WIS, WWA | and now I've been to a Figs store
What I Spent
I'm a little late getting this post up because I was gone all day with my study buddies visiting Philadelphia, mainly to see what a Figs scrubs store is like. 🙂
Figs is a company that makes some very popular medical scrubs, so my nursing pals and I wanted to go to one of their in-person stores, for ease of trying on various styles and sizes.
It was helpful to be able to eliminate some styles and sizes rather than having to go through the order-try-on-return-exchange for a difference size rigamarole!
Plus we had fun spending the day together. 🙂
I spent:
- $30 on a Hungry Harvest box
- $8 at Safeway
I did also spent $44 at Aldi ,but I used my prepaid card from my health insurance for that, so that was nothing out of pocket!
What We Ate
Saturday
I had some Zuppa Toscana after work.
Sunday
Zoe and I both had a late lunch, so we weren't very hungry at dinner. Which means "dinner" was just cheese and crackers and fruit for me. 😉
Monday
An easy button night: just some tortellini from Aldi, jarred sauce, Parmesan, and some basil from my plant.
Luckily I had eaten a salad for lunch so I did at least get some green veggies in earlier in the day!
Tuesday
I made some oatmeal cottage cheese pancakes after work, and I accidentally made one that looks like a manta ray.
Wednesday
The last shift out of the six was Wednesday! After work, I made some grilled ham and Swiss sandwiches for us, with some grapes on the side, and called it a day.
Thursday
This was the Philadelphia day with my study buddies!
We had a rather late lunch at an Italian place, so we weren't even hungry for dinner.
But we did stop for ice cream on the way home. 😉
Friday
I often do not have an idea on Fridays, but this Friday, I really do not have an idea! I have barely been home in the last 8 days, so I today I need to poke around in my fridge to see what's there, and then I can make a plan for dinner.
Sunday: We grilled steaks, sweet potatoes and green beans
Monday: penne pasta with meat sauce and breadsticks
Tuesday: grilled chicken, chicken fried rice, french green beans
Wednesday: I had a quesadilla with pico and corn, smoothie
Thursday: small part of a sub and half a piece of pizza
Friday: takeout pizza at camp
I was given a delish recipe for cooking petite sirloin steaks in my air fryer.I had thought they would be very tough cuts of meat.I rarely eat steak,it’s expensive and not that good for you but I do like it once in a while.Now, in stead of pricey rib eyes, I hAVE my “cheaper” cut available in freezer (bought on sale for 5.99 a pound) One steak feeds two of us (we are not huge eaters) . So last night I made some whipped potatoes,frienid onions and mushrooms, roast carrots and a side salad to go with and we had a hearty and happy meal!
Other nights:
Minestrone soup in crock pot
Sauted tilapia with mac and cheese and carrots
Quinoa white bean tabooli salad, olive artisan bread I got for half price, fruit
Spaghetti with sausage slices,peppers,mushrooms.Greek salad
BBQ chicken thighs in air fryer, cubed potatoes, garlic broccoli
Eating well AT HOME is my favorite thing. I prefer my own home cooking to whatever is out there in the pricey restaurants and I get to choose my own music on spotify.We’re into SPANISH GUITAR lately!
You're going to have write a post about this Figs store - I assumed it was something y'all had up in the northeast, like a department store or something? But now it sounds nursing-related, so I'm not sure what's going on. 🙂
My week included a chicken teriyaki bowl from a local food truck (DELICIOUS) and mac and cheese (lasted three nights). And like you, I have NO IDEA what's for dinner tonight, haha.
Oh, haha, I should have explained better! I went back and added some more pictures and explanations in the post.
And yep, it's a scrubs store!
Great! Sounds like a really fun experience. And it looks super nice. Like if there were lots of scrub stores, that one definitely looks upscale. 😉
@Kristen, Also, I looked up the address of the store and realized that my family used to live about an hour west of it back in the day... I miss Pennsylvania! I'm glad you got to go (even though Philly definitely isn't the best city these days, from what I hear...).
@Kristen,
I noticed the mannequin at the bottom of their stairs was posed like she was running, as if she were a nurse running to an emergency. Very realistic!
Someone got out of their bed again probably. Lol
I didn't really plan it, but ended up making a dessert almost every day. Partially that's because I have so many apples and pears on hand, which lend themselves to a hearty and somewhat wholesome dessert. This is a good way to supplement my children's dinners, and they could use the extra calories always.
Saturday: Green chile hamburger stew, chicharron burritos (chicharrones are fried bits of pig skin and fat, used in bean burritos), butterscotch pudding. I made the pudding for the one child who was sick. He told me this is his favorite pudding. I don't think I've ever made it, maybe not even eaten it. I used the Smitten Kitchen recipe. About half my family adored it. The rest--me included--prefer chocolate.
Sunday: Meatloaf, roasted potatoes, raw green beans for the kids (from the garden, yay! although no yay to the fact that this is the first time this year I've had any green beans, thanks to the wretched grasshoppers)), tomato slices with mayonnaise for my husband, and my daughter made brownies for Sunday dessert.
Monday: Leftover green chile stew, grilled cheese sandwiches, pear sauce with cream
Tuesday: I discovered that Walmart sells the unpurchased rotisserie chickens frozen at half price, so I got two of those and re-heated them in the oven. I also made some quick sliced and fried potatoes, and apple slices.
Wednesday: I used the chicken carcasses to make stock, picked off all the meat, and combined that with chickpeas to make a curry. Served over rice. I also got more apples this day, so I made a crisp with some of those. This time I cooked it almost entirely in the microwave--about ten minutes for the sweetened and spiced apple slices, another five minutes with the topping on it, and then a few minutes under the broiler.
Thursday: Spanish tortillas, leftover curry and rice, and a few crispy rice treats left from the batch I brought to school for the staff.
Tonight: I don't know. I just sat here for a minute going over some options: I have pureed tomatoes with which I could make pasta, except I was planning on canning that, I could use some of the leftover rice to make fried rice, maybe pork chops and corn bread, maybe we're due for some red meat and I should take out some ground beef to thaw. I haven't made a decision yet, but I can guarantee I'll be cooking today and there will be food. Death, taxes, and dinner 🙂
@kristin @ going country,
I'm not a fan of butterscotch, either. But the apple and pear desserts, especially a crisp - YUM.
@kristin @ going country, your child who likes butterscotch pudding may be amused to know that my Betty's full American Alley Cat Club name is Betty Crocker's Butterscotch Pudding (in honor of her lovely butterscotch-and-white fur coat).
@kristin @ going country,
Today you could make spanish rice with some of those ingredients you mentioned....
@A. Marie, What a great name!
@A. Marie, excellent name!!!
@kristin @ going country, where in the store do you find the frozen half price rotisserie chickens at Walmart? I would like to investigate this!
@Laura, They were in the refrigerated meat section, in an area with fully-cooked meats.
@kristin @ going country, thanks so much! I'm going to look next time I'm in Walmart!
Friday: Sheet Pan Gnocchi (gnocchi, sausages, onion, mini peppers, tomatoes)
Saturday: Dill Pickle Chicken Salad on croissants, green grapes
Sunday: Italian Sub Salad
Monday: My son’s team played his best friend’s team! We took both boys out for dinner after the game so they had a chance to spend time together (and help soothe the burn of a crushing loss by my son’s team) and the adults could continue the fun conversations from the sidelines.
Tuesday: Chicken, Poblano, and Black Bean Soup – it was fine but I won’t use that recipe again
Wednesday: Ground Beef, Pepper, and Potato Skillet
Thursday: The boys played against each other again! The game was added on Monday and was an away game for our family, but I was still able to make the planned Arancini Casserole. I decided to finally try this recipe out because it is perfect for using up all the leftover rice hanging out in my freezer and it was so delicious! I also made a quick Chicken Noodle Soup because my son said he wasn’t feeling his best – even though his team won!
CSA veggies used: mini peppers, green onions, celery, banana peppers, poblanos, corn, potatoes, kale, apples
@Geneva, I love how you highlight the CSA veggies that were used.
WIS: $67 @ Costco, $38 @ Grocery outlet, $36 @ Tillamook Creamery
Sun - fam dinner 21 guests grilled fajitas, cucumbers, pintos, rice and slab apple pie w/fresh frozen vanilla custard.
Mon - burritos
Tues - rotisserie chicken, green salad, grapes
Wed - Asian cabbage salad w/chicken
Thurs - big day in city, chicken salad sandwiches, grapes
Fri - slow smoked venison roast, new potatoes, broccoli
Sat - football game I'll take veggies and dirty martini blue cheese dip
@Blue Gate Farmgirl, all of this sounds so good, especially the slab pie ala mode. (:
WIS: I spent about $140 for two weeks' groceries, not great, but not bad.
WIA: I made a new recipe for soup from America's Test Kitchen online, that called for ground chicken, coconut milk, shaved carrots, green onions and other things, including yellow Thai curry paste that I had to go to an Asian market to find, but it was worth it. Definitely adding this soup to my menus. Grapes for dessert.
I opened a jar of home-canned turkey, made tortillas and had turkey quesadillas with longevity spinach, cherry tomatoes, seasoning and shredded cheeses one night, and turkey tacos another night. Then, to finish off the turkey, I had it in cream sauce over a homemade biscuit from the freezer and honeyed carrots on the side, grapefruit for dessert. I can't eat a dozen biscuits before they go stale, so I always cool and freeze most of them when I make them.
Random note: I always cook home-canned meats for 15 minutes before using, just to be safe. I cook it in the broth from the jar.
Early in the week I finished off the goat/zucchini/onion/mushroom skillet meal, with carrots on the side.
I made salmon patties and served them on a bed of young komatsuna leaves, with lightly cooked-from-frozen English peas and a few cherry tomatoes. A bowl of plain yogurt with strawberries, blueberries and a small dollop of honey was dessert.
Tonight will be leftover salmon patties and sides, most likely.
I love that Zuppa Toscano! When the temps cool, I make a weekly soup and that's one in my rotation. I usually make soup on Sunday or Monday and we eat it for a few days. The first day, I make a meal of the soup and sandwiches.
I spent $54 at Kroger and $8 at Edward’s Food Giant.
– Sunday – grilled strip steaks, baked sweet potato (one cut in half for two of us), cucumber salad, garlic bread.
– Monday – even though it was warm outside, I made homemade chili and cornbread muffins. I'd gotten two temporary front teeth crowns and was still getting the hang of not biting into anything.
– Tuesday – pan-fried pork chops made with frozen cooked white beans and a can of rotel tomatoes, green salad.
– Wednesday – baked chicken legs and thighs, tabouleh mix from a box, fresh, steamed broccoli.
– Thursday – leftover day -- leftover chicken, broccoli and taboulee and leftover chili made into Frito chili pie with onions, jalapenos and cheese.
– Friday – I'm thawing some leftover chicken burrito filling from a couple weeks ago and we're having that wrapped in low carb tortillas topped with cheese and salsa and a green salad.
WIS: $37.50 at Wegmans and $40 on two lunches out with Grad School BFF.
WIA: The week's highlight, of course, was the Sunday evening potluck dinner with BFF and three other friends. See my #5 in my comment on this week's Five Frugal Things for details.
Happy Friday, everyone! Spent $155 ($19 at a high-end grocery store, $13 at Trader Joe's, $43 at the natural foods co-op, $25 at the discount food store, $8 at Target and $47 at Aldi). Hosted two brunches so I'm OK with the higher total for the week, especially since one of my guests was dairy-free and gluten-free and I spent $14 accommodating her dietary needs while adhering to the menu I wanted to serve.
- Baked potato and broccoli (x2)
- Scrambled eggs and sauteed mushrooms
- Vegetarian fish fillets and sweet potato fries
- Roasted veggies
- Granola and homemade applesauce
- Homemade vegetable broth (I'm sick)
Did I miss something? What did you spend on the road and while you were in Philadelphia?
Oh, it was just a day trip, not an overnight one. I ate breakfast before I left, I got free Starbucks coffee on the way, my lunch was $17, and I think my ice cream was around $3.
(Editing to add: I also filled my yellow water bottle with ice and water so that I'd have a drink with me during our city adventures.)
One of my study buddies graciously did the driving, in her car, so I covered the parking garage fee ($20) in return. But obviously that is not a food expenditure and is thus irrelevant here. 😉
@Irena, I second this!! I love your blog but I notice that you sometimes leave out things that cost money, maybe because it’s not “frugal?” This is not intended to be snark by any means, but it’s important for people to know that we can be frugal and also, we can spend intentionally when it adds value to our lives (like in the case of dining out with friends, traveling, etc.)
I appreciate the feedback and will keep it in mind. I did consider whether or not to include the lunch pricing in the post but then I was like, hmmm, usually this is just a report on dinner meals.
And yes, I agree with your last sentence! Part of the reason I am frugal on the daily so that I can have money to do things like this. 🙂
@Stephanie, My understanding is that WIS/WWA covers dinners only, and she only had lunch out. So Kristen didn't leave anything spending.
@Ringo, yes. I don't even include the cost of going out to dinner in my total spent because that is a separate budget category for me.
We had a good week. WWA:
Saturday - a delicious bean and ham soup (with thanks to Budget Bytes)
Sunday - chicken and dumplings
Monday - lovely leftovers
Tuesday - pasta with fennel and seafood
Wednesday - hamburgers, air fryer french fries
Thursday - leftovers
Friday - am planning to make trout and veggie oven-baked packets with steamed rice
Happy weekend to all
This is very dorky, but I've always wanted to go to Philadelphia because that's where Jess from Gilmore Girls lives! I have a long list of random places in the US I want to go to thanks to TV/book characters lol!
Saturday: Burritos with rice, mixed vegetables and salsa.
Sunday: I tried out a hummus pasta recipe which was okay but a little bland.
Monday: Homemade pizza.
Tuesday: Chilli mac and cheese.
Wednesday: Leftovers with a sweet potato.
Thursday: Mushroom and spinach omelette with a flatbread and hummus.
Friday: I'm going to get takeout and watch Felicity 🙂
I will say...this was my first visit to Philly, and it would not rank super high on my list of cities I want to visit again and again (and I'm sorry to anyone who lives in and loves Philly!) I had no idea of Philly's previous reputation for being not super clean, so I went in with zero biases but after my visit, I did some googling and noticed other people had the same impression as I did. I was so surprised at how few public trash cans there were.
Sooo, if you come to the U.S., I'd prioritize some other cities with your limited time!
I'm still glad I went, though, and I had a great time with my pals. 🙂
@Kristen, It's not top of my list - I just have lots of random places I'd like to go if I had unlimited time and budget! I'd love to go back to New York (also somewhere which isn't very clean but with lots to see!). When I was there I insisted on going to Williamsburg because I wanted to see the sites from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn!
Aww, I love that. 🙂
My study buddies and I are planning to make a little NYC excursion next, but not in the winter. So, either this fall or next spring. We don't wanna be freezing!
@Kristen, That's smart! I went with my friend for her birthday which was lovely...only her birthday is in January and it was FREEZING. On the plus side, there were much fewer tourists (excluding us lol!).
That looks like a fun store! I'm locked into hunter green scrubs and then black for the nursing program, but someday I'll be able to just try the scrubs that I've seen at Kroger and actually try them on in person.
Monday: DH had to work today, but he baked fish and potatoes the day before so we heated those up for dinner, along with some (heated) frozen mixed vegetables.
Tuesday: DS#3 made taco bar.
Wednesday: I made pasta and meatballs (or ground beef, for those who do not like meatballs much), homemade sauce, and roasted broccoli.
Thursday: DS#2 made chili and cornbread.
Tonight DS#1 is making beef stew, and I would bet the penny I found on the road the other day that DS#4 will want to make himself some mac and cheese. 😉
Oooh, you get to wear black for your nursing program?? LUCKY.
@Kristen, Technically charcoal! 😉 I have to wonder at the wisdom of assigning black to student nurses...some of our patients might wonder why we're all in black! 😀
WIS: $53.12 minus $11.75 for some dish detergent and an alligator squeaky toy for Maisie. So $41.37 for food (salad/milk/cream/butter/bananas/cheese/bread) and food-like/food-adjacent items with foreign names (like, I dunno, maybe “Haagen Dazs” or some such).
Looking back over the entire month of September, I previously spent $142.82. So adding this week’s $41.37 to that = $184.19 for the month, or approximately $46.05 a week or $6.14 a day.
WIA: Two (2) bananas (17 cents) with Multigrain Cheerios and Fairlife high protein milk, and scrambled eggs with chopped ham and shredded Italian cheese and corn muffins (a/k/a breakfasts for dinners because some nights you just don’t feel much like cooking); the plentiful leftover Chicken and Spinach Tortellini soup I put in sealed Ball jars after I made what turned out to be a HUGE pot of the stuff; and a spinach, ham and mushroom quiche with side salads. Quiche WITH A CRUST! Because otherwise it’s just an overcooked omelet.
Bon appetit!
NGL, I was hoping for a full recap of the FIGs shopping experience, including a try-on haul of what ya'll got. Because I secretly love the idea of a scrubs shopping day. Ha. Will you do a recap?!
Haha, well, the best advantage of the trip was being able to try on so many things. I can tell you the new FormX line they have is comfortable but I HATED the way they look. I felt so so dorky in them. But that was nice to know-now I will not look for those on eBay or on the Figs site.
And also now I know I don't like the way the high-waisted joggers fit, but I do like the lower-waisted ones.
I bought a pair of black pants, and also a ceil blue top and pants, but they didn't have the pants in the size I want so I am waiting for shipping! I'll show you when they get here. 🙂
@Kristen, Do you have any restrictions on the colors you're allowed to wear? Or does your facility allow nurses to pick and choose?
We do get to choose! Lucky us.
When I make pancakes of any kind, I make a big batch, and freeze them in serving sizes (usually 3 pancakes). I microwave them for 30 seconds to separate them on the plate, then 30 more seconds to heat them up. They taste like I just made them. I make a batch on weekends so I have a fast breakfast on weekdays.
I also make a bunch of "jammy" eggs--these are between soft boiled and hard boiled, the yolks are jammy--slightly runny, not solid, and the whites are solid but very tender (very easy in my electric pressure cooker for 2.5 minutes!). I mark them with a big X in pencil and store them in the shell in the fridge. When I want eggs for breakfast I warm them up in a cup of hot water for about 5 minutes while I'm getting my coffee and putting things together to take to work. I like to drizzle on tahini and sprinkle on Everything But the Bagel seasoning. Sometimes I even take my cold jammy eggs to work to heat up and eat for lunch.
Geez, I can’t really remember what we ate this last week.
Your day trip looked like it was a great time. I think that was well worth it.
I’m on week five of my knee replacement. I started driving this week. I’m also sleeping in my bed longer at night, using a cane instead of a walker and going long periods in between with no pain meds. So, so happy to be at this point!
Have a great weekend everyone!
I usually don't post my eats. But today I had a really incredible lunch. I happened by someone's yard sale. Actually several someones'. This particular blue collar neighborhood had organized quite a sale; the residents had gotten together and brought all their discards to sell. The sale stretched from the curb to the backyard, all kinds of things! Proceeds were to benefit one of the neighbors, who is going to run for school board; this will help fund her campaign. They had a big BBQ going. I lunched on their BBQ sausage on a stick for $1. (More details about the sale is on Non Consumer Advocate today.) Passed up their $1 soda pops and bottled water.
[I can get Dr Pepper in cans from the machines at our drug store for 35 cents in the breakroom and they sell it to everyone for 55 cents on the sales floor; and our (off brand) bottled water is 19 cents for one full sized bottle from the cooler. They just dropped the price on that bottled water to $1.99 for a case of 24. So I'm spoiled on low prices. ]
It's been a long week with meetings 3 out of five days after my regular work. I was thankful to have food in my fridge when I ate supper at 8:30 or 9. These were very a eclectic mix thanks to finishing food in the fridge and the random clearance items at the local grocery store. Foods included: pumpernickel bread/toast, havarti cheese, gnocchi, sauted chicken breast, a big pan of roasted vegetables (yams, carrots, and golden beets), nectarines, oranges, chicken noodle soup, smoked mussels, and a big pan of cornbread. I was thankful to just heat up food and not cook from scratch.
This week I spent about 300.00 and that is also including some over the counter medicine. I bought bacon 2 kgs, coffee X2, fruit ( strawberries, peaches, pears, blackberries and a watermelon). Veggies were covered with our prepaid CSA box.
These are just a few of the things I bought.
We ate:
Ham, potatoes and salad
Pasta salad with fish and green salad,
Waffles with fruit and maple syrup/maple butter
Popcorn chicken and fries, salad on the side
Baked chicken thighs with mashed potatoes and carrots, green and yellow beans
Friday night we ordered Chinese - it came to 90.00 and there's enough left for lunch today.
Lunches were leftovers, breakfast are normally yogurt, fruit, cereal, bagels.
Our international exchange students have been here for a month now, and are settling in. Our grocery bill has increased, but it's for a good reason. 🙂
Let me work backwards to see if I remember...
F - Bowtie pasta with TJ Autumn Harvest pasta sauce and a chicken thigh, peas
Th - M - cannot for the life of me remember...
Sun - um...
I've been eating a lot of salads with protein, eggs, and only one meal out this week which was a Schlotzsky. I actually didn't follow a menu for the week, but I'll get back to that next week!
That soup looks so good!
I was traveling for work this week. I stayed under my per diem so will put about 60 dollars in my pocket. It’s a fun challenge for me.
I ate a lot of honey crisp apples and walnuts. I always travel with these. I ate a lot of McDonald’s egg McMuffins. Don’t judge. I love them. I eat nothing else from McDonalds! I had a hot breakfast one morning at a Swedish restaurant. First time eating cardamon bread: delish! Bought a veggie pizza. Supper for two nights.
Home now!!!
@Stephanie, you're fortunate to get a per diem. Ours is anything over $25 needs a receipt but no per day diem.
Oooh I made cardamom bread once when I was a teenager! I remember it being good.
Your life seems so much more peaceful these days--happy for you!