Adding an ‘eat down the pantry/freezer’ component to this. Found out today that the quick tuneup for my car for ski season turned up that the brake pads might make it until summer until they absolutely require replacement, but since the vast majority of the driving I do is in the winter and most of that is up into the mountains in snowy/icy weather, ‘might’ isn’t something I care to play around with. So going to try to spend a bit less on groceries for a bit.
Tentatively thinking crustless quiche for next week (cooking club trade, and I split a box of eggs with some friends so I’ve got plenty of those in the fridge), I host the week after that so I’ll use something in the freezer and spaghetti a squash for my own lunches, and then not sure after that.
I am participating, to be clear, not to better myself or save any money, but to get the badge. I want it to be known that my good choices in life are fueled by arbitrary whim and fake SHINIES.
ANYWHO, now that you know who you’re dealing with, my goal is simply to know what things cost. I have no idea. I go into a grocery store and I see what my list has and what I want and I just throw things into my cart, heedless of cost. You’re all telling me there’s rampant inflation and I’m like “Oh yeah totally” but I have literally no fucking idea, to be honest.
So yes literally my goal is to go to the grocery store and look at price tags and see what things seem to cost. And since I am apparently price-blind at the grocery store, I have a cute little spot in my desk to save receipts from grocery shopping so I can remind myself what things cost. To be clear, again, this receipt saving isn’t going to actually pan out to be useful but I am trying to make myself feel better.
Check in #1:
I did look at the prices and chose the cheapest store brand on all of the things. It was like $150 I think? The receipt is lost. I have no idea what anything cost. Yep.
Going well, going well.
Oh I also read a Consumer Report issue we received on the best places to buy certain products. I have lost it and completely forgot what is good for what.
pantry - my two most full containers of legumes are pinto beans and mung beans, so I’ve moved them to the front of the cupboard and put the mostly finished jars with green lentils, red lentils and white beans behind them.
freezer - has shredded carrot, a diced tomato, and a big bag of diced red onion. plus much corn soup stock.
So I think making pinto beans tomorrow would be a good idea.
Well, I’ve failed at my Snackuary goal I cut up the remaining turnips to roast as part of tonight’s dinner only to find they were all mealy and brown in the middle. Trash.
I will continue to attempt to not throw out any more vegetables. I replaced the turnips with the daikon, so that’s all done. The only thing remaining from the original list is the rest of the regular radishes. Maybe those will go in next week’s soup.
Oh, and there is still some cabbage, but I’m sure my husband has plans to use that with the massive piece of meat he bought at the store today.
We did buy more produce before using the rest, just because of how our and our produce subscription’s schedule works. We now have a cucumber, some broccoli, and snap peas. I had some of the snap peas with hummus for lunch and expect to finish the rest the same way. I tossed some of the broccoli in with my other roasting veggies. Not sure what I’ll do with the rest but it shouldn’t be a problem since we all like broccoli.
Husband says he has a vague plan for the cucumber. We historically have trouble eating cucumbers, so hopefully he follows through.
We haven’t thrown out any fruit and I’m not concerned that we will; the Christmas tree is down and the fruit out of it.
ETA: I spoke too soon. We did have to throw out a bunch of clementines. I don’t count that against us, though, because they arrived squishy. They must have been knocked around in transit.
I’ve spent a grand total of $8.13 on food this week. Probably need a real grocery trip Monday or Tuesday. I am NOT tracking anything I spend on food items for mutual aid group, even if from my personal funds. I have spent $0 on bottled drinks or protein bars, but we do already have a good supply of protein/snack bars in the house, so this indicates no success in weaning my dependence.
Some of this very low spend was made possible by food rescue donations that were not taken at either mutual aid group we do stuff with, could not have survived till next distro, and couldn’t go in a community fridge because they have to abide by expiration dates. Some also made possible by the continued existence of holiday food gifts at work (lots of cookies).
Haven’t really eaten down any unusual, lingering pantry items. In theory I have more time to cook in the coming week???
This week was, on a 1-5 scale of chaos, maybe a 3.5. I did turn rice and bean leftovers into a little batch of enchiladas, but also mostly subsisted today on snacks. Will plan next week tomorrow and hope for a more orderly approach.
This week I spent a total of $394.05 on groceries. No eating out. I did the big Costco trip for the month and 2 trips to the grocery store. I also plugged everything into my tracking sheet so I’m staying on track with my main goal.
Current breakdown:
Produce: 38.53 (18.99 as ‘snack fruit’- I’m not counting bell peppers in there lol, just like blueberries and things the toddler snacks on)
Pantry: 6.58
Dressings/salsas: 16.47
Drinks (fizzy/coffee): 17.99
Eggs and dairy and “dairy”: 23.14
Non grocery: 3.99
Hosted yesterday so we had some extra spends we wouldn’t normally do, like guacamole.
Have not checked expiry dates and maybe have more ants to deal with.
Coming up this week: more gift food, one trip out of town. The next two trips are pretty close together so maybe I’ll do my restocking/budgeting/etc after those.
Week 1, reporting carnival expenses (though technically it has only been carnival season since Friday:
Drinks: $15
King cake: $30.98 (note, this is for an entire cake and it is enormous, and I also got a very small gooey butter king cake which I do not regret one bit!)
Groceries under $500CAD/month for two of us. That includes dining out, bringing meals in, and take out.
Korean night once a month to eat through Korean food a friend left us when she visited.
Gift some canning to our DD and SIL.
So far…
Week 1
$0 spent on groceries. Doing our first shop of 2023 tomorrow.
made a lovely soup and cornbread from scratch from freezer/pantry contents. Also modified a homemade hamburger helper type recipe to use home canned, freezer and pantry items. And made a wonderful spinach quiche to clean out the fridge a bit.
created menu plans for our first four Korean meals. All we need to buy are the fresh hot chili peppers.
DD#2 & SIL#2 are coming for a late Christmas Tuesday. I will take them to the basement canning pantry to see if they want anything.
you
I cut up the remaining turnips to roast as part of tonight’s dinner only to find they were all mealy and brown in the middle. Trash.
