WIS, WWA | Groceries > Takeout
What I Spent
I finally made a trip to Aldi, and I spent $201.
So, this means my July grocery spending is waaay over what I usually budget. My average spending is $150/week and this month my average was $174/week.
If this continued long-term, that would be one thing. But I'm guessing, based on years of past experience, that this will likely level out.
Another thing I remind myself of at times like these: yes, I'm $120 over budget for the month.
But that amount pales in comparison to what I'd have spent on eating out if I didn't cook at home.
Groceries are a smart expenditure in the grand scheme of things.
July Grocery Spending
Week 1: $145
Week 2: $180
Week 3: $87
Week 4: $257
Week 5: $201
What We Ate
Saturday
Mr. FG and I did a takeout date night from Panera. I do not honestly remember what the girls ate, as they fended for themselves.
Sunday
I made a chicken Parmesan pasta bake from a Cook's Country recipe card, leaving cheese off half of it for Sonia's sake.
This recipe got the job done (we were fed!) but it was nothing to write home about. Just kind of basic.
Monday
I made breakfast for dinner; waffles, whipped cream, blueberries and peaches, plus bacon.
And orange juice.
Tuesday
We had BLTs and watermelon; a summer supper if there ever was one!
Wednesday
I made quick Cuban-ish sandwiches; chicken cutlets, ham, and Swiss on buns with cilantro and an OJ/mustard pan sauce.
Thursday
I made naan pizzas, and we ate those with some raw fruit and veggies.
Friday
I'm thinking tacos sound good. 🙂
But then again, I always think that!
Saturday-tomato sandwich, chips, grapes
Sunday-hamburger and mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes, zucchini, peaches
Monday-fried egg, skinny bagel, tater tots, cantaloupe
Tuesday-spaghetti, zucchini
Wednesday-leftover hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, yellow squash, butter beans
Thursday-leftover spaghetti, zucchini
Friday-French bread pizza, I think
My eldest son recently told me he doesn't really like tacos. Say what? How is that possible?
We had tacos anyway this week, despite his announcement. I am not going to stop making tacos because he doesn't like them. Sorry, kid.
Saturday: Various leftover meats, plus a few pork country ribs I needed to cook, and rice and raw green beans from the garden
Sunday: My parents sent us Kansas City Steak Company steaks for our anniversary, which was this day. So I cooked some of the steaks, which were very good. We also had roasted potatoes and roasted green beans. And the kids had some Christmas cookies our neighbor gave us that I must assume have been in her freezer.
Monday: Pork steaks, rice, frozen peas
Tuesday: Ground beef tacos and pinto beans. The weirdo who doesn't like tacos ate the filling in a bowl with leftover rice.
Wednesday: Chicken thighs and drumsticks, leftover rice, green salad with ranch dressing
Thursday: Breakfast sausage patties, homemade pasta with roasted tomato sauce, green salad with ranch dressing. The pasta was some I had made with the eldest son at his request a couple of weeks ago. We froze some of it. It cooked up fine from the freezer, though with a slight taste of freezer, no doubt because it had been in the over-the-fridge freezer. Next time I'll put it in the chest freezer.
Tonight: I forgot to get any meat out to thaw last night, so I'd better get something this morning that will thaw quickly. Maybe ground beef for hamburgers. And more salad, because the second wave of lettuce needs to be harvested now. Yay!
Well. Sonia doesn't really like tacos either. You have to wonder if these are actually our children!
I have something more horrifying than that in my family. My oldest son never liked chocolate. Clearly, at switched-at-birth situation at the hospital. In fact, quite possibly from another planet.
My younger daughter says she doesn't like tacos either! I died a little on the inside when she said that. But then I got over it and made tacos anyway. My older daughter doesn't like mac n cheese or peanut butter and jelly. I don't know what kind of kids these are but they're weirding me out.
I had one who said he didn't like pizza for awhile (since rescinded) and also claimed to not like french fries. And there's a little girl at school who doesn't like chocolate.
My cousin told me today she doesn't really like bacon. Really?!! I've never heard of such a thing!
Let see what I can remember....
Saturday- For quite a few years, we have been doing opening day dinner at my mom/dads (baseball) so it was hamburgers/hot dog, onion rings/ French fries. AND milkshakes! I brought hamburgers, and also I supplied dessert, brownies, and first time making Banana pudding! found on pinterst, it was really good! Will make again! also mom made zucchini bars with cream cheese frosting..
Sunday- Back to mom/dad, eye round (on the grill) mashed, corn, string beans, we had plently of desserts left from yesterday!
Monday-our take out night. Portuguese BBQ,
Tuesday- BBQ chicken on the grill, potato/carrot packets on the grill, DD ate pizza bites, she isn't big on chicken.
Wednesday- Hot dogs, tarter tots.
Thursday- DD had a soccer game, so we stopped for McDonalds at 9pm!
Friday- I think we are going to have Chicken alfrado. DS I think will have naan pizza. Since he doesn't like this dish..
That tabby kitten is adorable! Where do you get your masks?
We've just sewn ours. I'm not 100% happy with the fit of mine, though; I think it needs to be slightly longer from top to bottom in order to stay put on my face when I talk.
We have no kitchen (remodel), so this is atypical eating for us. But, it's getting the job done & infinitely cheaper than takeout:
We've had:
-Carnitas salad (x a few dinners + leftover lunches). It was a much bigger bag of carnitas defrosted from the freezer than expected
-Rotisserie chicken salad, leveraging Costco's rotisserie chicken (x a few dinners)
-Cauliflower crust pizza
-Tonight I'm having dinner at my sister's & I'm ever so grateful for no cooking!
I tried to mix things up with some garden veggies (mostly tomatoes & jalapenos) with a pico de gallo like topping. It helped for sure.
We had an easy and again mostly vegetarian week as we work long hours.
Saturday: My mum came for a visit. We made a long walk in a nature protection area neraby and had dinner in a beer garden.
Sunday: we made a creamy bake with different kind of beans. We had potatoes as a side.
Monday & Tuesday & Thursday: fresh bread with cheeses and green salad and raw vegetables wirh hummus.
Wednesday: falafel wraps
Friday: we will be ordering pizza
Yeah, I just went over my food budget, after patting myself on the back all month...
Well, there's always next time, she said hopefully.
Can I just say I loved "hearing" you say "Nothing to write home about?." My late mother used to say that so much!
So, what did we eat?
We started the week with leftover chicken pot pie, which was made from leftover roasted chicken.
We had thick sliced bacon, cubed winter squash and apples with cinnamon, and maybe English peas as the other side.
We had homemade chicken vegetable soup using the broth and some frozen leftover cooked meat off of that one huge chicken, and I made cassava flour spaetzel (sp?) to go in it, which turned out nicely.
I made my own sausage by seasoning plain ground pork, to avoid eating red pepper, and we had it with acre peas and Honey Rosemary Carrots.
I cut up a huge chicken breast I had frozen and made our own version of chicken nuggets with cassava/arrowroot flouring. Then I got brave and took some leftover oven-baked French fries and dropped them in the hot shallow grease after the chicken was finished and fried them a bit until they were crispy again on the outside. They were almost like seasoned fries and my husband loved them. He had cherry tomatoes and I had grapes on the side. I allow myself a white potato dish just once in a while, and this was a good one.
My husband said he is now done with chicken for a while. He doesn't like chicken that much.
Tonight is anyone's guess. I'll pick up something to cook while I'm grocery shopping.
Aww, is your mom from the Midwest by any chance? I wonder if "nothing to write home about" is a phrase I picked up from my midwestern parents.
She was born and raised in the midwest/upper south area!
Oh, then that makes me think it must be a midwest-y phrase, then. I have a soft place in my heart for the midwest because my grandparents lived there when I was a kid; midwest = homey and comforting to me!
I am from the mid west and knew the phrase.
I always thought it was an Irish saying - we use it a lot!
We have the same expression in Dutch. Guess it's a good thing I moved to the Midwest and can continue using the it.
I am from the midwest (Illinois and Minnesota) but my parents are British and they always used the say "nothing to write home about" and we were never sure where the saying came from! So interesting that it isn't a common phrase across the country!
I’m from the South and we’ve used the phrase, as well.
My family is from New York and we used that phrase.
We had a lamb stew I was simply in the mood for,even though it is very hot and that is usually an autumn or winter meal.Go figure. The meat was a bit of a splurge (Trader Joe) but nice meals mean so much right now. Also had:
Fish with green salsa,rice,carrots.
Spaghetti with homemade marinara and greek salad
Chana masala (chickpea dish) with sag paneer (frozen from trader joe) and rice
Takeout from Ramen place up the street
Eggplant Parmesan and Greek salad
We are also spending a bit more on groceries this month.I am hearing from many of my trusted sources that autumn may be a bit rough again and we may experience shortages.. or, I simply may not feel comfortable to go out to Trader Joe again.So, we purchased a small freezer on Costco site..had to wait DAYS for it to become available!! Everywhere is sold out of freezers! And I have spent more $$ this month stocking up a bit more. Canned tuna, brown rice, pinto beans, coffee, canned tomatoes,pasta,etc. It’s stuff we always eat and I am feeling better having extra on hand for now.
We are NOT spending money on “Gas,travel, eating out,clothing (thrift store,but still, NO $ spent on clothes in 6 months is a first for me..) no theaters,museums, no money going out ,so I am feeling the investment in good meals is well worth it.
Kristen,
Have you made tacos using the ATK Taste of Mexico cookbook? The Orange-ancho pork is my favorite. It's tangy, smoking and slightly spicy and fairly easy.
Ooh, I have not. I know I have a Mexican cookbook from them; I'm gonna have to go look and see if it's the same as yours.
I double-checked the name. My book is "The Best Mexican Recipes" and the is on page 125.
(In the summer I modify the recipe for the slow cooker because I can't run to oven for 2 hours.)
Thank you for more cat pics. Love!
Homemade pizza
Zucchini patties - a new recipe from the previous week that everyone was sad there wasn't more of the first time, so I doubled it this time
Sloppy joes
Breakfast for dinner
"Good grief, please stop asking me what's for dinner and eat whatever you find in the fridge"
Salmon with lemon and rosemary
Number five is a dinner we can all relate to!
WIS: $138 (only 2 of us but it should last just under 2 weeks. Fingers crossed.
WWA: working backward:
Friday: ribs, corn-on-the-cob, golden zucchini (garden) cucumbers (garden)
Thursday: leftovers/fend-for-yourself
Wednesday: I went to visit my family in another state and made larb, green beans & cucumber & pepper salad. Partner made jambalaya. For 8. He does not get that you can halve (or quarter) a recipe so we now have a GIANT vat of jambalaya since he was the only one home to eat it.
Tuesday: Pan-seared salmon with bistered tomato & caper sauce. Sautéed golden zucchini (garden), broccoli & red pepper
Monday: Mediterranean chicken salad made from rotisserie chicken, charred green beans
Sunday: Greek-marinated grilled shrimp, golden zucchini (garden) & salad
Saturday: Partner was still in Maine with his family, so I continued to eat leftovers.
Saturday: I grilled some Cornell Chicken using the technique from Cooks Country but used bottled sauce.
Sunday: Ate leftovers, mostly.
Monday: My daughter had surgery so she got to pick what she wanted for dinner. She picked spaghetti and meatballs. I don't eat pasta so I just ate leftovers
Tuesday: I made homemade Japanese style Curry Rice (aka karē raisu) Normally I use the boxed stuff (oddly enough branded as Vermont Curry - which is a story in and of itself) but getting to the Asian grocery store has been difficult. So I tried to make it myself. My only complaints were a) it was pretty mild and b) I should've used a leaner meat (the pork shoulder was a bit too fatty but it was what I had on hand)
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner with waffles, eggs, sausage, fruit etc.
Thursday: Roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots etc. It was good ... but, this whole "Instant Pot" thing is leaving me a bit annoyed. The recipes all say "Total time X:XX" but I find I need to add an hour to all of them to pressurize the device, cool it down etc. So it was a late dinner again.
Friday: Doing leftovers once again.
Saturday - Bacon cheeseburgers, fruit salad, chips, and ice cream cake
Sunday - Outdoor picnic with 2 families from our life group... I provided BBQ pork and blueberries, they covered the rest
Monday - Leftover pork BBQ sandwiches, broccoli with cheese, summer squash, and chips
Tuesday - Date night!! We went to a BBQ place an hour away and I had brisket and pork. So. Good. Even their cornbread and applesauce were really good.
Wednesday - Crock-pot fajitas
Thursday - The last of the pork BBQ, macaroni and cheese, squash/zucchini, and more leftover chips. I put my chips on the pork in my sandwich and it was yummy.
Friday - Rice bowls using the leftover fajita filling
So glad you don’t guilt out about being over budget. It happens. Love the blog
We did not do great on eating at home this week - we had takeout 3 times 😐
On the nights we cooked, it was grilled steak, freezer pizza, burgers, and tofu tacos (tonight :))
Next week will be better. We are about to try a no-spend month outside of groceries/bills though, so no takeout for a while.
I should say, cooking at home. We eat every meal at home during these strange times.
Thursday - Cheesy zucchini bake (using up the ginormous squash from our yard)
Wednesday - Quesadillas with avocado and fruit on the side. We happily used serrano peppers from the yard.
Tuesday - ??? Pasta maybe? Can't remember.
Monday - BYO Tostada bar - I wrote out order forms for the kids and made them pick at least one protein and at least one vegetable, otherwise they'd just want a tostada shell and cheese. I don't know why, but it worked. My picky eater actually ate her entire tostada, with some spinach on it (we use it instead of lettuce), no less!
Sunday - General Tso's Chickpeas: these were SOOOO good. I'm going to make them again this weekend. I used my IP to cook up the dried garbanzo beans and then froze the rest of the batch.
Do you have recipe links for the zucchini bake and the general Tso's chickpeas? Both sound really good! Thanks!
I do!
General Tso's chickpeas: https://www.delish.com/cooking/recipe-ideas/a33252936/week-eating-canned-chickpeas-recipes/
Zucchini Bake: I just used a jarred marinara so this was even simpler: https://www.carbmanager.com/recipe/keto-cheesy-zucchini-bake
I have become very price insensitive during this Safer at Home time. We are spending so much less overall (no trips, not much gas, not eating out or paying for entertainment). I figure it balances out. Also, I want stores to survive so since we are able I have been paying whatever is asked (as long as it seems more or less reasonable).
We had tacos tonight too...fish ones with your fish sauce recipe! I had fresh caught fish in my freezer from my mom’s generous neighbor for longer than I care to admit. And we are seriously trying to clean out this freezer for a defrost. Win-win except my house now smells fishy. Lol
I honestly an't remember what we ate. But there has been little take away and many salad rolls ar lunch time. There is fruit in abundance and since I have been quite ill this week with a sinus infection as long ase ate and it was reasonable good I am happy with that.
So this week was mostly about chicken. I grilled a whole bunch of boneless skinless chicken in three different “flavors.”
Sunday night was BBQ chicken, hobo packs of potatoes with rosemary and zucchini, onion and green beans
.Monday grilled chicken Cesar salad (this chicken was grilled with old Bay seasoning), fruit
Tuesday collard greens and smoked turkey neck (cooked all day in crockpot) corn on the cob and Grilled chicken marinated in Greek dressing.
Wednesday tuna noodle casserole and leftover greens.
Thursday egg salad sandwiches, and fruit
Friday DS and I went to help a friend put together kits for her online rabbit hopping store. We met at a nice shady park and sat at different tables social distancing with masks. We picked up cheap but good subs and snacks from a local grocery outlet. . We also brought a bunny or two to help!
Sunday: I think we had peach chicken and vegetables at my daughter's or it was Monday.
Monday: Dutch Baby Pancake with blueberries and breakfast sausage.
Tuesday: Burgers (the recipe you have on file), salad
Wednesday: grilled chicken and winter squash from our Misfits order.
Thursday:I am tired of what's for lunch?, whats for dinner? So I made zucchini noodles with the excess zucchini laying around here and made a dinner salad. salad with cherry tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, fetta, croutons.
Friday: What's for supper? I went to the market to pick up the 3-day sale items. I looked at "stuff" but had no inspiration until the check out where there was Italian bread. I had sauce, pausta and meatballs at home. And I had 2 ears of corn from our CSA. Worked out well. I did buy the bread. But I really need to get the frozen crusty rolls. For us it will be less expensive and less wasteful.
Saturday: Pizza. We had all the ingredients including fresh cherry tomatoes and basil to create a "gourmet" pizza.
I am trying to be creative with what I have to clean out the freezer and use the vegetable we have on hand. Then I will make a meat order.
I am looking at possibly taking a few days at the Cape. The place I am looking at has ocean views and I can walk the beach, walk to town, maybe bike the rail trail It has a little kitchen available so I am looking at meals for 2 to reduce the extra expenses. I need the ocean.
Peach chicken sounds interesting!