WIS, WWA | The end of a spendy month
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What I Spent
Well, I wanted to be at $100 this week, but I actually spent $144.
Which would normally be fine, but I was trying to be a little extra frugal this week to balance out some high spending earlier in the month.
March Spending
Week 1: $245
Week 2: $156
Week 3: $96
Week 4: $144
My yearly average is doing just fine, though, so I'm not going to stress about March!
For all of 2018, my spending is averaging $136/week.
2018 Monthly Averages
(goal is $150/week)
January: $544 ($136/week)
February: $588 ($147/week)
March: $641 ($160/week)
I am really going to try to not start April with a $245 week, though!
What We Ate
Monday
It was Lisey's 17th birthday! She chose chicken and waffles for her meal, so I made buttermilk waffles and picked up fried chicken from a local place.
I really do not like frying chicken. 😉 And luckily Lisey is just fine with that.
Tuesday
I made sausage and asparagus with orzo.
We also had cucumber slices and grapes.
Uhhh, not together, mind you. Separately. Cucumbers and grapes seem like a slightly odd combo.
Although, hmm, what about a green salad with some fruit and feta cheese and a vinaigrette? Grapes and cucumbers could be buddies like that.
I digress.
Wednesday
I rummaged around in my chest freezer for inspiration and ended up grilling some kielbasa and chicken breasts. I also grilled the last of the asparagus and we ate cantaloupe and pineapple.
And this is rather random, but I made some guacamole because my avocados suddenly all ripened at once.
I stuck them in the fridge to buy myself some time, but still, I figured I'd better get going on the avocado-eating.
Thursday
We ate a fairly filling meal mid-afternoon at a birthday party, so no one was particularly hungry at dinner time. It was a fend for yourself kind of night, which was easy for me!
Friday
Normally I'd make pizza, but I know Mr. FG is going out to lunch with a co-worker, and I feel like the odds are high that he'll end up at a pizza joint.
Although Mr. FG does really love pizza, I think even he might feel like it's a lot to have it at two consecutive meals.
So I thawed some short ribs, and I think I'll try a Cook's Illustrated recipe for barbecuing them.
Saturday- Went to a 1st birthday party, that was around lunch, so ate there. Sandwiches, meatballs, pasta, chicken franchise, pasta in vodka sauce, birthday cake. Wasn't really hungry at dinner time, later in the evening we ordered some Chinese to split.
Sunday, Palm Sunday dinner at moms (my sister in-laws side does this) Ravioli, meatballs, sausage, salad ect.
Monday-Hot Dogs and mac and cheese (beans for me) before Daughters soccer game. (yup they won)
Tues-Pancakes and sausage before sons soccer Practice.
Wednesday- chicken Cutlet, pasta, and corn, (me an DD share a salad)
Thursday- Steak on the grill, baked potatoes, and carrots, all on the grill, kids had chicken nugget on the grill. (after DD soccer practice.)
Friday- took out shrimp to do shrimp scampi, but mom just invited us for Pizza, so pizza it is. shrimp back in freezer!
Chicken franchise?
Fricassee maybe? I wondered too and thought it might have been an autocorrect issue.
I was thinking Chicken Franchese.
I'm guessing Chicken Francaise, since it's an Italian-American dish. Would go with the meatballs, pasta in vodka sauce, etc. Sounds like my DH's family. The. best. Italian-American food!
I think these updates are my favorite...I’m always so impressed and encouraged by how you are able to eat delicious meals and limit spending! This is my motivation to do better myself starting today!
Bethany | http://www.CuteCapsuleLife.com
Comments are not working for me today. I tried twice without it posting. Maybe I'll just say we ate a beaver tail this week and leave it at that. 🙂
Hmm. This one went through. Were you getting an error message before?
Nope, just didn't post.
We eat pretty much the same dishes every week: pork meatballs, shrimp, fish, stirfried veggies, etc.
I'm going to visit a friend this weekend, and she's planning to make Vietnamese spring rolls with vermecelli, which I'm super excited about!
ooh I love vietnamese enjoy 🙂
I think I fry chicken maybe once or twice a year. It's one of the few items that I enjoy but not enough to do it myself. Fried fish is another one.
As for my spending, well I'm actually having a pretty decent month overall. Of my $300 a month grocery budget, we've only spent $166. Now a lot of that is because we've been eating out of the freezer and pantry which were stocked up in two budget busting months prior to it.
But as for what we ate, well ...
Monday: Fish with fried potato wedges (Cooks Country recipe.)
Tuesday: Well ... we were supposed to have chicken thighs in the crock pot with rice but someone knocked the slow cooker and somehow unplugged it. Since I was the only one in the house I'm going to say it was someone broke into my house while I was doing laundry and unplugged it to mess with me.
In the end, the kid ate some leftovers and I had eggs and toast. I hate when these things happen. Dinner wasn't done cooking until about 8 which is the kid's bedtime.
Wednesday: Tuesday night's meal on Wednesday.
Thursday: We found some cooked turkey in the freezer, thawed it and reheated it and ate it with some mashed potatoes and boxed stuffing (a guilty pleasure of mine.) It uhh ... wasn't very good at all.
Friday: Darned if I know! I'm half tempted to pick up a pizza but we'll see.
Yes! Fried fish is even worse because you have the frying smell PLUS the fish smell. Terrible combo.
Slow cookers are great as long as you plug them in and remember to turn them on. I've forgotten to turn mine on before!
If I fry fish, I do it outside in the summer.
Asparagus is in season!!! It's $1.67 /lb here so we bought a bunch. That keep well and they go great with everything. We also found $5/lb thick, THICK, rib eye steaks. I freaked out, these were fresh, fatty babies!!! So I picked up $20 worth of steaks and $10 of asparagus....which made this week pretty monotonous (in a good way!)
Lisey is so pretty and looks so much like you! I had to do a double take at the picture to make sure I knew which one of you it was!
You know, people have said she looks like me for bascially her whole life. But neither she nor I can see it! I think it's easier for people outside of a family to see resemblances.
You two do look like twins.
I was going to say the same thing, you two look so alike
I don't like to fry chicken either. It's just too messy. I always oven fry it and call it done.
Mon-baked chicken and veggies
Tues-Secret Spinach Pizza Casserole(recipe on blog)and peas
Wed-SS Pizza Casserole and peas
Thurs-BBQ ribs, beans, and fried green tomatoes. We ate out and used a $5 off coupon
Friday-no clue, maybe grill something?
Yes! The mess and the stink. Yuck.
I had a spendy March since I flew across the country and visited my daughter and almost 4 year old granddaughter but that was great. Good news is I lost 10 pounds, lowered my total cholesterol to 160 with just diet, and got all my monthly paper work completed a day early. I used to fry chicken a lot- I just floured it though, fried and then baked in the oven to keep it crispy, but I haven't done that for a long time. I was gathering all my ingredients to make a carrot cake tomorrow for Easter and I'm out of baking soda. I guess I used the last box for my drain so now I have to fight the crowds and buy a 50 cent box. I think I'll wait until early tomorrow morning! I HATE shopping when the stores are crowded.
I always do better at remembering this by backing up.
Last night, we had fried pork chops (I'm not a huge fan of fried foods, but the husband is, so...) and creamed corn for him, English peas for us both, and cauliflower rice cooked in broth then buttered for me (I'm so happy to find butter can stay in my diet!). And I made cassava flour biscuits -- oh, I've been craving bread for so long...
Night before, he had leftover sloppy joe (I still haven't tested tomatoes for my diet) and I had beef "curry" stew.
Tuesday, I fried (again!) chicken tenders, with which we had roasted veggies. Kind of odd combo, but it worked.
Monday, burgers with parsnip fries and salad.
I'm over my monthly budget, due to stocking up, and the fact that I'm shopping five times this month, with the way the weeks worked out. I'm hoping next month goes better than this one.
That's exactly how I do it too! I start with the end of the week and work backwards and then I can magically remember what we ate on Monday.
Me too! If if try to start with Monday my brain just won't work. Starting with Friday, the menu rolls in like a slow fog, lol.
That looks like a non-disappointing avocado. 😉
As for spending, I don't have a weekly budget. I track our spending and make sure there's nothing crazy going on each month, but maybe tracking it weekly with a goal would prevent some miscellaneous spending.
As for our eating this week:
Monday- mashed potatoes ground meat, peas, corn and carrots (I guess you could call it a deconstructed shepard's pie)
Tuesday- baked chicken quarters, rice, cauliflower and zucchini
Wednesday- we drove to visit some family for the day and were taken out for dinner, which was nice.
Thursday- leftover chicken, rice, Cauliflower and zucchini.
Friday- today is my son's 4th birthday, so he gets to pick his meal tonight(we'll do a shop after we get his birthday balloon).
I've had a nice string of non-disappointing avocados since that terrible one I instagrammed!
Ooh your menu looks nice, reading that made me hungry (it's nearly tea time here) Your deconstructed pie made me laugh - when my sister had her fourth some wonderful people made her lots of meals & one was a sheperds pie; the youngest nephew did not know what to do with that; he pulled it apart & made a little pile of peas, one of carrot, one of meat, & one of the potato & then he commenced to eat it.
Not trying to be difficult at all (!), but I'm confused how your 2018 weekly average is $136 if:
January: $544 ($136/week)
February: $588 ($147/week)
March: $641 ($160/week)
Am I missing something? Thx!
Enjoy your weekend, and happy Easter!! 🙂
So, I added up my monthly totals for all three months and divided that by 13 (according to my calculations, this is the 13th week of 2018). Soo, hmm, I must have some incorrect information in my monthly averages listed there. I wonder what I did wrong!
I used 544+588+641=1773/13 which equals 136.38 so I see 136.00 a week. I think that is a great average for the number of people in your household!
Monday - I had planned for meatloaf & mashed potatoes in the InstantPot with roasted asparagus as a side, but apparently my husband had late lunch and didn't want any dinner. I made the meal anyway and had leftovers Tue & Wed for lunch.
Tuesday - I have class after work so I picked up a Jersey Mike's sub with a $2 off coupon so I could eat it on the way. Husband ate cereal, per usual.
Wednesday - I made my husband spaghetti & frozen meatballs then went out for the yelp event that I mentioned in the other post.
Thursday - I used 2 thawed frozen burger patties to make my husband a personal shephard's pie (leftovers will be for his lunch today) and I had chicken Parmesan with the last chicken breast that was in the freezer.
Friday - I had been planning to grill tonight all week! I had some kind of wishful thinking that the weather would be tolerable. Alas, it is currently 34 degrees out. Oh well, I will brave it and grill sausage, asparagus, and diced potato!
Colleen, when we lived in Barrow, we barbequed even when it was 40 below zero with a wind chill of minus 70. Polar bears (which do not hibernate) were a danger, so one would run the grill and the other would be back to back with the grill person, scanning the horizon for polar bears. They are very aggressive and have been known to attack and debone an adult human in under 20 minutes. (Those Coke ads with benign polar bears are a lie!) These days I live in an urbanized and polar bear free part of Alaska and we rarely grill...go figure.
Wait, debone? Do you mean the polar bears actually try to remove the bones from the meat they're eating, or they just rip all the meat off a person in 20 minutes? There's a gruesome image. Who's hungry!
They just rip the meat off. No different than any meat eating animals but they are especially efficient. We used to listen to the radio in the mornings, to hear where in town they were congregating so we could stay away. And on Halloween, fathers used to patrol in trucks, armed with guns to protect kids. After whaling season, you would see dozens of bears swarming around the carcasses left on the beach, getting any leftover meat. Wow, just writing this I get sort of homesick...
Oh man, I like grilling, but that would be beyond my comfort zone!
Yeah, for sure not worth it! I do grill sometimes in Illinois fall, winter, and spring, but when it gets under 30 degrees, the grill just doesn't seem to be able to get hot enough to cook very well. Surprising to think a grill could stay lit and cook meat under those conditions in Barrow.
Happy 30* cloudy Easter!
I have had personal problems that threw me for a loop this week so I didn't cook and didn't keep track of what I ate this week. I either grazed, ate cereal, or had take-out every lunch and dinner so I am sure I am way over on my spending due to restaurant spending. But I am feeling better and think I can manage to get back on track next week. These posts really inspire me to do so!
I too do not fry chicken at home. I'm also just not a fan so all around if the others are having a craving I buy it.
Monday - homemade fried dumplings, rice, and a broccoli stir fry
Tuesday - hot dogs and spinach salad for the early crew, homemade pizza late
Wednesday - chicken noodle soup with homemade bread
Thursday - This was a doozy because we split into three groups, at three different times. The smallest three had chicken nuggets and green beans first. I took the twins to their school for an event that included pizza. Then the adults and oldest had Indian take-out late after he finished baseball practice.
Friday - Entirely unsure about the kids, but the adults will be having homemade pizza after they go to bed!
This was another pricey week for me already (to go with the first one) because I went to BJ's again to use my stack of coupons before they expire on Sunday. And, I probably have to stop at the store before Sunday (yes, with all the crowds). I'm not sure what that means yet for the month as I run my numbers on a different schedule from Kristen. So we'll see when I total them all up next week.
I spent less than $5 on getting this week because I only had $4 left! Whoops! Thankfully we had enough. 🙂
Monday- Jerk chicken sandwiches, sweet potatoes, applesauce
Tuesday- An older lady brought us dinner! It was such a sweet blessing to this momma that's pregnant and has 2 littles at home.
Wednesday- Stir fry and pineapple
Thursday- Spaghetti squash with meat sauce I pulled from the freezer, cooked carrots, and garlic bread from your French bread recipe. My 1yo had 5 helpings of spaghetti squash noodles with parmesan cheese and my 4yo ate 4 helpings of carrots. So neither liked everything but at least they both ate a lot of veggies! 🙂
Friday- The original plan was to pull some white bean chili out of the freezer, but we have a lot of spaghetti squash and sauce let from last night and it'll be a while before we have a "leftovers meal", so we might just eat it 2 days in a row.
Saturday- My brother's coming to visit and we'll grill burgers and probably potatoes and zucchini since he doesn't have a grill.
Mmm, grilled short ribs. 🙂 And I don't blame ya on the chicken! I've started just buying fried chicken. Other people know how to cook it better than I do, and my kitchen doesn't get destroyed in the process. It's a nice treat. 🙂
I'm proud to say our food spending has decreased every month since January. I got it down to $425 this month and I'm super proud of that!
Pork teriyaki slider burgers
Shepard's pie
Chicken and potatoes
Buddha bowl (chicken, spinach, sweet potatoes, red onions, avocado, rice, with a peanut sauce) with corn muffins
Mostly served with salad and/or fruit
Plenty of leftovers for the rest of the week!
Fend for yourself nights are the best!!!
I am embarrassed by how much I am over budget this month...thank goodness April is looking a little less spendy!
Every time I try to fry chicken at home it ends up being a hot mess, so easier to purchase!
March 17-23
Saturday - Baked pork chops, mashed cauliflower, string beans fruit salad
Sunday - Chicken burrito bowls, citrus salad
Monday - Penne with marinara and meatballs, salad, oranges
Tuesday - Baked chicken, wild rice, string beans, apple slices
Wednesday - Grilled chicken and provolone sandwiches, cole slaw, pudding
Thursday - Baked salmon, potato wedges, salad, fruit salad
Friday - DH had a knee replacement surgery so daughter fed the littles pizza
Dollar Tree has canned apricots. Got two cans. Will rinse and drain and make apricot pie with pre-bought crust. Maybe put ginger, 1 egg, milk in the pie....not sure yet. Maybe a lttle brown sugar and butter
I started out this year with the goal to create a grocery budget & didn't know what I was spending except that I knew I wanted to cut down on takeaway especially at work, I write up everything I spend in my diary & add it up each week as well as adding the ongoing running total underneath that I divide by the number of weeks since I started. Really pleased I'm averaging $2.30 less than my budget for the last 13 wks, I do wonder though if winter here will mean heartier/more expensive food for me or not; we'll see.
Btw that orzo dish looks really good & I thought that the last time you posted it I really should give that a go; I love orzo & I love sausages.
Happy 17th Birthday Lisey!
March was a total fail for frugalness....... But it wasn't due to groceries! What set me over the spendy limit was a trip we took to California. I was told the weather would be 75 and sunny. Nope. It was raining, windy and cold. I ended up buying hundreds of dollars worth of clothing. Yup. Hundreds. And I prided myself on not buying clothing in years........I am mad. Granted, it's all Disney related and cute, but still........
We ate this past week - chicken soup, beef and noodles, sushi, fish, pizza, enchiladas and ribs.
We were out of town and, like you, have saved so we could splurge on our trip. We ate cheap breakfasts in our Canadian Airbnb and a big early dinner out each evening. Lunch was fruit and nuts. Fun and I am ready to cook again at home.
BTW I think Lisey looks like her dad.
nice food fotos! my spending was a bit over for march as well... did some travel and was sick.
new to your blog but saw it on Frugal Asian Finance and thought i'd check it out!
Blog post request! Today I am buying a kitchen aid mixer, which I am sure I will use all the time (since I currently use my hand mixer weekly).
And I got to thinking about purchased items I regret. (A fancy stroller, a pancake griddle). Like Kristin, I try to put a lot of thought into my purchasing decisions but still manage to misstep sometimes.
Ashley, my KitchenAid mixer is so wonderful- I use it all the time! I would like to get some of the attachments but haven't yet. What a great timesaver it is.
Ditto about the Kitchen Aid. I love, love, love mine!
Ah, so are you wondering what my thoughts are on my Kitchen Aid? Or are you wanting a post about purchases I regret?