What I Spent, What We Ate | April's at an end!
It's almost time for a new month of grocery spending. And by the time I do another end-of-the-month wrap up, we'll be done with school for the summer. Yay!!!
What I Spent
I spent $152.86 on my regular grocery shopping trip.
The cold stuff:
The shelf-stable stuff:
And the produce:
I also spend $13.24 on chicken at the organic market, and $33 on my produce box.
My produce box contained a head of cabbage this week, which is always a challenge for me.
So, I consulted this post where you all shared cabbage recipe ideas, and I think I'm going to make this chopped Thai chicken salad.
My total this week is $199.10.
April Spending
Week 1: $248
Week 2: $108
Week 3: $68
Week 4: $199
Spending Year To Date
January: $681
February: $650
March: $823
April: $623
So, I'm averaging $163 per week for the year so far. Last year, I averaged $199/week, but that was partially due to the purchase of a quarter of a cow.
I don't think I'm going to need to buy one this year (I bought it fairly late last year), so I expect my spending to remain a bit on the low side in 2016.
What We Ate
Monday
I made pork cutlet sandwiches, from my Cook's Country magazine and we had pita chips (from Aldi) and raw veggies on the side.
Tuesday
I served Make-Ahead Chicken Enchiladas for dinner.
(With chipotle sour cream, of course, because Joshua and I like our enchiladas hot, hot, hot.)
We also had applesauce from the freezer plus a batch of sauteed green beans.
Wednesday
It was my birthday and we went out to get subs for dinner. Because next to Tex-Mex, my favorite thing is a good sandwich. I had leftover enchiladas for lunch, and then a tasty sandwich for dinner.
It was a good day. 🙂
Oh, and I had an ice cream cake too.
And presents.
So it was a very good day.
And I think 38 is going to be a good year.
Thursday
I pressed the easy button and made buttermilk pancakes with strawberry syrup (except my strawberry stash was shockingly low, so I made a blueberry version instead.)
I also fried up some local sausage from the freezer.
Friday
It's pizza night, and I'm thinkin' I'll opt for regular crust homemade pizza.
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I really don't remember many of the meals this week. I know we have had roast lamb, roast chicken, something pork and then I forget. I love that you are so organised.
We use the cash system for groceries and I ended up with $2-3 left, so I'm good with that. We renewed our Costco membership this month after letting it lapse for a couple of months, so I bought more than normal at Costco since we were low on a lot of our normal Costco items. That being said, it was a great week for cleaning out the freezer and eating cheap meals. 😉 We had turkey burgers one night, taco salad one night, and last night was grilled cheese and tomato soup, which is one of my toddler's favorite meals. That same toddler had a nightmare of an afternoon on Monday, leaving me unable to make dinner before I left for an evening of coaching. Thankfully Grandma came to the rescue and offered to take her to Wendy's for dinner. Today is pay day for us, so I'm going to see what's on sale and make dinner plans based on that.
Happy belated birthday!
We had friends over for dinner last Saturday and made grilled sausage. Two people cancelled, and apparently most children don't eat as much sausage as my Olivia, so there were plenty of leftovers.
Monday - pasta with tomato sauce and leftover sausage, broccoli
Tuesday - pasta with mushroom and tomato sauce, green beans
Wednesday - beans and rice with leftover sausage, mango and cuke salad
Thursday - pork chops, roasted cauliflower, rice, pickled carrots
I'm not sure what we are doing tonight. I bought tortillas at the store this week, so maybe tacos. I would make pasta with goat cheese, but we are out of goat cheese, and buying goat cheese involves a bus trip, which just wasn't happening this week.
I don't know if anyone suggested this to you yet, but you could make Korean kimchi next time you want to get rid of cabbage:)
Chicken enchiladas: is there a secret to great freezer enchiladas that I am missing?
I made yours, and while the flavour was great, the corn tortillas basically turned into mush. Like masa harina almost. The same thing has happened to me with other freezer enchiladas as well, so I don't think it's a problem specific to this recipe.
Oh, I've never frozen mine! I've just made them in the morning and baked them at night.
I imagine that flour tortillas would hold up a lot better to being frozen than corn tortillas, though, so if you want to try it again, use flour and see how that goes.
Yes! I've frozen an extra batch of bean and rice enchiladas with flour tortillas and have not had a problem.
Happy Belated Birthday. Let me say that your food pictures are particularly good this week.
Aww, thank you!
I'm on a mission to track our spending in May - I've been lax about it since January.
As for what we ate:
Mon: Chicken Caprese and Pasta (from damndelicious.net)
Tues: Greek Chicken, Naan, and Lentil Soup (all from budgetbytes.com)
Wed: Leftovers for husband, church dinner for me
Thurs: Sausage/gouda and tomato/mozzarella flatbreads made on leftover Naan
Fri: Turkey/avocado sandwiches with carrots
oh, and happy belated birthday!!
Now that I work full time (at the moment) we cook in batches during the week-end and stretch it out for weekday meals.
This week:
- Shepard pie
- pasta salad (pasta, pesto, roquette, sun-dried tomates, cheese)
- Grecque salad
- chicken
- sausages + potatoes
+ sides of veggies
HAPPY B-DAY!!!
A good use for cabbage, and I swear my cabbage-hating hubby doesn't notice, is as a salad filler. I chop up cabbage and lettuce and carrots and other veggies. Cook some chicken and chop that up too, then mix it all together with some dressing and cheese. Yum!
I do this too...and my husband hates cabbage! I just slice a little and add it in with a mixed green garden salad! ha! I certainly cannot use an entire head this way....but it helps use a little at at time.
Happy late birthday!
This week we only spent $55 at the grocery store for the two of us, which is a personal best. 🙂
Our menu:
Monday: Asian lettuce wraps (with butter leaf lettuce; even as a veggie hater I thought it was delish!)
Tuesday: Chopped chicken enchiladas
Wednesday: Fideo
Thursday: Red pepper broccoli pasta
Friday: Hot dogs with chips
Just Happy (late) Birthday to the best blogger with the pictures that make me hungry.
Thank you!
You don't mention the weekends anymore and I'm curious, are you still doing the brinner (breakfast for dinner) thing on Sundays?
First, happy belated birthday. 🙂
This week we didn't do much in the way of shopping. I went to Aldi and BJs once each (something like $30 total.)
Dinner was mostly simple stuff. We did splurge last week on buying a nice steak that was on sale and ate it on Monday. Otherwise it was just eating out the freezer again. Last night I made pork chops with braised apples and rice. I liked it but I was alone in that opinion.
Happy Birthday!!!
I have been TERRIBLE about sticking to my budget this past month. I have also been terrible about sticking to my meal plan. Funny how those two things go hand in hand.
I am back on track with the meal plan and promise to be better about my budget. Cross my heart.
This week:
Saturday/Sunday: Hmm. I can't remember. But it was on the meal plan.
Monday: Spaghetti and garlic bread
Tuesday: Cottage cheese and fruit
Wednesday: Spaghetti and garlic bread
Thursday: Ham steak, zucchini, corn bread and applesauce
Friday: leftover ham dinner.
I know we spent way too much on food this month, in part because hubs decided last weekend to cook two decadent chocolate desserts. 2# chocolate = $20, before the butter, sugar, or flour! One was a ATK cookbook recipe, the other was from King Arthur Flour. Deliciousness.
The only other thing I remember from this week was a very tasty dish: ditalini with red pepper pesto (made with mixed peppers from the freezer), and super-fast meatballs. Both were internet recipes. The internet is amazing.
Happy birthday! I spent ZERO on groceries this month. Doing a pantry/freezer challenge to use what I have instead of buying more and more. I think I can go most of the month of May too (except for a very few basics).
Sunday we had brunch at my mom's & hubby had a men's diaper party which we made baked beans for that, so dinner was just cheddar dogs on the grill with leftover baked beans.
Monday was chinese takeout for 2 of us, pizza for the other 2
Tuesday was foil dinners on the grill
Wednesday we had ziti noodles with meatballs & sauce & served with garlic toast
Thursday we had burgers on the grill & tater tots
Friday we plan on having tacos
I did pretty well for the month of April shopping. Spent about $475 for a family of four......
Happy Belated Birthday, Kristen! I hope it was wonderful 🙂 Thanks for always doing such a great blog!
Men's Diaper Party? What is that?
I wondered the same thing. Maybe it autocorrected from dinner party.
a diaper party is like a baby shower for men (or you can do co-ed). There's food and games & the guests bring a package of diapers for the parents to be.
I'm still trying to make due with things I have on hand already, mostly, so the meals this week don't necessarily go together but we got by. Happy Brithday, Kristen!! Looks like you had a great one surrounded by those you love.That's the good stuff, right?
Monday- Grilled pork chops, mac & cheese, and baked sweet potatoes.
Tuesday- Some of us had grilled burgers and buns, all from freezer. The ones of us that are burnt out on burgers, my daughter and myself, ate grilled pork chops again.
Wednesday- I made a sort of taco casserole out of things I had on hand. Taco shells that I broiled to freshen up a bit then crumbled on the bottom of the dish. Then I layered beans, spanish rice prepared box mix, ground beef that I added spices and salt to so it was kinda like taco meat, and cheese. After baking I topped it with onions, tomatoes, and taco sauce. It was a real stretch to make a meal out of something.
Thursday- Baked sweet chili roasted salmon, beans, wild rice, and roasted carrots
Friday- not sure yet
I've been trying out cabbage too. I made a Mexican "hamburger helper" with carrots and cabbage instead of noodles. It was good. Not too cabbage-y. 😉
I froze the rest of the head for a yet-to-be-determined dish.
This was my easiest week of cooking in ages. Which is great, as it was a crazy week.
Monday - I had friends over for pizza and they brought the salad, watermelon and a cake and ice cream
Tuesday - leftover pizza.
Wednesday - chicken Alfredo from Costco. We bought it for a friend who just lost his mom, but he didn't need it so we'll make him something later.
Thursday - My aunt and uncle are visiting from out of state and my mom graciously planned a meal for eight. My mom brought over pork chops, pasta salad, baked potatoes, cantaloupe and some desserts. I made a green salad.
Friday- leftover central. We have a pork chop, chili from lunch yesterday, sandwich stuff, pasta salad, Alfredo. Another easy night!
And happy, happy birthday week to my favorite blogger!
Aww, thank you! I am always so touched when someone says I'm their favorite blogger because there are, like, zillions of blogs out there. So to be someone's favorite is a big deal.
If one judges by visits and comments, you're my fave also. Happy Birthday! Someone took a really nice photo of you, too. Was is Joshua?
Aww, well, thank you for that! I love to be someone's favorite blogger. 🙂
Yup, the two photos of me are from Joshua...I forgot to say so in the post!
Happy belated birthday!
On Sunday the hubs grilled some excellent fish and served corn on the cob and sliced tomato on the side. Delish.
Monday - when hubs grilled fish I had him throw some marinated chicken on the grill, too. I had some of the chocken for dinner in a green salad with strawberries, fresh basil, and fresh thyme.
Tuesday - all fired up about the latest Eating Well magazine I made a new recipe. Thanks to recent hand surgery it took 2 hours.
Weds - grumpily ate a turkey sandwich and already-cut carrots. STUPID HAND.
Thurs - business dinner
I'm sorry you're still struggling post-surgery! Hang in there. I hope you're feeling 100% soon.
Thanks. It'll be a month or two before it's fully operational so I should probably just shut it.
I made a lot of last-minute dinners that turned out pretty well, but what stands out is that I WASTED MEAT. I'm quite unhappy about that. See, the pork chops were tough and therefore unpopular, and the week got busy (ergo the last minute dinners) and the darn chops went bad before I could mince them for fried rice.
Cabbage seems to be one of those things you can't get little enough of. I use it in soup and stir-fry (including fried rice) mostly. Of course, if you like cole slaw or kimchi, you can't have enough cabbage.
Helloooooooo! Don't have time to post other than:
#1: Happy Belated Birthday to you Kristen!
#2: You're my favorite blogger too!
Happy belated birthday! Yes, I did keep to my monthly grocery budget. This week was weird because of Passover meals (no bread, etc.) but we ate well and very economically: turkey burgers/oven fries/veg; grilled chicken/roasted sweet potatoes/green beans; chicken meatballs (no breadcrumbs) and homemade marinara/quinoa/salad; cold salads night including hard boiled eggs and gefilite fish (a Jewish cold fish loaf that no one - NO ONE - that is not born Jewish will like) We had also dessert every night because of Passover. Thanks for linking to chicken enchilada recipe!
After a $76.00 shopping trip to Save-a-Lot the meals for the week were:
Monday: chicken and broccoli Alfredo with garlic bread. I had some left over spinach leaves and chopped them up to put in with the broccoli.
Tuesday: homemade mac and cheese, Brussel sprouts, and applesauce, some more garlic bread
Wednesday: homemade pizza
Thursday: meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
Friday: We ate out.
It was a successful week for us.
Happy Birthday! What a great site you have. I found you via CBN's youtube video share about your site. Love it and now a new fan 🙂 blessings!!!
Now that Aldi's has a better option of organics, I stock up on some of their stuff and save a ton. I'd love to buy a part of a cow, if only I had the room or it!
Hey there! I have a question... I must admit that I have not been closely tracking your spending (I know, shocking!!) so I might've missed something along the way. I seem to recall that a few years back you were reporting something around a $400/month budget for food. And now it's averaging a lot higher. If this is true, could you explain how you decided to make this shift, if you feel good about it, if it's all because of growing kids and higher quality foods, etc.? I have had this idea in my head about my own family's budget that if we increase our spending we must somehow be wasting money or being less efficient... meaning it's a negative thing. But at the same time, we just tend to be spending more money overall year-over-year and I am frustrated by that at times! Any thoughts?
This is my first time visiting your blog and I'm really enjoying it! Here's a delicious way to cook cabbage from a southern girl: chop up your cabbage and saute it in a skillet with a about a TBSP each of vegetable oil and butter. Cook until soft and season with salt and pepper. My favorite way to cook cabbage.