What I Spent, What We Ate | Half-Year Totals!
What I Spent
I skipped doing a grocery post last week (oops), so I'll give you the total for this week AND last week, which adds up to $272.23.
I had another haphazard grocery week (see: yesterday's post, where I mentioned that I've majored on the fun this week, and not so much on the responsibility).
So I don't have one big grocery photo to show you. But here is one of my Aldi trips:
June Weekly Spending-
Week 1: $92.35
Week 2: $171.93
Week 3: $145.70
Week 4 and 5: $272.23
And since it's the end of a month (and the end of the first half of the year!):
Spending Year To Date (avg. $158/week)
January: $681
February: $650
March: $823
April: $623
May: $656
June: $682
What We Ate
Monday
This was a haphazard kind of night, and I'm having trouble remembering what everyone ate. I know at least some of us ate quesadillas and guacamole.
Tuesday
We had Aussie Chicken, along with a green salad and toasted English Muffin bread.
Wednesday
I made a salad from my ATK quick cookbook...a green salad topped with sliced steak and potato wedges, and dressed with mustard vinaigrette.
Thursday
I helped out two of my friends by taking their kids to the pool with me all afternoon, so I pressed the easy button for dinner: frozen ravioli from Aldi, topped with tomato sauce from Aldi.
Friday
I was planning to make shrimp lettuce cups, but my avocado-buying didn't line up properly.
There's something of an art to that, isn't there? Buying the rock hard avocados so that they ripen by the time you want to use them...
So, hey, I might go for my fallback of pizza.
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As usual I am having trouble remembering. I should write it down.
We have had homemade potato, leek and garlic chive soup twice for me and three times for mum. We had chicken and salad today. We ate out twice. Once was fish and chips and the other was sushi. We have also had chicken, chips and salad too.
Monday- with a house full of little people, I fixed pizza rolls and loaded French fries.
Tuesday-My grandson took me out to eat. We ate at an Italian restaurant and I had a pepperoni calzone.
Wednesday -I made tacos.
Thursday- tuna fish patties, rice, green beans
Friday- I'm planning a making hot dog sauce and potato salad for tonight's dinner.
"I’ve majored on the fun this week, and not so much on the responsibility."
Good for you. There's a balance and I know you want to be more open to unplanned fun even if the to do list suffers for it.
Haha, so true. I give myself gold stars for being unproductive. 😉
Monday - Band practice, McDonald's for dinner. I had a grilled chicken sammish, which wasn't half bad. I had to get a new side salad, as the first one had spoiled greens.
Tuesday - Chicken fried rice, with Zaycon boneless skinless chicken thighs. Peas as a veggie.
Wednesday - Big green salads with chicken thighs (cooked the day before). Fresh strawberry shortcake, with fresh, hot biscuits and ice cream (hey, we know how to live).
Thursday - Lasagna, because I had all the ingredients, with my home-canned hamburger, home-canned spaghetti sauce, lots of cheeses.
Friday - We'll have leftover lasagna, with broccoli that needs to be used. And the last of the strawberry shortcake!
M- Leftover crockpot pork chops from the weekend
Tu- Dinner with family at the local Mexican restaurant for all you can eat tacos!
W- Ground beef and noodle pasta bake
Th- Chicken patties and fries -- easy button as we had yard work to do!
F - Pizza!
I'm very pleased with the relative emptiness of my fridge right now, and not having had a lot of food waste this week.
Monday - sauteed all the leftover produce and added a jar of Madras Curry simmer sauce; we had okra, potatoes, onion, tomato, green pepper, green bean.... served over white rice
Tuesday - an easy dinner of rigatoni with jarred sauce, to which I added some leftover chicken; served with broccoli
Wednesday - leftovers al fresco 🙂
Thursday - I made the "of berries and broccoli" version of broccoli cheese soup from this site and added croutons on top, then later ate a bit of fruit. Made hubs a grilled cheese sandwich for his side.
Friday - we'll probably have spaghetti carbonara and steamed veggies
I really love the idea of sauteing all of the leftover veggies. What you ended up with sounds like something I would prepare minus the rice. Awesome!!!
Wowza, those steak and potato wedges look a-maz-ing. I'll have to keep that in my back pocket for dinner next week. I am quite proud to announce that, because we were so under budget for June food, we were able to put a whopping additional $350 into savings!! Good things happen if you learn to cook more at home for less. 🙂
Yay for extra savings!
Let's see -- I had my daughter and granddaughter over for supper on Sunday, so we had a crock pot roast, green salad, and.... some other veggie I can't remember. Not potatoes, I know that. Watermelon for dessert.
Monday I was out of town with a group all day and got home after 9 p.m., so I had to eat out. My husband scrounged up a meal from the refrigerator.
Tuesday was pork chops, roasted beets and leftover salad.
Wednesday was leftover roast and I used the saved juices to make gravy to go over rice, sliced garden tomatoes and leftover beets.
Thursday was hog jowl with greens and sweet potatoes. Oh, and tomatoes.
Tonight, who knows! I'm thinking pasta. But I'm happy to say I cooked at home most of the week, even though I canned tomato sauce on Tuesday and got home late on Wednesday after a meeting (after 8 p.m.).
Mon-We were still on vacation and the kids wanted to go to Dave and Busters for their one special thing to do, kinda pricey, but actually very good food. I had a portabello burger with a salad on the side. FYI, Dave and Busters is not for frugal people. It will leave you feeling defeated.
Tues-We all just snacked on different things as we just got home from the beach. I think I ate an ice cream sandwich for my meal, lol.
Wed-Meatloaf, green beans, and corn
Thurs-Hamburgers and corn on the cob, I skipped the bun as I am currently sick of buns but I also enjoyed some wonderful heirloom tomatoes with my meal.
Friday- no idea
What did I eat? Well, since someone is taking up a lot of our time we're still on the making stuff ahead and then eating it for several days kick.
On Sunday we grilled some a top round beef (I don't care what ATK obnoxiously claims, it does NOT taste like liver, and if it does, who cares?) I also fried up some potatoes as homemade fries as I wanted to try out a copycat recipe of Five Guys Cajun spice. Since I was doing fries, I wasn't going to just do one batch so I made enough for leftovers.
Monday: Leftover beef, fries and tossed salads.
Tuesday: First date night without the baby since December (and even that wasn't really so much of a date as us going to Ikea.) We went to see the MST3K reunion show so we just ate Chinese food in the food court. We usually go to Ruby Tuesday when we go out to the movies (which is extremely rare) but this time we were running late so we went that route.
Wednesday: Finished up the beef from Sunday. Basically we had a carbon copy of the dinner from Monday.
Thursday: Breakfast for dinner consisting of bacon, eggs, leftover pancakes for my wife and some hashbrowns for me.
Friday: Bible study so it's a surprise for us. I am bringing a loaf of sourdough that I made for a coworker. She decided to take a long weekend and I didn't want it to hang around over the long weekend so I'll make her a new one. It's an interesting barter system we have going: she gives me her daughter's hand-me-downs and I make her bread.
I'd say that seems like a very good bargain that you've struck!
A tip for avocados: let them ripen on the counter until almost ready or ready and then throw them in the frig. They will keep at least a week in there. We buy them in bulk at Sams and this is the only way i have found that works to use them all up when perfectly ripen.
I do this as well! I buy my avocados at Costco where they are mostly hard. 2 days sitting on the countertop softens thems and I stick them in the fridge where they are ready for me whenever I want to eat them.
This past week I have been eating Spicy Root Beer Pulled Pork & Homemade Coleslaw & Roasted Beets with Waffles. It is a bestseller at the famous NYC Wafles & Dinges so I made my copy cat version of it. Best of all I have a ton left for the freezer which I will be defrosting tomorrow to bring to a July 4th Potluck this weekend.
Yup, that's what I do too...the problem is that I hadn't bought any in time for them to ripen. And that is not something you can rush, of course.
(if only! That would be so awesome.)
Does the trick of putting them in a paper bag with an apple, work for avocados?
We were traveling from Saturday through Tuesday evening so a strange week of food.
M- McAllister's Deli
T- Meal on the road
W-Grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches, vegetable soup, fruit
T- Chicken, potato salad, sliced tomatoes, applesauce
F- Planning on roasted teriyaki pork loin, green beans, pasta, fruit
Happy 4th of July!!
It's been a very busy week between work and preparing to host company for the holiday weekend. Right now our fridge/pantry are well stocked, but with 8 people to feed for the holiday weekend, it won't last long!
Monday - Asian chicken on the grill, fried rice w/veggies
Tuesday - green salsa chicken in the crockpot, served in tortillas, chips & salsa on the side
Wednesday - ordered out pizza (stressful day at the office and I couldn't even...)
Thursday - roasted veggies w/polish sausage
Friday - company arrives tonight! shrimp, corn on the cob, roasted potatoes
Love that you tallied your grocery expenses at the half-way through the year point! I've never done that but maybe I will after the holiday. I always tally them in January for the previous 12 mos. The grocery geek in me finds that to be "fun." 😉
Another spendy month for us:( lots of food still so I'm doing a psuedo pantry challenge this month. Going to try to just buy dairy and produce with a little meat as needed. We have lots of staple grains and baking supplies, as well as canned goods I put up last fall that need to be eaten. Our garden is beginning to share as well!!!
This week we ate:
-fish and chips, coleslaw
-ziti w/ sauce and sausage crumbles, side salad and garlic bread
-pork and broccoli over rice
-BLT chicken salad with guac and bread
-cooks country impossible pie, asparagus
-pizza and salad tonight and a pineapple upside down cake to celebrate week's end for hubs long work week
Apropos your post yesterday, today I saw a book on one of my favorite sites about doing nothing! In fact, it's called "Let's Do Nothing!" by Tony Fucile.
http://childrensbookalmanac.com/
Book-A-Day Almanac
Our Weeks are Friday - Thursday's ( as my hubby gets paid on Fridays)
✔ï¸Friday~ YOYO (your on your own)
We usually grab a bite to eat out on Fridays. ( I work during the day then straight after that I clean a Dr Office for another 1-1/2 to 2hrs if my hubby do t help me)
✔ï¸Sat~Leftovers ( I had a Neighborhood Sale & didn't want to Cook the Sun Cooked me 101*) But Zmade $400-
✔ï¸Sunday~Frozen Leftover Spinach Kasagna from March my daughters Bday Dinner. & a Nice Green Salad (( Trying to eat from Freezer))
✔ï¸Monday~Chicken Strips, Nice Salad (w- homegrown Tomatoes from a friend) & Crockpot Baked Potatoes
✔ï¸Tuesday ~ Frozen Leftover Navajo Tacos from 6/8. ( I made the Beans w- Meat & the Fry bread & froze leftovers 6/8)
✔ï¸Wed~ Grilled Teryaki Chicken breasts, Nice Salad & A Really Big Sweet Cantaloupe.
✔ï¸Thursday ~ Homemade Tacos/Burritos ( we call them tacos ) Rotiserie Chicken, homegrown tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, sour cream & refried Beans leftover from May from Mexican market deli ( OMyGosh the Best Beans Ever !!! )
Out of 100$ for the week I had 43$ leftover as we ate from freezer/pantry this week. Extra $ going to save fir Date Night
Ugh soo sorry about all the misspelling my iPad retypes a lot of crazy words & I don't see it sometimes
Darned if I remember - lots of jet lag, lots of being asleep by dinner time, lots of buying lunch. I came up with a neat trick, though: buy a Subway salad with extra dressing, then add your own lettuce to make it much bigger. Or in my jetlagged case, add extra lettuce & spinach bought at the salad bar. Hardly frugal but high on the healthy.
I cooked once this week, some steak. The last bit I had to cook before defrosting the freezer. Yay defrosted freezer.
Monday - tacos with fixings
Tuesday - hot ham and cheese sandwiches with fresh corn on the cob
Wednesday - we made a chicken broccoli casserole for my husband and the kids and I headed to my parents for a few days. We had sloppy joes, corn on the cob and lots of fruit.
Thursday - we came to my parents' house in part to attend a huge community event put on at the local dairy (the biggest in our state). We had dinner there - delicious cheeseburgers, chips, milk, water and ice cream shakes. They were all free! They also had bouncy houses, dairy farm tours, and other kids' activities
Friday - my parents are going to dinner with friends so the kids and I are having grilled cheese veggies and fruit.
Monday - Lazy lasagna, made with leftover chicken cacciatore from the weekend.
Tuesday - Individual meatloafs, stuffed with pepper jack cheese and baked potatoes as a side.
Wednesday - Ham and noodle bake casserole.
Thursday - I was on my own for the night, since my husband took all the boys over to a family friend's house to go swimming.
Friday - Slow cooker chicken and dumplings.
For the weekend, we are cooking a large turkey breast on our smoker, and a large crock pot of black beans.....dinners for Saturday and Sunday.
Do you include cleaning and health and beauty items in your monthly tally? Just curious how our family compares... Thanks!
I think (??) that you use Gold Medal flour sometimes so here is some information about a recall in case it applies to you ... http://www.generalmills.com/en/News/NewsReleases/Library/2016/May/flour/61cede4c-0536-4ccb-87f1-01a84e61ba53
We were on vacation out of town so our menu has been kept very easy:
Lunchs were sandwiches with veggies, fruits, yogourt, etc
Diners were : pasta with beans and/or cheese, a BBQ night (sausages on a bun, burgers, salads), and restaurant outings three times.
Happy to be back to a more normal routine with meals (variety).
We've super loved your fluffy pancakes recipe. Is there any twist that you can teach us on how to enjoy it more?
My young adult children are scattered to the four corners of the world for the summer. I plan on cleaning out the refrigerator and freezer the next two months. Who knows what will get cooked . I plan on eliminating many items from the house. I have a daughter that is away and the entire family will be going gluten free when she returns. Sadly the child has no self discipline and her health problems are becoming more serious. On the bright side eating healthier is good for the whole family. I have two months to become better educated and to find meal plans for the family. Growing together as a family is always a good thing.