WIS, WWA | It's too early to tell...
It's a little too early to tell, but it is kind of seeming like going from a household of 5 to a household of 4 is making my grocery budget feel rather generous. Read on!
What I Spent
It was another one of those weeks where we just made a few small stops and mostly ate from the pantry/freezer.
We spent $71 at the grocery store and $30 on Sunday night takeout.
So, $101 total.
September Spending
Week 2: $101
The last two weeks, we've been under the usual $150/week, despite the fact that we got fast food in week one and we spent $30 on takeout in week two.
Hmm. It will be interesting to see if this spending pattern holds up.
What We Ate
Saturday
Mr. FG and I went back to the sandwich shop we've been addicted to lately; we haven't tried all of their sandwiches yet, so there's still work to be done. 😉
I tried the Cubano this week; good, but I thought it could use more of some type of sauce or spread. Which is probably not an authentic thought, but I like my sandwiches to be dripping with sauce. 😉
Good thing about sandwiches for a date night: totally easy to stay within our $20 budget!
Sunday
I did not have a menu plan in place and I did not feel like cooking, so we got some Chinese takeout.
Monday
We went up to see my aunt and uncle and Lisey; we had burgers and brats there and I brought a Texas sheet cake.
I don't make cakes all that often, so even though a Texas sheet cake is arguably easier to bake than yeast bread, I always feel far more confident bringing yeast bread to a gathering.
Tuesday
I had a meeting at 6:00 pm so I needed something pretty quick to make and I opted for BLTs with raw produce on the side.
Wednesday
Sonia was at work at dinnertime. In such situations, I always think, "Hmm, what cheese-filled thing could I make for dinner while she is not here?"
I had some uncooked bacon left from the package I opened to make the BLTs, so Mr. FG and Zoe and I enjoyed cheese, mushroom, and bacon quesadillas, plus chips, guacamole, and salsa. And we had some raw produce on the side.
As for Sonia, she had some late-night French toast when she got home from work.
Thursday
I made a taco salad topped with crushed Doritos. Surprisingly, I found one last container of 2020 applesauce in the freezer, so I thawed that and we ate it with our taco salads.
Friday
I have some boneless skinless chicken thighs in the fridge so I think I might make bourbon chicken over rice tonight.
We have had very simple meals this week. I had bought a small piece of roasted beef and that did two evening meals with salads etc. On Monday I cooked a huge roast pork that filled everyone in three families. I am trying to do shelftember and am concentrating on using the stuff in the freezers. So steak burgers featured one night. Pulled out lamb chops for tonight but neither of us felt overly hungry so salad rolls filled us. There was chicken one night. I can't remember what else I made but all meals came out of the kitchen with the exception of the roast beef.
We also had applesauce this week, but from this year's apples. 🙂
Saturday: Split pea soup, grilled cheese sandwiches. I just can't get into split pea soup. I mean, it's okay, but so boring for me to eat. I'll keep making it, though, because I get continuous bags of dried split peas from commodities via my neighbors.
Sunday: Italian sliders (tiny hamburgers+marinara sauce+mozzarella), pasta with pesto, corn on the cob, leftover calabacitas (like zucchini), pots de creme
Monday: Barbecue bull sandwiches (on homemade buns, which I hardly ever make, but I was making bread anyway this day, so my kids got lucky), carrot sticks with curry dip, applesauce with cream for dessert. We found an apple tree at an abandoned house that had actual red apples on it, and I was so excited. Most of the local apples are green and kind of dry. I can't make sauce from them. I could make sauce from these red ones, but 3/4 of the apples were too wormy to use. Bummer. Still got two quarts of sauce from them, though, which my kids were very excited to see. They LOVE applesauce, but only homemade. In five or so years all these grafts and tiny apples trees we have growing will be producing, and then we could swim in applesauce, but until then it remains an occasional treat.
Tuesday: Scrambled eggs, bacon, cornt tortillas with cheese, cucumber spears with ranch dip
Wednesday: Last-minute pesto pizza to celebrate my daughter's first day of preschool. I sliced a smaller loaf of sourdough into three pieces horizontally, then spread on the pesto I had made a few days before, some asadero cheese (our mozzarella substitute), and baked it on a pan covered in olive oil. The kids had that with carrot sticks and ranch. My husband and I had leftover split pea soup.
Thursday: Steaks, boiled potatoes, steamed broccoli and carrots, brownies. My daughter got to choose a treat for me to make for her first day of school, but since her first day was also a work day for me, I didn't make them until the next day. They still tasted good the day after the first day. 🙂
Friday: One of my rare Friday work days, and also my eldest son has a home football game at 4 p.m., which means we're all going and we won't get home until almost 7 p.m. So I'll bring some carrot sticks and apples to the field for the younger kids (and a LOT of water--it's going to be 95 degrees, ugh) and then have leftover steak and potatoes in pesto when we get home. Or the kids can have tortillas and cheese if they want.The snacks at the field will take care of their vegetal needs, and then I can just fill in when we get home.
@kristin @ going country, my daughter adores calabacitas. Need to get that on the menu while zucchini and corn are still in season!
Am now going to google "calabacitas"!
@Kristen, If you Google it, you'll see recipes for a vegetable side dish using corn and zucchini. When I say "calabacitas," I'm referring to the summer squash typically used in such a dish. Because that's the name of the local squash that is used both in its immature form as a summer squash like zucchini (but better--not as wet). When the squash are left to grow and cure on the vine, they become a winter squash called calabazas. So I'm not making that particular corn dish when I mention calabacitas. I'm just cooking the squash called calabacitas. Annnnd, that was confusing. 🙂
@kristin @ going country, Kristin, I love when soup weather comes. I make split pea soup a fair amount because it is cheap and filling. I do put a ham hock or meaty ham bone in it. Plus more carrots than called for in addition to the celery and onion. My recipe is an altered one from Pillsbury's "New" Family Cookbook", (copyright 1973, 74, 75.) Hard to find, but worth the hunt.
But I also put in 1/4 cup of barley as well. It gives the soup better taste and texture. Hhubbie and I love it. Homemade cornbread is a must! One trick I do is wrap the bone or hock in cheese cloth, and put the peppercorns in a metal tea ball so I don't have to hunt for the peppercorns. You can Wring the soup out of the cloth when cool. Easier to fish them out that way. Not sure if you use ham. I have one friend who makes it with no ham and her husband dislikes it. My version is very hardy and filling. And the aforementioned spouse above loves it.
@kristin @ going country,
If the green apples will cook, you can freeze bags of slices. Cook them in the microwave and sweeten.
@Barb F., Thanks! I do put in ham, but have never tried barley. I'd probably like it better with barley. I just find it so monotonous in texture and taste.
@Sharon Sorrels, Annoyingly, they don't cook at all, really. They stay kind of hard and dry. Literally the only thing I can do with them is eat fresh or dry them. They're perfect for drying, so that's what I do with most of them.
@kristin @ going country, I make my split pea soup heavy on the rosemary and that keeps it from being boring. If you like rosemary. I also put carrots in mine.
Your menus sound really good to me this week, for some reason. The Bourbon Chicken looks delicious. And yes on the sauce for sammies (and everything, really). Lately I have been addicted to the creamy Chik-Fil-A sauce that you can get in bottles at the store - I think we are on our second one...so good. This week we ate:
Monday - Grilled Chicken, kale, small sweet potato
Tuesday - Ciabatta Burger (couldn't do bun-less), avocado and tomato
Wednesday - Tilapia, onions and peppers, seasoned pintos
Thursday - Crock Pot Pork Chops, butternut squash, buttery rice
Tonight - Chicken Alfredo Linguini with broccoli
Saturday will be take out and Sunday is my girl's birthday so its her choice. But I will probably make a small carrot cake for dessert.
This has been a hectic week in our household with the hubby having had surgery yesterday and a short week from the Labor Day holiday. I started out with great plans but we have had some fluctuation and I am giving myself grace.
I spent $130 at Sam's this week.
Saturday - We took a day trip to Blue Ridge, GA to pick up some apples from an orchard and visit with my cousin. He fed us a wonderful dinner of smoked chicken, bbq baked beans, macaroni & cheese, & sweet potato casserole. Hooray for the joy of someone else cooking for you when you are traditionally preparing the meals for everyone else 🙂
Sunday - I found a recipe for a sausage and corn chowder and made a large batch adding in lots of fresh peppers from our garden, corn from the farmers market and sausage from our freezer. I made an apple walnut coffee cake as well.
Monday - Batch cooking. I made pork chops in the crockpot, bbq ribs with peach salsa & bbq sauce, corn on the cob, rice, sauteed spinach with onion & garlic. I baked a loaf of french bread and a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread and made a blackberry cobbler.
Tuesday - Leftovers.
Wednesday - Leftovers.
Thursday - Hubby and I were at the hospital all day long so he requested grits when we got home & had grits with two eggs. Tuna sandwiches for my son & Mom per their request.
Friday - I made some soup for my husband to enjoy and I think tonight will be a pizza night.
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
This was an easy cooking week!
Friday: We ate an early dinner at the farmer's market diner; I was full from a late lunch so I had toast and my husband had a burger.
Saturday: Haddock baked with tomatoes, onions, and herbs. I think we had a salad, too.
Sunday: Frozen mushroom ravioli, and my husband snacked after dinner.
Monday: It was Rosh Hashanah, so my family came over for dinner and very kindly brought a feast! We had apples and honey, challah, soup, brisket, meatballs, salmon, rice pilaf, asparagus, salad, and fruit. I contributed desserts: chocolate amaretti, honey cake, and almond-date biscotti. And apples and honey. We...may have had too much food for five people!
Tuesday: Leftovers from Monday.
Wednesday: I finished the leftovers from Monday and my husband grabbed a late-night slice of pizza.
Thursday: Frozen squash ravioli and an odds-and-ends salad.
Friday: We haven't had a tofu and vegetable stir-fry in a while, so maybe that.
I decided to try out Blue Apron this week. I’d been gifted Hello Fresh before and it was fun and tasty recipes but pretty pricey, and as someone who loves meal planning and grocery shopping, paying extra to avoid that didn’t make sense. I found a promotional offer for Blue Apron though so figured I’d try it, since it is still fun to receive boxes of food and try new recipes!
Saturday - takeout Chinese
Sunday - we had large deli sandwiches for lunch that we both only ate half of, so we ate the other halves for dinner, made pb&j with some veggies and fruit for the kids.
Monday - Hosted a small bbq, we smoked ribs and chicken drumsticks, and served it with macaroni and cheese, watermelon and strawberries and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.
Tuesday - bbq leftovers
Wednesday - this was the first Blue Apron meal, one-pan beef and noodle udon stir-fry with bok choy and sweet peppers
Thursday - second blue apron meal, cheesy chicken and poblano tacos with Mexican spiced fingerling potatoes. I also added some frozen corn elote, since we were stretching 2 serving/meals for the 4 of us.
Friday - spaghetti and meatballs with some steamed veggies on the side
I spent approximately $138 for 2 adults. This does not include dog food, cat food, toiletries, cleaning supplies or alcohol. (Ouch!) I think this is partially because my husband wants to go to the store to get out of the house. He is frugally challenged and does not do well in this new WFH reality. I do hope for his sanity things become more “normal” again soon. This week’s dinner include:
Saturday - My son invited us to dinner. He is a wonderful cook and we had fresh caught fish. We brought the wine.
Sunday - Leftovers that my son had sent home
Monday - Pork carnitas, salad & potatoes
Tuesday - Salad and baked potatoes
Wednesday - Steak, sweet potatoes, & green beans
Thursday - chicken taco salads with black beans and corn
Friday - I’m trying a sheet pan dinner, sweet & sour chicken from Budget Bytes.
@Bee, Oh my gosh, I so relate -- grocery shopping always feels like fun and we gotta eat, right? So I do find myself wandering the cool, air-conditioned aisles a bit too frequently.
1. Tofu Stir Fry, rice
2. Bean Burritos w/Salad
3. Stuffed Butternut Squash, Kale Salad
4. Pizza, Salad
5. Black bean, rice and veggie bowls
6. Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes
7. Tonight-probably some sort of BBW tofu w/pot salad
Texas sheet cake? Tell us more, please!
Sunday: we made Panera’s Fuji apple chicken salad, toasted baguette and broccoli cheddar soup
Monday: homemade pizza
Tuesday: burgers and fries breakfast bake (basically a breakfast hash with ground beef and bacon added).
Wednesday: thawed some chili from the freezer and made cheese quesadillas to use up ingredients
Thursday: chicken Milanese sandwiches with fries
Friday: my husband has rice prepped to make fried rice. Plan to fill it with Asian veggie blend and chicken. His fried rice is so delicious!
While I meal planned, we are not hitting it out of the park on the execution. My husband returned to the office 2 days this week and my daughter had a swim meet that hit at dinner time and I had a book club night so its been a mess.
Monday - ordered pizza because celiac daughter was out.
Tuesday - broccoli cheddar soup for me and kid, leftovers for husband who doesn't like broccoli
Wednesday - book club out for me and husband did steaks/potatoes for him and kid.
Thursday - late dinner due to meet - sausages on grill plus peppers/onions/potatoes on sheet pan
Friday - I've finally got my act together. steak is marinating and rice is in the rice cooker for burrito bowls
With these rising grocery prices, I wouldn't be surprised if your grocery bill went up before long!
We had:
Roast chicken, broccoli and honey carrots
Extra chunky chicken/vegetable soup made with homemade broth from the freezer.
Meatloaf using the nomato sauce I'd made, English peas and applesauce, which was not homemade, sadly. Apple orchards are not a thing in Florida.
Hamburgers with a gluten-free bun for me that has very, very little of things I should avoid, baked beans, chips, and something else for me that I've forgotten.
Ribs with broccoli and mac and cheese made with cassava elbow pasta that I am finally finding in the store.
Shrimp from the freezer and a sautéed vegetable medley that we like now and then - a big skillet of onion, celery and chopped fresh mushrooms.
All of the meat, not seafood, that we had this week was raised locally on farms using organic practices. Usually at least some of the meat is not local, but this week it all was, and it is so good tasting!
I can imagine that apple-picking is not a common October activity in Florida! But I would also imagine that all the other local produce makes up for it in spades.
@Kristen,
Nor really, at least in my area. We are too far north for much citrus where I live, and too far south for peach and apple orchards. Only certain grapes grow well here. Loquats and figs grow, but aren't that common, and cold snaps can get the fig trees sometimes. It's often too cool and the soil too poor for bananas. Pineapples usually fail in my area, although my sister grows them a little, further south. Persimmons, mayhaws and some varieties of plums and pears grow fairly easily here, but a local disease keeps getting our pear crop 50 to 70% of the time. The heat, humidity, bugs, fungus and other diseases can make gardening tough. It's not the best place to grow cultivated food - foraging is possible, but not something many can do. The University of Florida keeps working on developing better low chill peaches and apples, which I hope to plant someday. If they ever figure out how to develop spur-less sandspurs for food, though, we may be on to something.:)
@JD, I have had good luck with blueberries, blackberries and Meyer lemons. The humidity and the salt make things difficult.
How far is Lisey from you guys there? Is your bourbon chicken recipe on the site? Does it bother you if you eat takeout more than normal as long as you stay within your budget? Not the health aspect but the financial aspect - "my budget could have been even lower if we hadn't gotten Chick-fil-A".
Lisey is about two hours away. Bourbon chicken recipe is from a recent Cook's Country, but I believe it's behind a paywall: https://www.cookscountry.com/recipes/14007-bourbon-chicken
Takeout: at this point we have enough wiggle room in our budget overall that I don't stress about it. The money is set aside to feed us, and if I have enough money for both groceries and takeout in a week, then great!
This week: tacos, pizza, spaghetti--I just realize we eat like a kids' menu at a diner. What's tonight, dino nuggets?
actually I just realized I asked my son about hamburgers and Cook's Country onion rings.
I guess the ortolans and escargot will have to wait till next week.
@Rose, Same here! We eat like a kids' menu too. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one. Glad to know I'm not 🙂 It's about as much energy as I have in this season of life with 3 small ones.
@Rose,
This cracked me up.
Ummm, I have a bag of dino chicken nuggets in my chest freezer because Sonia likes to eat them every now and again. Heh.
We spent $111 this week, of which $20 was not food (dishwasher tabs and cat treats) and $3.50 was spaghetti noodles and beans for the Episcopal food pantry. So that put us under $90 in food for my family for the week. We stocked up on "durable produce" - potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions -- and bought a lot of cheese and canned milk.
Supper was every man for himself. I had peanut butter sandwiches with fruit all week, as I was trying to finish off a jar of Walmart Great Value natural peanut butter (do not recommend, was very runny). We did not go out for our usual inexpensive and delicious local Mexican food because my husband had to work late that night. My brown bag lunches this week are last week's leftover spaghetti and sauce, which had been plated up and frozen. I am very tired of spaghetti at this point, but soldiering onward.
Last Saturday, I made fried rice and pasta with marinara and alternated those Saturday through Wednesday. I added peas, carrots, salad, bread and/or fruit to each meal.
Thursday-waffles, tater tots, apple
Friday-eggs, toast, tater tots, berries
What We Ate
Saturday - Hardees hamburgers, chicken tenders and curly fries
Sunday - Pizza, chips, carrots, celery, cucumber, olives
Mon - Hamburger, tatter tots, carrots, pickles, cucumbers, olives
Tues - Corn dogs and chicken nuggets with tatter tots, carrots, cucumbers
Wed - Taco salad
Thurs - Spaghetti alfredo with chicken & peas, peach
Fri - TBD
French toast bake after forgetting about a loaf.
Chicken enchiladas
Hamburgers
Pizza
Cheese ravioli
The cinnamon toast crunch cereal is free again. Freectc.com
I think u posted that last year? Wanted to let u know it was available again.
Oh, thanks for the headsup! I'll share on Facebook for other readers too.
We had family in town all week until yesterday, so we got some fun variety in our meals!
Saturday - BBQ chicken leg quarters, green beans, and my MIL made peach crisp for dessert
Sunday - We had both lunch and dinner at my parents' house and my mom made salmon for lunch and cheeseburgers for dinner. We experimented with burgers stuffed with carmelized onions and pepperjack cheese - they were good!
Monday - Burrito bowls
Tuesday - My in-laws took us to a local Mexican restaurant
Wednesday - After an afternoon at the zoo, my in-laws picked up some Aldi take n bake pizzas and my MIL made apple dumplings. I had a training to attend that included dinner (yummy tacos - and no, I'm not sorry that it was my 3rd night in a row of Mexican) but they saved an apple dumpling for me for when I got home.
Thursday - Our first night of just our family again and my 2nd grader had a 5:30 soccer practice. We had chicken patty sandwiches... and that was it.
Friday - Quesadillas with chips and homemade salsa. But I'm going to need to stop by the store after school to get cheese because I have 3 bags of mozzarella and nothing else! Whoops!
Fall is here so we are still rushing to pull in and process the entire garden. That means every dinner is the same: one of us goes out and harvests whatever looks good. I chop it up, add some sort of protein like moose, chicken, eggs, or fish, and do a stir fry. One night I made a quick soup but the freezer is full so we are trying to consume as much as possible straight out of the garden and stir fry does that better than soup. It is a bit monotonous but it sure makes for a tiny grocery bill, since about all we buy is milk.
@Lindsey, it sounds kind of delicious!
I think I kept it under $100 this week -- am committed to an exact accounting next week.
How great to actually see a decrease in your weekly spending !
Happily, many or most of these ingredients were marked down and either frozen or eaten right away 😉
Friday -- Since we are back to avoiding indoor venues (curse you, COVID) treat night is take out, so casual and cheap. This was drive-thru burgers and fried zucchini using coupons so it was under $10.00 🙂
Saturday --Sauteed chicken breasts, salad
Sunday -- Chicken breast, salad
Monday -- Chicken, salad
Tuesday -- Salad and microwaved chicken (change of pace)
Wednesday -- Bunless burgers and salad
Thursday -- Spaghetti bolognese with whole wheat pasta (husband) and edamame pasta (me) Quick note on the soy pasta -- it smells kind of funky in its dry form but smothered in nice, beefy tomato sauce, it is a bit of low-carb all right.
Happy Friday!
- Chopped salad (great way to use up bits and bobs of veggies)
- Bang-bang cauliflower
- Vegetarian reuben sandwiches
- Wild rice pancakes
- Pea risotto
- Granola, blueberries and raspberries
- Casserole medley (great way to use up assortment of noodles, legumes, veggies, sauce, cheese, etc.)
Question: Are you experiencing lower bills (utilities, gas, food, etc.) with two kids out of the nest? And a third working? I would guess that feeding, clothing and caring for four would be cheaper than six. Is that true? Or is college/trade school adding additional expenses? Just wondering how things are different now than when your children were small. Like what new accommodations, budgeting concerns are you facing as your lives evolve?
Utilities; really hard to say! I mean, heating and cooling the house costs the same; only savings really would be from fewer showers, I guess.
Gas: our older two were paying for their own gas by the time they moved out, so no change once they moved out!
Clothing: same story as with gas.
Food: I do think I am starting to see a lower grocery bill now that it's four of us.
can you share the recipe for Bourbon Chicken? Sounds great.
I made a big batch of chicken curry with rice, so we had that multiple times this week, along with salmon & grilled "In & Out" style burgers. I made a garden pasta salad, and used up a ton of produce (basil, banana peppers, zucchini, shishito peppers, cherry tomatoes, etc). I also used the last of a jar of sweet & spicy pickles as part of the dressing, which was a great add on.
We finished off the last of the curry last night (it also made enough for a few freezer servings). I love it when I can cook once at we have several meals. We've got a lot of soccer driving during the week days, so it's super helpful.
I'm with you Kristen - no such thing as too much sauce 😉