What I Spent, What We Ate | painting week edition
What I Spent
I needed to spent $100 or less to stay on budget. I did awesome with that last week, but not so much this week.
I started the week off with my Hungry Harvest box OF COURSE. ($25)
Then I spent $93.73 at Aldi.
And I spent another $30.46 on small trips.
I'm at $149.19, which is $50 more than I'd hoped to spend.
But I did make it through nearly a solid week of painting projects, and we didn't get takeout for dinner one time!
So, I'm going to consider the extra $50 well-spent.
July Spending (averaged $162.5/week)
Week 1: $210
Week 2: $187
Week 3: $103
Week 4: $150
What We Ate
Monday
I made Swedish meatballs, but we discovered our septic issue in the midst of me making dinner so I kind of burned some of the meatballs. Bummer.
Please enjoy this previously published photo of me making not-burnt meatballs.
Tuesday
I was busy painting, so I grilled chicken sausages from Costco, and we had those with chips and cherries.
Wednesday
This was the night I made the Asian lettuce wraps.
I also served corn on the side, plus sliced apples.
Thursday
We were at the pool all afternoon, so on the way home, we stopped at Aldi and bought things for a snacky dinner (croissants, sliced ham, Havarti, crackers, fruit, etc.)
Friday
I'm happy to say that before I went to bed last night, I made the dough for grilled pizzas. Yay me!!
Unfortunately, I did forget to buy tomatoes and fresh mozzarella when I was at Aldi yesterday. So, I'll have to go pick those up today.
Luckily, I'll be driving past Aldi today, so that won't be a huge headache.
_______________________
Haha- you win some, you lose some 😉
July actually ended up being a pretty decent month for our household. We were focused on trying to use what was in our pantry, and that really helped to save us some money at the store. It also made us get a little creative with our meals and we had some fun with a curry, homemade pizzas, and taco night!
Snacky meals for the heat of the summer sound like a great idea. It's been close to 100 here all week, and the humidity adds a few degrees.
Monday I threw a frozen pork roast in the crockpot after I sprinkled on some homemade rub. My peeps ate it as sammies on leftover onion buns. Tuesday Hubby made Hamburger Helper and some frozen peas for he and the boys - no leftovers so they must have been HUNGRY. Wednesday I tried a new recipe for balsalmic chicken that I made into salads with bacon and avocado added. It was good, but not great. I forgot to thaw the leftover roast that was for last night, so I bought some fresh veggies and made a potsticker stir fry. Then when I got home last night (1130p) I put some chicken breasts in the crockpot with taco seasoning and a can of rotel. This morning I will shred it. My peeps will only need to heat up the filling for chicken tacos in the microwave. Bring on the weekend! No telling what we will eat on Sat and Sun...
If you're painting, you're a hero for getting dinner on the table at all. I find painting to be a huge headache, and exhausting to boot.
We were at my MiL's for half the week, but I still cooked.
Monday: Hamburgers, rice, green salad, roasted beets.
Tuesday: Strip steaks, potatoes, green salad.
Wednesday: The day we drove for 7.5 hours and got home at 5:30 p.m. I pulled out some hot dogs from the freezer for those who eat them (ham for the one weird child who does not), opened a can of baked beans (happily, there's a local company that makes canned baked beans thave have very minimal sugar, which is the kind I like--I can't take the syrupy ones like Bush's), and had the kids pull some carrots and kohlrabi from the garden for our, ahem, crudites.
Thursday: Pork chops/steaks, stir-fried vegetables with peanut sauce, rice.
Tonight: Tuna patties, mashed potatoes, and probably a green salad. The end of the lettuce is in sight. I think. I'll miss it when it's gone. It's such a luxury to have unlimited good lettuce at hand.
What's the brand of beans? Just curious
Grandma Brown's, made in Mexico, NY. I doubt it's sold much outside of central NY, though.
Thank you!
It's been a rough week over at my place for various reasons (daughter was sick again, I've been working OT, I am feeling really super exhausted etc.) Anyway, for shopping this week I feel like I've been living at Aldi. Lucky for me it's almost right next to my work so it's no big deal to stop.
Sunday:
Cornell Chicken - Technique from Cooks Country but the sauce is from a place we like to roadtrip to. It's nice to grill outside and not add that heat indoors. We also had cornbread, broccoli and something else.
Monday: Leftover chicken from the night before, this time with rice and vegetables.
Tuesday: It was a crummy day and a crummy night so I think we made hot dogs but for the life of me I can't remember.
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner! Waffles, eggs, bacon, fruit etc.
Thursday: BLTs with bacon from the night before. Also tossed salads (a summer staple for us)
Friday: Bible study tonight so I don't have to cook. Hopefully this will provide a much needed break for us, though Sunday my wife is having people over so we'll see how long it lasts.
Breakfast for dinner is the best. So easy!
Chicken lettuce wraps are a great summer recipe! I need to try the Cook's version. I tried Chrissy Teigen's recipe for them and they were DELICIOUS but took an insane amount of time to prepare.
I know I was over budget (by a lot) in July in both the grocery and eating out categories of my budget. Oh well. It is what it is. August is a new month.
Saturday/Sunday - Tacos
Monday - Steak, asparagus and French fries
Tuesday/Wednesday - Some crockpot chicken and stuffing concoction (that I will not be making again) and steamed broccoli.
Thursday - I caved and bought pizza
Friday - Another belated birthday dinner at Five Guys
Don't worry too much about the $50 over budget. You've been doing great this month even when you felt like you didn't have enough time to make dinner (because of the painting). I'm nervous to tally up our food expenses for this month for my food expense report for July! >_<
I haven't shopped this weekend yet, and I'm already $50 over budget. Ugh. My goal is to pick up only what we MUST have, because I'm trying to get to one big shopping trip a month. Which is scheduled for next weekend, the first weekend in August.
This week was just out and out weird for food, since I couldn't eat Sunday or Monday, until Monday night, and we ate that meal at a restaurant in the town where I had a procedure -- and I have no regrets about eating out. After almost 48 hours on a clear liquid diet and being knocked out, I wasn't about to ride 2 hours home and cook.
The rest of the week has been jambalaya, ho jowl with acre peas and okra, and leftovers, including some from the freezer. Tonight I'm thinking hard about what I want to make. I may get adventurous and try a new recipe tonight. I've never made curry, ever -- I was raised in a house with a mother who hated spicy foods -- but I tasted a friend's curry and loved it, so that may be what I try tonight. It depends on how tired I am, because we have a lot of work to do around the house this weekend and we start today after I get off at noon. But not painting.
I gotta say, I really love snacky dinners. 🙂 Did y'all end up eating those meatballs?
This week we ate:
Monday: Southwest seared skirt steak lettuce wraps with corn and beans. These sound good but they were kinda 'meh.'
Tuesday: Chorizo barley risotto. Heavennnn.
Wednesday: Jack in the Box. Oops! We ate from the dollar menu. This was after picking up our truck from the shop for a $1,400 repair. We wanted a small treat lol.
Thursday: Gyros
Friday: Spicy Asian noodles.
What type of meat do you use for your gyros?
Eating lots from the garden and cooking big once and eating from it many times.
1. Yellow rice, homemade tortillas, fajita topping
2. Repeat
3. Large salad topped with fresh garden tomatoes, cheese and ham
4. Stir fried zucchini, tomatoes and green beans in tomato sauce over bowtie pasta
5. Crockpot beef roast, corn on the cob and caprese salad
6. Repeat
7. Wedding this evening....meal will be served
Desserts: blackberry cobbler, fresh sliced peaches, or ice cream
Did I miss the recipe for the lettuce wraps?
It was posted earlier in the week!
I have been on vacation all week and attending a local theatre festival, so I've been doing a terrible job of eating at home. I have been bringing my water bottle and snacks with me, which has cut down on my spending, and I've been trying to choose less expensive options when eating out. So not a total frugal fail!
Monday - It's the week of our county fair and we took this evening to go and decided to eat dinner there so we had more time at the fair. (Small children, early bedtimes)
Tuesday - Fend for yourself day as my husband worked late and I struggle with being motivated to make anything fancy if he's not home to eat it. I think my husband pulled a couple of hot dogs out of the freezer. I shared overnight oats with my daughter. Can't remember what my baby ate - probably grapes and cheese.
Wednesday - Chicken thighs, green beans, corn on the cob
Thursday - Ate dinner at the cafe at my husband's work since it was their only chance to see him that day (looong work day for him!)
Friday - Chicken breasts, baked sweet potatoes, green beans, corn on the cob. It's at least a *little* different from Tuesday's menu. 😉
Saturday - Fajitas for lunch and zucchini pizza boats for dinner
The grocery budget did ok this week. I think we're entering a season where I'll have to be extra careful not to waste food and to really be thinking through choices. I'm incredibly thankful for my healthy, growing children... and they are definitely eating up more of the grocery budget!!
After last week's household repair challenges, this week I actually had the time and inclination to cook actual meals!
Sat: Greek yogurt marinated grilled chicken legs, multigrain mix, zucchini bake w tomatoes garlic and parmesan
Sun: cheesy enchilada quinoa casserole
Mon 7/24: pretzel crusted chicken tenders, cantaloupe
Tues: spaghetti
Wed: honey lime chicken thighs (meh), BudgetBytes dragon noodles (totally awesome!)
Thurs: oven baked fajitas
Fri: omelettes, toast, and fruit
Sunday-steaks. Wanted to grill b/c I always grill steaks, but it was pouring rain. I ended up using the broiler, thought I would set the smoke alarm off but everything was great. Had peaches, tomatoes and good bread with it.
Monday-leftovers
Tuesday- chili seasoned chicken/tomato/pepper stir fry over rice
Wednesday- kofka and roasted veggies
Thursday- smoked sausages and a chili seasoned tomato/one ball squash stir fry
Friday- marinated pork chops and edamame.
Spent $20 at farm stand. The rest was all freezer/pantry.
Sunday: Grilled bbq pork chops, baked beans, mashed potatoes
Monday: Leftovers
Tuesday: Tacos (from Taco Bueno)
Wednesday: Baked chicken, salad, okra, curly fries
Thursday: Subway....travelling to Las Vegas. Only spent $17 for five of us since I had brought chips and drinks
Friday: We made it Las Vegas so I got Little Caesars pizza for $10
We have a full kitchen in our condo here so we'll be eating breakfast and lunch here and some dinners. We do have to eat out some while we're here. 🙂
Found Amazon sells grandmas baked beans......thought you'd like to know.....
https://ontarioorchards.com/product/grandma-browns-baked-beans-16-oz-can/
The week has been trying to figure out what to do with leftovers.....Nothing exciting!
mon- steak umm sandwiches
tues- baked ham, mixed veg, homemade bread
wed- leftover smoked pork sandwiches
thurs- leftover ham and oven fries
fri- ham and eggs with toast
sat- possibly pasta and chorizo with marinara, homemade bread
I feel like I am just flying by the seat of my pants.. Days are crazy and I feel so unstructured! Thankfully the husband appreciates it all and doesn't say a word!
Monday.. I was meeting friends for a get together and we were all bringing items to binge on Mexican! I took homemade salsa and a cream cheese bar dessert..I marinated and grilled Chicken before I left, kids put fruit out, canned corn and made a pouch of saucy noodles,
Tuesday- Fend for yourself late afternoon snacking and then daughter had her Black Belt test for TKD.. after that I took the kids to Wendys and they all picked the 4 for $4.00 meals and got their mini free frostys...
Wednesday- I was taking a meal to a friend's family since she is going through Chemo... Made a huge crock pot of salsa chicken.. post of white rice and a double batch of corn cake...Both families enjoyed!
Thursday- FFY before TKD class...
Friday- My brother's family came to town to surprise my mom for her birthday.. we all went to a Chicken house by where we grew up.. Some memories are better left as memories.. just not great like the memory recalls.. and I swear they have done NO upkeep to the place or air freshening in the past 20+ years! lol
Sat- Mom thinks we are taking her to the steak house for her birthday.. I actually have a surprise party planned.. I highly doubt we go out for steak after that! so NO idea about supper.. although I have enough garden veggies I could easily put together a stir fry bar quicker than waiting at prime dinner time at a restaurant... We will see
These photos alone inspire me to cook more. I'm pretty good at preparing meals but I find I keep defaulting to the same dishes over and over again.
I have no idea what I have spent. Fruit, vegetables and red meat have reached new highs as far as I am concerned. We are having an off time with bread. So much has been converted to crumbs and still we aren't finishing it most of the time.
Sunday: I butchered down a hunk of rump and we had roast beef and vegetables.
Monday: I don't remember but I think it may have been tandoori chicken.
Tuesday: The leftover rump roast became stew.
Wednesday: Dinner out of the freezer day. So we ate a lot of Asian dumplings etc. I went out with my knitting group. Even pub grub has gone through the roof...Next time I will be sticking with a coffee or cold drink.
Thursday: Good old Australian Vegemite on Vita-Weet crackers. I think we had lunch out and no one really wanted a full sized meal.
Friday: Leftover chicken from the lunches this week turned into sandwiches.
We have consumed huge amounts of mandarins, clementines, avocado, tomato and bananas too.
I need to write a good plan this week as there is a lot of stuff left over from shopping etc.
Lessee:
- Monday: frozen dumplings, wild blueberries I picked on a recent trip
- Tuesday: fridge scrounge
- Wednesday: smoked free-range pork (pork from friend's farm, which I smoked), broccoli, wild blueberries.
- Thursday: gussied-up burgers, CI hash browns (recipe has good bones but needs work), cukes, red bell peppers.
- Friday: raided the fridge after a gym class, sushi for roommate.
- Saturday: late lunch, combined with the motion-sickness-inducing camera work at the movie Dunkirk.
- Sunday: bonus breakfast of leftover hash browns, gussied up hamburger meat, eggs. Dinner was out bowling with friends, lane deal included pizza. chips & 2 dips, and sodas.