January Grocery Shopping - Part 4

I ordered and picked up some groceries on Saturday, January 25.  Here's what I bought:

Broccoli Crowns, 1 ct$1.79

0.72 lbs x $2.48 each (approx.)

CA Redem Val$0.10

1 x $0.10 each (bottle deposit on the orange juice)

Cucumber, 1 ct$1.78

2 x $0.89 $0.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.10

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.10

Farmer John Classic Pork Sausage Links, 8 oz$4.00

2 x $2.00 $2.69 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.69

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.69

Foster Farms Fresh & Natural Chicken Thighs & Drumsticks Picnic Pack, 1 pk$9.06

7.27 lbs x $1.24 $2.49 each (approx.) (Buy1 get 1 free sale; bought 2 trays, cooked 1, froze 1)

Item Coupon/Sale: -$9.04

Fresh Banana - Single, 1 ea  (5 bananas, total)$1.50

2.18 lbs x $0.68 each (approx.) 

Fresh Green Beans - Bag, 1 lb$4.81

1.61 lbs x $2.98 each (approx.)

Fresh Large Bartlett Pear - Each, large/ 1 count (2 pears)$2.96

0.99 lbs x $2.98 each (approx.)

Iceberg Lettuce, 1 ct$1.59

1 x $1.59 $1.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.40

Kroger® 90/10 Ground Beef Tray 1 LB, 1 lb$4.99

1 x $4.99 $9.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$5.00

Kroger® Half & Half, 1 pt$2.69

1 x $2.69 each

Kroger® Traditional Favorites Frozen Peas Green, 12 oz$1.79

1 x $1.79 each (Price increased from $1.25 when I last bought them on Nov. 17, 2024)

Simply Pulp Free All Natural Orange Juice, 52 fl oz$3.99

1 x $3.99 $4.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$1.00

My grocery total came to $41.05.  

In addition to groceries, I bought some non-grocery items, but, they are not included in the above grocery total.

My January grocery budget is $200 for two adults.

Spent to date: $84.61 (Jan. 3) + $50.06 (Jan. 10) + $39.73 (Jan. 19) + $41.05 (Jan. 25 =$215.45

With this purchase, I went over my January grocery budget and dipped into February's budget.  But, some of the items I bought will be eaten in February, so, I think it will work out.  

Going forward, February's grocery budget will be $200 - $15.45 = $184.55

How did you do with your January grocery spending?  If you had a budget, were you able to keep to it?  Or, did you, like me, go over budget? 

Elsewhere in the Back Garden

 Here is Part 2 of the tour of the back garden in January.  

Strawberry Plant

The strawberry plant has been repotted and has a flower or two.  I'm looking forward to more strawberries this spring.

Curry Leaf Tree 1

The curry leaf tree growing near the patio area is doing well after having one or two branches pruned off.  Meanwhile, the curry leaf tree growing behind the garage has been pruned down quite a bit:

Curry Leaf Tree 2

Once it starts to leaf out, again, we will cut back all the suckers that are growing around it.  I use curry leaves in my cooking and they are supposed to have many beneficial health effects, but, I only use a handful of the leaves at a time.

A few feet down the wall from the first curry leaf tree, the Star Jasmine plant is still growing up the homemade trellis:

Star Jasmine Plan

There is half a tree stump in front of it and some pieces of cardboard around it to try and keep the weeds down.  But, there's a type of asparagus fern growing around it, too, and no doubt it will cover the cardboard in a few months.

In front of the star jasmine vine, is the bottle brush tree which was pruned back, last year:

Bottle Brush Tree

No flowers, yet, but, I think it will flower later, this year.

Nearby, we have the orange tree:

Orange Tree

And sharing the same planting bed as the orange tree, the volunteer plant that M thinks is a Carob plant:

Volunteer Carob Plant

I had suggested transplanting it or potting it up to M (carob trees tend to grow big and I'm not sure if I want a huge tree in the back yard), but, so far, that has not happened.

Just behind the orange tree, we have the avocado tree, looking a bit lop-sided because we pruned off all the dead branches on one side!

Avocado Tree

No signs of it flowering, much less bearing fruit, but, that's OK with me.  It's something I grew from a seed and I will simply consider it as an ornamental plant.  

Barely visible to the viewer's right, behind the avocado tree, is the old rosemary bush:

The Old Rosemary Bush

She with the tangled stems:

Rosemary Stems

The plant is over 30 years old, grown from a cutting my mother received from a friend with the same name as the plant!  We probably should have pruned it back, a long time ago, but, now, I love how the stems look and I don't want to cut it back.  The two upright poles you see are the trunks of the bauhinia tree (and its daughter plant) my mother grew from seeds given to her by her younger brother, from his garden.  I have grown a seedling from these two plants and it's growing in another part of the back garden (behind the shed; I didn't take a picture of it).  The rosemary bush has woven its stems around the two bauhinia trees.

Across from the rosemary bush, past an empty planting circle and the dormant nectarine tree (its twigs visible in the foreground), the calamondin tree has been pruned back quite a bit:

Calamondin Tree

The calamondin tree was already well established when I bought the house, so, I'm assuming it is at least 40 years old.

On the other side of the calamondin tree, we have one of the two loquat plants, grown from seeds, which were given to me by neighbor S (from her aunt's garden).  This one seems to be doing better than the other one which we planted near the nectarine tree.  They do grow to be big trees, but, I will keep them pruned if necessary (my previous loquat tree died before it became very big).

Loquat Plant

The big tree in the distance, beyond the wall, is a neighbor's avocado tree.

This is the plumbago/lantana hedge along the side wall.  It started out as two lantana plants and a plumbago plant; the plumbago seems to have taken over!  I had M prune it back at the end of last year and it is starting to leaf out.

The Plumbago/Lantana Hedge

I'd mentioned before that a papaya seedling was growing in one of the blueberry planters. M removed it from the blueberry planter on Friday and we planted it where the fuyu persimmon tree used to be, in front of the plumbago/lantana hedge:

Newly Transplanted Papaya Seedling

I hope it will grow well in its new spot and produce some papayas, one day.

We are now planting some succulents in the back, behind the garage, near the garden shed:

Succulents by the Shed

On the side of the garage, the lemon trees are full of lemons; here's just one of them:

Lemons

And nearby, the baby lemon tree (a sucker plant from the above lemon tree that I am allowing to grow):

Baby Lemon Tree

Here's how it looked last year:

Baby Lemon Tree in January 2024

Nearby, we have the moringa tree; the recent winds blew away all the leaves, but there are flowers that the hummingbirds enjoy and pods that I am allowing to mature to collect seeds from them:

Moringa Tree

At the base of the moringa tree, I have the volunteer Berkeley Tie Dye tomato plant, that is bearing fruit and has flowers:

Volunteer Berkeley Tie Dye Tomato Plant

M is amazed that I am able to grow a tomato plant in the winter, but, I've picked a couple of tomatoes from it, already, and there are at least two more that are forming:

Green Tomatoes

That concludes the January tour of the back yard.  I hope you enjoyed the tour.

Just in case you are interested, here is how the back yard looked last year, in January 2024, when we had a wet winter.  

The Back Garden in January - Part 1

The Back Yard (from the back steps)

I took the pictures on Friday, before it rained over the weekend.  But, didn't have time to post them on Friday.

The top picture was taken from the top of the back steps, looking straight ahead.  Standing there, when I look to my right, there is the little spot where I have placed my patio table and chair (from late neighbor T):

My "Patio"

The trellis has a passionfruit vine climbing up it and a red-stemmed lemon grass plant growing in front of it.

Trellis with Passionfruit Vine and Lemon Grass

Immediately in front of the patio area is what I call M's bulb garden or "bulbery", as he decided to plant several bulbs he's thinned out and/or salvaged in that spot:

The "Bulbery"

So far, only one of the irises is flowering:

Iris (before it became water logged!)

The rose bush sitting inside the terra cotta pot is the one that M gifted to me at Christmas and the terra cotta pot is one he salvaged from the garden of a client's neighbor who was getting rid of several terra cotta pots.  

Neptune Rose

The rose has since been planted in the pot, but, I haven't taken a picture.

On the other side of the back steps, we have the four blueberry bushes growing in their pots:

Blueberry Bushes

They are already in bud with one or two flowers opening:

Blueberry Flowers and Buds

Also on the other side of the back steps, we have our "stonery" and the pathway:

The Stonery and Pathway

The stonery keeps evolving as we keep adding various plants to the mix; here are close ups of some of the plants in the stonery:

Nasturtium

M planted several nasturtium seeds, but, only one came up.  But, as I told him, it doesn't matter, because all it takes is one plant to set seeds which can be collected and planted again.

Hellebores Plant

The Hellebores plant was dug up from where it was planted, earlier (under the feijoa/pineapple guava tree) and transplanted here, in the stonery.  It got a bit flattened when the door of the water heater cover fell on top of it during that hurricane force wind storm (which kicked off those wild fires), but, it seems to have survived that incident.  I might ask M if we should stake it up, a bit.

Cabbage Plant

This is the cabbage plant I grew from a store bought cabbage stem I rooted.  It has grown into three distinct baby cabbage plants.  The leaves are about 3 inches long and I still have a few twigs stuck in the ground around it, in an attempt to keep the garden cats and Chicken Little away (not very successfully, I might add).   I don't anticipate them to grow very big or form anything like a head of cabbage (unless it is one the size of a Brussels sprout!), but, I am inordinately pleased with them!

Then, there's a cluster of various plants around the wooden pole that supports the patio roof:

Mixture of Plants

There's a fern and several bulbs, a sedum plant that is hidden from view in this photo, and the "scaredy cat" plant which doesn't live up to its name and which threatens to take over the entire area unless we keep it severely pruned back!  I might uproot it and plant it somewhere else in the garden.  I eventually want to fill in the gaps in this area with a few more plants and stones.

Well, and that's just the area that is immediately around the back steps!  LOL.  There's more of the garden to show, but, I think that will be a separate post as this one is already so long and picture heavy!

Hope you enjoyed the tour of the patio area of the back yard.

We Had Rain!

 

Raindrops on Roses Oranges

We had light rain showers on Saturday evening and on Sunday.  Such a blessing!

On Lemon Leaves

Other areas might have received more and heavier rain, but, we had less than 0.5 inches of rain in my area.  Which, considering the fact that we've only had about 0.02 inches of rain since the end of May up till now, is not at all bad!

On Peach Twig

More rain is in the forecast for Monday as well and some of the burn areas are under a flash flood alert.

Sunday's daytime high was only 47F, which is very low for us.  But, the air felt fresh when I went outside to check on the garden and to take pictures.

The rain was good for the garden, although this iris looked a bit water logged:

On Irises

This weekend, I am grateful for the much needed rain!

This Week

Humming Bird on the Pomegranate Tree

This week is going by quite quickly it seems.  We have had more high winds, more wildfires, and now, there is rain in the forecast and with it, the threat of mud slides and toxic debris flows in the burn areas.  However, we've had a couple of days with the daytime highs being in the mid to upper 70s (it was 75F on Wednesday and 78F on Thursday), which felt wonderful to me.  Of course, the peach tree responded by opening a few more flowers!  

I have been spending my days tending to things around the house, cleaning, cooking, and mending another pair of wool socks.  I went as far as getting out my knitting needles and my favorite sock knitting pattern, but, I haven't actually sat down to knit.  

Plans for Friday include taking Dancer for his vet appointment in the early afternoon and tending to the garden with M in the evening.

This week, I am grateful for:

- No new fires threatening my home
- I was able to postpone my jury service
- Working appliances
- Having electricity and gas
- M's help with the garden

Joyful activities have included watching music videos, phone calls and emails with friends, tending to the garden, spending time with my daughter.

How is your week coming along?

The Front Garden in January

 

The Front Garden in January 2025

This is the front garden in January.  It gets watered maybe once in 10 days or so and without any rain, even the weeds are not growing!  I am turning more and more towards succulents and drought-tolerant plants for the front garden.

We replanted a section of the planting bed that runs parallel to the driveway with succulents:

Succulents in the Planting Bed

They were given to me by M who got them from another client who didn't want them.  The rosemary plant beyond the succulents is doing well and the bees are enjoying its flowers.

There aren't a lot of flowers in the front garden, right now, but, the jade plants are doing their best to make the garden cheerful:

Jade Plant in Bloom

This jade plant gets more sun and has reddish leaves:

Flowering Jade Plant with Reddish Leaves

I love the clusters of the delicate star-shaped flowers:

Jade Plant Flowers

Not all the lantana plants are at their best, but, at least one of them is trying:

Lantana in Bloom

Nearby, one of the Euryops plants is flowering, too:

Euryops Plant in Bloom

The grey leaved plant (another gift from M), which is supposed to have blue flowers (it has not flowered yet), which someone said might be a type of sage, seems to be well adapted to the dry climate:

A Type of Sage?

In the meantime, the stumpery in the succulents border is settling into place very nicely, I think:

The Stumpery

The lack of rain (and my lack of watering) is affecting the newly planted parkway trees, too.  The Street Tree Maintenance people, who planted the parkway tree, removed one of the trees they planted (the flowering pear) and replace it with a second Australian Willow (Geijera parviflora) tree, and placed, not one, but, two watering bags!  They refill the bags every other week or so.

 

Two Water Bags are Better than One!

There is a chance of rain in the forecast for this weekend; if it does rain, then, maybe the garden will perk up a bit.  We shall see.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the front garden.  We'll tour the back garden another day.  How is your garden coming along this January?

Sleepless Nights.

I couldn't fall asleep on Monday night.  I went to bed and stayed wide awake, trying to sleep, until finally, shortly after 8:00 a.m., I gave up trying to sleep and got up.  I had my morning cup of tea, made my daughter her cup of coffee, fed Dancer, brought in the emptied trash cans, called in Dancer's medication refill to the pharmacy, checked the mail (I've a Jury Duty Summons), watched some videos online, replied to blog comments, read and commented on a few other blogs, and did some thinking about things.  

In the afternoon, my daughter insisted that I tried to take a nap or, at the very least, lie down and rest.  After about an hour of lying awake, I eventually managed to nap for about an hour.  Once I was up, I warmed up the leftover hot dogs for a very late lunch, watched the evening news, cleaned the kitchen a little bit, ran the dishwasher, washed Dancer's dishes and cleaned his litter box, and prepared dinner.  I was going to make the devilled chicken, but, the chicken was still frozen solid!  Instead, I heated up a can of beef stew and cooked some fresh rice to go with it.  I don't generally buy canned beef stew, but, I bought a few at the very beginning of the pandemic to have on hand as part of my emergency supplies.  It is now time to use them up before they get too old.  I doctored up the beef stew with some garlic salt, chili powder, and frozen green peas.  I decided to serve it with rice, instead of mashed potatoes.  There's leftover beef stew and rice for at least another meal or two.

Friend R called after dinner and we had a short chat.  Then, I exchanged emails with a friend.

All the things I didn't do are glaring at me, but, it is already almost 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday, so all the undone tasks will have to wait.

On Tuesday, I was grateful for:

- An afternoon nap
- Being able to call in Dancer's medication refills
- Weekly trash collections
- The mail being delivered on a more or less regular basis
- Working appliances

Tuesday's joyful activity was watching some favorite videos online.

Plans for Wednesday include registering for jury duty, tending to the garden with M, and doing some laundry. 

How was your Tuesday?  What are your plans for Wednesday?  Do you sleep well at night?

January Meal Planning Week 3

This was my meal plan for last week:

January Week 2 Meal Plans (1/13 to 1/19)(tentative)

Brunches: Blueberry muffins, leftover pancakes, uppuma, scrambled eggs & toast with or without sausages, French toast, cereal and milk or yogurt, banana muffins (if I make some), salads

Dinners: Leftover salmon with boxed pasta mix (Monday), leftover pasta with ham and salad (Tuesday), ground turkey keema curry with rice and vegetables (Wednesday), Leftovers (Thursday), Fried Rice (Friday), Soup and toast or drop biscuits (Saturday), Hot dogs or leftovers (Sunday)

The meal plan was based on what I had on hand in the freezer and pantry and it was a very tentative plan.  In fact, it ended up being subject to much change, but, here's how it all worked out:

Monday:
Brunches: Last of the blueberry muffins
Dinner: Leftover salmon with boxed pasta mix
Snacks/Desserts: Apple slices, crackers, chocolate; leftover pasta (late night snack)

Tuesday:
Brunch: Scrambled eggs, bacon (instead of sausages), toast; orange juice
Dinner: Ham steak with vegetables (broccoli, sliced carrots, potatoes, corn on the cob) - went off the meal plan
Snacks/Desserts: Oranges from the garden, crackers, chocolates

Wednesday:
Brunch: Toast with butter and peach jam
Dinner: Pizza - went off the plan, again!
Snacks/Desserts: Apple slices, chocolates

Thursday:
Brunch: Leftover pizza
Dinner: Ground turkey keema curry (with onions, tomatoes, grated carrots, diced potatoes, diced broccoli stems, etc.) and rice
Snacks/desserts: Fresh oranges, chocolates, don't remember what else

Friday:
Brunch: Pizza and toast
Dinner: Leftover keema curry and rice (daughter); keema curry and leftover pancakes (me)
Snacks/desserts: Apple slices, probably chocolate (we are working our way through some Christmas goodies)

Saturday:
Brunch: Scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, orange juice
Dinner: Leftover keema curry with freshly cooked rice and cucumber slices
Snacks/Dessert: Brownies

Sunday:
Brunch: Croissants sandwiched with keema curry; banana,
Dinner: Hot dogs and salad (lettuce, carrots, cucumber, bottled dressing)
Snacks/Dessert: Toasted bagel half each, with butter; sliced apples; fruit smoothie (frozen banana, frozen blueberries, orange juice, peanut butter)

So, I followed roughly about half the meal plan, but, that was OK.  

Moving on to this week, this is the meal plan:

Brunches: Croissants sandwiched with ham and lettuce and fresh oranges (Monday); bagels; hot dogs with salad; toast and peanut butter, uppuma, French toast, waffles with sausages.

Dinners: Leftover keema curry and rice with cucumber salad (Monday); "devilled" chicken with rice and sliced cucumber; beef stew with mashed potatoes, chicken curry with rice and sauteed curried cabbage, leftovers

Snacks/Desserts: Bananas, apples, oranges, home canned peaches; gata (Armenian pastries) from neighbor S (she brought some over on Monday evening); crackers, chocolates

Once again, this meal plan is subject to change.  

What are your plans for meals, this week?

January Grocery Shopping Part 3

I picked up my groceries this afternoon.  I needed more half & half for my daughter's coffee, more tuna for Dancer who is refusing to eat his canned cat food (we had a battle of wills and he went without eating for over a whole day and I caved in), some fruit, and facial tissues.  I bought all that and a bit more!  Here's the receipt, with the UPC codes removed and my explanations in blue:

Order Summary

Original Item Total$61.56

Item Coupons/Sales-$12.84

Fulfillment Fee+$0.00

Sales Tax (for facial tissues)+$0.38

Order Total$49.10

Total Savings: $19.79 ($12.84 coupons/sales + $6.95 pick up fee)

Item Details

21 Items

Chicken of the Sea Chunk Light Tuna In Water, 5 oz (cheaper per can with sale than store brand)$5.00

4 x $1.25 $1.79 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.54

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.54

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.54

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.54

Cucumber, 1 ct$0.89

1 x $0.89 $0.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.10

Fresh Banana - Single, 1 ea (5 bananas, actually)$0.92

1.33 lbs x $0.69 each (approx.)

Heinz Tomato Ketchup, 32 oz (one of the few items I am brand loyal to)$2.99

1 x $2.99 $6.49 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$1.50

Item Coupon/Sale: -$2.00

Kroger® Complete Buttermilk Pancake & Waffle Mix, 32 oz$2.84

1 x $2.84 $3.29 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.45

Kroger® Grade AA Large Cage Free White Eggs, 12 ct$8.99

1 x $8.99 each

Kroger® Half & Half, 1 pt$2.69

1 x $2.69 each

Kroger® Plain Bagels, 6 ct / 18 oz (the store substituted name brand bagels at store brand price)$2.34

1 x $2.34 $2.79 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.45

Kroger® Russet Potatoes Big Deal in 10 lb Bag, 10 lb$4.99

1 x $4.99 each

Kroger® White Hot Dog Buns, 8 ct / 11 oz (the store substituted name brand buns for the same price)$1.79

1 x $1.79 each

Kroger® Whole Carrots Bag, 2 lb$1.99

1 x $1.99 each

Large Fuji Apple - Each, large/ 1 count (3 apples)$0.56

0.57 lbs x $0.98 $1.98 each (approx.)

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.57

Private Selection® Classic All-Butter Croissants, 4 ct$3.74

1 x $3.74 $4.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$1.25

StarKist Reduced Sodium Chunk Light Tuna in Water, 5 oz (cheaper per can with sale than store brand)$5.00

4 x $1.25 $1.59 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.34

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.34

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.34

Item Coupon/Sale: -$0.34

Non Grocery Item:

Kroger® Easy Care Everyday Facial Tissues, 4 ct$3.99

1 x $3.99 $6.99 each

Item Coupon/Sale: -$2.00

Item Coupon/Sale: -$1.00
+ sales tax $0.38

My total spending came to: $49.10

Of which, $ 4.37 was for household supplies (facial tissues+ tax) and $5.00 was for Dancer's tuna (I'm keeping the rest of the tuna for myself, but, no doubt, will end up sharing it with him!)

Amount spent on groceries (food for humans) = $49.10 - $4.37 - $5 = $39.73

My January grocery budget is $200 for two adults.

Spent to date: $84.61 (Jan. 3) + $50.06 (Jan. 10) + $39.73 (Jan. 19) = $174.40

Balance left in January Grocery Budget = $25.60

There are still 12 more days left in the month and I will need to do at least one more grocery shopping before the end of the month, if only for the half & half.  If I want to do a pick up, then, I will have to "borrow" $10 from the February budget to have the minimum amount to qualify for a free pick up.  Maybe I will shop in person and keep to my budget.  We shall see.

I am grateful for:

- Being able to order groceries online
- The store continuing to offer free pick up
- Having groceries available
- The store charging me the store price when they substitute with higher priced items
- A safe drive to the store and back

How are you doing with your grocery budget so far in January?  Will you be able to keep to your budget this month?