Shopping Day & Easy Chili

I’m SO glad today is over!
I started the day with a pot of chili in the Crock-Pot because I knew I had to go shopping tonight.

Easy Chili
3 cans kidney beans
2 cans chili beans
2 cans Mexican-style diced tomatoes
16oz tomato sauce
1 yellow bell pepper- diced
1 ½ cup meat mix (that I made the other night)
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp black pepper
1 ½ tsp oregano
3 Tbsp red chili powder

Combine Ingredients and set to LOW for 6+ hours.


For lunch today we had our last two oranges and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Then I spent the next FOUR hours mowing the lawn… (Went like this: mow a couple stripes, chase kids and drag them back home.. Mow a couple stripes, empty the bagger, repeated SIXTY times! Ugh!)


By the time I was finished mowing the lawn I was free to go grocery shopping. Although I did eat & feed the kids first (thankfully). The chili turned out pretty good, but could have used a big onion diced up in there…We ate the last of our home-made bread with the chili (Just two more “mixes” left).

Shopping… with three squirmy little girls… Aaaaa!… As a last resort I bought 3 Nutri-grain bars at the check-out at Wal-Mart. There goes almost enough money for an entire pound of meat, but hey it got us through the check-out process. Next time I'll try to remember to bring a treat in my purse or something...

But all in all, we survived. The kids were wiped by the time we got home and I don’t blame them since we didn’t get back until an hour past their bedtime. I then spent the next hour putting away groceries. Of course I had to take some pictures first. (My hubby rolled his eyes at me)

Oops. Forgot the chili! It's been "keeping warm" for quite a while now... That’s not going to fit into the refrigerator, so I bag it up to put into the freezer instead. I probably won’t want chili again for a few days anyway.

If you’re lacking an extra set of hands, by the way, you can improvise by using a cup to hold your bag open for you.

Ok so how did I do? I spent $136.87 today. I got most of what I needed, but I still need to go to one more store tomorrow and to the Food Storage Center on Monday to complete my list. (With the exception of a few gallons of milk, few dozen eggs and one more round of produce. ) Some things were more than I expected to pay- but the biggest difference in price was only $2 which isn’t too terrible. Also some things were a bit cheaper so that was fantastic and it actually all evened out. I love to see my full refrigerator at the beginning of a pay period!