What I Spent, What We Ate | Zero Taco Nights Happened
What I Spent
It was a produce box week ($32).
And I made a trip to the grocery store too. Excuse the poor photo here...it was dark and rainy!
Mercifully, the rain let up while we carried the groceries in.
Hauling groceries in the rain is the opposite of fun.
Those groceries cost $111.68, and I also spent $25 at a local grocery store.
So that adds up to $168.
And that makes my September total $954. That's pretty high for me, but that's five week's worth of shopping trips. So I expect next month won't be as high.
Spending Year To Date (avg. $163/week)
January: $681
February: $650
March: $823
April: $623
May: $656
June: $682
July: $706
August: $589
September: $954
What We Ate
Monday
We had Aussie Chicken, buttered whole wheat toast, and a green salad similar to this one.
Aaaand I am reminded that I seriously need to take a fresh picture of Aussie Chicken. This one from 2010 is making me a little unhappy!
Tuesday
Meatball subs, plus a green salad.
Wednesday
I made a pot of clam chowder and a pan of roasted carrots. I also cut up some raw veggies for those among us who hate roasted carrots (heathens!), and we toasted some store-bought bagels.
Thursday
I made chicken tostadas, using a recipe from my latest Cook's Country magazine. And we had some applesauce from the freezer.
None of us had ever eaten tostadas before, and we decided that we prefer tacos (ha!) because they're easier to eat!
Friday
I'm planning to make regular ol' homemade pizza.
And that wraps up the eats at our house for this week!
My groceries this week (so far)? Well, you're going to giggle. I was so busy, I really and actually thought that (in my pea brain) this week was payday. So all I bought, grocery-wise, was a few vegetables, two gallons of milk, and a loaf of bread. This coming Monday is a Zaycon shipment day - so I have 40 pounds of chicken breasts to do. I'll can most of it (a pound per pint), freeze the rest. I really recommend Zaycon - my husband and I split one (half of a half) for a meal.
I've been worn out recently so dinner has been a simple protein, veggies (more likely raw than cooked), and some fruit. Utterly uninspiring.
Saturday: homemade Chinese Roast Pork, don't remember the produce
Sunday: baked boneless pork chops w apples & onions[1], steamed broccoli, melon
Monday: drawing a blank.
Tuesday: minced shrimp balls, baby carrots
Wednesday: burgers, more baby carrots (there were a lot left over after a party), apples
Thursday: drumsticks in Chinese Roast Pork sauce (using leftover sauce), cukes, tomatoes, canned mandarin oranges
Friday: either frozen dumplings or go out to my favorite diner
[1] Brown thick chops on all sides. Put in roasting pan with sliced apples, sliced onions, thyme; optionally, cover with tin foil; bake at 325 till pork done.
I hope you get some rest soon!
Memory has returned: Monday was pasta w/ tomato sauce (zesty Tom Basil from Trader Joe's), enriched by simmering some ground beef in the sauce. I had the leftovers for lunch on Tuesday. Tasty!
Thanks for the good wishes.
Lots o' carbs for dinner this week, because I packed veggies into my lunch box (chicken and random vegetable jalfrezi with rice, using jarred simmer sauce).
Monday - chicken, mushroom, and cheese quesadillas with boxed roasted red pepper and tomato soup - think we'll repeat this for lunch on the weekend, too!
Tuesday - hubs wasn't hungry, so I ate a snack bowl of stale (!) multigrain Cheerios before going to a movie and then had boxed mac and cheese when I returned home
Wednesday - French toast and breakfast sausage
Thursday - hubs cooked up a tasty salad (greens, apple, cheese, and bottled red wine vinaigrette), spaghetti with jarred meat sauce, and garlic bread from the grocery store
Friday - spaghetti carbonara and maybe peas on the side this time
Tostadas are pretty big at the Picky Pinchers house. 🙂 They are more difficult to eat than tacos, but I still prefer them! We top ours with homemade refried beans, cheese, hot sauce, avocado, and whatever leftover meat we have on hand (usually dark meat chicken).
This week we ate:
Monday: Since Mr. Picky Pincher's dad was helping us with the house, I swung by Whataburger and picked up dinner for everyone during the renovations.
Tuesday: I stayed home today, so we were a little bad with our meal planning. We picked up some pad Thai for dinner. No regrets.
Wednesday: Orecchiete pasta tossed with spinach, parmesan, pancetta, and roasted pumpkin. Y'all. This. Was. Delicious. I'd never had roasted pumpkin before, but it's now a seasonal favorite of mine!
Thursday: We had homemade French dip sandwiches. It was a slow cooker recipe I got at the library, and these things were mighty tasty!
Friday: I'm not too sure what we'll eat tonight. Mr. Picky Pincher isn't too happy with our frozen meal options, so we miiiiight pick something up. Hopefully I can convince him to have a pasta night, but we'll see!
I agree on tostadas, messy!! Hey, I was googling a way to use up corn tortillas and found a brilliant solution to use them to make taco shells. Basically you hang them over 2 "bars" on your oven rack and bake them and they turn into taco shell shape! Haven't tried yet though.
We cooked two slabs of ribs, so that made our meals for two nights, plus a couple of lunches. For veggies:my husband loves rutabaga, so we had that with the ribs one night. We also had beets, peas, sliced ripe tomatoes and cole slaw when we ate ribs, but I don't remember which veggie on which night.
One night was a potato-onion-sausage casserole. I was going to make a salad, too, but somehow never did.
Last night was cleaning out leftovers and eating them up.
Tonight is still a big question mark. No tacos this week here, either.
Monday- pasta bake with breadsticks
Tuesday - deep dish pizza. I tried out freezing my regular recipe and put it straight from the freezer to the oven. It turned out perfectly.
Wednesday - my mother-in-law brought over buttermilk baked chicken and potatoes
Thursday - spaghetti carbonara with freah fruit and veggie sides.
Friday - pulled pork sandwiches with veggies and chips and dip.
We are over budget this month, but my meals are planned for all of October and most are already made and frozen. I'm due with baby 3 in 2 days (!!) and it feels great to know that we have yummy meals we love to keep us covered for a while. We also have friends setting up meal sharing for our family so our meals will likely last into November. Woo hoo!
Congratulations!
We were *slightly* under on our grocery budget this month despite jumping on several good meat sales. Luckily for us, with us no longer buying formula, that should (at least in theory) cut a good $100 per month out of our spending with that going toward more "normal" food. I'm also finding that 75% of our shopping is at Aldi and the regular grocery store. We used to do a lot more "shopping around" but my wife doesn't coupon so much any more and I don't have the patience.
For food this week we had a sort of mixed bag:
Monday: A decidedly autumn dinner with pork chops and apples braised in apple cider served with rice.
Tuesday: Kielbasa, roasted potatoes and tossed salads. Kielbasa is not particularly healthy but it is one of those foods I crave once every couple years.
Wednesday: Clean out the fridge night! I made fried rice and the best part about that is it's sort of a leftover magnet and I used leftovers that were hanging around the fridge. I think I added a carrot and celery stalk but that's it.
Thursday: Homemade pizza, though I cheated and bought the dough at Aldi.
Friday: Normally we eat at Bible Study but we're all sick here so we may just stay home and rest and cook whatever we have left in the fridge. We'll see.
What do you usually eat on Saturday and Sunday?
Usually one of those nights is a date night for Mr. FG and me, and the kids eat something simple at home. And the other night is frequently a snacky sort of affair...fruit, cheese and crackers, chips and dip, etc. So, not much cooking happens on the weekends!
Whaaaat??!! No Tacos?? Say it ain't so!! lol
M - BBQ chicken, broccoli, brown rice
T - Baked salmon, noodles with parmesan, green beans
W - Turkey hot dogs baked, brown bread with raisins, baked beans, fruit
T - Parmesan baked Pollock, baked potatoes, sautéed squash and tomatoes
F - No idea whatsoever...............................ugh..................................
Ps You noticed that we did not have tacos either?!
I really enjoy your Friday grocery spending updates. I know there are many variables that determine how much a family spends and what they eat, but it's really cool to have at least one point of reference to know how other people do it. Our spending is about where yours is. We shop at Aldi and have three kids. We also don't buy a lot of pre-packaged or processed foods, so I'm not surprised we're similar.
For some reason in September I was over budget by $41 but I'm still under for the year to date so I guess that is good.
Monday - Taco salad made with ground beef and homemade refried beans. We usually use tortilla chips to scoop our "salad".
Tuesday - Sloppy Joes on homemade Kaiser rolls, steamed broccoli, and homemade applesauce
Wednesday - The girls and my husband went to literacy night at their school (they were serving pizza as part of the event). My son had an appointment so we had a mother/son date beforehand. Of all the places we could go, he wanted me to bring home Arby's and eat it picnic style in our living room. It ended up being fun and we streamed Zootopia while we ate.
Thursday - Hunters Stew (beef, smoked sausage, bacon, noodles, carrots, cabbage, apple in a homemade beef stock....sooo good!) and lemon zucchini bread from the freezer.
Friday - Homemade pizza
My kids and I used to have picnics in the den regularly (once or twice a month) when they were little, and they loved it. I'd lay out an old sheet and we'd sit on it as though picnicking, enjoy the meal, and sometimes watch a movie on (at that time) DVD. Just being out of the regular routine of the dining room made it really fun for them.
Now the kids are older teens, and really have no interest in a picnic in the den, lol.
Okay. I'm going to start writing down my budget to get it under control. This week I spent $171 in groceries. We did not eat out at all but I'm sure we will on Saturday night. I did restock some pantry items. For example our favorite whole wheat pasta was on sale so I bought extra. So next month, I'm going to keep track of the entire. I'm curious to see how our prices compare since I live in California.
Sunday: Turkey Meatloaf (Skinnytaste) with Mac & Cheese (Martha Stewart) and green beans. Dessert: Strawberry Cake (Southern Cast Iron Magazine)
Monday: Dinner is escaping me. I can't remember
Tuesday: Skinnytaste Crockpot Chicken and bean tacos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Sesame Chicken Stir Fry (Weight Watchers) over brown Rice
Friday: Skinnytaste Banh Mi Rice bowls
Saturday: Out to dinner
My food budget includes eating out which we normally do about once a week. I do have my Dad over for dinner once a week or I take him out to breakfast/dinner. As you can see I love Skinnytaste recipes 😉 and ATK but I didn't make any this week.
What we ate:
Monday - pasta with tomato and fennel sauce, green beans
Tuesday - we got home late so we had more pasta with tomato and fennel sauce, broccoli, and sardines with scallions
Wednesday - black beans and rice, chard for the adults, leftover broccoli for the kids
Thursday - noodles with an asian mushroom sauce and a variety of veg that needed eating - broccoli, green beans, peas
Friday - pasta with tomato sauce, sausages, green beans
I discovered this week that leaves from broccoli plants are delicious. We had two broccoli plants in our wee little garden this year, and when I pulled out the plants last week I harvested the leaves. I cut them into bite-sized pieces and cooked them with olive oil and garlic, which is my standard treatment for kale and chard. I ate the broccoli greens with leftover beans and rice for lunch.
We had fish tacos for the first time ever, inspired by your post last week. At first I wasn't sure, but after a while I liked it. Will make it again.
We had pizza on pita bread (loaded with veggies)
We had chicken tortillas+veggies
We had pasta+veggies/meat/beans sauce
And we had chicken fried rice.
I have had an unexpected and extended hospital stay. Life is very out of whack.
I hope this week find you healing and getting back to your norm very soon!
Oh no! I hope that you are better soon.
Thank you ladies. Things were not handled well and I am not happy about that. Fortunately today feels better. My doctor is human and he prescribed me some pain relief...Tomorrow will be brighter.