What I Spent, What We Ate | also, last week's spending!
What I Spent
By the way, the mystery soup from my freezer was indeed butternut squash soup. And I ate it all! Yay me.
I spent $156 this week, so just about on budget.
Buuuut I spent $239 last week.
I did buy an organic turkey, so that kind of explains the high spending last week. Thanksgiving comes only once a year, so I'm not too worried. 😉
November Spending
Week 1: $66
Week 2: $126
Week 3: $239
Week 4: $156
And since it's the end of a month, here's the grand totals for the year so far!
Year to date spending
January: $544
February: $588
March: $641
April: $728
May: $535
June: $749
July: $578
August: $498
September: $598
October: $628
November: $587
Average so far is $139/week.
What We Ate
Saturday
Mr. FG's parents came over for dinner and I made clam chowder, fruit salad, and basic rolls.
And we had brownies and ice cream for dessert.
Sunday
We had Thanksgiving leftovers after church, and then on Sunday night we were here, there, and everywhere! I don't think any of us ate the same thing.
Monday
I tried Chicken Scampi from my latest Cook's Country magazine, and it was just ok. I don't really understand recipes that have you bread and fry something and then top it with a sauce.
The fried part gets soggy and then what even is the point?
Tuesday
Zoe temporarily has an extra dance class, which means we have only a one-hour window between the two classes.
Which means dinner is challenging! So we used our Chick Fil A cow calendar offers, which meant we got dinner for less than $5 total.
Wednesday
Pulled pork, to use up the buns from my freezer challenge! And also to use up some pork from my kitchen freezer (vs. the chest freezer).
Thursday
We had Parmesan polenta topped with tomato sauce.
Friday
We're going to have ramen noodle bowls (not soup; you just use Ramen noodles to make something more like a bowl of pasta).
Last weekend, what with Thanksgiving and waiting on that grandchild, I never made it to do the grocery shopping. I picked up a few items we were out of and spent around $35. We scraped and scrounged to make do, but I admit, we ate out twice while we were hospital visiting. Awaiting a birth then visiting the newborn doesn't happen all the time, so we gave ourselves some slack on that.
What we ate is going to be a challenge to remember.
Last night, I had a leftover hotdog and salad while my husband opened a can of soup. I got stuck in traffic and got home late, so that was the best I could do.
Night before, I think we had bacon, sweet potatoes and acre peas.
Before that, hm, we had cabbage and pork curry, I think, with something on the side.
Night before that -- am I back to Monday now? -- I definitely cooked, but I have no idea what I cooked. Saturday and Sunday, we ate out, but no place was expensive. I think about $19 at one place and $25 at the other, for both of us.
I had done zero meal planning, next to no shopping, so I think we did okay in spite of that! And bonus, we have a new little girl to kiss and hold.
Congrats!!!
Last weekend- roasted turkey, stuffing, homemade gravy, homemade mashed potatoes from local potatoes, and mashed local squash
Monday and Tuesday- turkey paninis on homemade bread with a spinach, cranberry salad and homemade honey mustard dressing
Wednesday and Thursday- turkey soup (made from the turkey carcass) with local carrots, herbs from our garden, local celeriac root and homemade bread
Friday and Saturday- Korean pork with roastes local cabbage
I can't remember our exact grocery bill, but I know it was around $60.
Ooh, I think your ramen noodle bowls have inspired by lunch/dinner for today! 🙂 Maybe with some roasted veggies? Thanks for the inspiration!
Monday: Last of Thanksgiving leftovers, ham etc.
Tuesday: Curry with rice, carrots, potatoes etc.
Wednesday: Cleaning out the fridge of leftovers
Thursday: Your Cast Iron chicken recipe you posted the other day.
Friday: Frozen fish and chips, most likely. I might just do tater tots if I'm too tired.
The Parmesan Polenta looks similar to a recipe I saw on America's Teat kitchen where the polenta get chilled down then you cut it into squares and top with the tomato sauce. Is yours like that?
Gee, um ...it's test kitchen not teat. That one would probably be for dairy recipes only, lol!
Yep, that's exactly the one!
You have inspired me with your freezer challenge! So this week I mad a concerted effort to use up things from the freezer. But since I am only cooking for one, the dent I made was small. From the freezer I used: some herb pizza dough from Trader Joes, pizza sauce I had frozen in small pizza-sized portions, one pork chop, a handful of frozen green peas, an English muffin, and two slices of sourdough bread. I am also trying to work my way through my vast collection of loose and bagged teas. This week I had organic pumpkin spice tea, cinnamon apple tea, hot cinnamon spice tea and some English breakfast tea.
Saturday - I made pork fried rice with some leftover rice, a boneless pork chop and assorted veggies.
Monday - homemade veggie pizza
Tuesday - I went to Costco after work and just grabbed a hot dog at their snack bar when I was on my way out.
Wednesday - Tacos
Thursday - creamed beef on toast with green beans
Friday - I bought a sub sandwich for lunch and ate half then and the other half for dinner.
For the coming week I am going to try to use up some chicken from the freezer and some of the bread items that seem to have set up a colony of carbohydrates. They seem to multiply!
Those noodles look so yum, think I'll go have a noodle dish...
I have been so under the pump my meal planning has been very haphazard for quite a white but I have managed to track all my spending on food every week for the year so far which is a first for me & something I never imagined I would have the discipline to do; this has also curbed my food expenditure enormously - this blog has been a great encouragement and motivator!
I have been slack with dinners but pretty consistent with porridge or a healthy nutty muesli for brekky, usually 2 pieces of fruit a day, a nut bar in the afternoon & a range of healthy lunches - my latest invention is avocado on wholemeal multigrain crackers with a single serve tin of tomato onion tuna dolloped on top - delicious, has protein and increases my fish intake. I will sally forth in to December determined to plan my dinners better...
woops; that should say while not white
We had the following:
-frozen lasagna (two crazy late soccer nights)
-chicken/edamame/potstickers
-We had a date night!
-Chicken artichoke dish over pasta
-Chicken baguette