I don't care for mangoes.

What a frugal shopping weekend we had!

Several months ago, Hubby asked me what I thought about getting a juicer. So I told him my opinion and found some articles for him. I know many are big proponents of juicing, but I am not. I know there are lots of nutrients, but I hate the idea of throwing away all the fiber. Sure, you can bake the fiber into something, but then, aren’t you just eating baked goods? Defeating the purpose of juicing?

After sharing my opinion with Hubby, he just said, "Never mind." I told him if he really wanted one, I would start looking for a deal. But he had changed his mind. Then Father's Day weekend, I saw an infommercial for Nutri-Bullet. It pulverizes fruits and veggies to make "superfood" drinks. You lose none of the fiber, so it seems to be better, for us, than a juicer. I researched the heck out of it for an hour or so and then talked to Hubby about it and he said it sounded good.

We received it last week, but didn't use it until this last weekend. Because we need to stock up on produce. I have LOTS of frozen fruit in the freezer, so we were good with that, but needed some greens.So on Saturday, we went shopping.

First stop was Aldi, where we got the following:

Bag of 9 Fuji apples $3.89

3 Mangoes $1.77

4 lbs strawberries $3.96

Bag of Romaine hearts $2.79

2.82 lbs bananas $0.99

Package of flour tortillas  $1.99

Total $ 15.39

Next stop was a Mexican food restaurant for lunch. Yummy!

Last stop was Kroger, where we got:

2 diet 2 liters $1.78

Large bunch Kale $1.69

Large bunch Collard greens $.99

Large bunch of spinach $1.49

Head of iceburg lettuce $1.19

One lb baby carrots $1.99

Can of refried beans $.62

Total - $9.79

$25.18 total! That is the lowest grocery shopping trip I remember ever having. That was not it for the week, as I THINK Hubby went earlier in the week and picked up milk. 

When we got home, I  decided to cut up the fruit into chunks and freeze it for ease of use and to make the drinks cold and smooth. 

My only  problem was with the mangoes. I have tasted mangoes, but haven't eaten them much. I started peeling one and OH MY GOD...I could not stand the smell! I tasted the meat and it tasted sweet, but odd. I peeled them all, cut up in chunks and put on a cookie sheet to flash freeze. Then I got on-line to see if the smell was normal. Well, apparently, I am not the only one that thought it tasted odd. I was thinking metallic, but the words "pine-flavor" kept coming up and I realized that was what I was tasting. Ugh!

I thought maybe they weren't ripe enough, but putting them in drinks would disguise the taste with other stuff. But Hubby brought home a mango smoothie yesterday and it tasted the same way to me.

So, I don't care for mangoes. Yeah....I'm weird.

My Aldi IS saving us money!

Thought I would give you all another look at Hubby's handsome profile.

I DO track my grocery spending and have for a few years, but just got around to analyzing how our first full month of having an Aldi compared to our previous grocery spending. Please note, this is not food only. I could anything bought at the grocery store, dollar stores, Walmart, and drugstores, except for prescriptions in my grocery spending. If no food/HBA/pets is purchased in the trip, I won't count it,  but I don't break down each trip. So, sometimes, yes, potting soil may be in the grocery category. LOL!

So, here are the numbers, comparing May, 2013 to previous months:

Average grocery bill for Jan - Apr, 2013 = $427.72
Average spent at Kroger, same period = $276.30

Grocery bill for May, 2013 = $354.21
Amount spent at Kroger, in May = $200.48

So, we saved $73.51 over our average of the first 4 months of the year. And we spent $75.82 less at Kroger than we averaged there during the same time period!

AND our entire grocery spending was $85.35 less than we avereaged per month in 2012!

WooHoo for us! And we really have have NOT made a concerted effort to cut back. Our spending would have been even lower if we had not discovered the delicious cheesecake two-packs at Aldi. I have to STOP picking those up!

Feeling quite proud of us, today!

Taking care of the girls.

I bet you thought I meant my girl children. Nope, I meant THESE girls, doing a Vanna White like sweep in front of my chest. Yes, it is that time of the year...mammogram time! WooHoo!

I figured it was the perfect excuse to take the entire day off of work and have a nice 3 day weekend, so that is what I did.

I may be the oddball, but having a mammogram does not bother me at all. I go in and get it done with little discomfort. Being squishy is good in this instance. LOL!

After getting squished, I made a run to my favorite store:

Yep, I got to go to Aldi on a weekday. It was so not crowded. And you KNOW I enjoyed it. We didn't need anything but milk and bread...since Hubby went to Kroger on Saturday. Yes, I have not been able to cut that cord yet. So, I picked up milk, bread and a few other items.

Then back home to relax the rest of the day.

Hope everyone is having a great Monday!

And get those mammograms done, ladies!

Did Kraft Go Too Far?

No way!

I saw Kraft's new "Zesty" add in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly. I love it! I think it is hot and a little hilarious.

But apparently it has a lot of people up in arms and has been all over the news. I didn't realize! Here is the first article I saw:

http://www.today.com/money/does-krafts-zesty-print-ad-go-too-far-6C10321442

I think it is hilarious that people all over the net are talking about this.

Way to go, Kraft!!!

Just a quickie!

I feel really bad about not posting to let you all know about my vacation. It was, as it always is, a wonderful, wonderful vacation. It was so relaxing and so fun to spend time with Mom, Dad, my sisters, brother, niece, nephew and grandniece.

I didn't take many pics, but here are a few:

Here are my dad, Navi and Jessica on the deck.

 The flowers Jackie and I got Mom for Mother's Day.

 Jackie, relaxing.

 My gorgeous niece, Jessica.

 Mom and Jennifer. (They were mad that I took this pic. LOL!)

 The view from my parents' deck.

That's it for now. I have to get back to work. I will post again soon.

I promise!

Some people have odd priorities.....

I know....I know..... I have not posted in a while. SonyaAnn has reminded me of that. I don't feel like I have been THAT busy, but maybe I have. Or I was just boring.

Today, I just wanted to share something I thought was silly.

Yesterday, Hubby and I met MIL for lunch at CiCi's, in case you don't know about it, it is a pizza buffet. And MIL LOVES it. She and Hubby can eat a LONG time at a buffet. I spend most of the time chatting and listening as I will never be able to eat as much as either of them do. And they don't gaine weight! Ugh!

So the topic came up about a huge fire that happened on Friday. You may have heard about it as it did make some national news outlets. A restaurant caught fire and the fire moved on to a motel and it ended up being a 5 alarm fire.

It got huge and I was getting email news alerts all afternoon.

Sadly, 4 firefighters were killed and 13 injured during the fire. It was one of the worst fires in Houston history.

The subject came up and MIL said, "Oh, there was smoke all over the Southwest Freeway. I hope Meredith did not have a hard time getting home."

WHAT?!  Four firefighters DIED. 13 were injured. The building burned to the ground. Apparently, a lot of people LIVED there and they are now homeless.

And you are worried that Meredith might have been inconvenienced?????

Needless to say, I did not say that to her, but I sure was thinking it. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids. But their convenience is not always the most important thing.

Now, back to work for me. :-)