What I Spent, What We Ate | Did I stick to $100?
What I Spent
I mentioned last week that I really need to keep these last two weeks of July at $100 or less in order to finish up the month on budget.
(I was kind of spendy for the first two weeks!)
Let's see how I did.
I got my $25 Hungry Harvest box, of course.
I picked up a can of tomatoes and a gallon of milk while picking up Lisey from work ($3.49).
And another day when I picked her up, I got a few things for $8.66.
Finally, I stopped at Aldi and spent $65.47.
So, I ended up at $102.62.
Phew.
I just need to keep this up for one more week!
July Spending
Week 1: $210
Week 2: $187
Week 3: $103
What We Ate
Monday
It was an easy night! I made sloppy joes and cut up some watermelon.
Tuesday
It's not a super summery dish, but I made a pan of Shrimp Viennese.
We had a green salad with that, using lettuce and cucumbers from my Hungry Harvest box.
Wednesday
I made a grilled chicken tortellini green salad, and I made a batch of potato wedges to use up my Hungry Harvest potatoes.
Thursday
I had buttermilk to use up, so we had waffles with whipped cream and strawberries.
In case you haven't had this happy realization: waffles with whipped cream and unsweetened fruit are actually lower in sugar than waffles with syrup.
And to me, they seem 1000 times more decadent.
Bring on the whipped cream!
Friday
I normally make pizza on Fridays, but oh man, it's been so hot here and today promises to be no exception.
This means I'm not especially inclined to heat my oven up to 500 degrees for an hour.
So, I'm going to come up with something cooler to make.
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What have you been eating? And are you sticking to your budget?
We have been so busy lately.. I swear things seemed calmer when school was in...
Monday- fresh green beans, potatos and ham cooked in pork broth I had in the freezer...
Tuesday- I poached some chicken breast in the crock pot with frozen chicken stock.. served with white rice...fruit etc
Wednesday- I crocked and finished on the grill.. a package of pork short ribs.. served with rice, salad and fruit
Thursday- left husband in charge of the super simple dinner as I ran the kids everywhere...He boiled the pasta and warmed sauce.. but refused to heat up kitchen with the oven.. so he grilled the chicken patties and garlic bread!!! Whatever.. I was starving and it was ready when we got home!
Friday- going out to celebrate Grandpa being 90!
Waffles for dinner looks wonderful! This week I think I did better on spending, too, but I haven't really been budgeting it out. I should totally do that!
Tonight we are having A Year of Slow Cooking's Vietnamese Chicken in the crock with rice and some steamed carrots. Last night was a quinoa skillet dish with leftover taco meat, some tomatoes past their prime, and beans and corn from the freezer - it was great! Wednesday I made fruited chicken salad and filled romaine "boats" with it. Tuesday was 100% leftover BBQ beef, lima beans, and wedge potatoes portioned on plates and covered with wrap to re-heat in the micro. Monday I made ham and pepper jack sammies on bakery bolillos. I'm thinking I will talk Hubby into grilling at least once this weekend, and I have some tilapia in the freezer all pre-seasoned with lemon pepper, too.
Monday- chicken soup from freezer and sliced tomatoes
Tuesday-tacos
Wednesday- Italian sausage and peppers in tomato sauce with pasta
Thursday- taco eggs. (Using up leftovers)
Friday-don't know yet. Have split chicken breast in fridge. Husband requested roasted chicken and veggies...but I don't want to heat up the oven like that today!!!
I spent $88 at Kroger yesterday and about $25 earlier this week at Tom Thumb and Target. I average about $150 a week for the six of us (2 adults, 3 teens and 1 very active almost 10 year old).
We were at a family reunion last week and got home late Sunday night. I didn't cook much this week. 🙁
Monday: Taco Bell
Tuesday: Chick Fil A
Wednesday: Mac & cheese casserole concoction that I made up with black beans, rotel, peppers, hamburger & cheese. Corn on the cob & tater tots
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Hubby wants to go out to eat, but I want to cook at home so we'll see. I do have a free meal at Friday's so we may end up going there just the two of us.
M: Broccoli soup with cheddar and bacon.
T: Leftover broccoli soup with cheddar and biltong.
W: Roast chicken and salad
T: Leftover roast chicken and roasted beetroot & butternut
(See what I did this week?)
F: It's going to be (takeaway) pizza - a treat.
The photo of your strawberry waffles is just GORGEOUS! I was star-struck for 2 seconds!
We've been been staying on budget at the FAF household since my MIL helps with the cooking, and I haven't eaten out in a month. Mr. FAF is coming home tomorrow for good, so we will see how our budget goes from here 😉
You must be so happy!!!!!!!
Yay!! I'm so glad you all will be together again.
I didn't cook much at all this week. I made the pressure cooked beef roast and we ate off of it this week a good bit. In fact, pretty much all week! Last night we didn't cook anything, just snacked, because we had an enormous lunch out (the first time in a year we've had a lunch "date"!) Tonight, I don't know, because I have to start a restrictive diet for a colonoscopy on Monday, oh joy, so this might get tricky. However, we have some shrimp in the freezer, and fish is still allowed, so surely shrimp is. Just no salad and no veggies. I like shrimp, but I don't want my whole meal to be shrimp.
I'm still over my food budget, and still trying to bring it back down. Next week had better be Spartan.
Oof. I'm sorry you have to have a colonoscopy! No fun.
Love your pictures! Those waffles though! 🙂
My food budget is something I've been focusing on, so I love seeing these udpates!
For the waffles: do you just buy a can of whipped cream (redi-whip style) or do you make your own?
I just make my own! It takes only a couple of minutes in my stand mixer.
Definitely not sticking to my budget! My baby boy turned one today and the last couple of months have been rough on the grocery budget now that he eats a lot. So I ended up pulling some more money from the ATM. Thankfully my husband got a small raise this month, so we should be able to readjust our budget for next month. Hopefully the raise is enough. 🙂 I remember needing to do an adjustment around the same time for my first child, too.
Yesterday was super hot and I couldn't bring myself to bake chicken and sweet potatoes, so I had a tomato sandwich, watermelon, and strawberries for dinner. My husband was working and my kids ended up just eating a ton of fruit. So I recommend a tomato sandwich for you for tonight. 😉 (It's just a BLT without the B&L.)
Got eggs? You could hard boil a bunch and add one to a salad. Or add some mayo and make egg salad for a sandwich. Or, toast a piece of bread, melt some cheese on it and add a fried egg. I love how versatile they are, that all my family likes them, that they're a great protein and really cheap on the budget.
Congrats on meeting your budget goals. I did my weekly shop today and I have $40 leftover to last me from the 28th to the 31st. Shouldn't be a problem.
M Chick Fil A (for dinner and breakfast, went to see my daughters and got home from MT at 6 am, definitely out of the ordinary)
T Brats
W Hamburgers
Th Chicken Tortilla Soup
F Brats again (HELLO SUMMER)
Sat. Haddock and Veggies
Sunday Grilled Chicken
Let's see. I think I remember.
Monday: Pork meatballs baked in barbecue sauce, mashed potatoes, and raw kohlrabi and carrots from the garden.
Tuesday: Italian sausages with peppers and onions, roasted potatoes, and a green salad.
Wednesday: Ham steaks, rice, and steamed shelled peas from the garden.
Thursday: Using up everything before a week-long trip to our old house/MiL's house, so a skillet of diced leftover Italian sausage and ham, plus more peas, shredded carrots, and rice cooked with chicken broth and tomato paste. Plus raw kohlrabi, carrots, and sugar snap peas from the garden.
Friday: There wasn't a lot here when we arrived around 4 p.m. with everyone starving, but I found a few frozen Italian sausages (heavy on the sausage this week) and a leftover cooked beef steak, so I made a salad with sliced steak and shallots, plus lettuce we brought with us (now the lettuce is following us--dun dun DUN) and some marinated artichoke hearts, cooked the sausages, and brought it all down to the beach with some tortilla chips and cherries. Let the beach eating begin! By which I mean transportable trumps balanced sometimes. Ahem.
I recently became a vegetarian again which means my family is now split evenly between meat-eaters and non-meat-eaters. Looking back on this week, I think I've actually cooked more meat than I have in awhile. I think before becoming a vegetarian, I didn't really want to eat meat, but felt like if I cooked it, I had to eat it. Now that I've decided not to eat it, it's easier to cook it for those who do. Kinda wierd.
Monday - leftover grilled chicken, hard boiled eggs, green beans, rice
Tuesday - pasta with goat cheese and mushrooms, broccoli
Wednesday - squash and fennel stewed in tomato sauce, sausage for the meat-eaters, chick peas for the vegetarians, rice
Thursday - grilled bread, grilled squash, mixed garlicky greens, sardines, hummus
Friday - pasta with tomato and parsley sauce, grilled chicken for the meat-eaters, leftover grilled squash, salad
Our AC was out all week--during which the heat index was 100-110 degrees daily! It was so hot that no one was very hungry, so we got by on a week of grazing on cold things from the fridge--cheese, summer sausage, grapes, baby carrots, cherries, sweet pickles, hard boiled eggs, lunch meat, etc. I'd also made a big batch of pulled pork in the crockpot early in the week, so we had that cold too. And we may or may not have had ice cream for dinner on one or two of the hottest days! Thank goodness our AC got replaced yesterday. Just hanging out in the cool tonight being super grateful and making a meal plan for next week that actually involves the oven and stove!
This one of those weeks when the budget and meal plan started out well enough and then it all went to pieces when I made "extra" trips to the store and also had takeout (twice) even though I had perfectly reasonable and yummy meals already planned. Oh well, back in the saddle next week.
Saturday: Steak, green salad and parmesan potato wedges.
Sunday: Food Network's summer chicken vegetable soup
Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: Leftover city with meatloaf, asparagus and cheesy potatoes every night and meatloaf sandwiches twice for lunch (No More Meatloaf Ever. Or at least for a good long while).
Thursday: Chicken nachos from a local place. So good after all that meatloaf. 🙂
Friday: Take out chicken and green salad from home.
Pork chops and mashed cauliflower, egg salad sandwhiches and green salad, tacos, scrambled egg and sausage burritos, frozen corn dogs, leftover bob Evans mashed potatoes and green salad ... really glad I had those frozen corn dogs all I wanted was some tacos from our local fancy taco place.
Monday we had leftover tacos and nachos
Tuesday I picked up a roasted chicken from Sams Club
Wednesday leftovers
Thursday Cheese noodles
Friday breakfast for dinner with bacon-yum!
Saturday sliders
We also had salads from our garden for dinner and some veggies.
I only spent about $20 this week as we are going on vacation and eating whats left in freezer and fridge. I was super excited that the city we are traveling to has a remodeled Aldi. I based what food I am packing by what I know I can get at Aldi so I don't have to pack as much, I can pick those things up I know we need there.