What I Spent, What We Ate | out of town for a bit
What I Spent
Sonia and Zoe, Sonia in particular, had a hankering to stay with my parents, so she suggested that Mr. FG and I go somewhere. 😉
We were happy to oblige, so we booked an Airbnb in the lovely little town of Jim Thorpe, PA for a few days.
Luckily, there was an Aldi nearby (woohoo!) and our Airbnb had a full kitchen. So, we were able to mainly avoid eating out.
We spent $56 at Aldi, and that provided us with our breakfasts, lunches, and two dinners.
Definitely cheaper than eating out for all of those meals.
When we got home, I spent another $90 on groceries, so I'm at $146 for the week.
What We Ate
Saturday
We baked a frozen margherita pizza from Aldi and ate some cherries with it.
Sunday
We cooked some shrimp lo mein and potstickers.
Monday
For our last night away, we got sandwiches at a little pub in Jim Thorpe.
Tuesday
We came back from our trip and picked up Sonia and Zoe around dinnertime, so my mom kindly fed us all dinner.
Wednesday
I made a chicken tortellini green salad with homemade croutons, and I got a loaf of homemade French bread out from the freezer as well.
Thursday
I made pork cutlet cuban sandwiches, to use up a half package of pork from the freezer.
We also had broccoli and cheese.
Friday
I think I'm going to make a Greek salad from Dinner Illustrated.
Saturday: Tacos (meat made in the morning because HOOOT) and watermelon WITH SEEDS. First real watermelon I've seen this year. So good.
Sunday: Ribeye steaks with basil/shallot butter, boiled potatoes, cucumbers with salt and vinegar, chocolate banana "ice cream"
Monday: Pot roast, leftover potatoes, green beans, kohlrabi greens, Tim Tams (a kind of chocolate-covered cookie from Australia that my sister got when she was there last month)
Tuesday: Cube steak stir-fry with peanut sauce, rice
Wednesday: Bacon, fried eggs, garlic toasts made with my disappointing bread (my sourdough starter is mad at me for freezing it while we were gone), cucumbers with vinegar and salt, Grandma Brown's baked beans
Thursday: Pork with totally made up apricot sauce, leftover rice, steamed carrots, green beans, more baked beans
Tonight: Our 16th wedding anniversary, which, given the proximity of fancy restaurants (150 miles away) will not feature a celebratory meal out. Instead we will share hamburgers and pasta with pesto (made with our own basil HOORAY) with our four children.
Happy, happy anniversary! And many more. 🙂
Saturday: Discovered some unused vegetables, so I made pasta topped with marinara and sauteed sausage and veggies (lots of veggies!).
Sun: Concert in the park potluck dinner with friends. My girlfriend brought Thai chicken wraps, and I made/brought Ina Garten's shaved Brussels sprouts winter slaw, cubed watermelon, and lemon squares for dessert.
Mon: I wasn't hungry after a big lunch out, so I made a quesadilla for hubby, which I served with leftover slaw and watermelon from Sunday.
Tue: Again I wasn't hungry after a big lunch, so I made hubby a fancy grilled cheese sandwich, which I served again with the last of Sunday's slaw and watermelon. My husband, bless his heart, is so appreciative of whatever I put in front of him!
Wed: We ate out at a Vietnamese restaurant with our monthly dine out club.
Thur: Leftover curry and rice from last night's dinner- we were served seven amazing courses at the restaurant, and the last few were barely touched everyone was so full, so we took home an entire quart of curry, nicely.
Fri: We are out at a wine and music event tonight, so dinner will be from the Tri tip food truck that will be there, yum!
So many nights of EZ and leftovers this week instead of what my menu plan said, that I hardly need to buy anything for the week coming up. I'll likely use the excess grocery money to do some Aldi's stocking up instead, which is always satisfying.
Yay for an upcoming cheap week!
Sunday we ate out at a steak house for great grandpa 92 birthday- good sucked
Monday -kids were thrilled weather was significantly cooler than last week and I was willing to make a meat loaf for them- served with steak fries and cantaloupe
Tuesday- frozen Aldi pizza before we rushed to a volleyball match
Wednesday- meatballs and pasta with cheesey garlic
Thursday- grilled chicken with mashed sweetpotatos and sautéed cabbage.
Friday- I have a marinated pork loin I’m thinking we will grill
Let's see, we had fried chicken floured with cassava and coconut flour, rice, gravy and Southern slow cooked green beans cooked in the pressure cooker.
We had hamburgers (mine was bunless) and a side salad.
One night was stir-fry with a bunch of veggies but no meat, served on leftover rice. I use No-Soy sauce and fish sauce in place of soy sauce. It turns out good enough for me!
One night was ham and cheese sandwich with fruit and chips for my husband, leftover chicken and green beans for me. He's not a big chicken fan.
We had bacon and a big salad.
We also had steak with sauteed onions, celery, mushrooms and garlic on the side and something else that I've forgotten. The steaks were pretty large, so we had them again the next day.
Saturday- went to the mil to go swimming (tail end of the heat wave here on the east coast) we went out for pizza/ice cream.
Sunday- Went for a swim at friends, then to my mom/dad, big huge Chef Salad, (meats/cheeses/mushrooms/onions/ ect! was delish! oh this heat! (my last day of stay cation)
Monday- Had a bad rain storm, glad I took out Sauce, so pasta it was, side salad, bread
Tues- Ds has soccer practice dh too him, Me and DD went to my mom/dads for BLTS! they were great!
Weds- Chicken cutlet, butter noodles, Corn, (I think I had some salad also!
Thursday- Ds had soccer practice, DD has a soccer scrimmage, We did kielbasa on the grill, tortellini/butter/cheese, I had some Brussels sprouts, before game.
Friday- Looks like its going to be hot dog/hamburger on the grill I think with tater tots...
Monday: Chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn
Tuesday: The only chance for eating dinner with my husband was to meet him at a park close to where he was coaching. I got pizza and bread sticks from Pizza Hut (not super frugal, but SO YUMMY) and took a pitcher of water to avoid buying drinks (frugal, but no amazing taste)
Wednesday: Sloppy joes, watermelon, peas
Thursday: Fajitas. Forgot to cut up cantaloupe to go with it.
Friday: We're going to the fair tonight! I got $50 out at the bank this morning and am hoping we can keep admission, food, and and maybe a ride to that amount. It's more than we've spent at the fair before, but my kids are growing and my husband's been working a lot, so I'm looking forward to doing fun stuff tonight.
I hope you guys have a lovely time at the fair. I think that's a great way to spend $50.
It was wonderful! Excellent family time. 🙂 My kids could have climbed on the tractors for an hour. And we came in at $53. Not bad!!
I only went over-budget by 19 cents last week. Victory!
Saturday - tacos
Sunday/Monday - pork chops with mashed potatoes and gravy, broccoli.
Tuesday - I recreated a favorite restaurant sandwich - basically turkey, boursin cheese and tomato on a croissant with chips and apple slices.
Wednesday - It was blazing hot and I was stressed and tired from work. I put off making anything to eat until I was super hungry. So I just opened a can of baked beans and had some with toast and apple slices.
Thursday - chicken strips from the freezer and homemade oven fries made with red potatoes. Discovered I am not the biggest fan of fries made from red potatoes.
Friday - not sure, but I do need to eat up the beans from Wednesday so it will be beans & something.
Friday -
I think a $0.19 overage is QUITE respectable. 😉
Sunday - burgers and sautéed zucchini, yellow squash, and bell peppers. We were camping so we also had s’mores.
Monday - no one felt like cooking when we arrived home from camping but we didn’t want to go out. We ordered pizza for the kids from Wegmans (cheaper than from a pizza place and we needed a few groceries anyways) and got burrito bowls for the my husband and I from Chipotle (sadly our kids do not like Chipotle).
Tuesday - hot dogs, tater tots, and green means. This is my pickiest child’s favorite meal so we have it every once in a while and she is so happy.
Wednesday - Honey Garlic Chicken with peas
Thursday - egg scrambles with odds and ends from the fridge and Easter ham from the freezer, cubed roasted sweet potatoes
Friday - Turkey burgers and a salad made from ingredients from our CSA
$48 (stocked up on bacon, which was the rock-bottom price)
Saturday: can't remember
Sunday: BLT with cucumber salad
Monday: Spanish Gazpacho
Tuesday: Armenian eggplant stew with lentils and rice
Wednesday: fast food 🙁
Thursday: greek salad with chicken
Friday: pasta with meatballs, sauce & roasted broccoli
That's so cool that you went to Jim Thorpe! I am originally from a town not far from there and while it's not the most popular tourist destination in the world, it *is* really lovely and affordale! I hope it wasn't too humid for you!
It was super super hot when we first got there, but on our last day, it cooled down to very pleasant temperatures! We'd love to go back when the weather is a little cooler.
Yes! It's an excellent fall destination! 😉