We love going to the movies but oh my gosh, they are so expensive!  Recently I checked matinee prices for the three of us to go see Onward.   Y’all, it was going to cost $30.01 for 2 adults and 1 child to go see a matinee movie.  I almost fell out.  It doesn’t help $5 of that was fees.  I’ve been spoiled by those free movie tickets that we post about on the blog occasionally.

Anyway, the same ticket on Tuesday is $5.09 each- Tuesdays are Regal Cinema’s Value Days!  That’s a $3.10 savings right off the bat for each adult and $2.60 savings for Miss Bongo (and a higher savings if you go during the evening times, where a ticket is over $10).   Because it’s a Tuesday and there are NO seats currently reserved for the showing I want, we’ll just zip over after school and buy our tickets, then bum around town until it’s movie time.  I need to run a few errands anyway.  That will save us $4.74 in “convenience fees”.  Someone explain these to me, because I’m saving the theater from having long lines and having to print tickets by buying them online and having them sent to my phone.  Sounds like it’s a “we just want more dollars fee.”

Tuesdays are also half price popcorn day- the day you pay what a tub of popcorn should actually cost- so $4.25 instead of $8.50.  A large drink will run about $6.50, but that can’t be helped- but wait!  Of course I’m a Regal Club Member (it’s free!) so I can use my points to score the drink for free.

Taking advantage of our theater’s discount day, instead of going any other day of the week is going to save us $13.50 just in discounts.  When you add in that I won’t feel the need to book online because it’s a low attendance day, we save $17.79!  That’s money that stays in the entertainment budget- and the savings will literally pay for our next movie tickets.

Regal isn’t the only theater that discounts Tuesdays- NCG Cinema also has $5 Tuesdays, while AMC does discount tickets and $5 Cameo Combo (cameo sized fountain drink and popcorn).  Definitely check your local theaters.

If at all possible, try to schedule your movie days for Tuesdays.  As you can see, the savings are considerable, even if you aren’t interested in popcorn or snacks.

And remember- movie theaters aren’t the only places that offer discounts on Tuesdays!

Got random veggies? Make a salad! That is my solution to those random veggies hanging out in the fridge. I have no idea what the leafy green things are. These are all things from the produce bag from a local farm minus the cucumbers they are from the store. We are out of lettuce and I am not buying any. My produce drawer is full of random veggies from the produce bag. We are eating those for the rest of the week. Whatever is left on Friday is going to my mother in law.

Breakfast – Omelettes with cheese and bananas

Lunch – All three kids ate at school. I ate some frozen chicken tenders, brown rice, the leftover broccoli, and kale from last night. My husband ate a protein bar. He had a meeting and it went longer than expected. Luckily he had that in his truck.

Snack – Nico and I had Cantaloupe and cereal. The big kids took frozen pretzels (they thaw out in there bags) and mandarins.

Dinner – Spaghetti with egg noodles I added the leftover chopped tomatoes into the sauce. We also had salad out of the random veggies.

I am determined to use up all the rest of the random things this week! Only 4 more days until we start our vacation. Those leftover random undesirables are getting used up before I leave. Today I did have to do a small restock to get me thru until Friday. I had some high value flyer coupons that came in the mail that helped me save money. That trip costs me $23.36! My normal grocery budget is $250.00 a week and starts over on Friday’s. I spent $30.00 a the produce bag from a local farm on Friday. Whatever is left from the $250.00 this week is going into my Universal fund. I am going to try my hardest not to use anymore of my grocery budget.

Breakfast – egg sandwiches, with ham, and cheese on toasted hot dog buns.

Lunch – All 3 kids ate at school. My husband took leftover pork tenderloin, a spoonful of rice, roasted potatoes, and fruit. I ate leftover quiche with cantaloupe.

Snack – The big kids took granola bars with fruit. My husband took nuts and pork rinds. I ate a Lara bar. Nico ate cantaloupe and popcorn.

Dinner – Chicken breasts that was marinated in red wine (that wine was nasty and has been in my fridge for months), brown rice, kale, and broccoli cooked in the juice from the chicken.

Cute character headphones are pricey! The boys always break their headphones in my house. No matter how expensive or or how cheap. They last about 2 months on average. I use to get overjoyed when I could find them on Amazon for under $12.00. Then Marisa told me about how she only got her kids headphones from 5 & Below for that very reason. She also said they are super cheap there and they always have character options. I had no idea 5 & Below carried headphones.

I have listened on both the $20.00 headphones from Best Buy and the $5.55 version from 5 & Below. It sounds the same to me on both of them.

*5 & Below is a chain of discount stores that carries a wide variety of things. It reminds me of the cooler version of the Dollar Store.

My grandma makes the best fried shrimp I have ever had! She actually learned it from my aunt. I have no idea where the recipe actually came from. It is super easy and delicious! Fair warning my grandma doesn’t measure anything. She just eyeball’s everything. All she does is mix up the batter. It is super thick. Then adds the shrimp and stirs. She lets it sit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Then she fries the shrimp like normal.

My grandma’s shrimp batter recipe:
2 Eggs
2 cups self rising flour
1 cup water
Few teaspoons of mustard
Salt
2 teaspoons baking powder

Breakfast – Everyone had cereal. I overslept this morning.

Lunch – All 3 kids ate at school. My husband ate out at What-A-Burger for lunch. I had a ham sandwich.

Snack – The kids all ate pork rinds and bananas. I had an apple. I don’t know what my husband ate.

Dinner – Shrimp & fries

Nothing is better than coming in under budget! When this happens I feel like I won the jackpot. It is money, I had planned on spending but for whatever reason didn’t. That money goes straight into my Universal fund. I have been budgeting for a very long time. Rarely do I have extra money left from a category in my budget. By doing the pantry challenge for the last 2 weeks in February I was able to come in $136.57 under my grocery & and eating out budget.

I am pretty confident I have enough stuff to last thru next week when we leave for Universal. My plan is to continue this challenge thru then. Then when I come back I will be able to start fresh.

I had some molasses that I wanted gone from my pantry. We bought it for gingerbread cookies at Christmas. Plus I had a bunch of frozen bananas from my outside freezer. I substituted brown sugar for molasses in banana bread. It came out really good and used up the bananas.

Breakfast – I made a spinach quiche using a pie crust from the freezer. We also ate some banana bread.

Lunch – All 3 kids ate at school. My husband and I ate the quiche again.

Snack – My big kids took Lara bars and fruit. Nico ate applesauce and popcorn.

Dinner – I am making a pork tenderloin with roasted potatoes, beet Dijon salad, and lemon butter noodles using egg noodles I have in the pantry.

I love gyro’s! My Sam’s has gyro meat they sell in a 2 pack for $12.00. I had forgotten we had some in the freezer outside. Normally I make pita bread to go with it. I found some Naan bread in the freezer. I used that instead. We like to top it with Tzatziki, tomatoes, and lettuce. A local farm sells huge bags of random produce for $25.00 delivered. I had gotten Kohlrabi the past few weeks. I am going to make those into chips. Hopefully we like it.

Breakfast – Bacon, toast, and scrambled eggs.

Lunch – The kids ate at school. My husband and I ate the rest of the curry and rice.

Snack – Nico ate cookies and a banana. The big kids took a big pretzel, cheese stick, and applesauce.

Dinner – Gyro’s with Kohlrabi chips. The chips weren’t my favorite. I am going to have to find a new way to cook those.

Leftovers it is what’s for dinner! We are having all the little odds and ends that are left from previous nights. We have a few hot dogs, salad, curry, rice, and sloppy joe meat. I don’t have any hamburger buns thawed. I do have hot dog buns. The plan is to use the hot dog buns instead of regular buns for the sloppy joe’s. These kind of nights are the best. It’s really a $0.00 cost dinner. Since the food was cooked was budgeted for another night. This is essentially a $0.00 cost meal. Plus, I don’t have to cook!

Tip:
If your family won’t eat leftovers. Trick them into eating them by recreating them into a new dish. The hot dogs could be cut in half and wrapped inside biscuit dough with cheese. The sloppy joe meat could be made into a casserole or pasta dish.

Breakfast – Frozen mini quiches and precooked sausage links with apples.

Lunch – All 3 kids ate a school. My husband was helping his mother and she fed him. I ate leftover curry and salad.

Snack – The big kids took granola bars and fruit. Nico ate some cheese its with apple. My husband and I ate coconut chips with apple.

Dinner – Buffet a la leftovers!

Coconut milk is one of those magical ingredients that goes well with almost everything! I keep a few can’s on hand at all times. You can substitute it for milk, add it to stews or soups, or use it in about anything that calls for a milk. It really amps up the flavor with minimal effort. Added bonus it is shelf stable!

I had a spinach, and a little heavy whipping cream left in the fridge that needed to be used. Those both taste delightful inside a curry. I decided to go that route tonight. Tomorrow the leftovers will taste even better.

Breakfast – Pancakes and cooked sausage links with fruit. I tripled the recipe and finished the box of Bisquick. We have extra pancakes for later in the week.

Lunch – My mother in law brought over carne asada for me. It was super yummy! My husband took a salad. The kids all ate at school.

Snack – Nico had oatmeal. I had an apple. My husband took pork rinds. The big took popcorn and mandarins.

Dinner – We had curry with brown rice.

This is such sneaky trick companies do to get more of your money! You have probably heard that the larger the quantity the less you pay per item. That is what companies want us to think so we buy more of their products. Sometimes that is true but not always. You have to do the math yourself to really figure it out. Then when you add in coupons, in-store discounts, and cash back apps. Often times the smaller quantities are cheaper per item or use.

Example 
These pads are $3.97 for 14 or $0.28 per pad. The larger box has 28 for $6.97 or $0.25 per pad. If you do the deal we shared here. You will only pay $0.06 per pad! You could do the same deal with the larger box that would cost you $3.97 for 28 or $0.14 per pad. That is more than double the cost of the smaller box after the cash back.

Saturdays are my very little to no cooking days! I need a break from cooking. In freezer shopping haul I found a huge bag of pizza rolls. Breakfast my husband does on Saturdays. Then lunch is usually whatever leftovers we have. Since we found the pizza rolls. I warmed half the bag for lunch. That is all that is left from. They will be gone by bedtime tonight.

Breakfast – Chorizo and egg tacos

Lunch – Pizza rolls with carrot sticks

Dinner – To be determined.

Today was one of those no good terrible bad days! My boys both didn’t have school today. The plan was to go to the library early in the day. Be back by lunch. I didn’t even leave until after lunch. Anything that could go wrong went wrong. We finally left at 1:00 PM. By the time I finished with the library, then karate classes, and finally home. It was already 6:45 PM. I just finished eating.

Breakfast – The kids ate cereal. My husband and I had protein shakes.

Lunch – The boys and I had grilled cheese with carrot sticks. Chloe ate at school. My husband took the rest of the leftover Asian chicken with quinoa.

Snack – I bought doughnuts after the library as a treat.

Dinner – Potato and egg tacos

We are extending this challenge! I still have about another week or so worth of things to use up. For that reason we are going to extend this challenge at least a week maybe two. After a week, I am going to reassess my pantry, fridge, and freezer contents and go from there. I had my freezer almost empty. Fridge is pretty much empty. Pantry is about half way empty. Things where looking good.

Then SURPRISE, my husband asks if I checked the outside freezer. The outside freezer is inside his hoarder shed. I refuse to go inside.  My husband keeps everything in an unorganized mess in the shed. I refuse to go out their because I want to burn it down. Which would make him upset. The easy solution to keep us both happy is for me not to go in the shed. I totally forgot about that extra freezer. He brought me in everything it had in it. Now my freezer is jam packed full again. I don’t know if I want to scream or be happy because its less money I have to spend on food between now and my Universal trip.

Breakfast – The kids ate frozen mini quiches, and precooked frozen sausage links with fruit. My husband ate leftover oatmeal with apples, and a pumpkin muffin. I ate a protein bar and a pumpkin muffin.

Lunch – All 3 kids ate at school. I ate leftover salmon, quinoa, a baked sweet potato, and left over pumpkin cheesecake found in the deep dark depths of my freezer outside. My husband at quinoa, leftover Asian style chicken with broccoli.

Snack – Nico wanted the leftover oatmeal. Both big kids took mandarins, and granola bars. I ate apple slices with peanut butter. My husband ate jello with an orange.

Dinner – Sloppy joes with kale chips, and leftover coleslaw from last night.

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Generally the most expensive part of any meal is the meat- that’s why cutting back on meat or making at least one meal a week meatless can help you save.

Look, I get it.  I’m a meat and potatoes gal.  That’s what I like, that’s what I want to eat.   However, we’ve recently been working to incorporate at least one meatless dinner into our weekly rotation- two if we can swing it.   Now, this tip by no means is telling you to go vegetarian or vegan (unless you want to.  Live your life guys).   But it can definitely save you money.

Even if you don’t feel like you can go totally meatless for a meal, consider cutting back.  Growing up, my family used a pound of hamburger in spaghetti sauce.  My husband and I cut that down to a half pound…and then eventually a quarter pound, before just cutting it out altogether.  Going from a pound of meat to a half pound is a big savings on it’s own- here a pound of 80/20 burger at Walmart is $4/1b… so you would add $2 to your Disney fund by using just half the pound in spaghetti sauce, or $3 to the fund if you cut it down to a quarter of a pound!

Here are some easy, family friendly meals to skip the meat:

• Spaghetti (or other pasta)
• Grilled cheese and Soup
• PB&J
• Cheese or Veggie Pizza (great way to use up leftover veggies)
• Salad
• Breakfast for Dinner- fresh fruit, waffles, toast- you could even scramble up some eggs, a nice inexpensive protein!
• Bean & Cheese Burritos
• Cheese Quesadillas
• Baked Potato & Salad

What is your favorite meatless meal to make?

I baked and baked some more today! When I cleaned out my pantry this weekend. I found a box of cake flour, 3/4 a jar of molasses, canned pumpkin, and some Keto syrup. I did try the whole Keto fad for about 2 weeks. It wasn’t my thing. The syrup was leftover from that time period. I also had some bananas that where black in the fridge. Surprise, I STILL have ricotta cheese. Insert roll my eyes here. I had 5 jars originally I am down to two. Yay for that! I knew if I made some baked goodies, I could use up those things in a jiffy.

I made ricotta pumpkin muffins and banana ricotta walnut bread. The pumpkin muffins are really good not to sweet. They are going to be perfect for tomorrow morning breakfast with yogurt. I did substitute honey with molasses and cake flour instead of whole wheat flour. Instead of white sugar in the banana bread I substituted molasses. Also I used coconut oil instead of regular oil. The banana bread is super good! I will be using this recipe again.

Breakfast 
This morning for breakfast we had frozen mini quiches from the freezer, sausage patties, and apple slices.

Lunch
Kids ate at school. My husband had errands to run and at a quick hot plate at our local grocery store. I ate some leftover soup.

Snack
Banana bread, apple sauce, and mandarins

Dinner
Tonight is chili cheese hot-dogs using up the rest of my chili. If you are counting one pot of chili has gotten turned into 3 different dishes.