What I spent, what we ate
It's time for the weekly report!
What I Spent
I mentioned last week that I was going to shoot for a more minimal spending week, and I think I did accomplish that.
I managed to go just to Aldi, because I only needed pretty basic stuff. I spent $87.13 there.
And I got my produce box, which was $33.
I blended the kale up to make frozen kale cubes to add to smoothies.
And I used the beans and peppers up pretty fast too...more on that in a sec.
January weekly totals:
Week one: $195.93
Week two: $189.22
Week three: $120.13
What We Ate
Monday
I made baked salmon, plus a green salad, plus braided cheese bread.
I hadn't made cheese bread in eons, but Mr. FG had mentioned the other day how much he loved it.
So, I made two loaves, using a rather random assortment of cheese odds and ends from my cheese drawer. I think Swiss, cheddar, and mozzarella all ended up in there. And it was delicious.
Tuesday
We made subs and sauteed green beans, which arrived in my produce box that very day. Look at me, using my veggies promptly!
(Kristen gives herself a gold star. And pats herself on the back.)
Wednesday
I made a shrimp and veggie stir-fry, because my produce box gave me two big red peppers. I threw some broccoli in too, from a previous produce box.
I also cut up the rest of the broccoli and put it out on the counter with ranch dressing in a bowl. I'm always amazed at how fast we manage to use up veggies when I put them out like that.
And I always wonder why I don't do that more often.
Thursday
I had a lot of bread odds and ends in the freezer that needed to be used up, so I decided a French toast night was quite in order. I also thawed some local sausage and cooked that up on the griddle.
And I made some strawberry syrup, since my girls had mentioned it recently.
Friday
So, tonight is a pizza night. But I just remembered that I did not buy any King Arthur bread flour to make pizza dough, and honestly, homemade pizza dough isn't worth the effort without it.
I don't know what it is, but that flour makes a ridiculously large difference in the texture and flavor of the dough.
This means I'll have to decide whether I want to run out and get some flour or whether I want to just order some pizza.
_______________
I normally shop Aldi and Meijer each week, but if I am trying to keep it cheap that week I will just shop Aldi. I love Aldi for minimal spending. Not only is it cheaper, but because there is less stuff I don't find myself buying as much as at a larger grocery store.
I managed to not have to go grocery shopping at ALL this week! Woo! I also give myself a gold star and a pat on the back 🙂 My pantry was in dire need of some organization so I made it my mission this week to get through and cook as much of it as possible.
Here's what our menu looked like:
Monday: White chicken chili. This cooked in the crockpot all day - it turned out a little bland, but I threw in some jalapenos and chilis with a little more chili seasoning and it turned out perfectly. It also turned out very thick, so we threw it over some rice and called it a day.
Tuesday: Bowling night. Husband and daughter make mac & cheese for themselves and I eat a salad right before leaving work. Ate some peanut butter toast when I got home late in the evening.
Wednesday: Homemade Chipotle style bowls with chicken, brown rice, and all the fixins.
Thursday: Venison goulash? I'm not sure what I would call it but it included egg noodles, pasta sauce and venison. It was delicious with some croissants I needed to use up in the refrigerator.
Friday: Today is my husband's birthday so his Dad is taking us out to eat. Can't beat that 🙂
I am challenging myself to get through next week without any major grocery trips. I will need to get some juice and milk for the little one, but I think I can do it other than that! Wish me luck! 🙂
My husband always calls that kind of venison dish "Deer Suey". It's so good!
Also, did your local Aldi have the awesome banana deal?! They were $0.29/lb at my Aldi last week so I stocked up and threw some in the freezer!
What about French bread pizza? Then you wouldn't have to get out! I love how easy that pizza option is.
Mmm, that is true! Good idea.
Also pizza quesadillas are pretty good, just spread pizza sauce on one wrap, then add your pizza toppings with the cheese, and the other one on top. These can be pretty thick and unwieldy, so I usually bake them in the toaster oven (or regular oven) rather than frypan and flip them, but if you're more restrained with the toppings, this might not be a problem.
Pizza pasta is another option. Just cook up some pasta toss with pizza/pasta sauce and your pizza toppings, top with a nice layer of cheese, and bake until the cheese is nice and bubbly.
Also, Aldi has had eggs priced at .99 a dozen for the last two weeks here. I stocked up, 4 cartons per customer is their limit. I bake a lot so I enjoyed taking advantage of that deal!
Your pizza always looks so good!
We received a pizza stone for Christmas. I was so excited to make pizza, but my first attempt stuck?!?! Is this normal for new stones?
Yes, new stones tend to be a little rougher than well-used stones. It'll get better and better the more you use it!
Did you try my method, which uses parchment paper to slide the pizza onto the hot stone? The parchment paper should help you out a lot. https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2013/04/how-to-make-great-homemade-pizza/
I followed your recipe and did the parchment thing like you suggested. Worked wonderfully and we had delicious pizza!! My pizza stone says it shouldn't be preheated, but by the 3rd pizza the cooking time was down to about 10 minutes. Not sure about that one. But hey, after my first try, this was so much better! Thanks for the tips!
We use cornmeal rather than parchment paper. Somehow it makes the pizza taste more like pizzeria pizza. And definitely pre-heat the stone, it makes the crust So. Much. Better. mmmmm... maybe I'll make pizza for dinner tonight. 🙂
YES to the preheating of the stone. That makes all the difference in the world.
I was told to never use soap on a stone... So I wash mine with water only. Might help "coat" it so it does not stick, with usage.
Last week-end we cooked 3 batchs of :
- Rice+tofu+veggies
- Potatoes+carrots+sausages
- Spaghetti sauce
And then we ate that all week, tonight included. Which was perfect because I worked full time this week and didn't have time to cook + I don't enjoy cooking at all.
I use the America's Test Kitchen cookbook's recipe for dough and a mixture of all-purpose and white whole wheat. It doesn't have that chewiness that extra extra gluten gives, but we make it thin and bake it really hot, and it is certainly better than any of the chain pizza joints in our town.
Mostly just buying essentials this week. We bought some produce at Aldi (bananas, potatoes, oranges etc.) and spent around $15. We have been eating out of the freezer this week and made a meatloaf on Monday and have been eating the leftovers all week. I had a company function to attend last night so I got free dinner out of that.
The real expense this week, as it is every week, is the baby formula. We buy it at BJs but it's still costing us around $20 a week. I'm just so glad my daughter has no issues with the store brand because the name brand stuff is outrageously expensive!
Hmm, I will give this a go if I can remember.
1. Monday- Baked Panko crusted Pork chops make from Pork loin I got on sale for $8 and had the butcher slice up. Made enough for 5 meals at $1.60 per meal. Then I served them over stove top stuffing that I got on Christmas clearance at Dollar General for 25 cents. We also had roasted cabbage and dented can cranberry sauce to round this meal off.
2. Tues- Hamburgers. I freeze ground beef in meal sized patties in foil when I find a sale. I season them before freezing so all I do is throw the whole foil pack in the oven and bake til done.
3. Wed- BBQ pulled pork from the freezer made into sandwiches. I keep that on hand a lot too because I cook a whole pork roast in the crockpot and we never eat the whole thing in one meal. I only had 3 buns so I cobbled together a veggie stir-fry for myself to eat.
4. Thurs- We had tacos and I am proud to say EVERYTHING that I used for the tacos was a reduced item. We ate tacos for around $4 for a family of 4. I used ground turkey which my husband doesn't like but I have learned to spice it up and add things to make the meat look darker and he never knows the difference.
5.Friday- probably going to be homemade veggie soup with the mexican cornbread. Winter storm here so I plan to be home and that should be warm and toasty. Going to also put together some kind of sweet treat to enjoy the next few days.
My hat is off to you -- hard to beat #1and #4! Wish i could disguise mushrooms for my husband!
Thanks! My husband doesn't like mushrooms either. The only thing I have been able to do to disguise those are chop them up super fine but then I don't enjoy them as well.
Have you tried the bread flour from Costco? You have to buy 50# but it is good. 😉
I use the costco bread flour! Its awesome. I got a twist close 40-lb dog food container off Amazonand it holds all 50# with room to spare and does stay fresh for at least 6 months. People swoon over "my" pizza but I always credit FG for the tips that made all the difference in homemade pizza. The sauce I had to try and try myself till I got it right for us. This blog has saved me so much money!
I'm going to Aldi next produce run to see what all the fuss is about.
For our family of 5, I only spent $55 this week on groceries which I'm pretty proud of. It was mostly produce so that was good too. I need to spend about the same next week to make my monthly goal. I'm working on eating down our freezer because its too full to move the baskets around.
Monday - We had basic chili made with homemade sausage (instead of beef) and tomato sauce I canned from our garden this year.
Tuesday - Spaghetti and meatballs that my mother in law dropped off that was leftover from their church's homeless dinner the night before (gotta love free food).
Wednesday - Steak (from our quarter cow), sweet potatoes, and corn I cut off the cob and froze at its peak in the summer.
Thursday - Hunter's Stew (beef broth based soup with beef, kielbasa, bacon, cabbage, carrots, apple, onion, and egg noodles) and pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (because they sounded delicious to me).
Friday - Homemade pizza
Off topic a bit but.....I know you mentioned you also get a quarter of a cow. Do you get a large quantity of steaks with yours? We have so many steaks. While I enjoy steak every now and then, its too much for us. I usually end up giving a lot away. I rarely see you mention steak on your menu so I'm curious if you receive a lot of them and if so, how do you use them up?
That depends on which quarter we get. We don't typically get tons of steaks, but if we did, I'd just grill them up and serve them, or slice them onto a salad. Joshua, my steak lover, would be overjoyed!
The hunter's stew sounds so good I took a screen shot to try to remember it. I made pumpkin cupcakes just now. Devils food cake mixed with a can of pumpkin then baked in cute Valentines cupcake liners and topped with a simple buttercream frosting. My kids love these as much as regular cupcakes and they are sorta kinda healthy.
Frugal note- pumpkin was dollar general Christmas markdown so $.25, cake mix was a freebie from grocery store, and cupcake liners I got last year after Valentines Day marked down.
Here is the full recipe if you want it:
4 strips bacon
1 lb stew beef cubed
1 onion chopped
4 cups beef broth
3/4 cup beer
1/2 tsp ground thyme
1 bay leap
1/2 lb smoked sausage or kielbasa
1/2 head cabbage shredded
1/2 - 1 apple peeled, cored and diced
2 cup carrots diced
salt/pepper
Fry the bacon and remove. Then brown the beef remove. Saute veggies & apple until somewhat soft. Pour in beef and cook off alcohol. Add all remaining ingredients and beef/bacon back to pot (except noodles). Simmer for 3-4 hours. Prior to serving, boil noodles separately. Add the noodles and serve immediately.
Thanks so much!!!!
We butcher our beef (a half a year), and I get more ground beef than anything because it is most versatile. A good processing plant should ask you how you want your beef cut, size of roasts, thickness of steaks, etc. I don't care to have brisket, sirloin steaks, and too many roasts, so I usually just get a few roasts, rib-eyes and other small steaks, chicken fry steaks, and rest in ground beef. If you have too many steaks, you can always throw several of them into the crockpot and prepare like you would a roast, or add barbecue sauce. Another option is to get larger cuts of meat cut up into stew meat. I grew up on a farm and have eaten a lot of beef!
Thanks for the tips. The processing plant does ask us how we want it butchered. My friend and I actually purchase a half a cow together and then split it (its cheaper that way) and I know she likes the steaks. I guess we will have to discuss it next time we are ready. However, she does all the work of getting the cow and drives several hours to pick it up so I don't want to be pushy because I appreciate what she does.
Hi! I am just wondering if shrimp is pretty cheap where you are. I think it's around $8/lb for frozen shrimp where I live...and that never SEEMS like a good deal...but I see it here and it looks delicious!
I got this shrimp from Costco. It is more expensive than, say, chicken, but I like to keep it around for a quick meal here and there.
same here!
Husband's turn for meals this week. He's done a great job.
Sunday-stuffed peppers with salad
Monday-homemade pizza with salad
Tuesday-leftovers
Wednesday-chicken soup & rolls, then baked chicken for a late snack because we didn't get home as early as intended to get it started
Thursday-leftovers
Friday-leftovers with broccoli and salad
He found bags of cranberries on sale for 50 cents each (they were 3.50 when they first appeared in November!), so we stocked up the freezer.
So jonesing for Shrimp stir fry -- oh my, it looks delicious! I LOVE this post and thread -- it really helps me to stay the course -- thank you!
Saturday -- half priced delicious tortellini with reduced sautéed mushrooms (for me) and salad
Sunday -- Roasted a $3.50 chicken and half priced butternut squash, green salad
Monday -- Planned epic fail -- husband's birthday at favorite restaurant with lovely grown up daughter. Used a coupon but still . . . At least the cake was homemade: 49 cent cake mix with 2/3 off price dark chocolate bits added in. Well, as homemade as a mix can be 😉
Tuesday -- Repeat of Sunday's Roast chicken with broccoli added in.
Wednesday -- Last of chicken turned into soup with new stuff (kale, celery.) and lots of old stuff added in from the freezer (corn, peas) and 'frig. Sadly, did not cook down the carcass -- too late by the time I got home. Will try to next time . . .
Thursday -- Last of the soup with way marked down loaf of artisanal loaf -- seeded whole grain.
Tonight -- hmm it's treat day so all bets are off.
Cheers!
Ooh, treat day! That sounds fun.
Hi! Just wanted to know what your recipe was for the stir fry? I searched your blog and couldn't find it. It looks so good. Thank you!
I haven't actually posted it...but I can put it on my to-post list.
I did pretty well using up what we had but due to the blizzard I did go out earlier to get a few things just in case we will be stuck inside for a while.
Hi Kristen,
Do you know about vital wheat gluten? You add it to regular all purpose flour and it becomes the same as bread flour! That's my understanding, anyways. From what I understand, bread flour has a higher protein content. Look it up. I stopped buying bread flour and now just keep the vital wheat gluten on hand. I cannot find it at Walmart, but I find it at some Publix stores for around 3 dollars a box. I think it saves money as bread flour is more expensive, and you don't have to worry about having bread flour on hand. My breads and pizza doughs have been turning out wonderfully with it. I also make whole wheat bread and add it to the whole wheat flour in that recipe. You just add one teaspoon of vital wheat gluten to each cup of flour and mix it up before adding to your recipe. http://www.hodgsonmillstore.com/en/baking-aids/vital-wheat-gluten-with-vitamin-c--71518-00810-001_group
^^^This is the brand I use. I hope that helps!
Saturday: Calzones
Sunday: Leftover calzones for my husband, random fridge leftovers for me
Monday: Spaghetti
Tuesday: Ramen and Grilled Cheese
Wednesday: Leftover Spaghetti for me, not sure about my husband
Thursday: Leftover Spaghetti for my husband, McDonalds for me (purchased with my personal spending money-because it sounded amazing and it just needed to happen)
Friday: Don't know yet-I have chicken and shrimp thawed in our fridge and rice aging for a fried rice dish, so maybe that?
The stir fry and the cheese bread look great! Maybe not together, but then again why not!?!? lol
M-Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit
T-Mexican casserole, chips, salsa, guacamole
W-Turkey kielbasa, wheat buns, veggies, ranch dressing
T-Turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, green salad with dried cranberries, goat cheese and cranberry vinaigrette
F-Leftovers
Kristen--in the photo there are bananas wrapped in green tape and bananas that are not green tape wrapped--does this have to do with ripeness or is one bunch organic and one not? Thanks!
Sunday was homemade pizza, which used a variety of stuff from the freezer: pork sausage made using homemade seasoning and ground pork bought on sale, Aldi turkey pepperoni, sweet pepper, sweet red onions. I had the last tiny glass of Christmas wine with mine.
Monday was angel hair pasta with a homemade sauce using the last of the pizza sauce, veggies from the freezer, olives, and a can of diced tomatoes partially whizzed up with the stick blender. I also made two loaves of honey-oatmeal bread from scratch.
My family has no objection to leftovers, so we ate the pasta, supplemented with cheese, homemade bread, fresh fruits and veggies, until it was gone. Generally, I cook enough two to three times a week to cover an entire week of suppers.
Yesterday I had the last little bit of pasta and some cheese for a late lunch, and baked pumpkin-oatmeal-raisin muffins for breakfasts and a big batch of oatmeal-butterscotch chip cookies for snacks. (As you might be able to discern, we have a big stock of oatmeal right now.)
Tonight's supper will be baked salmon (love that frozen salmon from Aldi) with glazed carrots and a homemade clone of Rice-a-Roni made from the recipe in The Complete Tightwad Gazette. Yesterday's homemade cookies for dessert.
Saturday is generally every man for himself for supper, and Sunday will be chili and corn muffins, which will be plentiful enough to get us through Monday night.
Due to bad weather we are staying home. I decided to clean the freezer out and use what we have. I see several pots of soup and stew. Chicken and dumplings and sausage gravy biscuits. I have a bad habit of never getting to the bottom of my freezer. We may have some surprises waiting for us.
King arthur has an incredibly high percent of protien. Even among bread flours. It makez a difference. I keep a container of wheat gluten on hand to add when i want a super high protien flour so i dont have to have multiple jars of flour around. And it helps a lot since i make 100% whole wheat bread.
Love these for ideas! Already making next weeks' menu
Sun- crockpot pulled pork that was way discounted. Served with slider buns (your whole wheat bread recipe, actually! My littles love the size) also had applesauce and called it good
Mon- used fridge leftovers to make grilled burritos and salad
Tues- sauté chicken, steam broccoli, box Mac ans cheese. My busy day and not much time when arriving home with tired hungry children in tow
Wed- used leftover pork to stuff with your homemade pitas. Also made homemade hummus and veggies. Kind of non traditional but essentially free since we used left overs
Thurs- crockpot red beans and rice- easiest, cheapest, healthiest meal!
Friday- work function- chili cook off. It's in my crock pot now and hoping its good! Definitely a frugal week for us
Is pizza delivery an option in a blizzard?! 😉
We had sautéed veggies and tofu on Sunday night, pasta with pesto cream sauce and salad Monday night, your Jambalaya Tuesday night (my husband and I both ate way too much--so good), leftovers and sandwiches Wednesday night, and breakfast burritos Thursday night. I was planning meatloaf with mashed potatoes and broccoli for Thursday night, but we elected to leave town early for our weekend house to beat the storm. So we'll have that tonight. Saturday night is pizza night for us. It will probably involve bell peppers and sliced tomatos.
Enjoy the snow!
Thank you so much for posting the recipe link for that braided cheese bread you made; it looks fantastic! Can't wait to try it since I definitely have some cheese odds 'n' ends I need to use up and I'd hate for them to go to waste.
Kristen, thank you for such good ideas this week! Would it be possible for you to do a post on Aldi? I know they are not like regular grocery stores and would really like knowing more before I make the trek! Thanks in advance!
Karen,
Kristen has done several posts on Aldi... type it into the search box on the right side of the blog and you'll probably find them easily.
Plug for Trader Joe's premade pizza dough! Less than $2 for a medium pizza's worth (or, enough for me and hubs). It's not as cheap as homemade, but it's a favorite shortcut of mine.
I love the TJ dough too! So easy!
This was a good week for me grocery budget wise, spent €60.00. On a use up everything in my cupboards mission these days and sticking to my list! Tea was on special, it was my only impulse buy..
Mon: we had roast vegetable pasta
Tues: Roast chicken, carrot & parsnip, peas & potatoes..
Wed: Roast chicken again
Thurs: Salmon, potato & veg
Fri: Chicken fajitas with peppers, carrots, spinach..& some oven chips
Kristen missed the 5 frugal things post this week. However the tips on frugal shopping were great, thank you:-)
corn/potato chowder & grapes
Baked teriyaki chicken thighs, baked cauliflower with olive oil and salt
Spinach ravioli, leftover chicken, steamed broccoli
Chicken meatballs (Costco- kind of pricey, but yummy & fast), left over veggies & ravioli
Spinach salad with grapes & chicken ( kids ate Mac and cheese/ carrots and apples)
We don't always have dessert but a few times this week we had small cups of vanilla ice cream with a homemade raspberry compote (summer raspberries and maple syrup)
Saturday night we will have Chinese or Mexican take out, since my daughter has a school play.
I love seeing everyone's menu... Nothing fancy just good economical homemade food!
Kale cubes! Best idea ever! I am not going to have slimy spinach in my vegetable crisper any more 🙂 Love it! (and I can't believe I never thought of it!) 🙂
We ate out of the freezer all week! That's why I make sure I have a stash for this busy time of our professional year. Spaghetti with frozen meat sauce one night, frozen green salsa pork and leftover rice another, frozen ham became croque monsieurs. Lots of carrot sticks, green beans since that's what we had. The hubs worked from home yesterday and made homemade turkey chili, God bless him. I made a crockpot batch of steel-cut oats with blueberries & flax last weekend, so that was my breakfast most of the week.
To harken back to a previous post, since we had little fresh food in the house and no time to shop, DH ordered Blue Apron. Since our roads are pretty clear I'm running out to get some produce, but we're good for a few meals next week!
I love Aldi too and I couldn't tell from your pic, but I hope you heard Aldi was part of Listeria/Dole recall. Dole makes Aldi brand. We just ate two bags of Aldi salad and I had already thrown away the bags so I don't know if I had a recalled bag...scary!
Ooh, thanks for the heads up. Fortunately, I've never bought a bagged salad from Aldi, so we are good.
That stir fry looks great!
Monday we had chicken sausage cacciatore over linguini with salad
Tuesday was chicken enchiladas I had already made over the weekend
Wednesday was calzone made over the weekend
Thursday was beef stroganoff over the left over linguini from Monday
Friday was pizza with dough from the store. I had food shopped after work and bought the premade dough as a short cut. Still cheaper than take out:).
Couple of comments: 1. I enjoy how seemingly in your house, your family just mentions a food and it puts it in your mind and you make it! 😉
2. You can get pizza dough from almost any pizza shop (I have never had one turn me down), including the large national chains. So wherever you like the pizza, just pop in there and they will most likely sell you the dough. It's usually about $2-3 for a large size pizza. I consider that pretty reasonable and we do that often when we want homemade pizza but haven't made the time to make the dough! We have a local pizza shop that we REALLY like the crust from, but I have done it at other places as well. Papa Murphy's is a good one because they will give it to you already rolled out if you want!
You know, I think I remember reading that pizza tip in the Tightwad Gazette, but I'd quite forgotten about it.
I will third the vital wheat gluten tip! My Costco sells 25# of KAF flour (all purpose) so I just add the gluten for recipes that call for bread flour. I often add it when using whole wheat flour to recipes as well, to help give it that structure. A friend got Bob's Red Mill bags for cheap on Amazon, I think a 4-pack, and split it with me. Win-win.