Week 2 check in. Up to $464/$600 budgeted. We might actually make it this month!
I have stopped tracking food prices. It’s too much work for the knowledge gained. I did it for all of December and one weekend of January but I’m done.
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Because I’m trying to drastically reduce our food bill, I’ve been looking for WIC and SNAP recipes. I found this:
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Eating out this week wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be! I only ordered twice and both times were very thought out (once was because I had a free sandwich I’d been saving for weeks until I needed it), but groceries went wild! Once I was allowed to leave the house (no COVID, just regular sick turns out), we did a snack run that ended up being expensive and a Target run where we got some staple things…and a lot of treats too.
I’m well under halfway on my ‘Eating out Alone” and “Eating out with Friends” categories, but for the first time in months I’m over on groceries for halfway through the month! I’m just hoping we both stay healthy for a couple weeks so more actual cooking can happen =)
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This week in groceries:
Dairy: $11.77
New recipe: ground beef curry. Pretty good and quick to prepare, which is always nice!
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2 weeks into the month and with how the weekend is aligned most of the coming week’s food should be covered as well:
Total spend so far is €157 which, if I consider I shop mostly on the weekend, means a little over €50/week and should end me around the €200/month mark.
I had to add a lot more categories in the last week, here’s the biggest ones right now:
- Herbs (18%): Mostly mass stock up at the Asian store as they have big packages for reasonable prices. Seems smart, except half the spices I bought I didn’t need in those quantities. I now have anice for years.
- Vegetables (18%): Just weekly veggies. About €10/week so seems pretty decent to me.
- Snacks (sweet) (9%): Mostly chocolate
- Cheese (8%): I like cheese
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My son is leaving Saturday for 3 months. I have set my goal at 150/month for me. He thinks it will cost 200. But together we spend 400 and he eats a lot more than me.
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we have shifted from official extreme cold to official please stay home due to snow.
fresh produce in the house is down to 3 apples, 3 tomatoes, 3 yellow onions, 2 carrots, a red onion, a banana, part of a napa cabbage, and the last few stalks of some wilting cilantro. Which felt like ‘empty fridge’ until I actually wrote it down. The shadowy one has a dr appointment today, so they may pick up a few things detouring on the way home, but it isn’t urgent.
Month to date groceries are 165, eating out is 60.
This is a combination of staying at home and making do with what I have in the fridge, not many good sales to stock up on our usual things (e.g. a bunch of cheese), and probably eating down the food from the holidays.
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Amazing how little I spend on food when a) it’s cold out, b) I’m hiding from Omicron in my apartment and c) we’re moving soon so I don’t want to keep a huge stash.
I think we can make it another week at least.
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Well, I’m back in. I was so unimpressed with Hello Fresh and their prices that I cancelled their meal kit delivery service less than a week into receiving them. The recipes are put together in a different order than I’m used, which just caused more stress while cooking. Plus there were few to no leftovers for lunch, and high calorie counts on their meals…too high for me. Plus I didn’t like half the meals. Plus they didn’t live up to their advertising of $90 off over the first three boxes. My second box was going to be $120 CAD for 6 recipes for 2 people. Criminy! I was already committed to that box, but I cancelled as soon as I saw the price. My entire budget for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks for the whole month is $500 CAD.
So today we went grocery shopping and, for $105 CAD, got food for the next 2-3 weeks. I’m doing some bulk cooking for the freezer for my weeklong conference the end of the month.
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1/18/2022 - UPDATE
Protein / day tracking continues
Objective metric trending in the desired manner. Subjective metrics also trending in desired manner.
I have a lot of protein in the house, but have bought frozen fish fillets, canned tuna, canned beans.
Some breads have a surprising amount of protein / slice
So far protein has ranged from 56-107g protein each day. Average is probably about 80g / day (guessing).
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used the $25 gift card from work to buy stewing beef at the fancy butchers. I like to see things there before I buy them, but this was required to use online, so stewing beef seemed the most logical. And the weather really does call for stew. I should do some lentil soups for lunches as well.
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I’m busy cooking meals ahead for the end of the month. I have coated baked chicken breasts with green beans and rice (2 servings),4 servings of taco filling, and 8 servings of beef stew in the freezer. I have chili in the Instant Pot (should be 6-8 servings), and beans cooking for Baked Brown Beans (should be 8-10 servings) on the stove.
I think I’ll move away from beef to cooking some pork, fish and chicken dishes. I’m thinking some soups.
Do you all freeze your soup? What containers do you use to freeze it in? I’m looking for space efficiency, won’t break, and environmentally friendly. I would also prefer it didn’t fall out of the upright freezer and land on my feet!
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I freeze soup all the time. I don’t think I have the most eco-friendly way but it is space saving: gallon freezer ziplock bags. I stack them flat so I can fit a lot in my small freezer.
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I think I need to find a container of some sort to put them in. I have food I’ve frozen flat in freezer Ziploc bags in my upright freezer, and they fall out after going 3-4 bags high. I can’t get freezer bins here. I ordered some last year and after six months of not arriving I complained and got a full refund. Next time I see and touch the bin before I buy.
Also, freezer bins are expensive here! What are you all using? Milk crates? We don’t get those here that I know of. The stores might have them, but the general public doesn’t.
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My freezer is way too small for bins and I can’t stack higher than 4 anyway!
Thanks anyways @AllHat . My fridge freezer is like that. This is the first time I’ve had an upright and organizing it has been a frustrating challenge for me.
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We’re basic, so we have a ton of mason jars, and we use those for soup-freezing.
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I’m doing pretty well on all of this.
Imperfect Foods was cancelled. We have not gotten any grocery delivery. Takeout once a week.
I am drinking “normal” coffee and tea, though when my preferred online coffee vendor had a massive sale that rendered their prices the same as the grocery store, I did get some of that.
We made a cherry pie! And I’m working thru the canned goods as much as I can. Big scoop of peaches in honey syrup in my oatmeal. Patatas bravas for dinner tonight, I think, as I’m craving potatoes and that’ll use up a pint of canned tomatoes too. No way am I going to get through ALL of them though.
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I freeze certain types of soup (mostly pureed where I am less concerned about vegetable texture, and never anything with pasta). I freeze them in the 1 cup margarine containers, and 2 cup rubbermaids. Right now we have a tomato lentil and several cheesy veg, we just used a french onion.
I have only lost two margarine containers and one rubbermaid to falling on the floor and shattering.
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Us too!
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