Just one of those weeks!

You know what I am talking about right? Have you ever had "just one of those weeks!" Sometimes it's just one of those days. But this week for me...it's been "just one of those weeks!" You know the week I am talking about. The one where you feel like you are chasing your tail. The one where you just can't get ahead. The one where you clean the kitchen and you have a total of TWO milk spills in one meal. You know the one right? It's been one of those weeks for me! Just a little story to summarize what I mean. I finally had the chance in between services this week to clean out my bible. Yes, I said clean out my bible! Included in it were about 3 months of weekly bulletins, notes and agenda from last month's MOPS, meeting, MOPS budget, paper hand outs from Wednesday night class...etc. Every time I open the bible they spill out and I promptly pick them up and stuff them back in. Well, this time I am going to look at the mess and throw them out. I proceed to hand my husband an arm's full of papers to throw out which he lovingly does for me! Great!! Something accomplished. The class goes well, we leave and get all kids buckled into the car and start to driving!! My sweet boy who is learning to read starts reading something for me. How intellegent I think to myself. I look in the rear view mirror and ask my boy what he's reading (it's the words of Jesus from the bible class on Wedneday nights isn't it?) SURE ENOUGH! My little garbage picker decided to take all of that previously mentioned garbage out of the can and take along with him!! I yell, "WHY?? Why did you take that garbage out of the can???" He has no idea Daddy was the one who put it there and says "I want to draw on it. Plus, did you know mom that my name is all over one of these papers?!" Yep, I know! Ugghhhhh...It's just one of those weeks in summary!

Frugal Friday Recipe Swap

I found a recipe this week that EVERYONE in my family loved...Yes, I said everyone. Even my pickiest little eater (some of you may know who I am talking about!) ate this meal. I was so excited about that. The best thing about it was that is was cheap, super easy, and the meat wasn't dry (not that I am admitting that I may have a dry meat issue with my cooking :)!) So, I had to share it! I purchased the pork loin at Kroger a couple of weeks ago that was on sale for $1.87/lb. It was the family sized one and I had them cut it into 4-3lb roasts. I have a crock pot that I love but for some reason it refuses to cook SLOW so the first time I used the pork roast (for barbecue pork sandwiches) it did come out a little dry! Bummer. So this time I wanted to try something different. I am definitely not much of a recipe follower so I decided to just try using what I had in the pantry. I wish I had a picture of the meal but it got eaten so fast there was just no time. So instead I will just give you the recipe that I used. Crock Pot Pork Roast

Ingredients

3lb pork loin roast 1lb bag of baby carrots

5 med-small potatos

1 can mushroom soup

1 can full of water

1 packet onion soup mix

pepper

garlic powder

DIRECTIONS Place carrots in bottom of crock pot. Season pork roast. We like lots of garlic around here. Place pork roast on top of carrots. Add can of cream soup and can of water. Sprinkle onion soup mix on top of all. Cook for 4 hours on low. After 4 hours add potatoes and cook for two more hours. I know this is a simple and basic recipe. But this really worked for us. I fed my family of five and my Mom and Dad who were visiting. Plus, my husband took the leftovers for lunch. My picky eater ate every last bite and even said to me, "Mom, I actually really like this!" Ahh....music to a Mama's ears! Please check out the Grocery Cart Recipe Challenge for some more awesome recipe ideas. Also check out Ann Kroeker's blog HERE for Food on Friday fun! Since this meal cost me less than $7 to make and we got 8 meals out of it that makes this a SUPER FRUGAL recipe. Go to Frugal Fridays hosted by Life as a Mom for more frugal ideas!

Kroger Deals!

I did my Kroger shopping this week and OH BOY did I score on this trip! The Mega Event this week at Kroger is absolutely amazing! I couldn't believe what I brought home! I am so excited about this shopping trip that I will be able to pretty much stay out of the grocery stores for the next two weeks (I have my meals planned till the end of March now!) except for milk and fresh veggies/fruit trips! Since you are only allowed three $5 savings per transactions the Kroger Cashier was super nice and rang up my groceries in two separate sales. Unfortunately I got a little mixed up with the coupons and what was going with which transaction and a couple of coupons got missed. But, I can use those next time. That is definitely something I am working on is trying to stay more organized at the grocery store and being able to manage all of the coupons and sale prices in my brain! I am definitely a work in progress! So with my six mega sale savings I saved $30. Can you believe that?! Awesome...You gotta love Kroger! That doesn't even include the massive coupon savings I added up. Here is a picture of my loot. I combined both transactions for the picture because there was so much stuff that it was just easier. It's just a little hard to see everything. So here is all that I got!

I saved 63% on one transaction and 65% on the other! I was especially excited about the laundrey detergent that I stocked up on for $1.80 a piece! Pluse, not sure if you can see it in the picture but I got enough toothpaste and tooth brushes to last us a year (for .25 cents each!) I saved a total of $67.75 in coupons alone. I used to spend that much in ONE shopping trip a week (and I always had to make several more after that!) You can't see it in this picture but I also stocked up on chicken breast since my hubby just bought me a brand new (well...new to ME!) FREEZER. What a sweet man! Mommy is in stockpiling, money saving heaven this week! So here is the most exciting number...drum roll please...my total dollar savings this week...$195.59!!!!! WHAT????? Woooo, hooooooo!!!