The crazy person in my head wants to make all kinds of New Year’s resolutions.
Well, not resolutions per se, but projects I want to start that could start on the first of the year as a time for a good “new beginning.”
But that sounds suspiciously like a New Year’s resolution.
Shut up, crazy person.
I make “tacos” about twice a month, but it’s not the whole involved spread that a lot of people seem to do. Tacos are really a simple meal for us, because they often include just meat and tortilla chips. Today we brought them on our weekly market run. Twenty minutes before we left, resulted in a portable meal to sit at a table near favorite produce stall and pair with a fresh-bought apple and bananas. And since I use my own spices rather than a flavor packet, there’s no MSG or other fillers mucking things up.
Now, usually, I just cook up the hamburger meat, throw in the spices and water, and taste test from there. But in the spirit of teaching my son to cook, I’ve been trying to measure out my put-these-spices-in-until-it-tastes right recipes to give him a starting point. These recipes will all be linked to my recipes page.
Here’s what I used this time around:
3 tbsp cumin (we got off brand cumin this time and it tasted really stale, bleh)
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp black pepper (I remembered afterward that I ususally do half black pepper and half red pepper flakes. I’ll measure that out next time.)
0.5 tbsp garlic salt
0.5 tbsp onion salt
1 tsp onion powder (Next time, I’ll use just onion powder. It was a bit too salty.)
Water – enough to wet the cooked meat and get the spices flowing around
Dump it in a bowl, add chips. Voila! Lazy tacos.
This is the last weekly check-in. No, I’m not going to quit doing them altogether (I think we have a long way to go, and I need to be held accountable), but after this I’m going to switch to a bi-weekly check-in and meal plan post. The new plan will go from the Saturday after payday to the Friday of the following payday. I’ll post an update on payday (every other week). Today is payday though, and only a week since the last check-in so I’ve just got one week to report.
But I do have the meal plan for the next two weeks. And I’ve started posting some of my recipes here for easy reference.
(Tuesday)
(2) 2-liter Faygo ….. $2.38
I returned $2.20 in recycleables and paid less than the cost of the deposit out of pocket: $0.18.
(Friday)
Frozen fruit ……… $2.99
Frozen berries ……. $3.99
(5) Bananas ………. $0.73 (saved $0.25)
Sour cream ……….. $1.00 (saved $0.99)
(2) Raspberries …… $1.00 (saved $6.98)
Flour ……………. $2.29 (saved $0.20)
(3) Evaporated milk .. $4.00 (saved $0.17)
(2) Deli Turkey …… $4.99 (saved $4.99)
Bagels …………… $3.00 (saved $0.79)
(3) Pomegranates ….. $3.00 (saved $2.07)
(2) Chex …………. $2.00 (saved $2.38)
Canned tomatoes …… $1.00 (saved $0.09)
Manwich ………….. $1.00
(2) Mushrooms …….. $2.00 (saved $2.00)
Celery …………… $1.00 (saved $0.79)
(2) Waffles ………. $1.00 (saved $3.50)
Pretzels …………. $1.00 (saved $0.99)
Tomatoes …………. $1.00 (saved $2.49)
Bread ……………. $1.00 (saved $0.38 plus $0.25 Ibotta refund)
Salsa ……………. $1.00 (saved $0.73)
Blackberries ……… $1.00 (saved $2.49)
Chocolate Chips …… $0.83 (saved $2.79 – because they were Halloween colors)
Cottage cheese ……. $1.79 (saved $1.20 – it was close to the expiration date)
(2) Ground beef …… $8.96 (saved $2.24 – close to expiration date)
Beef Short Ribs …… $10.21 (saved $2.55 – close to expiration date)
(5) Pasta Sides …… $2.80 (saved $2.20)
(2) Faygo 2-L …….. $2.38
(3) Faygo 20oz ……. $1.62 (saved $0.30)
Sprite 2-L ……….. $1.10 (saved $0.69)
Fanta 2-L ………… $1.10 (saved $0.69)
$70.76
Groceries: $70.76; Out-of-house-spending: $4 on pop early in the week + $10 at Dunkin Donuts (this was all cash so I’m estimating); Total: $84.76
Groceries: $70.94; Out-of-house-spending: $4 on pop early in the week + $10 at Dunkin Donuts (this was all cash so I’m estimating); Total: $84.94
Our next check in will be on Friday, Nov. 21. I didn’t expect to do any more groceries until that day, but I’ve already realized we forgot milk and bottled water. And we likely will need more meat to get through the meals I have planned. We’ve talked about doing one vegetarian day each week to save money, but I haven’t gathered recipes to try there yet (and again, we’re moving, comfort food dammit!).
This weekend, we realized that T prefers evaporated milk over creamer, which is a huge savings opportunity as far as her coffee consumption. But it makes me feel even guiltier about my on-going pop consumption. I’ve been cutting back and I still haven’t drank caffeine since Aug. 17. But I really enjoy the sugary convenience of a bottle of pop. It’s my weakness. We’ve been buying bottled water and that has helped. But I’ll be the first to admit: I’m a sugar addict.
Meanwhile, I had a coupon for Pasta Sides and they were part of Meijer’s 10 for $10 this week. It’s one we normally avoid (it contains MSG, but I’ve been wanting it and it’s been a rough week, so I let myself buy (and eat already) comfort food.
There’ve been some changes to my schedule at work, so this meal plan crack at the new format. I now have Sundays and Mondays off, and on Saturdays the family is going to bring me food at work so we can have dinner together after the first edition closes.
We’re going to try to go out to dinner with T’s mom every other Sunday, in addition to their current Wednesday night dinners. Dinners on Sunday and Monday will be something the little one and I cook together (he’s really starting to enjoy cooking). Tuesday and Thursday lunches will be leftovers and dinners will be something simple I can make ahead for us. Wednesday, I eat leftovers and they go out to eat with T’s mom. Friday is a bit of a haul for me at work now, so I’m not sure what’s going to be happening there. Saturday mornings are simple portable meals to bring to the market/eat in the car, with a make-ahead meal in the slow cooker or oven that they can bring me at work. Somewhere in here we are aiming for one day a week with no meat (although at this point eggs are on the table because we get them so cheap).
(S)
Lunch with mom
Dinner: Slow Cooker Short Ribs (I’m actually making 2 lbs of short ribs, but I’m making them in the oven, so I’m using the full amount of sauce.) with canned beans.
(M)
Lunch: Sandwiches
Dinner: Sticky Pomegranate Chicken and Butternut Squash
(T)
Lunch: Egg Fritters and Bacon couscous
Dinner: Leftovers
Lunch: Lasagna (Made Saturday and stored)
T&D have dinner with Mom
Dinner for me: Leftovers
(R)
Lunch: Sandwiches and salad
Dinner: Leftovers
(F)
Lunch: Hamburgers? and pasta
(S)
Lunch: Bagel pizzas
Dinner: Roasted Chicken (at work)
(S)
Lunch with mom
Dinner:
(M)
Dinner: Steak and Mushroom Fajitas
(T)
Lunch: Egg dish
Lunch: Veggie stir fry
T&D have dinner with Mom
Dinner for me: Leftovers
(R)
Lunch: Leftovers
(F)
Lunch: Nested Eggs
(S)
Lunch: Lazy tacos
Dinner: (at work)
The other method T has asked me to attempt is to list what meals we want to make and let them fall where they will in the weeks. I like having it plotted out because I can see where we might not have enough food planned for the whole week. But here’s the other way to do it:
Week 1:
– Slow cooker shirt ribs
– Sticky pomegranate chicken
– Lasagna
– Egg Fritters and Bacon Couscous
– Sandwiches and salad
– Hamburgers and pasta
– Bagel Pizzas
Week 2:
– Steak and Mushroom Fajitas
– Nested Eggs
– Veggie stir fry
– Lazy tacos
– Sandwiches and salad
–
–
As you can see, I think we need two more meals in the second week to hit my goal of 7 planned meals each week. I imagine that much of that will be pantry raiding as we prepare to move again.
Have I mentioned enough times that we’re moving again? Ugh.
So I’ve decided that yesterday’s post is the end of my journey with the Don’t Waste the Crumbs cleaning out the kitchen challenge. At the start, I told myself I’d finish before Samhain, because I wanted to be in a clear fresh place. It’s now Nov. 1 and I really feel that I am. Here’s what I won’t be getting to (in addition to the Bake Bread challenge that I skipped):
There are a number of reasons I didn’t get through the challenge in the time I allotted for it. The biggest thing I got out of this challenge, though, was letting myself off the hook. Which is kind of the opposite of what this challenge was intended for. There were days when I was exhausted, and sick or caring for someone who was sick, but I still photographed a ton of stuff for the blog. And then it was suddenly time for work and by the time I got home from work at midnight, it obviously hadn’t happened. And it was then a question of “Do I stay up late alone to write this or do I spend time with my love and go to sleep so I’m rested for our child in the morning?” And the obvious answer here is: my family comes first. Before all else. They’re the reason I wanted to do this, after all.
Plus, I find enjoyment in writing. I don’t want to pressure myself to keep doing it so much that I stop enjoying it. So for better or worse, this is where I let myself off the hook.
I am really happy with what we’be gotten out of this food- and budget-wise. It had been a much-needed spotlight on an area I was discontent with but couldn’t pinpoint the problem. And getting to the root of things is the first step. I’m sure I’ll continue to check in about our progress.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 20 – Bake Bread Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
As I said last week, I’ve been tracking my budget and my meal plan separately and that’s led to some confusion in my records. But the point of this whole exercise is to find something that works. So as week four of this budget experiment draws to a close, I’m making some adjustments. Fortunately this has lined up with Day 12 (by my numbering) of the Don’t Waste the Crumbs cleaning out the kitchen challenge: Budget check-in.
As I mentioned before, our out-of-the-house spending was way out of control, clocking in at more than $1000 one month this year. And the beginning of the month was very similar (We actually ended up coming in at $900 for this month total). There were reasons (there’s always a reason), but instead of explaining it away a meal at a time, we started reigning it in and planning ahead (with the help of this guide).
For the final weekly check-in I’ve got 4 shopping trips to report (all done in one day, actually). Here we go:
3 16-count Charmin … $29.97 (saved)
1 Jif ……………. $ 1.40 (saved
6 Puffs ………….. $ 5.94 (saved
Plus I had a 30% off email coupon which reduced the total by $10
$32.61 + $10 ECB back
+ $1.30 bottle refund (used at the farmer’s market)
This one was broken up into two trips to take advantage of a cash back deal.
Part one:
4 Pop Secret … $14.00
Went on a gift card. Got $5 back.
Part two:
2 Nestle smart water … $ 7.00 (got $1.50 Ibotta rebate)
1 Jam ……………… $ 2.49 (after $1 coupon)
4 Peperoni …………. $10.16 (on sale)
2 Bread ……………. $ 5.30 (on sale + 10% off cartwheel deal + $0.25 Ibotta rebate)
4 Raisins ………….. $ 3.88 (5% off cartwheel deal)
1 Organic Beef ……… $ 4.39 (after $3 off coupon, also got $1.50 Ibotta rebate)
I paid with gift cards leaving $6.80 out of pocket. + $2.75 back in Ibotta rebates.
This is actually the first time we’ve been to the farmer’s market this month and man it was good to be back. We didn’t get much, but what we got was some great finds. (All but the bananas are local and organic.)
1 yellow and 1 red pepper … $1.00
2 squash & 5 bananas …….. $2.00
2 baskets of thin carrots … $1.00
1 medium sized pumpkin …… $1.00
2 more pumpkins …………. $1.00 (the little one was SO excited)
Mums …………………… $2.00
3 dozen eggs ……………. $6.00
2 full chicken breasts …… $10.94
Total: $23.64 (after the $1.30 bottle return from CVS)
This was the end of a very long day for two (under-the-weather) moms and one very patient little boy. So the first thing we did was Halloween costumes. I’m glad we waited as long as we did because we found costume parts for T and the little one for less than $25. We’re putting together the rest of the costumes at home, so some of the expense is eliminated.
The boy will be Optimus Prime. We bought the robot part of the suit and T made this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIBcZbowkJ8. Since we have a ton of boxes from the move, it was no extra cost to make him a really cool outfit.
Meanwhile, T and I decided to do a couples costume: Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. We got her hood on this trip and I grabbed a wolf hat on Amazon. Again, we’ll fill out the rest from items we have at home.
Optimus Prime … $ 9.99 ($5 savings)
Hood ………… $11.24 ($3.75 savings)
We also got a seasonal towel for $4.99 ($2 savings)
I’m hesitant to include these things in our grocery total, especially because I don’t have to count my costume in this because we didn’t get it on a grocery trip (bought on Amazon using Discover cash back rewards), so I’m not going to. In my Mint.com app, I’ve split off the $26.28 (including tax) and counted it as “Shopping”.
Here’s the groceries:
Shampoo ………. $ 5.59
Conditioner …… $ 5.59
Soap …………. $ 0.99 (saved $0.50)
Ramen (x44) …… $ 9.24
Cucumbers …….. $ 0.77
Pizza Sauce …… $ 1.19
Celery ……….. $ 1.99
Dressing ……… $ 1.99 (saved $0.30)
Tortillas …….. $ 1.99 (saved $0.90) This one was exciting because we finally found some without hydrogenated oils!
Teddy Grahams (x4) $10.36 (saved $2.00 plus coupons below)
Ritz crackers …. $ 2.59 (saved $0.22 plus coupons below)
Ritz chips ……. $ 2.59 (saved $0.60 plus coupons below)
Mac & Cheese (x4) $ 5.00 (saved $0.95 plus coupons below)
Lettuce ………. $ 2.50 (saved $0.49)
Onions (x2) …… $ 2.00 (saved $1.98)
Creamer ………. $ 1.67 (saved $0.52 plus coupons below)
Tomatoes (x2) …. $ 2.00 (saved $2.98)
Shells (x2) …… $ 2.50 (saved $2.48)
Mushrooms …….. $ 1.67 (saved $0.62)
Bagels (x2) …… $ 6.00 (saved $1.78)
Cheese (x4) …… $ 9.00 (saved $4.92)
Milk …………. $ 1.73 (saved $1.16 + $0.25 Ibotta rebate)
Wine …………. $ 8.99
– $6 on 6 Nabisco items
– $1 coupon on Teddy Grahams
– $1.50 coupon on creamer
– $0.60 bottle refund
– $2 off for spending $10 on Aussie
Total: ($105.78) $79.50 on groceries + $0.25 back in Ibotta rebates.
Other runs
We grabbed drinks at CVS on Sunday for $2.18
We also stopped at Meijer on Monday while I was sick to return some bottles and grab some Faygo and grapes (read: feel-good food) for $8.56
We’re not going to talk about it. I came down with something Thursday night, was sick through my weekend (Friday and Saturday) and then missed work Monday and Tuesday. This week has been a haze of leftover meatloaf (that I managed to make Sunday) and breakfast-for-dinner meals.
In total, we spent $152.79 on groceries and $66.30 on eating out (including 4 coffee shop beverages, two fast food stops and one sit-down meal). That brings the four week total to $305.22 for groceries and $379.31 out of the house. While calculating all this, I discovered a $44.67 CVS run that I didn’t record in the first week, several others in the second week (I don’t even remember these trips, how awful is that?) and recalculated all our numbers. The weekly totals were:
Week 1: $125.57 groceries | $187.69 eating out Total: $313.26
Week 2: $ 92.80 groceries | $ 99.76 eating out Total: $192.56
Week 3: -$13.16 groceries | $ 45.99 eating out Total: $ 32.83
Week 4: $152.79 groceries | $ 66.30 eating out Total: $220.39
Four-week totals: $358.69 groceries | $399.74 eating out Total: $757.74
Now, this does not include the $160.89 we managed to spend in the two days before I started counting (not sure if all of that was bought in October, but it’s showing up as hitting the accounts on Oct. 1 and 2). All of that was during the move week, though and I’ve vowed to forgive us for the time we were moving.
Part of me is kind of annoyed that the first day of the month is landing between pay periods, because it makes things less ordered in my mind. But anyway, our starting point for the next month is about $350 groceries and $400 eating out.
I want to reduce the eating out category as much as possible (mainly by not stopping for fast food or coffee/pop outside of grocery store runs). This may increase the grocery category and that’s OK. That’s the goal even.
The food stamp budget for a family of three (which seemed like a good benchmark for our household grocery budget) is $497 per month. But we’re coming in $197 under that goal, and I don’t know that it’s a good thing. If we could trade $197 of food at home for the extra $400 that we spend eating out, we’d save $200 per month. I don’t know that we will honestly reduce all of our eating out costs, but if we reduce them that’s a great thing.
Another thing to consider is that our nephew will be coming to live with us for the next two months. He will be contributing $25 per week to food, but the added $100 per month may not offset the full cost of feeding him. (Although, the food stamp budget for a family of 4 is $632 per month, for what it’s worth. Sounds like the government thinks an extra $135 would cover it. Have they met any 21-year-old guys lately?)
So where this ramble is going, I’m not quite sure.
Here’s what I do know:
– We don’t make enough to keep spending at this pace
– Our money can go further by making food at home than by eating out
– We’ll be healthier eating at home than fast food
– And I want to be cooking more
– If we went to Pronto (a slightly-higher-than-average-priced restaurant near us) once a week we would spend $200 for the month and get about two meals each out of each visit (24 meals total).
I still don’t know what our eating out target should be money-wise, but I know we can find better things to spend $400 on. I don’t want to stop eating out altogether, but I want it to be a special thing we do, rather than a I-don’t-feel-like-cooking-let’s-grab-McDonalds thing.
I feel like there’s a point I’m supposed to be driving toward, but I’m not sure what it is. I will keep checking in on this budgeting thing though. It’s nice to feel some sense of accountability.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 20 – Bake Bread Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
I don’t have a ton to say about the next three days of Don’t Waste the Crumbs cleaning out the kitchen challenge. And it took me a while to get through Day 9, Clean Out the Pantry & Cupboards. So I’m rolling these into one.
The reason it took so long was every time I thought I had all of the pantry stuff unpacked, I found more. So here’s what it looks like today:
And that’s not really going to change in the near future. Or rather, it is going to change: Every. Time. I Find. More. Food.
This overabundance of pantry items did come in handy on the week when we didn’t have a lot of extra money and managed to spend nothing on groceries (actually less than nothing if you count the return I made at CVS that week). We didn’t have to buy produce because there was (and still is) various canned fruits and veggies. In our meal planning, I’ve started looking to the pantry first and making meals based on what we have there.
While I cleaned the pantry before we put anything into it, I don’t feel confident in organizing it because, well, there’s still so many bins that haven’t been unpacked.
Day 10 was Create a Signature Company Dish, and I almost threw this one out because it’s been so long since we’ve had guests regularly for dinner. (One of the hazards of being on the evening shift.) But I thought about it and realized that maybe if we had a go-to meal that I could prep in advance and have on hand, having company over wouldn’t feel so daunting.
At one time, my go-to dish was stir fry over rice. It’s easy enough to throw everything in the pan while the rice is cooking and have a whole meal in 30 minutes. Chop some fresh fruit on the side and you’ve got a pretty decent meal. I was having friends over every Wednesday (one of my days off) and we’d have stir fry at least once a month. The thing that I love about stir fry is you can chop all of your produce and meat in advance and throw it in the freezer. It’s just a matter of throwing it in a pan after that. Plus, if you go heavy on veggies and pair it with rice, it’s not a very expensive dish.
That’s the parameter that I’ll be planning company meals around: Not so much meat that I feel the need to be stingy, lots of produce and whole grains, and it should be something I can make in advance. Maybe ask guests to bring a desert.
The things that seem to fit these parameters are casserole, stew and stir fry. Any other suggestions?
I’ll admit, I read through all the entries in Don’t Waste the Crumbs’ cleaning out the kitchen challenge before I started, so I knew Day 11 was coming. For this challenge, Use Food Twice, I’ve been throwing vegetable scraps in a bag in the freezer. When I get enough, I’ll use them to flavor soup. I’ve also set aside some beet juice (from a can of beets) to add to the soup. It’ll give it an odd color, but it packs a flavor punch.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 20 – Bake Bread Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
This week, in addition to accounting for the groceries I’ve bought, I’ve also been keeping track of how well we stuck to our meal plan. For reference, this was the plan:
(S) I was writing the meal plan as we were eating lunch so I didn’t fill it in. We had various breakfast items.
For dinner, T made squash ravioli in an apricot glaze. I brought a can of soup to work with me, but someone ordered pizza for everyone working through the Free Press/Talmer Bank Marathon so I ate that instead. And cookies. Marathon cookies don’t count. Right?
(M) Meatless spaghetti didn’t happen at all this week, because I still can’t find the blender. (Step one for me is puree two cans of tomatoes.) Instead, I made pizza bagels for lunch and T sent me with more of the ravioli for dinner.
I paired it with a can of beets that I had in my desk and the can of soup from Sunday (I swear I have a second pantry stashed away at work). 
I didn’t actually get to the soup, it ended up being lunch a couple days later. I saved the beet juice for vegetable stock. T made the turkey breast while I was at work so we had turkey and brussels sprouts for a late night dinner.
(T) We were out running errands in the morning and ending up stopping in to see T’s mom. She took us out for breakfast and we ended up taking some leftovers home. That night we all ate leftovers.
We chaperoned the little one and his class at the farm, so rather than an early lunch, we all ate breakfast figuring it would tide us over til lunch time. Then of course we got to the farm and they had free cider and donuts. We succumbed.
But look how happy that kid is. I’ll chalk it up to a win.
They usually go to dinner with T’s mom on Wednesday, but this week it was pushed to Thursday. T made turkey salad wraps from the last of the turkey breast and work catered pizza again. (I snagged some for the little one’s lunch). On the way to work though, the little one asked to do something extra special with mom. So I suggested that they go get ice cream (and bring me some). They’re so nice.
(R) T’s best friend had a baby Thursday morning, so we prepped sandwiches for the day and headed to the hospital. But we didn’t bring enough food so she and I ended up stopping at McDonalds and split a happy meal. I went to work empty-handed and they had dinner with her mom. After work though, the new (again) mommy let us pick up a very late dinner on the way back to the hospital, because T decided to spend the night with her. So we’ll call that day a wash.
(F) Friday is where my budget starts over but my meal-planning doesn’t line up because I always think to do it on Sunday. I think the budget is going to shift.
Anyway, I kept the little one home with me and took him up to the hospital to see the new baby. We grabbed McDonalds (for him) and coffee (for T and the new mom) on the way up there. We had other errands to run and it was payday, so we decided our one out-of-pocket eating out was going to be Apple Annies, a from-scratch restaurant in Warren that was totally worth it. And then we napped. It was lovely.
(S) This ended up being a full-on leftovers day. We did all of our shopping (four stops total) in one day and in-between we really didn’t want to stop to cook. With all the eating in restaurants this week, we had plenty of food that needed to get eaten to clear space for the groceries we picked up.
(again the week is recorded Oct. 17-23, so I’m not counting this Friday or Saturday here)
Target $0.00 (Monday)
– Bread
– Milk
– Creamer
– Eggs
– Raisins
The total was actually $14.62, but I had 3 gift cards totaling $50. So I left the store with nothing coming out of my pocket, which was vital this week.
CVS $-13.16
I returned a package of Mucinex that rang up more than I’d expected on a prior trip and purchased q-tips and a Sprite.
In total, we spent $-13.16 on groceries and $45.99 on eating out (including 4 coffee shop beverages). That brings the running two week total to $152.43 for groceries and $313.01 out of the house.
So Day 8 of the Don’t Waste the Crumbs cleaning out the kitchen challenge is supposed to be Make Bread, but the reality is I haven’t found the time and I really really want to keep going on these challenges.
And yes, I’ve read How to make bread and not spend all day doing it. The only time I’ve spent more than 3 hours in the house this month has been to sleep. So I’m going to have to nix this one. I’ll come back to it if things sane out a bit.
I do, however, appreciate a blog that isn’t all “I don’t understand why poor people don’t just make their bread. Gosh, it’s so easy to just put the ingredients in my handy lil’ breadmaker, and dontcha know bread just pops on out!” So thank you, Tiffany, for being a real person who understands that we can’t all dump $200 on a breadmaker. Really, thank you.
So when I got to Sunday and it was time to start thinking about the week ahead, it seemed like the perfect time to skip to Day 9: Plan your meals.
The past two weeks have been a rather unique situation in our household in that we really don’t have a lot extra to spare. With a field trip coming up that’s going to cost $28 for all of us to attend, the $50 left in our bank account after everything was accounted for wasn’t going to go far. So instead of shopping at the store this week, we shopped in the pantry and freezer.
Here’s where we landed after an hour in the kitchen prepping things for this week.
As we went, we made a shopping list of what we’ll need to supplement what we have. Our list: Milk, bread, creamer, an onion, eggs.
This we should be able to handle. Look for the check in at the end of the week and I’ll let you know how well we stuck to it.
As to the meal plan itself, I followed Tiffany’s lead, I filled in what we’ve got happening this week and then planned around it. But due to our schedule, I plan for both lunches and dinners. I keep trying to plan out what we’ll have for breakfast, but honestly, the little one is the only one who consistently eats before school. Here are two ways to meal plan from Don’t Waste the Crumbs
The biggest challenges we face with meal plans revolve around the fact that everyone is on a different schedule. For example:
We sleep in shifts: There are 3 sleep shifts in our house. Bedtime is 8-midnight when the little one goes to bed. I’m still at work and T stays up to get some things done around the house before getting him up to come get me. (We’re down to one car.) Then we all come home and sleep until 7 a.m. and get up to get him off to school. Then T and I go back to bed for another three hours or so (usually).
Work and school don’t line up: As mentioned above, I get up with the little one to make sure he gets breakfast, but I don’t like to eat “in the middle of the night.” We send him off to school with his own lunch and come home to rest some more before we make lunch for T and me. That usually ends up being a double cooking session so that we all have meals for the evening.
Fridays are special: This is the one day a week that I get to pick the little on up from school. Plus, after hes in bed, we have one of our game nights. On Pathfinder nights, we stay at home and make something extra to share with the group. On Werewolf the Apocalypse nights, we go over to a friend’s place. So meals are more simple and compact.
Saturday is market day: This is the only day that we do a big breakfast, but it’s still not one I feel the need to plan. While making breakfast, we throw something portable together to bring to the market with us. And Saturday nights are often an unknown.
Special circumstances. This week, we have a field trip on Wednesday so all of us need a packed lunch and dinner needs to be packed for me before we leave in the morning. But I don’t need
And of course, as soon as I wrote this out, I was informed my schedule is changing at work as of Nov. 3. So we’ll tackle that beast when we come to it.
Day 7 update: Since starting to use Swagbucks less than a week ago, I’ve already earned a $5 Amazon gift card and am well on my way to a second. So, I can officially say that it’s legit and I thoroughly endorse it. That said, one should definitely make up a new email address exclusively for special offers (so your real email doesn’t get spammed). The highest value Swagbucks rewards always come from giving out some personal information so a separate email address for those offers is perfect. I go in every other day and unsubscribe from most of it and keep the things I like (coupons and free samples, mostly). Don’t get sucked in by sweepstakes, though. They really really aren’t worth the amount of time you put in.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 20 – Bake Bread Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
One of the reasons I was glad to find Don’t Waste the Crumbs in the first place was I’ve been doing more couponing and rewards-hunting when shopping for the things we buy. Tiffany has a number of money-saving tips on a Pinterest board here and Day 7 of the cleaning out the kitchen challenge is all about ways to make a little more money to help upgrade the grocery list to better food.
There are a few ways that we’re already doing that: We have rewards card set up at every store we’ve ever shopped at, and I regularly claim high dollar value coupons and extra care bucks at Meijer and CVS (our two main stores). I don’t love the Target cartwheel app, but I do like that I can scan the items in my cart to see if there’s a deal rather than having to search through every offer.
Another set of apps I’ve recently picked up have been Ibotta and Checkout 51. Tiffany also recommends Jingit and Shopkick. They are rewards programs with which you can redeem cash on grocery (and other) purchases. The best thing is you can stack them with coupons without hitting overage limits. So for example, if you buy something on sale for $1.10 and you have a $0.50 Unfortunately none of them are available to download on my new (free) Windows phone, but we use them on T’s Android.
One nice thing about Ibotta was that when we set the invitation for her to join, I received $5 extra when she redeemed her first rebate to join my team. I earned another $5 when another friend signed up. So I’ve cashed out $12 already. Right now there are rebates on a variety of things, including any brand eggs, milk, bread and/or orange juice at most stores. Click here to sign up, or use my referral code: okeybrv. There’s a bonus if you redeem in the first 10 days. Plus, if the whole team earns a certain amount in rebates in a month, we get another monthly bonus. The rebates pay out to your PayPal or Ibotta will send you a gift card. It’s your choice. Once you sign up, you’ll get a referral link too. You’ll get $$ back for anyone who redeems an offer in the first 10 days after signing up.
One that Tiffany recommends is Swagbucks, which has a ton of ways to earn rewards. You redeem the rewards for gift cards and bring that grocery bill into line. Seriously, go over there and check it out. Again it isn’t available in the Windows store, but it does have an app for Android and Apple. I’ve signed up for a few secret shopping apps in the past, but I haven’t seen a lot of options in my area so I’m going to check out the one she has listed.
However, I don’t do craigslist or garage sales. The one time I ever tried it, no one showed up and it was a lot of work and wasted time with zero reward. I’m going to stick to donating things to charity and taking the tax write-off. I don’t see the return on it right away, but we see it later in the form of a larger tax return.
So there you have it folks, a relatively painless challenge that is making me feel pretty good about everything we’ve managed to do so far. I will end on this note though: There’s always more money to be saved, but there comes a point where you’re sanity is the most important thing. Keeping the balance is key to your happiness. And if mom isn’t happy, nobody is happy.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 19 – Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
Day 5 of our challenge has dawned fresh and full of sunshine! OK, really, I don’t work on Fridays and the kiddo is home from school because he’s leaving for a four-day trip this afternoon (yes, I let my five-year old fly by himself). We get to spend a whole day making muffins and drawing super heroes. And yes, we’ll also be cleaning out the freezer which is Day 5 of our Don’t Waste the Crumbs kitchen clean-out challenge.
You may have noticed that these challenges aren’t actually happening every day. One thing that I tend to do is set an expectation for myself for a major change (for example, blogging every day not to mention the challenges) and then get discouraged when life happens. But you know what, life happens. And part of the goal of this challenge is not to let hiccups along the way throw off all the progress I’ve made up to that point.
The freezer actually took me all weekend. I wrote most of this post on Friday, took this picture of the freezer:
Yikes! And then spent the rest of the day with the little one before he flew out that evening. And let me tell you, that was an adventure in and of itself. Did you know they’ll hold a plane for a 5 year old? Yeah.
Any way, Saturday I had other things going on. So it wasn’t until Sunday that I managed to do this:
Ta da! When we moved, I just shoved everything in haphazardly and turned to other things. This? This is so much better. Now, the meat is all on the left side, with hot dogs and bacon below and assorted meat on top. On the bottom right, I’ve got vegetables. And on the top right, I’ve got a bin full of breakfast stuff that I made and froze and mason jars full of broth made from a turkey we had at New Years.
As to trans fats, here’s what I found that had hydrolyzed oils in it:
This was a bummer. The breakfast sandwiches aren’t too bad. They were simply something we grabbed during the move so T could have something she liked for breakfast until we found pots and pans again. Usually we make breakfast sandwiches fresh. So no big deal there.
But the ice cream was a real issue. And the Thin Mints make me really really sad. There was only one serving left of the ice cream, so T ate that and we agreed that we wouldn’t buy that one again. There was other ice cream that didn’t have any hydrolyzed oils, so it’s not like this is a no-ice-cream-every-again thing.
But the thin mints. Oh the thin mints. This is where my heart breaks. I make smores with these lovely little cookies. They are the perfect little crunchy chocolate goodness to sandwich a marshmallow between. And with all the camping and backyard fires that we do, smores are a summer staple. This one may be a topic to revisit later when the girl scouts come around again. Le sigh.
Now, back to Friday…
I’ve been wanting to make muffins with the little one since even before we moved, but things kept coming up. So finally when he was out of school Friday (teacher conferences) we got to make muffins!
We use Hodgeson Mills’ blueberry and flaxseed muffin mix. I’ve yet to find a from-scratch muffin recipe that I enjoy, so for now we use this. (Any suggestions would be welcome.) These ones are a bit heavy, but the little one loves them. So I don’t complain.
In the end we made 24 mini muffins (I froze 18) and some pancakes (I froze 2 that were large enough for the toaster,), and we had some much-needed mother/son time.
Then T came in and made me scrambled eggs with onions, mushrooms and salsa. She’s awesome like that.
And finally, the grocery check in. Remember they my grocery week is Friday-Thursday (because work), so this accounting is for the week from Oct. 3 to Oct. 9.
So for groceries we’ve spent $80.90 (find the break down of that trip here), but we’ve also spent $167.15 on food outside of the house. That’s problematic, but to be fair, I didn’t find pots and pans until Friday. So there’s that. I tried to make meatloaf, but couldn’t find the food processor to grind any vegetables. So obviously things are a work in progress. It’s frustrating, but I know it will get better.
Oct. 4 – Clean out the fridge
Oct. 5-6 – Eat the old stuff
Oct. 7 – Create a grocery budget
Oct. 9 – Ditch hydrogenated oils
Oct. 10-12 – Clean out the Freezer
Oct. 13 – Eat a Simple Meal
Oct. 14 – Make money
Oct. 20 – Bake Bread Plan meals for one week
Oct. 30 – Clean out the pantry and cupboards; Create a signature company dish; Use food twice
Oct. 31 – Budget check-in
Nov. 1 – All the rest
Alicia Secord 