Red Beans And Rice, February 13
1/2 bag brown rice, .50
olive oil
2 cans red beans, ~$2
1 onion, chopped (the whole bag was ~$2)
3 slices turkey bacon, diced (I have no idea how to calculate this)
bacon grease
black pepper, sage, parsley, chives, bay leaf
Salad- Romaine lettuce $2, sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, croutons $1.50, Ceasar dressing $2.00
So, I cooked the rice like I cook rice. (I told you about this already, right?) Then I put a lump of bacon grease in a large saucepot with the onion and the turkey bacon. When that got all cooked, I added the beans and the seasonings. Except bay leaf. I seem to be out of bay leaf. But I'd've included it if I'd had some.
Serve with cornbread, garlic bread, salad, whatever. Season with hot sauce (like Tabasco) to taste.
Fed the four of us, with leftovers, so we'll call it six (maybe eight).
Oh, and... the turkey bacon is tasty and cheap and I buy it in bulk at the Costco. But it has almost negative fat content, so I neeeeeed the bacon grease. Besides, I LOVE bacon grease. It's tasty and it's a free byproduct of pork bacon, and adding fat to a meal makes it more satiating. I am a big supporter of fat, the good 'food' sort of fat, like olive oil, bacon grease, butter, fish oils and so on. Without enough fat, you feel hungry enough to put just any junk in your face. Whatever the grease is that's in cheez poufs, that can't be 'food'.
~$4.00 for beans and rice
$5.50 for salad, but we only ate half, and didn't finish the croutons or dressing
Total: $9.50ish
Prep time: half an hour on the rice, ten minutes on the beans, but no one was hungry so it all sat around for an hour before we ate. The rice stayed warm, but the beans needed to be warmed.
Pasta Bake, February 14
11/2 1lb.box of pasta- ziti, bowtie, rigatoni @$1ea = $1.50
1 3/4 jar red pasta sauce @ $1 ea =$1.75
Grated Parmesan or Romano cheese, if you have it
Italian Seasoning, $1 (I didn't use all of it, of course.)
Shredded Mozzerella cheese (ok, after 3 attempts I give up on spelling that) ~$3?
(not sure, bought it in bulk @ Costco)
Olive oil
Cook pasta til al dente. Drain, then toss with olive oil and Italian seasoning. Place a layer of pasta in a large glass baking dish. Dust with Parmesan cheese. Layer red sauce on top of pasta. Cover with shredded moz. Repeat. Bake at 350*F for 35-45 minutes. Serve with garlic bread and leftover salad. Fed the four of us. I didn't put away dinner, but I think there were leftovers for lunch for 2, so 6ish servings.
Garlic Bread
1 stick butter ~.50
I Tbsp garlic powder or minced garlic
Italian seasoning
loaf of Italian bread $1.50
Total cost: ~$10.
Tonight I plan to make chicken pot pie. I'll post that soon. Well, soon-ish.
Showing posts with label calculations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label calculations. Show all posts
Saturday, February 15, 2014
Saturday, February 8, 2014
Jambalayah and My Mother's Rice Pot
Jambalayah is one of those dishes which is nearly impossible to do "wrong". Okay, start with rice. Broth is good. Whatever bits of meat you have, unless you don't want meat. Yes, it's possible to have Jambalayah without bacon fat, though my Inner Deep Southern Woman shudders at the idea. Y'all do yours however you want. Here's how I did mine last night.
1 can chicken ~$3
1 tin smoked oysters ~$2 (I think. I bought them intending to just eat them on crackers, then didn't.)
1/2 package turkey sausage ~$2.50
1 can diced tomatoes ~.80
1 chopped onion
bacon grease
rice
sage
seasoned salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
olive oil
In my kitchen is yellow crock that has been mine for 20 years, but which I still refer to as "my mother's rice pot". When I was a little girl, she cooked rice in it. Occasionally other things, but mostly rice. When I was a teen or young adult (still living with her), she bought a replacement. It's an enamelled iron thing with a lid on it, I guess Dutch Oven is its actual name. I claimed the old one. Over the years, I've cooked Frito Pie, Spaghetti Pie, Ravioli Bake, stew, roast, soup and spoonbread in my mother's rice pot. It's still my mother's rice pot, and I never cook rice in anything else. Well, for awhile I tried: Gourmet Sister gave me a rice steamer. It was supposed to cook rice "perfectly every time". It made the rice soggy and was a pain in the ass to clean and after about six months, I went back to using my mother's rice pot. I'm not great at everything, but I'm finally pretty good at cooking rice.
I have no idea if anyone else puts olive oil in their rice pot and heats it before adding the rice. I don't watch cooking shows, generally, and when I go to people's homes, it's usually potluck, so things are prepared already. But my mother always heated olive oil, added rice, sauteed it awhile, then added water, a lot at first, and more gradually as the rice needed. So that is what I do, too. Except this time, I opened my cans first, and added the liquid from the can of chicken and the can of tomatoes before adding water. The recipe books said I should use broth, but I didn't. You can. I save my broth for things that NEED broth, and this doesn't, really.
While my rice was cooking, I chopped the onion and the turkey sausage (three fat bratwurst-sized things) and browned them together with bacon fat in my large iron skillet. When they were cooked, the rice was about halfway done, so I added the chicken, they oysters and their liquid, the tomatoes and the spices along with more water.
When the rice was nearly done, I added the onion and sausage and some more liquid- I rinsed the cans, rinsed the skillet, dumped that water into the pot. I turned the heat off before all the liquid was absorbed, gave the pot a few good stirs and let it sit, covered. Then I steamed some broccoli.
The four of us each had 2 servings, and there are leftovers for the boys to have lunch.
Roughly $9.50 for the meal divided by 6 (where is my division symbol on this keyboard??) so that's what, $1.90 per serving or so.
1 can chicken ~$3
1 tin smoked oysters ~$2 (I think. I bought them intending to just eat them on crackers, then didn't.)
1/2 package turkey sausage ~$2.50
1 can diced tomatoes ~.80
1 chopped onion
bacon grease
rice
sage
seasoned salt
black pepper
cayenne pepper
olive oil
In my kitchen is yellow crock that has been mine for 20 years, but which I still refer to as "my mother's rice pot". When I was a little girl, she cooked rice in it. Occasionally other things, but mostly rice. When I was a teen or young adult (still living with her), she bought a replacement. It's an enamelled iron thing with a lid on it, I guess Dutch Oven is its actual name. I claimed the old one. Over the years, I've cooked Frito Pie, Spaghetti Pie, Ravioli Bake, stew, roast, soup and spoonbread in my mother's rice pot. It's still my mother's rice pot, and I never cook rice in anything else. Well, for awhile I tried: Gourmet Sister gave me a rice steamer. It was supposed to cook rice "perfectly every time". It made the rice soggy and was a pain in the ass to clean and after about six months, I went back to using my mother's rice pot. I'm not great at everything, but I'm finally pretty good at cooking rice.
I have no idea if anyone else puts olive oil in their rice pot and heats it before adding the rice. I don't watch cooking shows, generally, and when I go to people's homes, it's usually potluck, so things are prepared already. But my mother always heated olive oil, added rice, sauteed it awhile, then added water, a lot at first, and more gradually as the rice needed. So that is what I do, too. Except this time, I opened my cans first, and added the liquid from the can of chicken and the can of tomatoes before adding water. The recipe books said I should use broth, but I didn't. You can. I save my broth for things that NEED broth, and this doesn't, really.
While my rice was cooking, I chopped the onion and the turkey sausage (three fat bratwurst-sized things) and browned them together with bacon fat in my large iron skillet. When they were cooked, the rice was about halfway done, so I added the chicken, they oysters and their liquid, the tomatoes and the spices along with more water.
When the rice was nearly done, I added the onion and sausage and some more liquid- I rinsed the cans, rinsed the skillet, dumped that water into the pot. I turned the heat off before all the liquid was absorbed, gave the pot a few good stirs and let it sit, covered. Then I steamed some broccoli.
The four of us each had 2 servings, and there are leftovers for the boys to have lunch.
Roughly $9.50 for the meal divided by 6 (where is my division symbol on this keyboard??) so that's what, $1.90 per serving or so.
Friday, February 7, 2014
Back, With Recipes
7 February 2014
My apologies. I got discouraged.
What I discovered was that while I can buy groceries for $50.00 a week, "feeding the family" is another story. The teens want money for pizza and chips. The husband buys 7-11 hot dogs, and spends about $2.50 every day for those Giganto-Gulp cups. Once in awhile, I ignore my wincing and spend $7.50 on a cafe au lait and fancy pastry in a frou-frou internet coffee shop.
However, my intrepidididity (? ,) wins after all. I will post recipes and their corresponding costs. You can figure out for yourselves (if there are any of you left at all) how to budget your grocery money.
OH! AND! Super tip: adding refried beans as a thickener also adds fiber, extends the 'meat' of the meal and is Very Nearly Invisible to the eater.
For example:
Shredded Chicken BBQ
2 cans chicken ($3 each)
1 bottle BBQ sauce ($3)
few tablespoons pineapple salsa, mango chutney, other fanciness, or not, if you don't have some
1 can refried beans (.80)
1 bag Torta rolls (Costco, $5.50)
Slice the Torta rolls. Set aside, or heat if you wish.
Heat wet ingredients together in crock pot. Make sure chicken is well shredded and beans are well blended. It sort of gives it away if there are lumps of grey-brown goop in the sandwich. Scoop onto rolls and enjoy.
My goal always is to serve a salad with this meal. It rarely happens.
So, total meal cost: Roughly $12.50, which sounds high to me, except it feeds the 4 of us (2 teenagers, remember) WITH leftovers for lunch. And my husband has occasionally walked in the house with a bag of fast food just for himself that bears a receipt in that very neighborhood. We'll say ~$2/serving and call it good.
Michael's White Bean Soup
2 cans Lima beans
2 cans White Northern beans
2 cans Butter beans
4 cans Cannellini beans
2 cans refried beans
(.80 each, x 12 =$9.60)
3 cubes Knorr's vegetable bullion, or 3 Tbsp Better Than Bullion, Vegetable (no idea)
1 Tb chopped garlic (from a jar)
1 Tb ground tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground sage
1-3 Tbs ground black pepper
parsley
chives ($2)
Serve with hearty rolls, shredded cheese, pumpernickel croutons, blue tortilla chips or whatever. And a salad.
I made this to take to a SuperBowl party, where my friend Michael, who has allergies to many common ingredients, would be a guest as well. I tried calling it White Chili, but that was weird: Michael's allergic to chili powder, so it had none in it. I'd say it served 6 to 8 people at the party, then the kids & I had it as CORN on Monday, and then I froze about 4 servings of it. We can call that 14 servings. That seems right. If I was to halve the recipe, I'd guess it would serve 6. Considering that I had most of the seasonings and didn't buy any of them special for the recipe except the chives (which, to be honest, I wanted as garnish anyhow), I would say this meal cost $~12.00, and certainly is under $1/serving.
Okay. More of these, but later.
My apologies. I got discouraged.
What I discovered was that while I can buy groceries for $50.00 a week, "feeding the family" is another story. The teens want money for pizza and chips. The husband buys 7-11 hot dogs, and spends about $2.50 every day for those Giganto-Gulp cups. Once in awhile, I ignore my wincing and spend $7.50 on a cafe au lait and fancy pastry in a frou-frou internet coffee shop.
However, my intrepidididity (? ,) wins after all. I will post recipes and their corresponding costs. You can figure out for yourselves (if there are any of you left at all) how to budget your grocery money.
OH! AND! Super tip: adding refried beans as a thickener also adds fiber, extends the 'meat' of the meal and is Very Nearly Invisible to the eater.
For example:
Shredded Chicken BBQ
2 cans chicken ($3 each)
1 bottle BBQ sauce ($3)
few tablespoons pineapple salsa, mango chutney, other fanciness, or not, if you don't have some
1 can refried beans (.80)
1 bag Torta rolls (Costco, $5.50)
Slice the Torta rolls. Set aside, or heat if you wish.
Heat wet ingredients together in crock pot. Make sure chicken is well shredded and beans are well blended. It sort of gives it away if there are lumps of grey-brown goop in the sandwich. Scoop onto rolls and enjoy.
My goal always is to serve a salad with this meal. It rarely happens.
So, total meal cost: Roughly $12.50, which sounds high to me, except it feeds the 4 of us (2 teenagers, remember) WITH leftovers for lunch. And my husband has occasionally walked in the house with a bag of fast food just for himself that bears a receipt in that very neighborhood. We'll say ~$2/serving and call it good.
Michael's White Bean Soup
2 cans Lima beans
2 cans White Northern beans
2 cans Butter beans
4 cans Cannellini beans
2 cans refried beans
(.80 each, x 12 =$9.60)
3 cubes Knorr's vegetable bullion, or 3 Tbsp Better Than Bullion, Vegetable (no idea)
1 Tb chopped garlic (from a jar)
1 Tb ground tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground sage
1-3 Tbs ground black pepper
parsley
chives ($2)
Serve with hearty rolls, shredded cheese, pumpernickel croutons, blue tortilla chips or whatever. And a salad.
I made this to take to a SuperBowl party, where my friend Michael, who has allergies to many common ingredients, would be a guest as well. I tried calling it White Chili, but that was weird: Michael's allergic to chili powder, so it had none in it. I'd say it served 6 to 8 people at the party, then the kids & I had it as CORN on Monday, and then I froze about 4 servings of it. We can call that 14 servings. That seems right. If I was to halve the recipe, I'd guess it would serve 6. Considering that I had most of the seasonings and didn't buy any of them special for the recipe except the chives (which, to be honest, I wanted as garnish anyhow), I would say this meal cost $~12.00, and certainly is under $1/serving.
Okay. More of these, but later.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Chicken Stretch
Thursday
Let me begin thus: I don't like chicken. I don't like to eat it, and I sure don't like to cook it. Those of you who are willing to buy a lovely raw chicken and roast it yourownself have my blessing and admiration and probably three or more additional dollars in your pocket.
For me, a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket is a gift from the universe. There it is, already cooked, smelling nice, in its own little plastic capsule, ready for liftoff from the shelf, transport through the space-time continuum, landing on the dinner table to be consumed by ravenous aliens over an extended period of time.
The first night is chicken and veggies. The next night, a vegetarian meal. Another night incorporates some big-ish chunks of chicken, another vegetarian meal, then small bits of meat, then stew, then soup. Presto! Week of meals. This works for me, and we did it a lot when the kids and I kept ourselves to $21 a week, but I'm trying to demonstrate as much variety as possible. Also, I don't really like chicken.
Shopping went well. I made only one true 'impulse' buy, and that was Spaetzle noodles that I saw on the Aldi shelf. Sure, I could've used some of the pasta that I had in my cupboard, but I was curious.
And now I don't need to buy Spaetzel again. Nobody loved it.
All the other 'non-list' items I purchased were on the 'wish' list.
Oh, and when we went to Big Lots! for toilet tissue, there was a jar of Not-Tella (fake Nutella) for $1.00, so I bought it, even though we weren't out of it.
I haven't done pretend shopping yet, though. Maybe I should wait and post all my pricings together?
And now I have done pretend shopping. The Shoppers in my neighborhood has had a facelift, and it looks nicer, and it has a lovely assortment of international food staples, but it's still in the same crappy neighborhood (mine) with the same trailerpark patrons, so not really much of an upgrade, in my opinion.
Item, Estimate Aldi Costco Shoppers
chicken, $5 4.99 6.49
milk, $3 2.99 3.99
cheese, $3.80(16oz) 5.60 (32oz) 8.99
eggs, $4 4.69 (3doz) 6.78
fruit 2.49(bag of clementines) 3.99
cocoa 1.20 1.49
white beans 1.18 1.54
chili beans3.60 3.60 6.00
green beans x3 1.50 2.10
corn x3 1.50 2.10
cream of chix soup 1.18 1.78
frozen veg$2.30 2.20 5.00
sour cream, $1.50 1.29 1.59
taco seasoning x2 .70 1.80
Saturday cereal, $2 1.89 (frosted flakes) 2.50
buttery crackers, $1.80 1.80 2.39
biscuit mix, $3 2.00 2.79
Spaetzle (impulse buy) 1.99 2.49
bread, $1.50 1.30 1.89
tortillas, $2 2.00 Big Lots! 3.20
Hazelnut Spread 1.00 3.79(Nutella)
Totals:
Aldi, Costc & Big Lots!: $47.11 Shoppers Total: $72.69*
Stupid Lunch Date: $ 3.00
Total Food Spending: $50.11
Stupid Lunch Date is Gomez and me going to the 'restaurant' area of Costco after we've shopped and buying a hot dog & soda combo for $1.50 each. The sodas include free refills, the dogs are all beef, and you can get sauerkraut with them if you ask for it.
* I'm not sure it's fair to include the real Nutella in the Shoppers' total, as I'd never have bought it if it hadn't been only $1. If we disallow it, the Shoppers Total becomes $68.90. That's a $21 difference, but ~$70 is still pretty good for a week of groceries that feeds teenagers & a truck driver.
Dinner on Wednesday evening was lovely: I used 1 1/2 bags of the frozen California Medley, 1/2 bag of Spaetzel and some of the chicken. We will count the whole prices of All The Things, and the rest of the week, those things count as Free! Chicken, $5. Pasta, $2. Vegetables, $2.40. All told, $9.40 for a meal that gave dinner to 4 of us, and lunch to 2, which breaks down to ~$1.60 per serving.
And we still have chicken for the rest of the week.
Let me begin thus: I don't like chicken. I don't like to eat it, and I sure don't like to cook it. Those of you who are willing to buy a lovely raw chicken and roast it yourownself have my blessing and admiration and probably three or more additional dollars in your pocket.
For me, a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket is a gift from the universe. There it is, already cooked, smelling nice, in its own little plastic capsule, ready for liftoff from the shelf, transport through the space-time continuum, landing on the dinner table to be consumed by ravenous aliens over an extended period of time.
The first night is chicken and veggies. The next night, a vegetarian meal. Another night incorporates some big-ish chunks of chicken, another vegetarian meal, then small bits of meat, then stew, then soup. Presto! Week of meals. This works for me, and we did it a lot when the kids and I kept ourselves to $21 a week, but I'm trying to demonstrate as much variety as possible. Also, I don't really like chicken.
And now I don't need to buy Spaetzel again. Nobody loved it.
All the other 'non-list' items I purchased were on the 'wish' list.
Oh, and when we went to Big Lots! for toilet tissue, there was a jar of Not-Tella (fake Nutella) for $1.00, so I bought it, even though we weren't out of it.
I haven't done pretend shopping yet, though. Maybe I should wait and post all my pricings together?
And now I have done pretend shopping. The Shoppers in my neighborhood has had a facelift, and it looks nicer, and it has a lovely assortment of international food staples, but it's still in the same crappy neighborhood (mine) with the same trailerpark patrons, so not really much of an upgrade, in my opinion.
Item, Estimate Aldi Costco Shoppers
chicken, $5 4.99 6.49
milk, $3 2.99 3.99
cheese, $3.80(16oz) 5.60 (32oz) 8.99
eggs, $4 4.69 (3doz) 6.78
fruit 2.49(bag of clementines) 3.99
cocoa 1.20 1.49
white beans 1.18 1.54
chili beans3.60 3.60 6.00
green beans x3 1.50 2.10
corn x3 1.50 2.10
cream of chix soup 1.18 1.78
frozen veg$2.30 2.20 5.00
sour cream, $1.50 1.29 1.59
taco seasoning x2 .70 1.80
Saturday cereal, $2 1.89 (frosted flakes) 2.50
buttery crackers, $1.80 1.80 2.39
biscuit mix, $3 2.00 2.79
Spaetzle (impulse buy) 1.99 2.49
bread, $1.50 1.30 1.89
tortillas, $2 2.00 Big Lots! 3.20
Hazelnut Spread 1.00 3.79(Nutella)
Totals:
Aldi, Costc & Big Lots!: $47.11 Shoppers Total: $72.69*
Stupid Lunch Date: $ 3.00
Total Food Spending: $50.11
Stupid Lunch Date is Gomez and me going to the 'restaurant' area of Costco after we've shopped and buying a hot dog & soda combo for $1.50 each. The sodas include free refills, the dogs are all beef, and you can get sauerkraut with them if you ask for it.
* I'm not sure it's fair to include the real Nutella in the Shoppers' total, as I'd never have bought it if it hadn't been only $1. If we disallow it, the Shoppers Total becomes $68.90. That's a $21 difference, but ~$70 is still pretty good for a week of groceries that feeds teenagers & a truck driver.
Dinner on Wednesday evening was lovely: I used 1 1/2 bags of the frozen California Medley, 1/2 bag of Spaetzel and some of the chicken. We will count the whole prices of All The Things, and the rest of the week, those things count as Free! Chicken, $5. Pasta, $2. Vegetables, $2.40. All told, $9.40 for a meal that gave dinner to 4 of us, and lunch to 2, which breaks down to ~$1.60 per serving.
And we still have chicken for the rest of the week.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Price Comparisons
Thursday
I promised to pretend shop for my groceries at 'regular' stores, because there are people who have no access to budgetary godsends like Aldi and Costco. What is a realistic amount of money that someone without Costco or Aldi might spend?
We shall find out. Meanwhile, I have done sufficient comparison shopping to implore you to never ever ever buy groceries at Wal Mart unless it is an urgent situation (like Snowfall! Accumulation! Scary! on the news), because Target has some actual competitive prices on food items, but Wal Mart is another story.
And this is another situation in which You Need Less Than You Think can be useful. How much DO you spend on groceries every week? Do you even know? I didn't. When I checked my checkbook register, I was regularly spending more than $100/week, with the occasional $300 week. Now I look at those totals and think, WHAT was I buying?
Do you know the price of a gallon of milk? Dozen eggs? Pound of butter, bag of sugar, box of cornflakes? When you start paying attention to what each of your food items costs, you can know for sure whether the Great Value! sign is lying or not.
Item Estimate Aldi Costco Giant
Milk, $3 2.95 3.99
Frz Veg, $7 6.70/80oz 7.17/106oz (32oz bag x3)
garlic bread, $4 3.99(olive cibiatta) 2.50(Italian loaf)
granola bars, $12 1.98 12.70(didn't buy) 2.49 (bought)
tortillas, $2 1.98 4.22
beans, $2.40 2.38 4.00
cheese, $7.20 7.16 10.76
salsa, $1.80 1.69 2.89
taco spice, $2 1.05 3.00
fruit, $4 6.04 5.69
red sauce, $2 3.60 4.00
Ovaltine 3.99 (bought)
cream, $2 1.49 2.39
sour cream, $2 1.29 2.10
crackers, $2 1.69 2.69
yogurt, $2 1.99
Totals: Aldi Costco Giant
27. 77 $13.64 $61.88
$6.48
Weekly Grocery Total: $6.48
13.64
27.77 = 49.88
There's a very good reason that this experiment was begun in March rather than earlier. December is holiday foodstuffs. January has family birthdays at each end. February is Pugsley's birthday month, and I will tell you that I spent $60 at the Italian pastry shop because he wanted a surprise assortment from Pedigrota rather than a cake. So it's March, and other than the odd wish to cook corned beef and cabbage in my slow cooker this Sunday (odd because I'm not Irish, and Gomez, who is, isn't fond of corned beef OR cabbage), there's no holiday food purchasing to be done. Oh, wait... When's Passover?
Hm. Better budget for some matzoh.
I promised to pretend shop for my groceries at 'regular' stores, because there are people who have no access to budgetary godsends like Aldi and Costco. What is a realistic amount of money that someone without Costco or Aldi might spend?
We shall find out. Meanwhile, I have done sufficient comparison shopping to implore you to never ever ever buy groceries at Wal Mart unless it is an urgent situation (like Snowfall! Accumulation! Scary! on the news), because Target has some actual competitive prices on food items, but Wal Mart is another story.
And this is another situation in which You Need Less Than You Think can be useful. How much DO you spend on groceries every week? Do you even know? I didn't. When I checked my checkbook register, I was regularly spending more than $100/week, with the occasional $300 week. Now I look at those totals and think, WHAT was I buying?
Do you know the price of a gallon of milk? Dozen eggs? Pound of butter, bag of sugar, box of cornflakes? When you start paying attention to what each of your food items costs, you can know for sure whether the Great Value! sign is lying or not.
Item Estimate Aldi Costco Giant
Milk, $3 2.95 3.99
Frz Veg, $7 6.70/80oz 7.17/106oz (32oz bag x3)
garlic bread, $4 3.99(olive cibiatta) 2.50(Italian loaf)
granola bars, $12 1.98 12.70(didn't buy) 2.49 (bought)
tortillas, $2 1.98 4.22
beans, $2.40 2.38 4.00
cheese, $7.20 7.16 10.76
salsa, $1.80 1.69 2.89
taco spice, $2 1.05 3.00
fruit, $4 6.04 5.69
red sauce, $2 3.60 4.00
Ovaltine 3.99 (bought)
cream, $2 1.49 2.39
sour cream, $2 1.29 2.10
crackers, $2 1.69 2.69
yogurt, $2 1.99
Totals: Aldi Costco Giant
27. 77 $13.64 $61.88
$6.48
Weekly Grocery Total: $6.48
13.64
27.77 = 49.88
There's a very good reason that this experiment was begun in March rather than earlier. December is holiday foodstuffs. January has family birthdays at each end. February is Pugsley's birthday month, and I will tell you that I spent $60 at the Italian pastry shop because he wanted a surprise assortment from Pedigrota rather than a cake. So it's March, and other than the odd wish to cook corned beef and cabbage in my slow cooker this Sunday (odd because I'm not Irish, and Gomez, who is, isn't fond of corned beef OR cabbage), there's no holiday food purchasing to be done. Oh, wait... When's Passover?
Hm. Better budget for some matzoh.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Comparisons
Wednesday
I'd promised to go comparison shopping, and I did so. I already posted the prices I actually paid for things from Aldi and Costco, which came to ~$59.00 (I didn't check; this is memory at work.). I was going to do a side-by-side comparison, but I've lost track of the piece of paper on which I wrote the Food Lion Prices. I am SO sorry about this.
However, Pugsley helped me find the prices, and it was a dollar here and a dollar there. I'm quite spoiled getting tuna for .70 or .80 cents (tuna packed in oil is more expensive) when everywhere else, it's around $1.30 a can. The butter also was a big contributing factor (because grocery store priced butter x 6 comes to rather a lot), and the total for the things at Food Lion came to ~$77.00, maybe $78. Still quite a reasonable total for a family of 4 for a week, but a difference of nearly $20 is going to keep me shopping at Aldi for, well, maybe ever.
Plus, ACK! I forgot to check the price of ground beef at Food Lion! So, even MOAR money!
Found the paper with the prices!
Food Lion
Milk 3.08 Costco: 2.99
pasta 1.80
taco spice 2.98
mac&cheese (4) 2.12
asian noodles 1.00
cheese (2) 6.18 Aldi: 3.60
black beans (4) 3.00 2.40
soup (3) 8.37
tuna in water (3) 2.54 .69
tuna in oil (3) 3.27 .79
saltines 1.66
cereal 1.60
avocado 1.29
bananas 1.00
yogurt 2.61
rice crackers 2.89
wheat bread 1.99
trail mix 1.99
ground turkey 6.98
quick oats 3.29
ground beef , 4 lbs.(ack! forgot to check!) Costco: 12.83
I'd promised to go comparison shopping, and I did so. I already posted the prices I actually paid for things from Aldi and Costco, which came to ~$59.00 (I didn't check; this is memory at work.). I was going to do a side-by-side comparison, but I've lost track of the piece of paper on which I wrote the Food Lion Prices. I am SO sorry about this.
However, Pugsley helped me find the prices, and it was a dollar here and a dollar there. I'm quite spoiled getting tuna for .70 or .80 cents (tuna packed in oil is more expensive) when everywhere else, it's around $1.30 a can. The butter also was a big contributing factor (because grocery store priced butter x 6 comes to rather a lot), and the total for the things at Food Lion came to ~$77.00, maybe $78. Still quite a reasonable total for a family of 4 for a week, but a difference of nearly $20 is going to keep me shopping at Aldi for, well, maybe ever.
Plus, ACK! I forgot to check the price of ground beef at Food Lion! So, even MOAR money!
Found the paper with the prices!
Food Lion
Milk 3.08 Costco: 2.99
pasta 1.80
taco spice 2.98
mac&cheese (4) 2.12
asian noodles 1.00
cheese (2) 6.18 Aldi: 3.60
black beans (4) 3.00 2.40
soup (3) 8.37
tuna in water (3) 2.54 .69
tuna in oil (3) 3.27 .79
saltines 1.66
cereal 1.60
avocado 1.29
bananas 1.00
yogurt 2.61
rice crackers 2.89
wheat bread 1.99
trail mix 1.99
ground turkey 6.98
quick oats 3.29
ground beef , 4 lbs.(ack! forgot to check!) Costco: 12.83
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Eatings
Saturday
Operation Saturday Morning featured Jackie Chan, and now I want that closing theme as a ringtone. This has nothing at all to do with food.
The avocado was perfect. I had it as my breakfast with the 4th hard-boiled egg. The kids had Krunch.
Last night's supper, Tuna Melt, is all gone. No leftovers, except the portion of tuna salad that didn't fit on six slices of bread.
Cyb's Sketchy Tuna Salad Recipe
3 cans tuna, drained a little- more if they're packed in water, less if they're packed in oil*
3 hard-boiled eggs, or 4 maybe. 1 egg per can of tuna, plus one.
3 stalks celery, chopped smallish, or largeish, or more celery if you like a salad-y tuna salad
2 slices of onion, minced
salt & pepper -some, not too much. The amount you like
dill. -you know, some
parsley -some. As much as dill, or more, or less if you prefer dill.
mayonnaise or ranch dressing, enough to moisten and make it all stick together
You notice there is no pickle in this recipe. Yeah, do what you want. I don't like pickle in my tuna.
*Leaving the oil in means using less mayonnaise. Why take out and throw away something (fat) you want to put back in later? Plus the oil tastes tuna-y and doesn't have that weird mouthfeel.
That's it. Tuna Melts are simply slices of bread covered with tuna salad then topped with cheese. I have made them in my iron skillet on the stovetop, but they were much easier and far less burned last night because I put them in a stoneware baker in the oven. Pizza stone would also have worked, but because my pizza stone doesn't have edges, I find it hard to handle. Food falls off, which defeats the point of having cooked.
I made 6 open-faced sandwiches. Wednesday requested cheddar cheese, and ate two sandwiches. Pugsley didn't care, so the rest had Swiss, which is my preference.Wednesday ate two, I had one, and Pugsley had three. I count that a successful meal. Since the tuna is the only thing I bought for that meal this week, this week's grocery purchases don't factor much into calculating the cost, but here's a go.
3 cans tuna $3
3 boiled eggs .50 (I buy eggs $4/3 dozen; ~.12 per egg; we'll say .50)*
celery 1 .80 (a whole...bunch? head? I didn't buy it. Mother said, "Take this." I did.)
onion $2 (for a whole bag of yellow onions, and I used a portion of one of the halves in the fridge ...know what? We're not gonna count the onion. Cuz if I'd been out of onion, I'd've used minced onion from the spice cabinet. We also won't count the mayo. I have no idea how long that jar has been in the fridge. I probably paid $2 at the Aldi for it in August. We don't use much mayo. You may have picked up that I kind of don't like it.)
bread .60 ($1.30 for the whole loaf. 20 slices to a loaf; we used less than a third.)
cheese 1.80 (I used roughly half a block, but 2 sorts of cheese; we'll count a whole one.)
That's looking like $7.70 for dinner. About $1.29 per sandwich. Which throws the Five Dollar Foot Long from the category of Super Cheap Food! into Not That Reasonable, Really.
(Also, I have, as mentioned, some tuna salad left over. It's maybe two or three sandwiches worth of tuna salad. Is it now "free", since my calculations for Tuna Melt included ALL of the tuna salad?)
*Unlike the onion, egg is not optional to my tuna salad. Wednesday got out ingredients for me, and when I'd assembled stuff asked. "Where's the egg?" I told her the egg in tuna salad needed to be boiled. She said, "Well, how long does THAT take?" She was willing to wait the additional 10 or so minutes it would take to boil, cool and peel eggs in order to have it the way it "should" be. Where are the Ravenous MUST EAT NOW Teenagers I heard about when I was a young mother? Ideally, I'd've put in all 4 of the eggs I boiled, but I wanted the last one for my breakfast. Sure, I could've cooked another one. Shaddap.
One of the benefits of a food cost analysis experiment like this one is the inevitable reevaluation of what constitutes a good value and a responsible assignation of food dollars. When the kids and I did our $1/day experiment a few summers ago, $3 for 6 donuts stopped looking like a good deal.
It's been mentioned to me that I am fortunate enough to have found an absurdly cheap place to purchase food, one that isn't universally available. If I were a Good Researcher, I'd take my Meal Plans and Shopping Lists to the Giant, the Safeway, SuperWalMart and Food Lion, comparing my totals, averaging them, figuring out an approximate budget available to Most People. Because of Circumstances, I simply can't do so- every $3 I save is almost a gallon of fuel for the car, and yes it is That Bad, and has been for awhile. HOWEVER. What I can do is take my register receipts to other groceries and write down their prices on the items I purchased. I'll do Food Lion today.
I plan to add to the blog little gadgets and stuff, but this morning realized that fiddling with gadgets was NOT ACTUALLY WRITING. It was using my time, and I wanted to write. So, gadgets later, when I don't mind spending the time fiddling instead of writing.
Operation Saturday Morning featured Jackie Chan, and now I want that closing theme as a ringtone. This has nothing at all to do with food.
The avocado was perfect. I had it as my breakfast with the 4th hard-boiled egg. The kids had Krunch.
Last night's supper, Tuna Melt, is all gone. No leftovers, except the portion of tuna salad that didn't fit on six slices of bread.
Cyb's Sketchy Tuna Salad Recipe
3 cans tuna, drained a little- more if they're packed in water, less if they're packed in oil*
3 hard-boiled eggs, or 4 maybe. 1 egg per can of tuna, plus one.
3 stalks celery, chopped smallish, or largeish, or more celery if you like a salad-y tuna salad
2 slices of onion, minced
salt & pepper -some, not too much. The amount you like
dill. -you know, some
parsley -some. As much as dill, or more, or less if you prefer dill.
mayonnaise or ranch dressing, enough to moisten and make it all stick together
You notice there is no pickle in this recipe. Yeah, do what you want. I don't like pickle in my tuna.
*Leaving the oil in means using less mayonnaise. Why take out and throw away something (fat) you want to put back in later? Plus the oil tastes tuna-y and doesn't have that weird mouthfeel.
That's it. Tuna Melts are simply slices of bread covered with tuna salad then topped with cheese. I have made them in my iron skillet on the stovetop, but they were much easier and far less burned last night because I put them in a stoneware baker in the oven. Pizza stone would also have worked, but because my pizza stone doesn't have edges, I find it hard to handle. Food falls off, which defeats the point of having cooked.
I made 6 open-faced sandwiches. Wednesday requested cheddar cheese, and ate two sandwiches. Pugsley didn't care, so the rest had Swiss, which is my preference.Wednesday ate two, I had one, and Pugsley had three. I count that a successful meal. Since the tuna is the only thing I bought for that meal this week, this week's grocery purchases don't factor much into calculating the cost, but here's a go.
3 cans tuna $3
3 boiled eggs .50 (I buy eggs $4/3 dozen; ~.12 per egg; we'll say .50)*
celery 1 .80 (a whole...bunch? head? I didn't buy it. Mother said, "Take this." I did.)
onion $2 (for a whole bag of yellow onions, and I used a portion of one of the halves in the fridge ...know what? We're not gonna count the onion. Cuz if I'd been out of onion, I'd've used minced onion from the spice cabinet. We also won't count the mayo. I have no idea how long that jar has been in the fridge. I probably paid $2 at the Aldi for it in August. We don't use much mayo. You may have picked up that I kind of don't like it.)
bread .60 ($1.30 for the whole loaf. 20 slices to a loaf; we used less than a third.)
cheese 1.80 (I used roughly half a block, but 2 sorts of cheese; we'll count a whole one.)
That's looking like $7.70 for dinner. About $1.29 per sandwich. Which throws the Five Dollar Foot Long from the category of Super Cheap Food! into Not That Reasonable, Really.
(Also, I have, as mentioned, some tuna salad left over. It's maybe two or three sandwiches worth of tuna salad. Is it now "free", since my calculations for Tuna Melt included ALL of the tuna salad?)
*Unlike the onion, egg is not optional to my tuna salad. Wednesday got out ingredients for me, and when I'd assembled stuff asked. "Where's the egg?" I told her the egg in tuna salad needed to be boiled. She said, "Well, how long does THAT take?" She was willing to wait the additional 10 or so minutes it would take to boil, cool and peel eggs in order to have it the way it "should" be. Where are the Ravenous MUST EAT NOW Teenagers I heard about when I was a young mother? Ideally, I'd've put in all 4 of the eggs I boiled, but I wanted the last one for my breakfast. Sure, I could've cooked another one. Shaddap.
One of the benefits of a food cost analysis experiment like this one is the inevitable reevaluation of what constitutes a good value and a responsible assignation of food dollars. When the kids and I did our $1/day experiment a few summers ago, $3 for 6 donuts stopped looking like a good deal.
It's been mentioned to me that I am fortunate enough to have found an absurdly cheap place to purchase food, one that isn't universally available. If I were a Good Researcher, I'd take my Meal Plans and Shopping Lists to the Giant, the Safeway, SuperWalMart and Food Lion, comparing my totals, averaging them, figuring out an approximate budget available to Most People. Because of Circumstances, I simply can't do so- every $3 I save is almost a gallon of fuel for the car, and yes it is That Bad, and has been for awhile. HOWEVER. What I can do is take my register receipts to other groceries and write down their prices on the items I purchased. I'll do Food Lion today.
I plan to add to the blog little gadgets and stuff, but this morning realized that fiddling with gadgets was NOT ACTUALLY WRITING. It was using my time, and I wanted to write. So, gadgets later, when I don't mind spending the time fiddling instead of writing.
Friday, March 1, 2013
Shoppings
Thursday
Last night, I went shopping with a belly full of sadness and quite empty of food, in the dark. Any one of these is dangerous. Combined, they can be deadly to a budget. I walked into the Aldi KNOWING this.
My impulse buys were
tri-color rotini .99
Asian noodles .79
rice crackers 1.49
Asian trail mix 1.99
bananas .96
avocado .59
1 more mac & cheese .39
Kiddie cereal 1.99
TOTAL 9.19
I can justify the extra mac & cheese as stock-up, because they were .39 rather than the .45 I expected. I didn't NEED the rotini, but I LOVE tri-color rotini, and once I'd realized that Circumstances had burned Too Much Time for burritos to be feasible (and feed the gaping maws before 9 pm), I was going to switch up to White Pasta instead and by damn, I NEED that tri-color pasta.
The Asian noodles were a special deal- Aldi doesn't always have everything it has- that I thought might be nice to try instead of rice with stir-fry veggies. I adore avocados, and there was just the one lonesome one left on the shelf, and .59 is a good price. Of course, it's rock hard, but it probably will be my breakfast on Saturday morning when Wednesday and Pugsley are eating cereal and watching cartoons.
Aside: One Saturday during Winter Break in January, my son, who was then 17 years old, went downstairs to his sister's room- she's 14- and woke her for Operation Saturday Morning. They poured bowls of the "fun" cereal Pugsley had requested and snuggled into the squishy blanket-rich sofas and turned Netflix to a show about medieval mice in an abbey... maybe I'll remember the name of it before I hit Post, but anyway. Edit: It's called Redwall. When I came downstairs, I found my teenagers crunching sugary cereal and watching cartoons. Awwww. Last week, it was Rugrats. This, by the way, explains the kiddie cereal- a Cap'n Crunch knockoff.
The rice crackers and Asian trail mix were due to my extreme hunger and self-pity. I ate about half of the trail mix before I even got home, but didn't open the crackers.
Ordinarily, I would have gone to Costco next (or before, probably), but.... Circumstances.
Friday
Yesterday I went to the Costco during the day, feeling okay about everything, and got in and out of there with only
ground beef 12.86
butter 7.49
milk 2.99
TOTAL 23 .34
Aldi Total 35.95
GRAND TOTAL 59.29
Well, shit.
If I'd've avoided those impulse buys, I'd've missed my target by only 10 cents. However, taking Circumstances into consideration, $10 isn't awful. Still, since I have actually fed me and the kids on $21/week for a couple of weeks a few summers ago, it's a trifle embarrassing. I'll do better next week.
Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I didn't NEED six pounds of butter. I have one whole stick in the freezer, and a partial stick in the fridge. But at under $2 per pound, I can't beat the price anywhere, and so buy 6 at a time every other month; more often only if we're baking frequently.
Because of bumping burritos from Wednesday night in favor of White Pasta, I need to rearrange my Meal Plan. I'd intended to make a big Veggie Mac casserole on Thursday, so that Pugsley could have large portions of leftovers at school during his Extremely Long Rehearsal, but he said he wanted to go out somewhere to eat with his friends. I gave him $10.00
Which brings me to another issue. If I give the kids money to eat out, does that make my budget invalid? Do I need to include Away Meals in the budget? I'm going to say No, it doesn't ruin the experiment, because I could have said "No, you can have Veggie Mac and not spend the money" or made him use his own funds (He did volunteer to use his own money, but since I don't give them allowance, I try to take care of their 'social' expenses, within reason.) But if I do hand out money for them to eat out, I'll say so, so you can include it in the Weekly Food Cost total if you wish. I gave Wednesday $10, too, even though she doesn't need to stay for Extremely Long Rehearsal, as freshmen aren't permitted to do much of anything. She has a half-day, though, and might socialize awhile.
At any rate, large portions of leftover Veggie Mac weren't necessary for Friday, so I moved Veggie Mac to Tuesday and had burritos last night.
White Pasta Recipe:
1 jar Alfredo sauce $2-$3 (I bought it last week & don't remember)
1 can black olives, pitted $1 (purchased last week, and I DO remember)
1-3 large spoonfuls of pesto sauce $2.50 (not sure- jar was purchased sometime in 2012)
1 can or jar of artichoke hearts $2.50 (again with the not sure; purchased more than 2 weeks ago)
1 box pasta $1
Boil water for pasta. Dump Alfredo into large saucepan. Add black pepper and pesto to the sauce, stirring gently over low heat. Reserve liquid from artichoke hearts and slice them into bite sized pieces.Drain olives, reserving brine, and slice them with an egg slicer. Add artichoke and olive to the sauce. Add enough of either or both liquids to keep the sauce saucey and not clumpy. Boil pasta until it's as done as you like. Serve sauce over pasta, with salad or bread or both.
The White Pasta was dinner for 3 of us, lunch for 2 the next day and there are still 2 dinner or 3 lunch portions. For about $9.00, only $1 of which I spent this week, and that works out to about $1.30 per serving.
It's one of my more expensive meals, but it only takes about 12 minutes to prepare, and I happen to love it. The kids eat it, but it isn't one of their favorites, so we don't have it very often, once every other month, I'd guess. I do tend to restock those ingredients when I use them, because it gives me mental security to know that I have the elements for a meal that makes me feel special with almost no work.
Burritos used a whole block of cheese, a can of black beans, one of the two containers of diced tomatoes in the fridge, 1/3 jar of salsa, 7 tortillas and 1 packet of taco sauce mix. There are 2 burritos left, which is 1 dinner or 2 lunches. I think we won't need soup on Monday night.
New Meal Plan:
Dinner Lunch Breakfast
Wednesday: White Pasta Lasagne & salad oatmeal
Thursday: Burritos White Pasta & salad banana & yogurt
Friday: Tuna melt Pasta and snacks (lunch out) banana & yogurt
Saturday: Psyche Casserole & biscuits Oh. Hm. Not sure right now. cereal & milk
Sunday: Crock Pot Meatloaf Ditto Saturday eggs & quesedilla
Monday: CORN or soup and sandwich Psyche Casserole smoothie or oatmeal
Tuesday: Veggie Mac casserole Leftover meatloaf? Psyche? Tuna? egg & toast or oatmeal
CORN (have I said this?) is Clean Out the Refrigerator Night. Our garbage day is Tuesday. I have many fewer scientific discoveries in my fridge since we started CORN once a week. Sometimes I'll even wipe off a shelf while we're at it.
I will try to photograph my receipts and by some magical incantation make them show up here. Dog food, vitamins, bathroom tissue, laundry soap and so on I don't include in my food cost calculations, but they will show up on the register receipts.
Last night, I went shopping with a belly full of sadness and quite empty of food, in the dark. Any one of these is dangerous. Combined, they can be deadly to a budget. I walked into the Aldi KNOWING this.
My impulse buys were
tri-color rotini .99
Asian noodles .79
rice crackers 1.49
Asian trail mix 1.99
bananas .96
avocado .59
1 more mac & cheese .39
Kiddie cereal 1.99
TOTAL 9.19
I can justify the extra mac & cheese as stock-up, because they were .39 rather than the .45 I expected. I didn't NEED the rotini, but I LOVE tri-color rotini, and once I'd realized that Circumstances had burned Too Much Time for burritos to be feasible (and feed the gaping maws before 9 pm), I was going to switch up to White Pasta instead and by damn, I NEED that tri-color pasta.
The Asian noodles were a special deal- Aldi doesn't always have everything it has- that I thought might be nice to try instead of rice with stir-fry veggies. I adore avocados, and there was just the one lonesome one left on the shelf, and .59 is a good price. Of course, it's rock hard, but it probably will be my breakfast on Saturday morning when Wednesday and Pugsley are eating cereal and watching cartoons.
Aside: One Saturday during Winter Break in January, my son, who was then 17 years old, went downstairs to his sister's room- she's 14- and woke her for Operation Saturday Morning. They poured bowls of the "fun" cereal Pugsley had requested and snuggled into the squishy blanket-rich sofas and turned Netflix to a show about medieval mice in an abbey... maybe I'll remember the name of it before I hit Post, but anyway. Edit: It's called Redwall. When I came downstairs, I found my teenagers crunching sugary cereal and watching cartoons. Awwww. Last week, it was Rugrats. This, by the way, explains the kiddie cereal- a Cap'n Crunch knockoff.
The rice crackers and Asian trail mix were due to my extreme hunger and self-pity. I ate about half of the trail mix before I even got home, but didn't open the crackers.
Ordinarily, I would have gone to Costco next (or before, probably), but.... Circumstances.
Friday
Yesterday I went to the Costco during the day, feeling okay about everything, and got in and out of there with only
ground beef 12.86
butter 7.49
milk 2.99
TOTAL 23 .34
Aldi Total 35.95
GRAND TOTAL 59.29
Well, shit.
If I'd've avoided those impulse buys, I'd've missed my target by only 10 cents. However, taking Circumstances into consideration, $10 isn't awful. Still, since I have actually fed me and the kids on $21/week for a couple of weeks a few summers ago, it's a trifle embarrassing. I'll do better next week.
Although, in the interests of full disclosure, I didn't NEED six pounds of butter. I have one whole stick in the freezer, and a partial stick in the fridge. But at under $2 per pound, I can't beat the price anywhere, and so buy 6 at a time every other month; more often only if we're baking frequently.
Because of bumping burritos from Wednesday night in favor of White Pasta, I need to rearrange my Meal Plan. I'd intended to make a big Veggie Mac casserole on Thursday, so that Pugsley could have large portions of leftovers at school during his Extremely Long Rehearsal, but he said he wanted to go out somewhere to eat with his friends. I gave him $10.00
Which brings me to another issue. If I give the kids money to eat out, does that make my budget invalid? Do I need to include Away Meals in the budget? I'm going to say No, it doesn't ruin the experiment, because I could have said "No, you can have Veggie Mac and not spend the money" or made him use his own funds (He did volunteer to use his own money, but since I don't give them allowance, I try to take care of their 'social' expenses, within reason.) But if I do hand out money for them to eat out, I'll say so, so you can include it in the Weekly Food Cost total if you wish. I gave Wednesday $10, too, even though she doesn't need to stay for Extremely Long Rehearsal, as freshmen aren't permitted to do much of anything. She has a half-day, though, and might socialize awhile.
At any rate, large portions of leftover Veggie Mac weren't necessary for Friday, so I moved Veggie Mac to Tuesday and had burritos last night.
White Pasta Recipe:
1 jar Alfredo sauce $2-$3 (I bought it last week & don't remember)
1 can black olives, pitted $1 (purchased last week, and I DO remember)
1-3 large spoonfuls of pesto sauce $2.50 (not sure- jar was purchased sometime in 2012)
1 can or jar of artichoke hearts $2.50 (again with the not sure; purchased more than 2 weeks ago)
1 box pasta $1
Boil water for pasta. Dump Alfredo into large saucepan. Add black pepper and pesto to the sauce, stirring gently over low heat. Reserve liquid from artichoke hearts and slice them into bite sized pieces.Drain olives, reserving brine, and slice them with an egg slicer. Add artichoke and olive to the sauce. Add enough of either or both liquids to keep the sauce saucey and not clumpy. Boil pasta until it's as done as you like. Serve sauce over pasta, with salad or bread or both.
The White Pasta was dinner for 3 of us, lunch for 2 the next day and there are still 2 dinner or 3 lunch portions. For about $9.00, only $1 of which I spent this week, and that works out to about $1.30 per serving.
It's one of my more expensive meals, but it only takes about 12 minutes to prepare, and I happen to love it. The kids eat it, but it isn't one of their favorites, so we don't have it very often, once every other month, I'd guess. I do tend to restock those ingredients when I use them, because it gives me mental security to know that I have the elements for a meal that makes me feel special with almost no work.
Burritos used a whole block of cheese, a can of black beans, one of the two containers of diced tomatoes in the fridge, 1/3 jar of salsa, 7 tortillas and 1 packet of taco sauce mix. There are 2 burritos left, which is 1 dinner or 2 lunches. I think we won't need soup on Monday night.
New Meal Plan:
Dinner Lunch Breakfast
Wednesday: White Pasta Lasagne & salad oatmeal
Thursday: Burritos White Pasta & salad banana & yogurt
Friday: Tuna melt Pasta and snacks (lunch out) banana & yogurt
Saturday: Psyche Casserole & biscuits Oh. Hm. Not sure right now. cereal & milk
Sunday: Crock Pot Meatloaf Ditto Saturday eggs & quesedilla
Monday: CORN or soup and sandwich Psyche Casserole smoothie or oatmeal
Tuesday: Veggie Mac casserole Leftover meatloaf? Psyche? Tuna? egg & toast or oatmeal
CORN (have I said this?) is Clean Out the Refrigerator Night. Our garbage day is Tuesday. I have many fewer scientific discoveries in my fridge since we started CORN once a week. Sometimes I'll even wipe off a shelf while we're at it.
I will try to photograph my receipts and by some magical incantation make them show up here. Dog food, vitamins, bathroom tissue, laundry soap and so on I don't include in my food cost calculations, but they will show up on the register receipts.
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