WIS, WWA | My goodness, meat is expensive
What I Spent
I'm still kind of adjusting to the current prices at the stores since I was mostly on a grocery shopping hiatus while I lived with my parents. This is some kind of sticker shock to come back to!
I am particularly surprised at how expensive meat is, and that's true even for normally cheap varieties like chicken thighs.
This week, I spent:
- $41 at Lidl
- $6.50 at Safeway
- $60 at Target
- $19 on fast food (see Saturday's dinner)
So $126.50 for me this week.
What We Ate
Saturday
Lisey and Zoe and I all needed to go to Target for a few things. I particularly needed some new shorts, but I struck out completely. For whatever reason, all of Target's shorts this year were super tight on my waist but enormous on my legs.
I think they designed them with Kim Kardashian in mind. And I'm not built like her either in the waist OR in the hips.
I hate shopping for shorts. I would literally rather shop for a swimsuit!
Anyway...I wasn't hungry while we were out, but the girls were so I picked them up some fast food before we hit Target. And then after our Target trip, we used some Coldstone Creamery gift cards to get some free ice cream. 🙂
Sunday
This is the night I made the Thai red curry chicken with sweet potatoes.
Monday
We had burrito bowls, which cover the starch, protein, and veggie categories all in one.
I did serve some fruit on the side, though.
Tuesday
Leftover burrito bowls!
Wednesday
I made burgers and I used some purple potatoes from Hungry Harvest to make some potato cubes.
Normal potato cubes look like this:
And purple potato cubes look like bits of charcoal.
Zoe came to the table and was rather shocked until I explained the situation. Ha.
If you close your eyes and eat them, though, they do taste just like regular potatoes. Still, the visual situation is so weird that I don't think I'd ever purposely buy purple potatoes!
Thursday
Sonia came over for dinner because I was making chicken katsu, her favorite dish. This meant there were four of us at dinner, so I pulled my desk chair up to the table (we currently only have three dining chairs), and all was well.
Friday
We might eat up some odds and ends in the fridge
Mom would make potato salad with red skinned potatoes and purple potatoes. Her purple potatoes would turn blue when boiled so we'd have red, white and blue potato salad for 4th of July
@Brittany,
That's a great idea! I might try that with my purple potatoes (also from Hungry Harvest). Any vegetable that has purple coloring is supposed to be really good for you because of the higher amount of antioxidants. I always opt for the purple varieties when my farm share gives me a choice.
@Brittany, When making roasted potatoes I boil them first in some water with about a tsp of baking soda to change the pH. Well I did that with purple potatoes and the water turned green!
That's chemistry for you.
WIS: 283.53 @Aldi, 24.18 @Hungry Harvest, total: 307.71
It might go down because I'm planning on returning a bag of coffee because I noticed it was not sealed when I got home and that makes me feel a bit nervous. So 307.71-6.19=301.52.
This is my two week shop, so averaged with my small hungry harvest order last week, it comes out to ~165/week, so actually lower than usual, but the only meat I bought was one container of lunch meat. I've been only buying meat/fish when it's on sale and freezing, but even using that strategy, it is still crazy expensive.
WWA:
Fri: sliced avocados and tomatoes, broiled asparagus and pepperoni pizzas made on homemade wheat tortillas
Sat: salad and zucchini fajitas in crunchy corn tacos
Sun: fennel salad, corn on the cob, salmon corn pie and pretzel focaccia with mozzarella cheese
Mon: kohlrabi greens salad, leftover corn, leftover salmon pie and leftover pretzel focaccia
Tue: tatsoi salad, tofu and yellow squash stir fry and rice
Wed: sliced kohlrabi with strawberry poppyseed dressing and la-sun-ya (lasagna made in sun oven)
Thu: salad and take and bake cheese pizza
Tonight: salad and...not sure...maybe nachos? We've had plenty of pizza and focaccia this week already. Maybe something using some of the stereotypically crazy amount of zucchini in our fridge! Or, maybe something celebratory since this was my last day with students. Maybe all three...celebratory zucchini nachos? Yeah...I dunno...good thing I'm the shopper and not the cook!
Have a great weekend everyone!
@Becca,
Salmon corn pie? Never knew this was a thing. When googling, I see ones like a chicken pot pie or ones like a casserole that you slice. Could you elaborate on this...I'm interested now.
@Jaime,
I hope I got the name of it correct. Basically, he grilled the salmon and then mixed it with black beans and salsa, put it in a cast iron pan and covered it with cheese (I think cheddar) and masa flour, then baked it. I'm not a fan of fish generally, but this was good even as leftovers. I typically let my fish-loving family have any fish leftovers! Too strong of a smell and flavour the next day, but this was totally fine.
@Becca,
That sounds really good! I might need to try it 🙂
@Jaime,
I just checked and I did have the name wrong. He called it a salmon tamale pie. I see some internet recipes for salmon tamale pie, but I'm pretty sure all of them are more complicated than what he did. For example, he did not make it like polenta and then slice it. He says he mixed the masa flour with water according to the proportions for making tamales on the package but added shredded cheese to this mixture. (He shredded up 8 oz of cheddar, but saved half of it to sprinkle in top.) Then he spread the tamale mixture on the bottom of the pan to make like a crust. After that, he put the grilled salmon/black beans/salsa mixture on top of that and put more masa on top, then the cheese and baked it. Hope this helps!
@Becca,
Thank you for the more detailed instructions. I have masa and will definitely be giving this a try!
What do you think of Lidl? We are getting one soon. How does it compare? I have found everything you said about Aldi to hold true in our branch.
@Gail, I don't have a Lidl nearby but have gone to one when traveling. I really liked them better than Aldi because of the bakery (fresh pretzels!) and the bigger selection.
@Gail, We recently got a LIDL and I've had some great low-cost shopping runs there. They've had great prices on different kinds of produce each week, often nuts, and also fish - I haven't bought other meat yet but have heard they have some good prices there too. When I've occasionally bought some of their store brand snacky items like fig newtons and crackers, everyone really liked them (plus the obvious knock-off names like "Thin Wheats" makes us smile).
@Gail, I’m lucky to have 2 Aldi stores within walking distance but I still prefer Lidl!!!
I think their selection is wider on both fresh and pantry products. The meat can be very good value too. There is a pork joint they sell for less than £4 which feeds four of us for a roast dinner as well as leftovers. Not sure of the weight, I’ll check next time I’m there.
@Gail,
Kristen, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Lidl too. We just got one near us and I keep looking at the circulars, but notice that their prices are mostly slightly higher than Aldi. I also see a lot more bakery items and prepared food items as opposed to ingredients. Would you say that is accurate? Because we make our own bread and basically cook almost everything from scratch, I had so far determined that Lidl would not be worth the extra trip for our family because the prices on staple items seemed to be slightly higher than Aldi. Maybe I will check it out when we are on vacation since we are planning to buy only easy to prepare foods and store-bought bread that week so that we don't have to full-on cook in an unfamiliar kitchen.
In my area, Aldi tends to be cheaper than Lidl overall. But Lidl does have a wider selection than Aldi and they do carry some name brands, so that could be good for people who don't want all store-branded items.
I don't know if this is true for Aldi stores, but here we have a Lidl in a fancier area and one in a not-so-fancy area and the prices are most definitely different!
I give Aldi a slight edge overall, mainly because I think it's easier to pay bottom dollar at Aldi. But Lidl is definitely going to be cheaper than, say, Safeway.
All food prices/ all prices are creeping up it is so frustrating! For most things I can shop/price check from my store apps( and having a kid at the grocery store I can place an order for the deals and he brings my order home after his shift), but I prefer to shop meat myself. I was blown away at the Aldi prices last week, so I continue to stop by the store often and grab the meat markdown deals as often as I can find them. My daughter asked to PLEASE have grilled chicken breast this week and that has been a hard affordable item to find - I lucked out that afternoon and grabbed a few flats of that and ground beef and then came home to divide, trim, package the items!
Taco-ish night-lol. Seasoned ground beef, seasoned black beans, rice and salad fixings.
we had tortilla chips and soft taco wraps.
Grilled marinated chicken breasts and zucchini slabs! Served with some cut up melon and steamed broccoli.
Pizza take out- it was pushing 100* and the husband told me I was *forbidden* to use the kitchen since it was already so hot. So I ordered 2 party pizzas from a local place on my way home from errands and we had those plus salad from the fridge! (This made my lunch the next day easy to pack!)
Pork shoulder in the crock pot( plugged in the garage to keep smell and extra heat out!), served with alfredo noodles, bread/buns, watermelon and peas.
I am thinking tonight I will make pasta with meat sauce, salad and garlic bread.
Yes, meat is very expensive now and will only get worse because of the cattle death situation related to the heat of summer...very weird and unsettling news. I need to focus more on beans and veg, so my future menus will look very different, I'm sure. Meanwhile:
Monday - Chopped Salad with rotisserie chicken
Tuesday - Steak bites, the rest of the tater tots, and a side salad
Wednesday - Grilled Chicken, twice baked, zucchini
Thursday - Fish Tacos with homemade pico de gallo and mont jack cheese
Friday - Happy Hour with The Girl {making Mexican Rice Skillet and serving margarita wine}
Saturday - Grill something - I have chicken thighs in the freezer
Sunday - Taking my youngest to breakfast in his college town, then maybe making myself a simple dinner.
*Father's Day will feel very weird to me this year. We usually had a special meal, all of us together and now we are kind of spread out. I have celebrated my husband on that day for 30 years. I'm sure my peeps will also feel a little out of sorts. Hopefully they will find a way to remember and reflect in their heart that day.
Have a good weekend!
https://cannaryfamily.blogspot.com/
@gina,
Sending you and your young people love and peace this weekend, Gina. <3
Pull your old shorts and get the info off the tag. Then check to see if they have some of the older ones on ThredUp!
Good Luck!
That's a good idea! I did that with an Old Navy jumpsuit that I liked, and I was able to find one on eBay.
@Kristen, how are you at trimming and hemming? If you found some pants that fit right, you could cut them off into shorts. And pants might well be on the clearance rack this time of year.
Sat - French Toast with Sausage
Sun - Hot Dogs, Potato Chips and Baked Beans
Mon - Grilled Chicken Sandwiches and Fries
Tues - Pulled Pork, mac and cheese and corn
Wed - Cheeseburgers on the grill and Fries
Thurs- Oven 'fried' Chicken, mashed potatoes, broccoli, green beans and salad
Friday - We're trying out the new boat tube, so we're going to have a picnic at the lake but since I'm working it'll be simple - Sandwiches, chips and cookies, lol.
Your comment about meat reminds me I need to go get a chicken out of the freezer. That'll be thawed and great for Sunday night, when it's supposed to be stormy, and we can eat off it for a few days.
Last night (Thursday) we had leftover pizza and leftover ravioli - an Italian buffet! We also had salad and I used up the last of a baguette to make some croutons.
Wednesday we had grilled salmon with a "green goddess tartar sauce" I made up using herbs from the garden plus salad and a parmesan bagel.
Tuesday we had...OH Asian. I was at Sam's and so I picked up some sushi and dumplings, cooked some eggrolls I had here and used the last of some slaw mix to make an Asian slaw. It was really good!
Monday was the first night for the ravioli.
Sunday was the first night for the pizza.
I've got some ham in the freezer. I think I'll take that out to thaw while we're golfing and for dinner we'll have honey mustard ham and swiss sandwiches and roasted potatoes.
WWS: $22 Whole Foods (fancy cheese for dinner party); $30 fish monger; $6 Farmer's Market (super expensive local strawberries....). Crazy amount mini vacation with out-of-town guest.
Sat: dinner party: socca, French cheeses, radishes (from the garden) with butter & salt; salmon Nicoise; Madeira cake with lemon & bergamot marmalade glaze & strawberries.
Sun: (breakfast was oatmeal-yogurt scones, the best (!) Sophia's Greek yogurt with honey & macerated strawberries) then up to mid-coast Maine for oyster lunch, check out a new charcuterie bar that is on a farm, and lobster for dinner. I did make a delicious raspberry-rhubarb crisp
Mon: excellent meal in Portland, ME @Central Provisions
Tues: I was able to snag a free dinner at work
Wed: Out to dinner with work (free to me!)
Thurs: cheese quesadilla with salsa & sour cream; sauteed zucchini & broccoli; leftover crisp
Fri: mystery shop burger
Since you are a fancy cheese person: what's your take on the cheese at Aldi and Lidl?
@Kristen, I don't have a Lidl near me! I've had had several of the cheeses from Aldi as my mom buys a lot of them. Personally, I'm not a fan of all of the "flavored" cheeses, like the cranberry cheddar, etc. and I find the cheddar a bit bland/mild. I do buy the standard provolone, etc. there & I love the string cheese!
I spent 112. Grocery pickup.
M- grilled chicken sand. Broccoli. Salad.
T- grilled Turkey burgers ( Kroger brand. Surprisingly good!) homemade chips n salsa. Grapes.
W- leftovers
Th- yogurt fruit and granola bowls
( heat index 105)
F- egg sandwiches on sourdough English muffins. Strawberries. Salad.
Traveling Sat Sun Mon. I am making a big pasta dinner for family on SAT.
STAY COOL FRUGAL FRIENDS!!
WIS: $111, if I recall correctly. Did not keep my receipt from Food Lion. There were no manager's special markdowns in the fresh meat case, so I spent the entire $15 fresh meat budget on a bag of frozen salmon that has ten big pieces of fish in it. It turned out to be a very good deal, as the pieces are thick and very flavorful.
WWA: Our festive Sunday supper was green salad with cherry tomatoes, feta cheese, red onion, cucumbers, chopped almonds. Pan-fried salmon. We ate leftover salad (it was huge) most of the week, and I added leftover salmon and salad bits to a scoop of cottage cheese for my suppers and ate it with a slice of toast.
Lunch is our big meal. My husband had sandwiches with cheese, nuts and fresh fruit on the side for his. I had plated up leftover spaghetti with Italian sausage last Friday and froze it for my lunches this week. That was supplemented every day with a small apple and a homemade bran muffin.
I continue to slack on the cooking front. I've been very tired the last few weeks and it shows. Maybe I finally have all the changes, paperwork, doctor appointments, and complaints settled for now and won't feel as exhausted when I get home.
I thawed a steak from a local farm and had it with roasted broccoli and veggie sticks.
I cooked two very thick pork sirloin chops and got two dinners and two lunches out of the two chops. Sides were, depending on the day, cauliflower cooked in the pan after the chops were cooked, honey-rosemary carrots, and cabbage-carrot-celery-onion slaw.
I made chicken liver pate that was packed with bacon, onion and garlic (since I'm not a fan of liver, I disguise the flavor) and had that with veggie sticks. For dessert I had applesauce.
One night was my favorite recipe of tuna salad made with onion, carrot, celery and raisins, with a nectarine for dessert. I always make enough for a lunch or two as well.
Last night I slow cooked the frozen Christmas hambone from the freezer with green beans, had a previously-frozen baked sweet potato and some bacon.
Tonight is anyone's guess. I will go grocery shopping for two weeks after work, the cost of which may make me lose my appetite for anything.
Seriously, I think you did a great job of feeding yourself, especially given all that you've had going on!
@JD, you're making more of an effort than I am on the cooking front, that's for sure!
@A. Marie and Kristen - thanks, both of you. It doesn't feel like I'm doing much in the kitchen these days. Everything I've dealt with this year has been complicated, right down to the new pharmacy plan suddenly deciding DH's very normal, not-new brand of insulin aspart that he's used for decades is going to require a letter from a doctor before they cover it. That's one reason I jumped through hoops to make sure his record was corrected to Type 1 diabetes. I suspect there is a correlation there.
A. Marie, you are dealing with more than I am! I've got local family helping me carry the load, remember.
@JD,
Ok...so you literally made pate this week...you are not a kitchen slacker! The one night my husband was out of the house last week, all I could summon up the energy for was nachos in the microwave and I'm feeding children, not just myself! I was so grateful he had already made la-sun-ya when he had to be away at dinnertime this week. If I had to make all the meals, we might eat lots of cereal and peanut butter sandwiches, just saying.
@JD, If this is your idea of slacking, I have to find a new name for my feeble efforts!
Hello, Kristin! Hello Frugalites! Kristen, I'm sure you have probably posted your chicken katsu recipe a time or 12, but for the life of me, I cannot find it when I search your blog. Any chance you can post it (again?) or maybe share a link? It always looks SO good!
This week we ate -
Mon - Parm encrusted tilapia with baby cakes and cucumber salad Mama had carrot cake for dessert.
Tue - Grilled chicken salads Pittsburgh style (with fries on top!), served with rolls.
Wed - I made a full pan of lasagna. Served with green salad and garlic bread. (I cut what was left into single serve portions to freeze for future "I'm too tired to cook" meals.)
Wed - I put in a LOOOOOOONG work day, so we ordered take out. Mama had a BLT and coleslaw and I had a burger and fries.
Thur - For reasons I cannot even remember, we had a really, really late (like 2 p.m. late!) breakfast, so technically I guess we had bacon, eggs, and fruit for dinner! That lasted me all day but Mama had to have something later to take her medications and she wanted a peanut butter and lettuce sandwich. (I can't even.)
Fri - The plan is to have meatballs in a bowl (from the freezer) with a garden salad and garlic bread. May add some fresh fruit to the mix.
I have actually NOT posted it! It's on my to-do list. 🙂
Costco chickens are still $4.99.
The kids got summer jobs in tourism here and stacked my freezer with Costco gluten free pizzas and a bag of pepperoni. I get a free slice of pizza any night I want. I make sandwiches or bowls or salad with the chicken, big tub of greens and tomatoes. Avocados, watermelon, apples, carrots and grapes in fridge and broccoli, mango, pineapple and blueberries in freezer. Oh, someone stached a big box of Costco ice cream bars in the freezer too!
So far I haven't really felt the food price hurt yet. I'm happy to have a can of beans and greens though if it comes to that.
Saturday - takeout pizza
Sunday - I had a frozen corned beef I’d bought after st Patrick’s day so we had corned beef, cabbage from our garden, carrots, roasted potatoes and Irish soda bread
Monday - Salisbury steak with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, steak broccoli
Tuesday - Beyond burgers, corn on the cob, steamed broccoli
Wednesday - stir fry noodles with chicken and Chinese broccoli from the garden
Thursday - first day of potty training so I’d planned to do very simple spaghetti and meatballs (basically just cook the pasta, everything else just needs to be reheated) But I remembered I had a board meeting that kids could attend, and my daughter did so well at potty training, I decided she could handle an outing after we were home all day. So we went and they served pizza there. I brought brownies to share. (And daughter continued to do well there, found it exciting to use a new potty in fact haha)
Friday - we are still sticking mostly close to home, will maybe do a few small outings, so I planned to make pizza for dinner since the kids love helping with that.
Oh wow, that is an impressive first day of potty training. Yay!!
We were back to our normal routine of cooking over the weekend, and having leftovers during the week. We had the following:
-Chicken fajitas (peppers & cilantro from the garden) x2
-Spaghetti & meatballs (bolognese sauce from the freezer) x2
-We went to dinner for my husband's birthday one night
-Taco quesadillas (great way to use up a small amount of leftover taco meat)
As for tonight, we are taking our teens to the airport, where they will be flying to meet up with my parents for two weeks of "Nana & Papa Camp". They are very excited. My husband will take them through the gate, and buy them something for dinner. I'm going to make bacon wrapped chicken, and something with zucchini. Because, I too have an insane amount of zucchini and other miscellany squash to use up.
Current prices are shocking! Every week there is something that makes me say, “This has to be a mistake!” Last week, the Publix near me had 4 ears of fresh corn for $4.99! It’s in season in Florida. I skipped it. This week it’s on special 4/$2. The plan is to buy and freeze.
This week, I approximately spent $130 for two people, 3 meals a day for 7 days.
Saturday - Shrimp Tacos
Sunday - Burgers, fries and raw veggies (DH cooked)
Monday - Steak and salad.
Tuesday - Stir-fry with rice noodles
Wednesday - Leftover Stir-fry, ice cream
Thursday - meatloaf made with ground chicken and salad. Dh had baked potato too.
Friday - ? Maybe take out sushi. A local restaurant has a special on spicy tuna rolls on Friday. These are my favorite. An inexpensive treat!!!!
Wishing you all peace and good health.
Food prices...oof. I bought only one small pack of short ribs & one package of flounder this week and my spending was still off the charts.
$155 @ Costco, $75 @ Sam's and $95 @ Publix
Sunday - I made Stanley Tucci's recipe for Family Ragu after finishing his book Taste. Loved the book and the sauce. We had it with Rigatoni, mozzarella & parmesan and Italian bread.
Monday - Leftovers
Tuesday - This was the night we went to Sam's. My son ate a hotdog, I think my Mom ate a sandwich at home and the rest of us ate McDonald's. Ugh.
Wednesday - Baked Flounder with lemon, Rice with asparagus, tomato & cucumber salad & pea salad
Thursday - leftovers for some, ice cream for others and some snacks
Friday - I have no idea but clearly I need to get a plan together. Perhaps baked chicken to go with remaining sides.
I see you had a lot of rice. Is that normal for you? We eat tons of rice dishes at our house!
We had:
- Burrito bowls as well!
- Lentil sloppy joes
- Chicken salad sandwiches as a picnic to avoid eating out while not at home.
-Waffles and leftover Dairy Queen
- and tonight is chicken and "dumplings". My mother in law told me about this. Instead of making dumplings you cut up pieces of flour tortillas, it's easy and a good use for leftover tortillas.
The amount of rice we eat varies a lot week to week...sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's none at all!
This has been such a rough week it's all kind of a blur. We have spaghetti carbonara with guanciale, white chicken chili, empanadas, and pizza last night because I was at the end of my rope. No electricity, no Internet. SIGH. Plus my hurt doggie.
Tonight I think I will grill burgers and get some potato and macaroni salad from the deli, serve it with green salad. I have today off, yay.
@Rose, you have indeed had a rough time lately. In particular, your experience with your most recent low-life tenant tops (or, perhaps more accurately, bottoms) even DH's considerable record with deadbeats during his landlord days. Treat yourself well this weekend. And I hope your doggo is better.
Also, I meant to add yesterday that if you need anyone else besides Anne, Heidi Louise, and JustAnotherJulie for the posse, just say the word. If we can scrape up three more, the Magnificent Seven will ride again.
@Rose, correcting my own arithmetic: With you, the three aforementioned, and me, we'll only need two more!
@A. Marie, I can rustle up some more! Thanks, pal.
@Rose, @A.Marie I swear I’ll rent a horse to ride up to New York from Ohio at dawn. We’ll take care of that skallywag!!
@JustAnotherJulie, Your butt is gonna hurt around Penn.! Ha. Thanks.
Amen about the Shorts this year!! I've been in need of some as well, so I checked Target , Kohls, Old Navy, and couple other places. Most are way too short for my taste, or are longer but skin tight.
So I did a frugal thing: I cut off a pair of my older jeans that I'd thought about fixing the bottoms of and now I have nicely fitting shorts! I also added a teeny bit of embroidery to the edges to give them a little flare 🙂 And since many of the in-style ones at the stores look like cut offs anyway, I'm on trend (I couldn't care less about that honestly, but it makes me laugh). I have another pair of older jeans that will become my second pair of shorts this weekend!
Yes, the price of chicken really jumped. A whopping 50 percent hike across the board here. Same with pork. I haven't had the heart to look at beef. Compared to 18 months ago, milk here has more than doubled. We're doing okay, if a little squeezed and irritated, but it's hitting a lot of people really hard.
I'd suggest looking into incorporating a couple of meatless meals every week into your menu planning! You can still have very nutritionally complete meals without meat - and subtracting some (or all!) meat for your shopping list saves a ton of money. If you are looking for ideas, there are some really great vegetarian or vegan website blogs - some good ones are Cookie and Kate, Oh My Veggies, My Darling Vegan, and Dietitian Debbie Dishes!
Let's see...this week's themes were: not home enough for the amount of food we have and too much steak. We had:
Sat- Dinner out with friends-Burrata and peach compote crostini, smokehouse mac and cheese (chicken, bacon, bbq sauce, onion rings)
Sun- Dinner at my parents for an early Father's day where as they will be away this weekend. Burgers, sausages, corn, cole slaw, and cheesecake
Mon- Left over mac and cheese
Tues- Korean marinated steak tips, bok choy, rice, and kimchi
Weds- Salmon tacos
Thurs- Ate at my parents-steak and cheese calzone and mozzarella sticks
Fri- We've had a bulb of fennel in the fridge probably almost 2 weeks now and defrosted steak so I think we will have steak, fennel salad, and cacio e pepe
Hmmm, I'm sending good wishes that the perfect fourth chair finds its way to you soon.
I recently went to Target to buy shorts. The womens' shorts were all too much like "Daisy Dukes" for me, so I went to the mens' department and bought 2 pair of mens' cargo shorts, one in tan and one in black. They fit well and go just above my knees, which is perfect for me.
@Beth B. and everyone else noting the problem with shorts these days, I hear you. As noted in comments on earlier posts, it took me forever to find even one suitable pair for the Bestest Neighbors' ill relative (who had asked me to find summer pants in various lengths for her at thrift stores). I finally did turn up a pair of LL Bean bermudas for $5. But if someone in the garment district would get the memo that not all of us (especially not all of us over 50) want to look like Daisy Duke, I think we'd all appreciate it.
@A. Marie, I wish I could be as brave as Emma Thompson is in her new movie Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, posing in the altogether at 63. I would not have been that brave at 33 because I was too stupid to appreciate what I had.
@Lindsey,
Hahaha! For a second I thought you were saying that Emma Thompson was 63 and I was like "whoa, I know I don't really pay much attention to celebs, but when did that happen???"
@Becca,
And I suspect your 93-year-old self will be annoyed with 63-year-old you for not properly appreciating what you have now!
@Lindsey,
Don't beat yourself up; I doubt any of us did. My niece had a HS graduation party last weekend. I wanted to hug her and every one of her friends and whisper in their ear, "You will never be more perfect or more beautiful than you are right now, so try to relax and appreciate it a little." Not wanting to be mistaken for the Crazy Auntie, I kept my lip zipped.
@Lindsey, I caught a glimpse of Emma Thompson making a guest appearance on The View yesterday morning while I was visiting DH. She's one of my heroes, with or without clothes.
I just went to Sam's and they still have Rotisserie chickens for $5 and they had the whole boneless pork loin for $1.98/lb.
ALDI still had boneless, skinless chicken breasts for $1.99
I am in Central Florida (NOT Orlando, though), per the comments a couple days ago, it is NOT the happiest place on earth. ;( I only go there to go the airport.
Nothing else was a bargain, and kind of frustrating because I think something is a certain price, but then it is not and I have to compare WM, Aldi, Sam's, BJ's, etc. (I really don't compare Publix as unless it is BOGO, it is about 30% more, generally (but it is nicer, that is true, still not a "pleasure" haha, but nicer.)
Some combination of white peaches, white nectarines, watermelon, apples, strawberries, sugar snap peas, carrots and cucumbers rounded out these meals...I just can't remember what went with what...
Saturday - Fancy cheese, bread, olive oil, olives, artichokes...one of those charcuterie-type meals (minus the meat). My husband had ordered some olive oil from a winery he likes so we wanted to enjoy it with some good bread but the oil was...not good. It was bitter. So that was a frugal fail, unfortunately, but the rest was pretty yum, including a garlic-y cheddar called vampire slayer.
Sunday - Take out Pizza
Monday - Zucchini bake & Grilled Cheese
Tuesday - Taquitos for the kids, tofu scramble for parents
Wednesday - Baked Potatoes
Thursday - Pasta, homemade strawberry slushies, and mediterranean salad
Ohhh, I love white peaches. So good!
With the costs of living increasing so dramatically, I am assessing all routine expenses. Recently found a decent whetstone for the same price I would pay to have all of my good knives sharpened once (will practice on the not so good knives first though…).
WWA:
Saturday-souvlaki skewers, Greek salad, grilled pitas, tzatziki
Sunday-homemade veggie pizza, cookies
Monday-homemade subs
Tuesday-spaghettini, sauce, Ikea meatballs
Wednesday-no-knead bread, borscht
Thursday-black cod, rice, veggie spring rolls
Friday-tbd
Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend.
Yes, meat prices are awful! I used to be able to get chicken thighs and legs on sale for 99 cents a pound.Now the “sale” is $1.49. We’re eating much less meat..I use tofu in some stir fry’s instead.We are eating more chick pea meals and lentils. Eggplant Parmesan. I find watching portions helpful.
I am going through my recipe file on purpose to eliminate “fussy” ones I’ve been making for years that call for extra exotic ingredients or sauces..back to basics.
A dinner of a stuffed baked potato with garlic broccoli is healthy and frugal!
Every aspect of our lives is under scrutiny just now..we’ve always been frugal, but now, in retirement, this economy is a bit more worrisome!
The usual vague WIS, WIA:
I'm working on eating down various stockpiles, so I think I spent about $17 at Price Chopper, $20 at Trader Joe's, and $9 at Wegmans. (I have GOT to start saving receipts!)
Last weekend is already a distant memory, but I do recall that I had tomato, basil, and brie over pasta with the Bestest Neighbors on Monday. (This is the Silver Palate recipe for TBB, which is one of Ms. BN's summer specialties.)
On Tuesday, I did a sheet pan roast of a family size pack of chicken drumsticks bought Reduced for Quick Sale at Wegmans several months ago, frozen, and thawed--which pretty much fed me (with salads and a roasted sweet potato on the side) through Thursday. I roast chicken drums on sheet pans after rolling the drums in olive oil plus whatever Penzey's spice mix takes my fancy at the moment. My grad school BFF (I have two BFFs, my grad school BFF and my JASNA NYC BFF) sent me a selection of the spice mixes as a belated Christmas present.
And this afternoon, I'm making a pizza to use up some tomato sauce, various cheeses, and olives, onions, and mushrooms. DH and I never really liked meat on pizza anyway, and I'm mindful of what others have said about eating more meat-free meals.
I already posted but I have to add: This may sound counter to “frugality” but I find if I try to be TOO FRUGAL we feel deprived and may “splurge” needlessly..so I make sure once or twice a week I cook what I call a “restaurant” meal: I keep a. Rack of ribs in the freezer at all times, from sales at Winco and I can make a pan of ribs that taste Soo much better than the $28 racks at local restaurant! My own twice baked potatoes and a salad round it out.The COOKED ribs freeze beautiful so we get a couple of meals form one $11 rack of ribs.
I also splurge on frozen cod. We love all kinds of fish but a baked COD meal is such a treat. So I don’t deny us the little luxuries.
We also enjoy a full out roast chicken meal with potatoes gravy stuffing cranberry sauce green beans and cole slaw.. like thanksgiving, even in the summer! Makes many leftovers!!
This means we hardly EVER go out to restaurants.They are expensive,noisy,the service is poor due to lack of staffing since Covid.More often than not we are disappointed with the food if we have gone out.
If we want a “treat” I use a Subway coupon and we share a foot long tuna sub.
Other “little luxuries” that make me able to cope with these crazy times: I buy flowers, not EVERY week, but at least once a month,At Trader Joe.I also splurge on lavendar soap for myself.
Most all our entertainment,etc.is free: Hiking, walks,the pool, the library, movies on TV.Documentaries with discussion after.Lately I’ve been watching a lot of TED talks and YouTube’s.
@Madeline, I agree with you on planned splurges! both food and non-food.
Purple potatoes are better for you than white potatoes https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/purple-potatoes#1.-Highly-nutritious
I particularly like purple sweet potatoes. And when my kids were young, they loved the color.
Target's clothing has been a bit all over the place lately. I used to be able to count on them for pretty solid basics and reasonable denim, but lately it is either 2000's PTSD flashbacks or little house on the prairie. I have had pretty great luck with denim from Abercrombie when there are sales. For the first time in my life, I have shorts that I didn't feel traumatized getting.
Saturday- we met my cousin and her parents for an early dinner. They were extremely generous and covered the bill AND let us have the leftovers.
Sunday- leftovers from the night before and a salad of loose ends
Monday- Turkey/vegetable chili. I made a large batch since I left for work the next day
Tuesday- I drove up for my rotation and got in at 10pm. I had a microwaved potato with prepped grilled veggies and cheese. My husband had leftovers
Wednesday- I had some chili I brought w/ cheese and avocado. Husband had the same at home
Thursday- round 2 of potato/veggies/cheese. I tend to bring 2 meals that I can mix and match pretty easy. Husband had pre-made veggie stromboli I left
Friday- We are grounded from flying bc of wind until tonight probably, so I haven't decided how/when dinner will consist but it will probably be a rice bowl with avocado, kimchi and veggies. Husband will fend for himself, there are pre-made things.
We grow purple potatoes and they're a lot of fun, but yours look a lot darker than mine. The potato seeds are always given to us by a friend and this year I took notice that they're technically Blue Adirondack potatoes, but the insides definitely look purple. We also have some Red Adirondack potatoes and they look pink inside. The purple potatoes don't make good mashed potatoes but are excellent sliced up and cooked in butter!
We just got home from camping all week, so our meals were mostly cooked over the fire. Things like foil dinners, mountain pies, hot dogs... Always followed by s'mores.
As a mostly vegetarian (eat a little seafood occasionally), food costs are still up but not nearly as much as for meat eaters, and plant-based meat costs are now about similar to regular meat at our local grocery store.
It's not my business to tell other people how to eat, but I think this current weird inflation time could be an opportunity for carnivores to find a few more meatless meals they enjoy to add to the rotation.
For the first time in many years (six, I think?), I did not post my own Friday food on Friday (I made it on Saturday, though!), nor did I comment here because we were traveling. But! That traveling meant that my children got to go to Coldstone Creamery for the first time in their lives, and they thought it was the greatest thing ever.
Also, I went to the grocery store near my brother's house in a Phoenix suburb to pick up food for our two-day drive home, and spent $77 on produce (baby carrots, mini cucumbers, grapes), two packages of deli meat and one of sliced cheese, two packages of cheddar cubes, one container of brownie bites, and two rotisserie chickens. $77! For a day and half of food! I mean, it was convenience food for the car and camping I would never normally buy, but still. That's crazy. I'm gonna sit home now for the rest of the summer and eat from my garden and freezers full of beef while I recover from the shock of how much things cost in the Outside World.
Whoa, I can see why you have sticker shock over that!
I have been hating the shorts options this year, too. I finally found some I liked with lots of color and length options (I prefer the 5" inseam) at J Crew Factory Outlet. They've been great so far! Good luck!
Sun: Chicken strips and cut veggies, all served with ranch
Mon: Pasta salad. I'm trying to recreate one of our favorites from a local restaurant, but the recipe still needs a few tweaks
Tue: Hamburgers on the grill
Wed: Cold soba noodles with peanut sauce
Thur: Leftovers
Friday: Cookout at a friend's house
Saturday: Miso Salmon Taco Bowl, from a library cookbook. Super tasty!
I agree on the clothes for this season. Having had a gastric sleeve surgery and losing tons of weight I can't find anything that I like. The dresses with the tiers are ridiculous for a 61 yr old to wear! Lived through that phase already!
Dh spent about $90 last week as it was mostly fill in the blanks food and we already had the protein the in freezer. I usually eat way different than hubs and daughter as I can't eat most things or much of most things. So they had:
Chicken thighs
Salmon
Shrimp cocktail with salad
Hamburgers I can't eat beef anymore as it grosses me out
And I can't remember what else. Last night (Saturday) hubby made a pizza. He got already made pizza dough from the grocery store, pizza sauce - store brand - and fresh mozzarella. The pizza was FANTASTIC! No more pizzaria pizza for me or even Pizza Hut. It cost about $7.00 to make - maybe $8 cause dh put pepperoni on his side. I had a skinny slice and it was sooo good.
With prices constantly rising, I would find it very interesting to read a blog post with your thoughts on that. Do you look at the big ticket items only or do you think one should cook more vegetarian meals now?
I did write a few posts about saving money on groceries during inflation; maybe I should reshare those!
Here's one: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/worried-about-rising-grocery-prices-this-can-help/
And here's the other: https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/6-more-ways-to-handle-food-price-inflation/