Bleh. A lot of on the fly meal planning, but didnt grocery shop this week and did a lot of pantry cooking. Main successes were a tuna pasta salad and a skillet lasagna with frozen sauce and ground beef.
updated spreadsheet screenshot
Out of town tomorrow again, expect to dine out most meals. Some of them are covered by work but I think I’ll have to cover my own drinks and desserts (which are very important to me, lol). The fourth trip (26-27) is the one I expect to be most expensive, I want to bring back snacks from that area:))
Not much progress on using things up, will try to check stuff later today. I specifically didn’t set a budget but my trips so far have been under 3/4 of my estimates:)
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I had forgotten to add in the tips on the meals I use points to get. So, add in approximately $10.
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- Success! Only 1 grocery run this week
- Success!
- Success! Did eat out for bf’s birthday, which also coincided with a ski trip, but that was expected and planned for.
sniffs is that success I smell in the air?
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My Snackuary is not going so well! My husband forgot whatever his plan was for the cucumber and it went bad.
We currently have cabbage, beets, carrots, and celery. All of those are easy to eat, and anyway keep well enough that I’m not really concerned. Of course, we have to eat something this week, but I’m having frozen soups for dinners and the broccoli that I just roasted for lunches.
I discovered that we have four lemons, which is slightly mysterious. I remember buying four and using two. My mom is not sure if she gave us lemons (she gives us a lot of produce). I will probably have to freeze the zest and use the juice in my daily lemon water. I usually buy bottled lemon juice because it’s easier, but I’m sure I can handle the effort of four lemons!
We also have clementines, other oranges, and apples. All easy to eat.
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had a crappy health week so I didn’t make it to Costco at all or the grocery store until today. so technically didn’t buy groceries at all this week? but! I did order delivery twice and it was very pricey.
total for month so far:
groceries $176.60
delivery $105.50
treats $40.15
I’m realizing how much I pay for delivery and tip when I order delivery!! I knew it was a lot and damn it’s just so convenient! I might add the extra challenge of not getting delivery for the rest of the month. if I really want something I can pick it up myself.
meal planning is going well, but I mostly don’t end of sticking with the plan. I think I’m okay with that, it’s nice to know that I have 4-5 options to go with for the week. and then decide what do cook based on how much energy I have.
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Week 3 eat down:
2 cups of strawberries
New jar of jam started x 3 - they are the little jars
Salmon - 2 piece
Buns x 3
Chicken strips
Stewing meat 1 package
Cherry pie filling (now I have to make a pie before I leave for SO)
I am starting to see space! Not enough to transfer side to side to defrost yet but soon. SO will be using stuff up while I’m away which will also help, but have not added to the list yet.
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I am still meeting my goal of checking receipts! I discovered that chicken sausage, the fully cooked kind, is not as $$$ as I thought.
The Boy has expressed an interest in saving money on groceries. I don’t want to overwhelm him, and also we’re busy people- I don’t care whether something is like fifty cents cheaper one place than another. BUT- chicken. I can still get chicken at Sprouts on sale for like $3.50 a pound. He paid nine dollars at King Soopers. (He did pay more for cage free and I settle for antibiotic free.) So rather than bombard him with a whole list of things not to buy, I just told him that the #1 thing he could do is to never buy chicken. There’s always some in the freezer, just take it from there!
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Per pound?!?!
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YES. I was horrified.
He also technically paid for this crazy expensive chicken with food stamps 
. My ex is EBT so the children got some kind of pandemic benefit cards? The XFP didn’t want them so we are buying groceries with them and putting the money in their 529s.
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Faints
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I didn’t do a weekend update because I didn’t get my groceries until Monday, and didn’t log them until yesterday. But it’s done now! This week’s groceries were only $30.45 after the big Costco stock-up last week. Total spending so far this month is $424.50. Breakdown:
| Category | SUM of Cost |
|---|---|
| Carbs | $60.96 |
| Dairy | $58.29 |
| Fruit | $68.13 |
| Pantry | $51.10 |
| Prepared Food | $19.66 |
| Protein | $120.12 |
| Vegetable | $46.24 |
| Grand Total | $424.50 |
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Batch cook 1 of 2 for this week done. I made red beans yesterday (tossed in some white beans too as I was a little short of red) with vegan sausage. At least 2 jars into the freezer. Possibly 3, because… it didn’t come out that great. I used some jambalaya seasoning that I had. The cajun seasoning is better.
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This week might be our lowest in a long time. Spent $113.49 on Sunday and should only need to do a small trip tomorrow or Friday. I also think we might be able to get by until our Disney trip on what we have in the house so that would be nice.
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inspired by a few others I did an inventory of my freezer. and there are So Many Meals in there. 
I might make a list for next to the fridge to remind me to use stuff up.
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Very uninspired to make a meal plan, but the freezer is continuing to get tidier. Another 1 cup of butter chicken sauce, the 1 cup coconut milk, 2 cups of cheesy soup have been eaten up & enjoyed. A 2 cup coconut lentil curry is defrosting for lunches.
I have put up preserved lemons using an Ottolenghi recipe. Hopefully they will work out. I haven’t done this for years, and the first time I cheated and did it all in the fridge. These lemons are from a $5 produce box. I have some roasted peeled tomatoes, bell peppers and potatoes to figure out from the box, but see the uninspired bit. (romesco sauce? a bolognese? cooked salsa? I need to decide in the next 2-3 days or just throw this into the freezer)
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Monthly total sitting at just around $170 so far which is fine but crept up faster than expected! Sent $50 for my share of groceries Sweaty bought. Other $$ came from a variety of smaller purchases.
Spent $2.99 on an overpriced protein bar this morning because I was stressed about some stuff and left the house without enough food for the day. Had to stop eating the free bars I had because they seem to have some artificial sweetener that upset my stomach and gave me nasty farts 
I don’t think I cooked anything that really used up old food, but I did cook a big meal that supplied two days worth of leftovers this week!
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Two eating out this week, $13 at trivia and $18 at happy hour. I would have skipped the happy hour, but a friend got hit with layoffs and wanted to go out so I went along and bought a pitcher.
Grocery store buy of $6.95 for fresh carrots for Japanese curry for trade this week (I already have onions, frozen stir fry vegetables, and a box of sauce to complete the rest of the meal), fruit for myself (cherries), and a coffee drink thing that I should have skipped but didn’t.
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Realised I’ve not updated for a while. Eeeks! So:
I have picked up some ingredients I like, mainly for making simple Japanese dishes. Things which will add flavour like Dashi and Miso, etc. And I have started using the rice cooker again, which is great… 
The kitchen needs a lot of work, so I have started pulling family stuff I don’t use out of drawers, and arranging things how I want them to be. That includes moving the spices to the drawer under the hob, as opposed to the cupboard where the steam from said hob would get to them. My parental units, being white British, were not keen on spices. But I am. So it’s nice to get some interesting flavours in here and give them space in a proper drawer just for them.
On Friday I took some things to the charity shop, and while I was there spotted two Italian, commercial-kitchen-style drawer organisers. And she asked for £1 for both. They are perfect!
Plan for this week is to sort out the dried foods into their own proper drawer (now it’s cleared out, just need to clean it). I have already put my different rices into their own sealed containers, instead of using bag ties. I have oodles of rice, which along with noodles, is one of my favourite staples. And I get regular veggies from the food donations from Olio. So by month’s end, I am hoping to have the kitchen cleaned and sorted how I want things to be at long last, and to be in a better routine of making very simple dishes, like steamed rice and veggies. Cooking has been a struggle for a while now, but this feels like an excellent way to start up again.
If that all goes well, next month I plan to pick up the Kindle version of a Japanese home-cooking book, and gradually expand out my repertoire that way. Fingers crossed this all works out! Am having fun anyway, so that’s good, because food is normally a chore for me, at best.
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We’ve not done well at recording what meals we’ve made. We are making progress, though, and are going to try some “$5/serve” meals from the grocery store’s free magazine. I stocked up the pantry with the food we’re eating regularly and I think we are doing better, 1 weekend/shopping trip to go for the month and we’re under budget overall for combined groceries + takeaway.
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