What I Spent, What We Ate | a belt-tightening week
What I Spent
I was a bit over budget for the first couple of weeks in January, so this week, I tried to pick some meals that weren't super expensive (and that used some ingredients I already had on hand.)
I made a super quick stop into Target for bananas, King Arthur bread flour (which I use to make pizza), bananas, and some nuts to send with Mr. FG in his lunch. That cost me $15.38.
Then I made a regular grocery shopping trip, which I did put off as long as possible. But we were out of eggs. And butter.
One can only go so long without those two items, dear readers.
I spent $93.84, $10 of which was the big container of dried milk, which Sonia and Zoe wanted for making hot chocolate mix.
Which reminded me that I should see if powdered milk is available somewhere else for less money. Aldi used to carry it but I haven't seen it in a while.
(I apologize for the bad grocery picture. It was very dark when I got home from the store!)
The good news is that my week of lower spending has now put me at an average of $155/week for January. Yay!
January Grocery Spending
($618 total)
Week 1: $165
Week 2: $146
Week 3: $198
Week 4: $109
What We Ate
Monday
We had broccoli-cheese noodle soup (which used 100% pantry/freezer ingredients!). I got a loaf of whole wheat bread out of the freezer too, and we sliced and toasted that to eat with our soup.
Tuesday
I made well-done grilled hamburgers plus a pan of potato cubes to use up my produce box potatoes. I also used up some odds and ends of fruit to make a fruit salad.
Wednesday
This was the night I made the Caribbean chicken with couscous. I also cut up some orange slices.
Thursday
It was a press-the-easy button night! We had buttermilk pancakes topped with strawberry syrup.
Strawberry syrup is ridiculously easy, and my kids all love it.
I haven't done a strict analysis, but I'm guessing it's quite a bit lower in sugar than regular pancake syrup (especially because I never use the full 2 cups of sugar the original recipe called for.)
And it only costs $1.25 per recipe, so it's quite affordable, especially compared to grocery store fruit syrup.
Friday
We usually do pizza, but earlier in the week, I bought all the ingredients to make Japanese Pork and Ramen soup, so that is what we're eating tonight!
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How about you? What's been on your dinner table this week?
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P.S. Congrats to Michelle, winner of the Barnes and Noble gift card! Michelle, you'll be getting an email. 🙂
The soup looks fabulous! Perfect for a below zero day here in the UK!
Just added up my lowest grocery bill in a long time! Hooray, we're at $75 per week on average. Been eating a lot of pantry items and has been fun getting creative with leftovers. Thanks for your inspiring recipes, think I'm gonna try the egg bread this weekend. K.
All of that sounds yummy and congrats on the budget wins. I am still stuggling here with trying to make just enough to feed four and not the six I was used to for so long. We end up with a lot of leftovers which I eat for my lunches, and if its a lot, I freeze for a later dinner. Last night was Chicken Tacos, the night before was leftover lima beans stretched into a soup with some freezer broth, the rest of the fresh pico de gallo, and some ham from Christmas. I tried my hand at Raspberry Chipotle Chicken this week, but wasn't all that impressed. I also made a potato, green bean, and kielbasa dinner that was merely OK. Tonight is Italian Meatball Soup - or I may just make regular old meatballs and spaghetti with a spinach salad. I need to go get Hubby something to grill for tomorrow, and Sunday I will put a roast in the crock before I leave the house. (no more Chinese takeout at 8 p.m. on Sundays!) Like you, I am trying a new recipe every week, hoping to hit on something easy, and maybe even frugal.
This all looks delicious 🙂 I made your strawberry syrup recipe for our 4th of July Waffle Brunch and it was a huge hit!
Yes on the powdered milk! I was bummed when my Aldi stopped carrying it! Hubby uses it in his coffee since it doesn't cool it down like regular milk. I sometimes use it in cooking too, because we go through milk super fast. I think it's cheaper than regular milk, too, but I haven't spent a lot of time doing the math.
I like to add powdered milk to oatmeal and to baked goods, like muffins, to sneak in a little extra calcium!
I halved the recipe and made one loaf of your whole wheat bread for the first time yesterday.....delicious! Now I'm hoping there's enough left over to have with soup for lunch today....and there are only two of us! It was such so yummy that we ate it for every meal yesterday and this morning and even for snacks! Thank you so much for the recipe!
I'm not sure if you're a Costco person, but you may be able to order bulk dried milk from them online. I'm tempted to order their bulk flour, but the price per pound is better at my grocery store.
That ramen soup looks mighty tasty, too!
This week we ate:
Monday: Alfredo chicken pasta bake. This used 100% pantry ingredients, so we were super proud of this! It was good, but it needed a veggie like broccoli to keep it from being so cheesy and decadent. We'll likely make this again with some veggies tossed in there.
Tuesday: Freezer night! We've made this a Tuesday night tradition now since Tuesday is also Library Night. Who wants to do dishes after an outing? Not me. I made a Southwest chicken club and Mr. Picky Pincher had King Ranch chicken.
Wednesday: One pot pasta. This is a quick and tasty meal. It's pasta with onion, garlic, tomatoes, and spinach. I always forget to use more veggies than I think I'll need--this always ends up being more spaghetti than veggies, which isn't great. Oh well, I'll try again! It was still mighty tasty.
Thursday: We baked homemade pizzas today. I used up the last of my homemade ricotta and made a three-cheese pizza. Mr. Picky Pincher made a bacon-jalapeno pizza. They were good, but they were definitely rich! Again, I think we needed to add some fresh veggies like arugula to make this even better.
Friday: Tonight is burger night! We had burgers last week and they were SO TASTY. We have ground beef and hamburger buns to use up, so it was a natural fit. Yum!
Hubby is recovering from shoulder surgery, so my menu plan went initialized a couple of nights. Good news is he's diing great and his appetite is back with a vengence!
Mon - Nada. Hubs was nauseous from surgery, so just cheese and crackers for me.
Tue - Same as above.
Wed - Leftover lentil soup, grilled toast, bell pepper slices
Thur - Lemony chicken soup from ATK Family Cookbook ☺, plus salad and garlic toast.
Fri - Same as above.
Hubby is already off his pain meds, so we're looking forward to going out tomorrow night and using a TravelZoo dining deal that includes a bottle of wine. It's been a long week!
Un-utilized not initialized (!) . . . didn't catch the auto-correct in time!
Glad to hear he's on the road to recovery. Sending continued healing wishes your way
I remember in the Tightwad Gazette that Amy Dacyczyn noted that powdered milk will at some times be more expensive per unit, when reconstituted, than fresh, and sometimes less, because milk commodity prices are variable. Just thought I'd throw that out there. If you need powdered, then you need it, though, be it less or more.
What we ate -- well, an odd week again. For starters, as I'd mentioned before, I tried a lamb dish my husband wouldn't eat, so he got to have meatloaf three times this week! He likes it, so he didn't complain, but he won't want it again anytime soon. I had the meatloaf once fresh and once again as leftovers. I usually add a different side dish when I serve leftovers, but mostly we had oriental sweet potatoes (they are SO good) and limas as sides with the meatloaf. We added local farm made cottage cheese with pear sauce made from our pears last fall, when the meatloaf was served again.
One night he didn't feel well and went on to bed without eating (too much meatloaf? Ha.). I just scrounged stuff that evening for me.
Last night I cooked squash (from the freezer) and onions, with corn bread, and fried pork chops, because, you know, fried has to happen now and then. Tonight, I haven't decided.
I think my husband could eat meatloaf every single night for the rest of his life and would be perfectly happy. Especially if there were mashed potatoes on the side. 🙂
My husband has his limits on meatloaf. Now cheese and crackers-- no limits. At least you know what you can always feed you husband when you are out of ideas !
Oh! I loved the Tightwad Gazette! When the hubs and I were young and too poor to buy much of anything, I'd check it out from the library as often as I could! As a matter of fact, I have a gift card to Barnes'and Nobel..... I think I want to buy it so I can read through it as often as I want to!
I've been participating in the pantry challenge this month, but have made several grocery stops, occasionally buying things I didn't strictly need. I was feeling pretty disappointed in myself, but tallying my grocery receipts last night, I discovered I'm just over $300 for the month, which means I've spent about $75/week to feed the five of us. Not bad! Plus, I deep cleaned my refrigerator this morning, and we definitely have plenty of food to get us through the end of the month without another shop, so I'm going to call it a success. I'm particularly excited because I know I wasn't that diligent this month, so I feel like I can continue the pantry challenge in February and get that grocery number even lower, if I try!
Tried to use up some freezer meat this week. Wednesday/Thursday dinners were meat from freezer.
Monday - sloppy joes using Pioneer Woman's recipe with frozen bag of tater tots. My daughter likes sloppy joes better this way. Manwich sauce is too tomato-y for her.
Tuesday - Chicken Pot Pie soup from lifeingraceblog.com with Aldi cresent rolls
Wednesday - teriyaki un-kabobs with rice. (Marinated pork tenderloin and boneless chicken thighs in teriyaki sauce and cooked on sheet pan with onions, peppers and cherry tomatoes. no skewers involved)
Thursday - Martha Stewart Classic Beef Stroganoff in slowcooker served with egg noodles and green beans. This was really good but didn't make enough for 5 of us. one had leftover chicken pot pie soup instead. http://www.marthastewart.com/336714/beef-stroganoff
Friday - not sure yet.
Doing well still sticking to my $50/wk budget.
Saturday-Went to a friend's house for a birthday dinner. I brought a homemade cake for the celebration.
Sunday - Crockpot cheesy chicken, rice, and broccoli. Took leftovers for my lunch all week.
Monday - Steak, broccoli and French fries.
Tuesday - ham and bean soup from the freezer.
Wednesday - leftovers
Thursday - chicken tacos
Friday - tonight I am meeting a friend at 5 Guys for burgers, which I am unreasonably excited about. 🙂
I wish my wife liked Five Guys. I never seem to have an excuse to go there on my own, though.
My week has flashed by. I know we had a roast leg of lamb which did a few meals. There was a taco night, toast for dinner and a shepherd's pie from the leftover lamb.
Is that Aldi brand laundry detergent? If so, how is it? I have enough stock of Purex to hold me over until the next apocalypse but I'm curious about it.
Funny how powdered milk used to be cheap (I think due to subsidies or something) and was commonly touted as a staple of frugality despite it tasting like chalky vomit when you try to drink it as actual milk. Now it's more for specific recipes and preppers.
Okay, so this week Target was the killed for my budget as I had to buy the store brand version of MirraLax and some diaper rash cream for my daughter (we can't seem to win on that end of her.) I saw that Aldi now carries some cream but it does not appear to be cloth diaper friendly.
There was also 20% off of everything at Big Lots so I was able to get some babyfood pouches for $0.40. My daughter is super finicky so whatever I can get her to eat is helpful. I wish it was something less wasteful but you have to do what you have to do as a parent.
Anyhoo ... here's what we ate:
Monday: Moroccan Chicken with Couscous. This was a big fat failure flop at my house. We ate it but didn't particularly like it. On the list of "to not make again."
Tuesday: Pork chops and rice
Wednesday: Leftovers from the porkchops of the night before
Thursday: Both my wife and I were sick with some sort of stomach bug. We don't think it was food poisoning as our daughter didn't get it (she does have a bad cold) but I got a half a can of Campbell's soup in me all day.
Friday: Normally Bible study but we may just order a pizza or get a Take and Bake from Aldi or something. We're both still recovering and I don't want our little one getting the other kids at Bible Study sick.
I'm happy with my Aldi detergent! It works great and is pretty affordable.
Have you tried making your own detergent? I make a powdered detergent with 1box of Mule Team Borax, 1 box of Arm and Hammer washing soda and half of a box of soap flakes. The cost of a batch is approximately $7.50. I use two teaspoons per washload. It works wonderfully and a batch lasts and lasts. My son in-love got the recipe from me and started using it and loves it as well. My granddaughter has sensitivities to detergents and this one doesn't irritate her skin!
Yup, I sure did, but it just did not work out well for me at all. More about that here! https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/2015/10/i-think-i-am-just-done-trying-to-make-natural-laundry-soap-work-for-me/
Thanks for the ramen soup recipe Kristin, it looks fabulous! : )
One small trip to the store yesterday for butter, milk, tomatoes and a box of cereal. Trying to use up freezer and pantry contents.
Monday - Leftovers (baked ravioli, sliced chicken, assorted veggies and fruit
Tuesday - Baked parmesan chicken, mashed potato, green beans
Wednesday - BBQ sandwiches on wheat buns, fruit, cole slaw, chips
Thursday - Fried chicken, wheat rolls, fruit salad, edamame
Friday - I have no idea whatsoever! Ugh!!!
Happy Weekend Everyone!!
That soup looks delish, I think I may have to give it a try next week for my "try a new recipe" 🙂
Monday night we had pasta made with homemade sauce, which was a gift from a neighbor.
Tuesday night we had a Blue Apron cauliflower salad. I just downloaded the recipe from their site for free and bought the ingredients at the grocery store. So sneaky of me! It was so good. I'm definitely making it again. (I made sandwiches for the kids.)
Wednesday night I tried a new recipe I had clipped a while back--Chinese beef, broccoli, and rice. My husband really liked it, but I didn't think it had quite enough color and taste.
Thursday night we did a mix of soup, sandwiches, and roasted potatoes. It was partially because we had some things that needed eating up and partially because I can only take so much of fighting with my oldest to eat anything other than a chicken sandwich or grilled cheese.
Tonight we usually have sandwiches and chips on the way out of town for the weekend. But it is a rare stay-in-the-city weekend. So we are moving our usual Saturday night pizza night to Friday. It will be cheese pizza for the kids with a mix of veggie toppings for us.
cauliflower sounds interesting. I may have to check out that recipe.
This week we came in at $117.24 but so far for the month the spending is less than normal (average of $92.28/week thus far for family of 4)....WIN!!!
Sunday i made Homemade macaroni & cheese, yum!
Monday - Grilled chicken tenderloins, the rest of the homemade mac n cheese, steamed broccoli.
Tuesday - Spaghetti pizza & a salad
Wednesday - we only had one of the girls & had some errands to run, so we picked up Mexican & came home to eat to save on drinks, time (had to pick up other daughter from school activity).
Thursday - grilled homemade Polish sausage with onions, rice & green beans.
Tonight - undecided.
Sunday - ham dinner (have ham thawing now that we need to use from the freezer)....may invite someone over to help us eat it.
I traveled for work this week, so I ate out A LOT. I'm looking forward to making chili tonight! It's not exactly healthy, but it is budget-friendly and a crowd pleaser!
This is not meant as a criticism, but I've noticed that your family of six eats quite a bit less than my family (also of six) did growing up. I'm wondering if that is cultural? (I live in the Southwest) You guys also eat a lot more fresh produce (there were no farm boxes in the 90s!) so maybe that is a factor. We ate a lot of casseroles. A couple of us also played sports, so we "needed" more calories, which I think we got in the form of drinking a ton of milk, ha! I know you've talked a bit about this topic before, but I'm curious whether you think it's more nature or nurture. 🙂
I think it's probably mostly nature in my household. Mr. FG and I aren't very heavily built, and none of our four kids are either. So, I think our smaller frames probably just don't require as much food as, say, a household full of teenage football players would.
(No one has ever suggested that any of us should become linebackers. Ha.)
But of course, I totally do not think that everyone should eat exactly the same amounts we do! My family's needs aren't the same as everyone's needs.
I think nature has a lot to do with it as well. My husband has a small frame and has always eaten very lightly. My dad was naturally heavily muscled and ate a lot but was never overweight. Now me-- I was 5'2" and 92 pounds all through high school, but when we had to count our calorie intake for biology class I averaged 3000 calories a day. My mom had to cook a lot of food for my dad and me.
Monday- Chicken Noodle soup from the freezer
Tuesday- pork chops, mixed veggies, potato wedges
Wednesday- left overs from Tuesday's mea
Thursday- chicken tacos
Friday- veggie pizza
I got a cold this past weekend and came down with an ear infection on Monday, so food has been a little rough around here.
We ate chicken marsala from the crockpot. It was good, but needed more salt.
We also ate pizza, taco bell (twice!), mcdonalds, and cereal. This mama did not feel like cooking. I did manage to feed the baby-almost-toddler with healthy things from our pantry and freezer (veggies, fruit and veggie pouches, cheese, leftover chicken, peanut butter oatmeal). So at least he didn't eat as terrible as hubby and I did.
Tonight, I'll either eat leftovers or order takeout. Obviously, the frugal part of me wants to eat leftovers. But the part of me who is tired, sick, and cranky just wants to curl up on the couch with some Orange Chicken.
Next week:
Hamburgers
Curry Chicken with rice and broccoli
Kielbasa pasta with peppers and onions
Chicken Divan
Breakfast for Dinner (eggs, bacon, veggies, toast)
Oh, I hope you are 100% soon!
Monday night was braised cabbage with mushrooms and chorizo over Thai noodles.
Tuesday we were out, so storebought sandwiches and nibbles (I opted for a tub of hummus with radishes, snap peas, and carrots - yum!).
Wednesday I did Glory bowls with leftover cabbage, roasted sweet potato, red pepper and hard boiled eggs, inspired by a blog I'd read - I'd forgotten how much I actually like Glory bowls.
Thursday was spaghetti and meat sauce.
Tonight I'm doing roasted broccoli with quinoa and more hummus.
And I've got a chicken to roast tomorrow. Yum.
If had to look up Glory Bowl. This is new to me!
Me too!
I'm including Sunday cos we ate out on Thursday. Is that cheating? We don't eat meat, but do eat fish.
Sunday: home made veggie chili with baked potatoes (froze the left over chili)
Monday: baked salmon, steamed broccoli and green beans, and homemade puff pastry rolls with veggies and veggie sausage. (Had these rolls for left over lunch on Tues and Wed, with salad)
Tuesday: hubby wasn't hungry, so I had a veggie burger and a side of steamed kale
Wednesday: pasta with red sauce, broccoli, bread
Thursday: this is our "Friday" so we ate out
Friday (tonight): not sure yet but we're going out and need to eat something quick and easy before we go. Maybe homemade burritos...
This wasn't a great week for being frugal. I bought my lunch twice (once cos I went to lunch with a colleague [that's ok] but the other cos I couldn't face leftovers or making something. That's not that common for me so I'm going easy on myself 🙂
Monday- grilled hot dogs, chips, fruit and veggies
Tuesday- loaded baked potato soup with homemade popovers and
Wednesday- leftover loaded baked potato soup with bagels from breakfast time.
Thursday- new recipe - vegetable korma. It was great. I have never blended and then fried a combo of onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper and it was fabulous. Served with jasmine rice.
Friday- 2 deep dish pizzas - 1 meatball and 1 pepperoni so we have lots of leftovers this weekend.
Oooo the Korma sounds great -- can you mention where to find the recipe?
Well, not our best week but for good reasons ;). And your meals look gorgeous!
Sunday - celebrated husband's birthday with daughter, boyfriend and 2 friends at a restaurant, our treat. NOT cheap but fun and memorable for a b'day ending in "0" 🙂 We used coupons for all 3 couples and had free appetizers and desserts.
Monday - Old friend visited us overnight; dinner out with her and 3 neighbors at local Coco's. Treated my friend (our turn) and it wasn't too bad.
Tuesday - Slogged home from work and aquafit and opened the door to the smell of spaghetti sauce -- lovely! Husband used marked down frozen beef patties from June, marked down sauce doctored with marked down peppers, and spaghetti that claimed to be bad after 2013. Well, we ate it and it was fine! Also, salad that included marked down cabbage and 5 cent cukes from Aldis and last of the wrinkly cherry tomatoes.
Wednesday - Split a southwest salad kit -- delicious -- to which we added marked down cabbage, cukes, tomatoes, etc. Husband ate a frozen Indian meal bought on sale months ago -- vegan and delish. I kvetched and whined whilst cooking up the Frugalwoods Epic lunch meal to use on . . .
Thursday -- Husband ate last of the spaghetti and i ate my new favorite robo-meal -- Frugalwoods Black Bean and Rice with mushrooms. Took it for lunch everyday last week and was happy! Sadly, the basmati brown rice I bought at Aldi's was rancid so I subbed in marked down barley -- and it was even better than rice!! Husband even put tomato sauce over it. Who knew we were barley fans? Will exchange the rice at Aldi's -- still love them.
Friday -- traditionally treat night but we kind of blew that wad earlier . . .hmmmm
Happy birthday to your husband!
I'm hoping to get through the week with just pinch-hit grocery shopping, rather than a big stock up shopping, to keep our monthly bill down. We've had very simple dinners--grilled cheese sandwiches one night, pasta twice, rice and lentils once, and tomato soup once. We add a fruit, salad, and a raw veggie (like carrots or bell pepper strips) and call it good. Very boring, but also very easy and frugal.
So, I have a question. Do you figure in the cost of your vegetable boxes, detergents, cleaning supplies, toilet paper, supplements, shampoo, ect into your weekly "what I spent on groceries" or is it strictly what you have spent on food?
It's food, cleaning supplies (dish soap, laundry detergent, etc.) and toiletries.
Supplements are a separate line item (though we don't spend a lot on those.)
Just searched and printed M. Stewart's crockpot stroganoff recipe and the Whitewater Cooks recipe for Glory Bowls (after reading Jules' comments). I'd never heard of these. But have made Buddha bowls from another site. Mostly the same concept, just different ingredients. Haven't used beets this way. Anyone know if they are raw or cooked?
Will you let us know how the girls' Hot Cocoa Mix turns out.?
I've tried a few Mix recipes but still prefer to make chocolate syrup and add it to milk rather than a dry mix that goes in water.
I purchased my milk powder from the bulk bins. Since it was an experiment I didn't want to have a big box left over that I won't be using on a regular basis.
Sure. I linked to it in the post, but here's a link as well:
It's a recipe we've used for years, and my kids all like it.
Kristen, I hadn't remembered you referencing your broccoli-cheese noodle soup before. I clicked on your link, bought the ingredients that I didn't have, and had it for dinner tonight. My family loved it! I've been reading your blog for years so I don't know how I missed it. In any case, it's going into rotation at my house!
Yay! I'm so glad to hear this. It's always wonderful when you find a main dish recipe your family loves, isn't it?
Bananas are expensive at my Target. They are sold by the banana for 29 cents each.
Speaking of spending money and being frugal. Most of your banner adds are for buying things. Makeup, trips, best buy. Kinda ironic no?