself credit for in the 22 years that I've known her. I managed to convince her to go with me on a weekend getaway in a couple of weeks. I'm really looking forward to it. Look out, Logan! Here we come!

~I've been having some financial rebellion in my heart the past couple of weeks. There have been SEVERAL conversations with myself about how nice it would be to have a new house. I don't know why that is. I've always had such a sentimental attachment to this house that I could never imagine leaving it. I don't know what has changed. But I have been able to maintain my sanity enough to realize that now is not the time for us to be thinking about buying a new house. We are just around the corner from being debt free. Maybe when we get there we can think about a new house. Or maybe I'll have changed my mind again by then, who knows?

~Sort of on that same subject, you know how ~CHANGE~ has been my word for this year? And boy! Have there been changes! Almost all for the good. Well, I think I've already chosen my word for the coming year. Or maybe it has chosen me.
My word for next year is going to be ~SIMPLIFY~. I realize that I am late to the simplify party. SIMPLIFY was all the rage a few years ago. But I was too busy with my complicated life to take it seriously then. Too busy trying to solve problems that weren't mine to solve. Too busy worrying about things I couldn't control. Too busy "putting out fires", as they say, to spare a moment to make anything easier on myself. After a while, all that chaos, busy-ness, responsibility (real or imagined) kind of got to me. I am a stubborn woman. Must be the Missouri in me. So I began digging in my heels. Feeling like there was no way to do all I wanted or felt obligated to do so I just stopped doing. I kept a sharp focus on the goals of getting out of debt and getting fit. And I kept the dishes and laundry done. Mostly. But everything else I just kind of let go.
But I've been learning how to take care of myself again in the past two years. Learning to make good financial decisions that lead to true peace rather than stress. Learning to care for myself physically.
And I am ready now to SIMPLIFY. I can't even wait for the New Year. I got started this week!
I've been doing DEEP cleaning and thinking hard about how to make this space we live in easier to keep clean and feel calm and relaxed in. (Told you it was sort of on the subject of not buying a new house right now.) And it's working already! We've been working our butts off this week to get rid of things that aren't working for us and making changes that will make life simpler.
And I'm excited! Energized! I'm excited to share the results with you as the year goes on.
I guess it makes sense really, that CHANGE should overlap slightly with SIMPLIFY. At least it's making sense in my life. LOL

~Last Monday Paula asked me how I was planning to handle Thanksgiving on Weight Watchers. (She joined a couple weeks ago!) And I told her pretty much exactly THIS. 'Nuff said.

~We did a co op pick up again on Saturday. YUM! This was the Crossroads one. I saw some friend's pics of their Bountiful Baskets pick up for the same day and I had co op envie. LOL Oh well, lots of good food nonetheless. And we'll do BB in two weeks. Biweekly pickups are just about right for us. But weekly wouldn't be out of the question if it becomes available. :)

I just realized I forgot the rice and bread in this pic.

~Week 9(?) Maintenance Weigh In: 138.6 I haven't counted any daily points in many weeks. I'm no WW poster child. But it appears I really did make a CHANGE, huh? Maintaining without obsessing. And not without the occasional treat either. ;)

~I'm officially declaring victory over potty training. Jaxon has 3 diapers left. He'll wear them to bed for the next 3 nights and then we are DONE! He's quite proud of himself. He tells perfect strangers that he is a big boy and he pees in the toilet now. LOL I hope they'll forgive his boasting. And that you'll forgive me mine. I'm pretty proud of him too. And no more diapers, EVER? How simply awesome is that?!?! ;)

Off to bed now. Roger's off work for a week and I'm planning to make good use of having him here to help me SIMPLIFY. :)

"Financial Infidelity"

How ominous does that sound?

I've been guilty of it myself. A long time ago.
Statistics say that financial stress is the number one cause of divorce. I believe it! It was definitely one of the top 2 most difficult periods in my marriage.
Struggling to make ends meet is stressful enough. But when one partner is lying about money to the other... and no one has the back bone to face the dishonesty and work for a solution I think it would just be hopeless. All that stress has a domino effect on every other part of your life. Even if you try to turn a blind eye to it and try to pretend that it doesn't.

Here's a GREAT link to a Dave Ramsey show from last week.
I think everyone should watch it.
For some it will be a chance to breath a sigh of relief that it's not a problem you face.
For some, like me, it will be a reminder of why you'll never participate in financial infidelity again.
And hopefully, for some it will be a desperately needed wake up call.





I was lucky that when the truth came out my partner got ANGRY. And rightfully so. It took a long time and a lot of hard work to repair the damage to our finances and our marriage.
If he had wimped out and looked the other way, continued to let me be "in charge" of the money without being accountable to him, without us being accountable to each other, there's no way we would have ever gotten this far on our journey to financial peace.
I think it would have ruined us if he hadn't been "strong" when I was "weak".
If you're both weak at the same time, who will pull you, as a couple, from the financial water that is quickly rising above your heads?

Theme song for today.....

Today we paid off the 13th account on our journey to debt freedom! 6 more to go!
YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET!!!

FREEEEEDOOMMM!!!!!! Here we come!

Theme song for today......

Sweet, sweet VICTORY!!!


Dave Ramsey says that when you're working on getting out of debt you have to be gazelle intense. He says to "sell so much stuff that the kids think they're next."
So Roger sold his riding lawn mower yesterday and we used the funds to pay off another debt.
In the words of Spongebob Squarepants, "It's the thrill of one more kill."
This puts us one step closer to

FREEEEEDOOOOMMMMMM!!!!!!!

*Go ahead, watch the video. Do it for Jaxon. You know you want to. ;)

Quickie updates

~The quest for debt freedom is right on track. We are feeling fortunate and humble (is it okay to feel both at the same time?) that we aren't facing the job losses that are happening to so many right now. And extra motivated to continue on the path to debt freedom. How cool would it be to be in a position where you didn't have to worry about such things? To have no fear of what the economy might bring? We intend to find out.

~The healthy new lifestyle is going GREAT! Please don't think me a brat for saying that it's easier than I had expected it to be. I'm feeling good. No heartburn in two full weeks. I was surprised by that one. When I was on Atkins the heartburn persisted till I was nearly at my goal weight. Perhaps it was all the bacon fat, eh? I haven't been making time for exercise like I should though. And today I had an epiphany about that. I always put off exercising because I am behind on some housework (remember that not a resolution I didn't make last month?) and I feel that if I can scratch out some time I should spend it cleaning. But what if cleaning WAS my exercise? Turns out that WW and I agree that 2 hours of sweating and heavy breathing should count for something and I earned myself 5 activity points today. :)

~The not a resolution is back on! I got my behind in gear this morning and grounded myself from the computer for large chunks of time and got some serious cleaning done. Every floor has been swept/mopped/vacuumed/polished and the master bathroom has been scrubbed top to bottom.
Tomorrow is kitchen day. I'm all over it!

Yay! It's a good day!

One Year Older and $26,806.24 Less In Debt!

The numbers have been crunched and that's where we're at!
It's even more impressive (or nauseating, depending on your perspective) if you factor in the $4K+ we've paid in interest during the past year.
That means we have scraped together over $31,000.00 to pay off debt in 2008.
When we began snowballing on Jan 1, 2008 we were on track to be debt free, except the mortgage, in 49 months.
With the extra payments we've made it's down to 30 months now. But I'm confident that we will achieve it well before then.
1/1/11 is the debt free date we're shooting for.

We are beginning a new budgeting system for this year that should help us plug the slow leaks we've had this past year. No big secret, we're just going to go full tilt on a zero based budget. It isn't a lot but every little bit counts!

Oh yeah, baby!! Happy New Year!

We ended the year with Shrimp and Chicken Fondue for an appetizer followed by our favorite Prime Rib dinner.
And some martinis to toast our big debt reduction in this first year of our journey to debt freedom.
(More on that tomorrow.)
Life is good! :)

I'll grab on to Obama's coat tails and say that I hope that 2009 will be a year of CHANGE!!

Happy New Year!!!

Simple Sunday

~Kids came over for our weekly big breakfast. I think we're going to start shaking up the menu a little.
~Had nice visits with the kids and grandbabies.
~I worked on a Christmas present sewing project. It's going great!
~I assembled that Apple Blueberry Strata. We'll see how it turns out when I bake it for breakfast in the morning.
~Dinner was leftovers - part 3. Heather and Tukker joined us for turkey salad with pecans and dried cranberries on the bread I baked yesterday. And the rest of the sweet potatoes. It was delicious! I tried to take pics but they didn't turn out so great. The turkey is all gone now. We spent $1.50 on lettuce for dinner.

Just another day in paradise. :)

Look what I did today! WITHOUT my Kitchenaid!

(Sorry about the crazy serial posting all weekend long. I guess I just have a lot to tell you! ;) )
One of my PYP pals who blogs over at The Little Red Hen Food Site turned me on to a blog about bread,
A Year In Bread! In the interest of stretching our grocery dollars I checked it out and was excited to try the recipe for Farmhouse White bread. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've made bread the old fashioned, get your hands in the flour and KNEAD way.
The bread is much lighter than the recipe I've been making in the Kitchenaid. More like the kind of bread Roger likes best. I thought it was pretty good too. And kneading the dough by hand was kind of fun and almost meditative.
The recipe makes 3 loaves but I decided at the last minute to try to make buns out of the third portion. Worked like a charm and now I don't have to buy kaiser rolls for our turkey burgers later this week. Nice! And we'll have yummy homemade bread for our turkey salad sandwiches tomorrow night.

Notes on the grocery challenge:
Tonight we had leftovers - part 2 for dinner. Basically cream sauce with some of the leftover turkey and all the leftover gravy stirred in. Served over biscuits.
Roger went to the store for eggs and spent $1.50.

Leftovers - Part 1

Now that the feast is over, it's time to get pretty serious again about sticking to the budget. To be honest, we're a bit over budget in the grocery category.
Did you know that real maple syrup is about 75 cents per ounce? And we worry about gas prices!
In an effort to salvage the budget and stay on track for an AWESOME debt freedom progress report in January, I'm going to be diligently planning meals and making good use of supplies on hand. Our monthly grocery (plus non-food essentials) budget is $500. Let's see how low I can keep it till the New Year.
I started tonight with Shepard's Pie made mostly from Thanksgiving leftovers.
It's was inspired by Rachel Ray's Smoky Turkey Shepard's Pie.
I sauteed a couple of chopped carrots in 4 Tablespoons butter. Stirred in about 4 Tablespoons flour to make a roux. Added a couple of cups of chicken broth, a couple big spoons full of the leftover creamy corn, a couple of hand fulls of chunked up leftover turkey, a hand full of frozen peas and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Cooked that till it was thick and bubbly.
Meanwhile I reheated about 4 big scoops of leftover mashed potatoes in the microwave till super hot. Stirred in a couple big scoops of sour cream and one beaten egg.
I put the turkey and veggie mixture in a casserole dish and topped it with the mashed potato mixture.
Racheal taught me to scrape the top of the potatoes with a fork to get some peaks and grooves. Then put the casserole under the broiler till the peaks are nice and browned.
Yum! Served with leftover rolls.
$0 spent at the grocery store today.
Too bad everyone filled up on various leftovers all day and so they weren't very hungry at dinner. So now we have leftover Shepard's Pie. LOL
It'll be good for lunch tomorrow!

P.S. I'd sure love it if Christy would blog her Thanksgiving menu and recipes. 'Cause I heard it was superb. Just sayin'! ;)

The last few days....

I've hardly been on the computer since Wednesday. We've been so busy and gotten so much done. (I wonder if it's related somehow? Nah...)
I had a summons for jury duty last week and was required to call in each night for instructions. Each night, as I dialed the number, I wished and hoped that the message would say to call back the next evening. I lucked out on Monday. Tuesday was Veteran's Day. Didn't have to go in on Wednesday or Thursday. But when I called in on Thursday evening I was told to report to the courthouse on Friday morning. ugh! Luckily Roger was on vacation. So he got to be me and handle things here at home that day. 26 of us showed up for selection and they chose 6. I was one of the lucky six. And from what the judge was saying, the two who didn't even show up were not going to be very lucky at all. Yikes!
Even though I had been dreading having to go in, I'm kind of glad now that I got to be on a jury. It was really interesting. It did take all day. I went in at 8:30 am and got home at 5pm. But I learned a lot and now I'm "immune" for 2 more years.
The weekend has been spent in a paint fume haze.
Kenzie's old room is to become our sewing room/food and general storage/wine cellar now that she has moved up to her new room. As the pink walls were an assault on Roger's manhood or something, we had to paint the room. We hit Home Depot early Saturday morning and bought two $5 cans of "oops" paint. One a pinkish cream color and one a green color. We mixed those together and threw in a gallon of plain white that we had laying around from an old project and we ended up with a sage green color very similar to, but a little lighter than, the living room wall. Which, coincidentally, is also a combination of 2 $5 gallons of "oops" paint.
I guess that if you mix any shade of green with any other color you pretty much get green. Who knew?!
So we did the first coat yesterday. All the odd angles and nooks and crannies took us 4 hours.
After the family breakfast this morning we put on the second coat in about 3 hours.
We are both aching and sore but at least the room is no longer pink.
I'll let it dry till Tuesday and then clean the carpets and begin moving things down there.
I'm determined to declutter as we move rather than just tossing all the odd junk in that room as we have been doing for the past couple of years that we've actually had spare rooms in the house.
Once all this is done we can begin tearing out our two small bedrooms to make a family room. I can't wait!
And then we can tile the kitchen floors!
And then...
And then....
And then...
Does it ever end?
*final note~ I am determined to cash flow all these projects without ever touching the snowball payment. Wish me luck and patience.

I had a great birthday!

I really did! It was a great day!
(*Believe it or not, some of the credit goes to us and our journey to debt freedom. Really. Most years I get bummed out about spending money we don't have and I say I don't want anything, even if I do. Because I don't want to get further in debt. It's different this year! We have a gift budget and I felt fine asking for what I wanted and getting it. It felt like.....my birthday!!!)
First thing in the morning Emily gave me this beautiful necklace that she made. I LOVE it and I wore it all day long. I received lots of compliments. Emily wondered this morning why I wear the necklaces she makes me the day she gives them to me and then no more. I told her it's because I don't really wear necklaces at all. And that is true. But I'll make an effort to wear this beautiful one more often.

I got calls from all the kids throughout the day and even from a couple of their friends.
And lots of birthday wishes via email and message boards from friends.
My Mom called mid-morning and asked if I'd like to go to lunch for my birthday. So she took Jaxon and I to Johnny Carinos for lunch. We had a nice visit and good conversation about the issues of the election.
Kenzie's gift to me was to babysit Jaxon and Emily so that Roger and I could go out on a date.
One of the things I've been wishing for was to go to the Body Worlds 3 exhibit while it's here in town.
It was incredible! I loved it! Click on that link above and check it out. Amazing stuff.
One part of the exhibit was as amazing as all the rest but also a bit sad. There is a section of fetuses that have been donated. And there are displays of embryos in different stages of development.
Seeing the 8 week old embryo was surreal. A tiny little thing barely the size of the tip of my pinky finger. Approximately the size of the embryo (baby) we lost before we had Jaxon.
I was struck by how HUGE it had been for us to lose such a tiny thing.
As profound as that was, I still enjoyed the display very much. And that connection was in fact one of a series of connections I made.
I wanted to see the cruel little tendon in my elbow that requires excruciatingly painful cortisone shots to restore my ability to hold a water glass without dropping it.
I checked out the difference between a healthy shoulder socket and one that looks like mine feels. ugh!
And we looked for the plantar fascia on all the plastinates to really see where the pain in Roger's foot is coming from.
Of course we had to seek out gallbladders to see what strange little organ it was that "attacked" Amber last month and was consequently removed. Only the size of my thumb.
Funny how the tiniest parts bring the most pain. Maybe not so funny.
There is way too much to even describe. It was just fascinating and I encourage anyone who has the chance to go.
Scattered through out the exhibit were plaques with information and quotes.
One of my favorites:

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye." ~Antoine de Saint Exupéry

After the exhibit we went to Blue Iguana for dinner. Since it was near the exhibit and we had a coupon. ;) Turns out the the Blue Iguana does have a connection to the Red Iguana that Christy mentioned. The back of the menu explained that the original owners opened, first the Red Iguana and then the Blue. However they weren't able to maintain both locations so they closed them both. Later, the Blue Iguana and it's recipes were acquired by a new owner.
This time I had the Enchiladas Amarillas and now I think I need to figure out how to make moles because the mole on these enchiladas was FANTASTIC! mmmmmm.......

After dinner we went to the bookstore. I had received some coupons via email for this book and another. Unfortunately they were all out of "Audacity of Hope" so I'll have to check another store for that one.
I've been wanting to read these books and the library would have been a more frugal choice. But as a birthday gift the books will be around 20 years from now if the kids want to read about a former president.
I also got this book. I'm 39 now, ya know. And I just saw what happens to bodies that aren't taken care of. It's time I start taking care of mine. I made this goal once before but let's look forward rather than back. Okay? Okay. My goal is to lose weight and get in good shape by my 40th birthday and do what I can to maintain that for the rest of my hopefully long life.
I've seen the authors of this book on several different TV shows and I think that their approach to health and fitness appeals to me for the same reason that Dave Ramsey appeals to me for financial fitness. It seems to be basic, common sense, no bells and whistles, just do it kind of stuff. With some in depth technical info thrown in.
It's working for our money.
Let's see if it works for my body.

So, that was my birthday. It was a great day.
Special credit to my awesome hubby who stayed up way past his bedtime so I could have a nice evening. I love you honey!

Today's theme song!

Another one bites the dust!
We just paid off our ELEVENTH account since beginning our quest for DEBT FREEDOM!!!!
Seven more to go! We are SOOOO gonna get it done!
*happy dance*

Here's an interesting article.

I'm not sure I agree 100%. I'm kind of tired and just skimmed it. So, really, I'm putting it here so I can go back and think it over tomorrow.
But I did skim it and there seems to be some decent advice in there. Some of it too little too late in my case. LOL
How To Afford Anything

700 BILLION!!!

Did you know that you can't even count to 700 billion? I don't mean that you don't have the ability. I mean you won't live long enough. In fact, if you were able to count one number per second, it would take you 22,000 YEARS to count to 700 billion. But the big numbers take more than a second to spit out. And then there's the problem of sleep. ugh! It boggles the mind.

If you had $700,000,000,000.00 you could buy the whole world a Coke. Literally. One 2 liter per person each week for a year. How nice. Maybe Christy could work out a discount and we could stretch it just a little farther.

OR-

We could buy a 60 inch HDTV for every man, woman and child in the US.

OR- (Since it's all pretend money that we're talking about anyway)

We could buy 10 MONOPOLY games for each of the 6.7 billion human beings on the planet.

700 BILLION. That is a really BIG, SCARY number!

*My* deals for the week...

Lately I have been trying a little game with myself to make sure we don't go over budget on groceries.
Every payday I take my biweekly grocery budget money out of the bank and put it in my cash envelope.
I hit the local stores for the "stock up" priced items I know we'll use. When I'm done with that I divide the amount of money that is left by the number of days left in the pay period and I try not to spend more than that per day. I may go over a tiny bit one day and under the next. But overall, it's been a pretty successful method for the past few pay periods.

I'll be going out today to stock up the following items at the following stores:

Reams:
Bunched spinach for 99 cents a pound. I'll bring this home and blanch it and freeze it in 10 ounce portions. I like to do this rather than buy boxes of frozen spinach because I can control the stems. Seems like the packaged frozen spinach has three stems for every spinach leaf! I like to use spinach in manicotti or lasagne dishes.
Fresh Express Garden Salad for $1.29 per bag
Mangoes for 50 cents each.
Cauliflower for .69 pound. I'm planning to buy about 10 pounds or so and blanch and freeze this in meal size portions. My goal is to cut out canned vegetables and use only fresh or frozen thru the winter. Which means I need to stock up now while the veggies are in season.
*For the past couple of years I have generally been avoiding processed, packaged food items so cutting out canned veggies falls in line with that. I just prefer cooking from scratch. It's healthier and it tastes better. And once you learn to shop for the best deals it isn't really anymore expensive.

Smith's:
Grapes for 99 cents a pound. Toddlers can eat their weight in grapes each day!! And now there are TWO of them in the house!
Kroger cottage cheese for 1.00 Roger loves to take cottage cheese to work for his lunch.
Mountain Dairy milk for $2.00 a gallon. This is a SUPER HOT price for milk these days. I experimented with freezing it last week and it worked out really well. It does take longer to thaw in the refrigerator than I anticipated so I still need to fine tune the system for thawing it. I'll buy 10 gallons at this price.
Kroger frozen corn and peas 14-16 oz bags for $1.00. As I said before I'm trying to eliminate canned veggies from our diets so I'll stock up on a bunch of these.
Smith's has boneless skinless chicken breasts for $1.59 pound and I would go for that except that I got 40 pounds of them at Reams last week for even less. But $1.59 is still a GREAT price for those.

Alberstons:
mini carrots 99 cents per pound
Top Sirloin steak $3.99 pound. EXCELLENT price!
Albertsons pasta 85 cents each.

What are you going after this week?