What I Spent, What We Ate | a belt-tightening week

What I Spent

I was a bit over budget for the first couple of weeks in January, so this week, I tried to pick some meals that weren’t super expensive (and that used some ingredients I already had on hand.)

I made a super quick stop into Target for bananas, King Arthur bread flour (which I use to make pizza), bananas, and some nuts to send with Mr. FG in his lunch.   That cost me $15.38.

Then I made a regular grocery shopping trip, which I did put off as long as possible.   But we were out of eggs.   And butter.

One can only go so long without those two items, dear readers.

I spent $93.84, $10 of which was the big container of dried milk, which Sonia and Zoe wanted for making hot chocolate mix.

Which reminded me that I should see if powdered milk is available somewhere else for less money.   Aldi used to carry it but I haven’t seen it in a while.

(I apologize for the bad grocery picture.   It was very dark when I got home from the store!)

The good news is that my week of lower spending has now put me at an average of $155/week for January.   Yay!

January Grocery Spending
($618 total)

Week 1: $165

Week 2: $146

Week 3: $198

Week 4: $109

What We Ate

Monday

We had broccoli-cheese noodle soup (which used 100% pantry/freezer ingredients!).   I got a loaf of whole wheat bread out of the freezer too, and we sliced and toasted that to eat with our soup.

Tuesday

I made well-done grilled hamburgers plus a pan of potato cubes to use up my produce box potatoes.   I also used up some odds and ends of fruit to make a fruit salad.

Wednesday

This was the night I made the Caribbean chicken with couscous.   I also cut up some orange slices.

Thursday

It was a press-the-easy button night!   We had buttermilk pancakes topped with strawberry syrup.

Strawberry syrup is ridiculously easy, and my kids all love it.

I haven’t done a strict analysis, but I’m guessing it’s quite a bit lower in sugar than regular pancake syrup (especially because I never use the full 2 cups of sugar the original recipe called for.)

And it only costs $1.25 per recipe, so it’s quite affordable, especially compared to grocery store fruit syrup.

Friday

We usually do pizza, but earlier in the week, I bought all the ingredients to make Japanese Pork and Ramen soup, so that is what we’re eating tonight!

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How about you?   What’s been on your dinner table this week?

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P.S. Congrats to Michelle, winner of the Barnes and Noble gift card!   Michelle, you’ll be getting an email. 🙂

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