The ads than ran to half the first week of July has some sales that allowed us to replenish our stock. My husband did the shopping on June 29. But He used July budget for it.

1 dozen Eggs (Hy-Vee): $0.59 limit 2

Watermelon (Walmart): $2.69 was $5.98 originally.

Eggs: My husband made many trip to two stores in the city to purchase a total of 8 dozens. We were down to ½ dozen eggs. So the purchased allowed us to stock up on eggs. On July 1st, I cooked plain rice and served it with omelet on top drizzled with chili oil. To make the chili oil, I grated few mild chili peppers that I store in my freezer. I went in my herb garden in the front yard right below my kitchen window and harvested leaves of Egyptian onion, and some fresh wild thyme. Back inside the kitchen, I rinsed them and chopped them. I added extra virgin olive oil to a cast iron pan and add the onion, thyme, chili pepper, and salt. I cooked for 2 minutes and poured in a small bowl. To serve on the rice. I made the omelet with two eggs per person. I made enough for the next day lunch as well. We eat leftover dinner for lunch the next day. On July 2nd, I served spaghetti with soup bone stew I made over the weekend and served hardboiled egg on the side. Because the kids ate omelet made with two eggs in the rice for lunch, I served them one hard boiled eggs for dinner on their spaghetti. I served their next day lunch with leftover spaghetti, stew, and 2 hardboiled eggs. When I have egg I cook it more and cook less meat. That was two days in the row and 4 meals (lunch and dinner) served with eggs. I used 2.5 dozen of eggs. The half dozen was purchased at $1 a dozen from a farm. So my cost for the eggs for the 4 meals was $1.68($0.5+$0.59+$0.59). That was $0.42 spent on protein / meal eaten by the whole family. The soup bone stew was flavorful. I made it with beef soup bone, frozen vegetables from last year harvest including (grated cucumber, zucchini leaves, and onion), chili pepper, homemade broth, meat fat, tomato puree, and salt. I let it simmer for few hours. When it was done, I removed the meat of the bone and returned the meat to the stew and stored the bone in the freezer for homemade bone broth. I stored one quart jar of the stew in the freezer and the rest went in the fridge. Stew are one way for me to use my vegetables. I have an abundance of cucumber last year. I fermented some and grated some to freeze. Adding the cucumber to the stew allowed me to use less broth. The cucumber has the liquid I needed. In case you don’t know, I harvest greens from many plants in my garden and don’t bother growing spinach and lettuce anymore. Squash leaves are edible so are green beans leaves. They have to be cooked little longer. So they are perfect in soup and stew. That is one way I save money on vegetables. Last year I harvested many green beans leaves and frozen them. I don’t blanch my greens. I rinse, chop them and store in zip bag and ready for the freezer. You can read my garden blogs to see how my garden is doing this year.

Watermelon: Walmart marked it down from $5.98 each to $2.69 each. My husband remarked it and called me to check if it was the right price. I checked our Google drive where I recorded last year sales and saw we purchased 10 from Walmart around May at $2.69 each. I called him back and suggested we purchased less than 10 but more than 5. He purchased 7.  They were big seedless watermelons. I stored them in the basement. I cut one in pieces and stored in a big glass bowl in the fridge for kids snack. I removed the white part out of the skin and cut it in pieces for my own snack at work.

It is edible and some homemakers pickle it. I still prefer to eat that as snack at work. It is a good snack and made me use the whole watermelon without wasting it. I put the skin in my garden under my vegetables. I don’t compost separately in my garden. I put what needs to be composted straight in the garden. They break down very quickly while mulching the garden at the same time. The watermelon cost $ $18.83 out of the fruit budget of $80 for the month of June. The eggs cost $4.72 and came from the meat monthly budget of $95.

We purchased grapes during a previous sale. The red grapes started to mold. I tossed some in the garden. I rinsed the remaining grapes (2 bags) on July 2nd and stored in the fridge for snack. The kids ate the rest of the black grapes for snack after dinner and while they watched their movie. We have one apple left in the fridge from another sale. Watermelon I cut on Saturday was all eaten. I ate the rest after dinner on July 2nd. So it took us 4 days to eat one whole watermelon. We purchased a lot of fruits in June and all is left of it is one apple and a bowl of grapes in addition to the 6 watermelons from this week ads.