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Monday, April 21, 2014

Hi there!

Hi friends,
Just to let you know, I'm swamped with stuff right now, and I'm going to take this week and next week off from blogging, so I can catch up. I'll be back to blogging on May 5.
I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!
Be back soon,
Lili

Friday, April 18, 2014

Speaking of flowers, birthdays and beauty . . .

Last month, with last year's birthday money in hand, my daughters and I spent a day in the vintage district nearby. I have a couple of favorite shops there. Favorites, because of their displays, mostly. They take ordinary vintage items and show them off in new ways. I always come away with fresh ideas for my own home.

One of the shops, in particular, carries such a lovely assortment of items that I could easily move it all into my home and be all smiles. And their pricing is quite good, too.

I don't go into these shops with a laundry list of things I'm looking for. But instead, I go with an open mind, looking for beautiful things. I figure that if I find something that I really love, it will find the perfect place in my home.


At first, it was just one of these prints that caught my eye. Then I realized that it was one of a pair -- a pair of prints, both in excellent conditions, with frames still intact, is a find. I instantly loved them both, but went about the day shopping, and thinking on them.

While the price wasn't as low as a thrift shop find, it was far, far lower than buying items new. And it has that instant appeal of looking like it's always been here.

Now, to decide where to hang these.

Do you like to vintage shop? Is there an area nearby that has a selection of vintage stores? What's been your favorite "find" at second-hand shops?


Thursday, April 17, 2014

Flowers from the garden on my birthday

I believe that if I don't do nice things for my own enjoyment, then I have no right to complain when no one else does them for me. My grandmother was fond of bringing flowers in from the garden. She would say, "we need to feed ourselves with the beauty around us. If we don't, the beauty that is inside of us will wither and die."

One of the nice little things that I like to do for myself on my birthday, is cut flowers for the house. The selection is different every year, as spring unfolds differently each year.


This year, I found grape hyacinths,


violets,


camellias,


and cherry blossoms.

Feeding my spirit with the beauty from the gardens.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Birthdays at home are great!

So, tomorrow's my birthday. (Yea! Happy birthday me!) I was born on my father's birthday. For the whole of my life, until my father's passing, birthdays were always a shared event. We alternated who got to pick the cake flavor, which is really kind of funny, because we both always chose chocolate. Our birthday celebrations always included dinner out in a restaurant. This was just a "given" in our family.

Fast forward many years. For our kids birthdays, we usually enjoy a restaurant meal. This year, for our son, we went to a local Chinese restaurant for dinner -- a remarkable deal, as the 5 of us can share 3 entrees and still feel full. For our daughters, we used a gift card to Olive Garden (a birthday gift to me from last year), and went in late afternoon and ordered appetizers to share before going home for ice cream, cake and tea. This outing was free to us, as the gift card even covered the tip. I like taking the kids out on their birthdays. It gives them the opportunity to learn about dining out etiquette, how to figure the tip, and they get to enjoy being waited on for that one evening, with no kitchen cleanup duties afterwards.

But for my husband and myself, dinner out hasn't been something that we do on a regular basis. In the past, I admit, I have moped a bit about not eating out on my birthday. But when I sat down to really think about it, I realized that I actually prefer dining at home on my birthday, even when I bake my own cake and cook my own birthday dinner.

I'll tell you why I now think birthdays at home are so great.
  • I get exactly what I want for dinner, and prepared the way I want it. I spend weeks thinking long and hard about the perfect birthday dinner menu. I've been craving beef for several months. So, this year's menu is mushroom and cheese burgers, onion rings, oven fries, creamy rhubarb gelatin salad and Boston cream pie. My husband's birthday is next week. He loooooves fish. Me, not so much. But for his birthday, he gets fish. We'll be using some of the smoked salmon from the freezer for a fish-filled dinner that night. I go to a lot of effort to make home birthday dinners as delicious as can be. I won't be making ice cream, but I will make a Boston cream pie. The cake layers are already in the freezer. Everything will be made with soy milk, so that I can enjoy it without side effects. It's not possible to specify that everything be cooked and baked with soy milk in most restaurants.
  • It's relaxed at home. No wait staff singing birthday wishes and embarrassing me. No stresses over how much everything will cost and then the tip. It's my day and if I want to just wear sweats and hair in a ponytail, then that's totally fine. The rest of the family has been in class or at work all day and they want a relaxed evening, as well.
  • We can work everyone's schedules into a meal at home. When birthdays fall on weekdays, this matters. My daughters and husband will be coming from downtown Seattle and my son will be coming from the east side of Lake Washington. Getting home in the evening can be unpredictable. Even if someone isn't home yet, we can start dinner, and include them when they do get here.
  • I can take the money that would have been spent on dinner in a restaurant and do something long-lasting instead. Dinner out is a fleeting enjoyment. I think I'd rather have a few pretty things for the same cost as if we'd eaten out.
While eating out can be a fun indulgence, for the time being I'll just keep reminding myself of the many reasons birthdays at home can be great, too.

How do you like to celebrate your own birthdays? Is eating out the norm in your family? Or do you have a special meal at home? What would the perfect birthday dinner menu look like for your birthday?



Monday, April 14, 2014

Using kale when it begins to flower


When kale is about to go to seed, it develops these tiny florets, little clusters of buds. Kale florets are completely edible. They look a lot like tiny broccoli.


In fact, they look so much like tiny broccoli that my family always mistakes these for broccoli.


I just let them think what they want to think. So, Thursday evening, we had "broccoli" quiche.


Friday, April 11, 2014

Does using baking soda to cut down on sugar in recipes really save money?


This is a question I needed the answer to. So I set out to determine just how much I'm saving every time I use baking soda in fruity desserts.

Using a small amount of baking soda in the filling for fruit pies or fruit sauces reduces the acidity of the fruit, so that less sugar is needed. I've used this little trick, off and on for about 20 years, when I first read about it in The Tightwad Gazette. But since last summer, I've been using it consistently with every batch of rhubarb (or other fruit) sauce, fruit crisps and cobblers, and fruit-filled pie.

For a fruity dessert, calling for about 4 to 6 cups of fruit and about 3/4 to 1 cup of sugar, I use about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, and reduce the sugar by about 1/3. This formula produces a final product almost identical to the original recipe. I actually think it tastes better, as the fruit flavor really comes through with less sugar.


As I bake with a lot of tart, homegrown fruit (rhubarb, tart berries and tart apples), for most recipes, I use about 1/4 teaspoon baking soda, but save about 1/3 cup of sugar.


My cost on baking soda

According to my 16 oz. box of baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon weighs 1.2 grams.
There are 378  1.2-gram servings of baking soda in a 16 oz box.
I can buy a 16 oz. box of baking soda for 50 cents on sale, or 59 cents regularly at the dollar store.
So, 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda costs me between $0.00132 and $0.00156, or, a little over 1/10th of a cent.

My savings on sugar

1/3 of a cup of granulated sugar weighs approximately 2.4 ounces.
I just bought a 50-lb sack of sugar for $18.75, or 37 cents per pound.
At that price, 1/3 of a cup of granulated sugar costs me $0.056, or about 5  1/2 cents.

So, every time that I use the baking soda trick to reduce sugar in recipes, I save about 5 cents. It really does save money. I make an average of 2 fruity desserts like this per week. So, in a year, I save about $5.20. I won't get rich on these savings, but all the little savings add up to a considerably smaller grocery bill.

If you buy granulated sugar in smaller bags, you may be paying more per pound, and could potentially save much more on this trick. Whereas, my cost of baking soda is likely in the neighborhood of what you pay, as I just buy the small boxes.

The added bonuses -- the desserts actually taste better to us, and we're cutting back on our sugar consumption! Win, win!


To use baking soda in fruit desserts, mix the baking soda in with the sugar, flour and spices, before tossing with the fruit, when making a pie, crisp or a crumble. Or, for fruit sauces cooked on the stove, after cooking the fruit in water to soften, stir in the sugar, then the baking soda. You'll see the fruit sauce foam up, then slump back down.





Thursday, April 10, 2014

How do you know how much will be enough?

I've been asked how I figure amounts of grocery items, when stocking up at rock-bottom prices, and how do I know when it truly is a rock-bottom price?

The answer is astoundingly boring.

How do I know how much to buy when stocking up?

  • based on past use, I calculate how much we run through in a week.
  • based on past sales seasons, I make an educated estimate on when I expect this item to go on sale again.
  • I inventory my current supplies.
  • I get out my calendar, and count out the weeks until the next expected sales season, then multiply by our weekly use of that item, plus 1 or 2 extras. Then subtract the amount of our current inventory. (Does this all sound like it smacks of restaurant inventory work? I'm found out. I did work as a restaurant manager in my early 20s.)
So, for example, real butter has a couple of sales seasons, surrounding family-gathering type holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. It can go on sale at other times of the year, but I know that in my area, I can count on these 3 holidays for a loss leader price on butter.

Easter is approaching and some of the grocery sales have been announced already. I'm watching ads closely and paying attention to current regular prices when in stores.

I've recently noticed that we're using about 1/2 pound of butter per week. I counted our current inventory of butter and we have about 9  1/2 pounds in the fridge and freezer. I counted out the weeks until the next sales season on butter -- Thanksgiving -- and found that I will likely go through an additional 8 pounds of butter. I'll add in 2 additional pounds, just in case we entertain more, or I bake more, or I just want to pass on some butter to a friend (you know, bring over a loaf of homemade bread along with some butter for it). So, I'll be buying 10 pounds of butter this month.

I've already located a fair price on butter, good through April 20th at Cash and Carry. It's $2.25 per pound. It's possible local grocery stores will have butter on sale for less, but with a limit. So, my plan is to buy butter at it's lowest price between now and April 20, hitting the limits at each store, then fill in the remainder at Cash and Carry.


And with the question on how do I know when the price is rock-bottom?

The answer is two-fold.
  • are there limits on purchase amounts?
A big clue is if there's a limit on how much I can purchase. This usually indicates that a store is marketing this item as a loss leader, and they want to put limits on just how much an individual can buy at the grocer's loss. And the lower the limit, the better the price that I'm getting, generally.

Whole chickens at Safeway the other week were just one such item. They had whole chickens for 79 cents per pound, but with a limit of 4. Previous years have seen whole chickens as low as 67 to 69 cents per pound, with limits. 79 cents per pound is an increase, yes. But that price may very well be the lowest I find this spring.  (Safeway has whole chickens on ad for 88 cents per pound this week, with no limits. 79 cents per pound was indeed a good price.)

Bone-in hams are 99 cents per pound at one store this week, with a limit of 2 hams. I think this will prove to be an excellent price per pound for any cured pork product, in my area.
  • research and awareness of current and future market supplies
The second method I use to determine when a rock-bottom price is indeed rock-bottom is research and awareness. 

On the news this week, it was mentioned that there's been a virus infecting US hogs this year, reducing the hog herds. This will drive pork prices up considerably in the coming months.

I'm already thinking towards early fall, and what meats we'll be consuming. Bacon prices are already quite high, yet they're expected to rise even more. Being aware of future price increases on pork products, I'm thinking I'll pick up an extra ham this week, to freeze until early fall, then bake, slice and use as breakfast meat for our family in September and October, in place of bacon.

So, that's my method. During this time when our family has to watch its budget very closely, this sort of exacting process has been essential in keeping our grocery costs as low as we can.

Do I ever get it wrong, and either wind up with way too much, or pay more than I wish I had, or run out long before I had calculated? Oh sure! I just try my best, and mitigate any mistakes in calculations as well as I can. For instance, if I do find whole chickens for less than 79 cents per pound this spring, I'll probably buy whatever the limit is. If I have more ham than we could possibly want to eat, I'll invite a bunch of friends over for dinner some week. If we run out of butter long before fall sales kick in, I'll just make-do for the most part, find recipes that use oil instead of butter, and maybe buy a pound or two of butter at a higher price. We do the best we can, with the circumstances that we've been given. That's the most that we can expect of ourselves.




Wednesday, April 9, 2014

This counts as a serving of fruit, right? Right?



Rhubarb-blackberry pie



(I've added word verification back to the comments, to get rid of some repeat spammers. I hate word verification, too, so this is just temporary. Sorry about this.)

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Loveliness from days gone by


It's definitely allergy season for me. I find myself constantly fishing through my pockets and purse for tissues. My allergies begin with tree pollen in March and work their way through the grasses and weeds of summer. I could go through a lot of tissues in these months.

Tissues are fine for colds, but for allergies (or a teary wedding), I prefer to use a handkerchief. I have two other hankies, one that my grandmother gave to me on my high school graduation, and another that my mom gave to me on a trip that we took together to New York. I'll some day hand these down to my daughters, as they hold special meaning to me.


While in the vintage district a couple of weeks ago, I saw many lovely items. This handkerchief caught my eye. I still have last year's birthday money and two year's ago Christmas money to spend on things for myself. Just a little memento from my day with my daughters.

Handkerchiefs are soft, never pill and make a mess in my purse, and last for decades. Using a handkerchief is one of those gentle reminders of days gone by.

Saturday, April 5, 2014

I am ready for BBQ season!


Wednesday morning was a chilly one in our house this past week. To warm things up, I started a large bowl of roll dough, and made enough hamburger and hot dog buns for 4 family BBQs/cook-outs.

Now, I just have to wait for the weather to warm up! Sometimes, I get a bit ahead of myself. Oh well, they'll keep in the freezer until the weather cooperates.


Friday, April 4, 2014

A Pacific Northwest spring garden

Here in the Pacific Northwest, we have the luxury of being able to grow and harvest vegetables nine months of the year, with a little planning and some gardening aids. In early spring, I'm able to pick the over-wintered and perennial vegetables. By starting seeds indoors under lights, and by using row covers in the garden, I will have the winter-sown veggies to harvest later in April and into May.

The over-wintered plantings

In late summer to early fall, I can plant several vegetables which, most years, will survive through winter, and give us an early spring harvest.


Although we had some severe cold spells this winter for our region, the kale survived quite well. I've been picking this over-wintered kale for meals on a daily basis.


In the same bed as the kale, the shallots and garlic are all looking good. Both were planted in October. The greens can be cut and used to add flavor to soups and salads.



Some of the Swiss chard also over-wintered. The plants are still small, but will be harvest-size in about 2-3 weeks.


Only 2 parsley plants made it through the winter. But this should be enough for spring cutting. Parsley is biennial. It will grow for a couple more months, then go to seed.

The perennial plantings

Nothing could be easier than perennials in the garden. Plant them once and they return reliably with no effort on my part.


The chives are growing vigorously. I added a handful to some homemade tomato soup (from canned tomato paste) that went with last night's dinner.


The sorrel looks good. Young sorrel is mild and tender. I make cream of sorrel soup a few times each spring.


Technically these are not perennials, but they self-seed every year. So still effortless for me. It's hard to tell, but all these little sprouts are watercress, which sows freely in parts of my garden each year. I'll thin the plants as the season progresses, and have watercress leaves to add to sandwiches and salads in about 2-3 weeks.

Spring-planted veggies

Daytime highs are around 53-54 F and overnight lows hovering right around the 40 degree F mark in my garden. These temps are just barely warm enough for seeds and plants to grow, here.


I've got my transplanted lettuce seedlings under a row cover for protection from the cold. I'll begin harvesting for salads in about 4 weeks. I started these plants under lights indoors, in February.


The peas are up. Pea tendrils can be added to stir-fries and salads in the early season. Then in summer, we'll have snow and snap peas to enjoy.


Beneath the soil surface, I seeded a bed full of spinach, a patch of beets and a patch of mustard greens. The spinach and mustard greens will be done in time for later spring plantings of warm weather veggies.

Strawberries and rhubarb


We added another strawberry bed two weeks ago. My son built the bed, and he and my husband positioned it. Later that day, my husband and daughters filled it with soil and transplanted wayward strawberry plants into the bed. At this point, we have 5 strawberry beds. We plan to add 1 more bed next spring.


The rhubarb is looking good. I should be able to cut rhubarb near the end of April.


By combining over-wintering, perennials and early spring sown plants, our garden can provide us with fresh vegetables as early as March each year. Such as blessing to have garden-fresh veggies after a winter of frozen, canned and long-storage ones.

Larger gardens, and those which receive more sunlight than ours, can support even more over-wintered vegetables, such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts (my neighbor down the street has a patch of Brussels sprouts that are still harvestable). There's even a variety of carrots than can over-winter and provide spring harvests.

Although it's still quite rainy and cool, spring is my favorite time of year for gardening. Everything just coming up, new sprouts to be discovered -- it all feels like something of a treasure hunt when I venture into the spring garden.


Thursday, April 3, 2014

Weddings, humor and a realistic attitude

So, weddings have been a topic of conversation in our house lately. My kids have a cousin getting married next month, combined with the recent announcement of average amount of money spent on a wedding in the US, have fueled these conversations. $30,000 is now the average amount spent on a wedding in the US!

The Humor

As my daughters were outlining just what they each wanted, one of them stopped mid-sentence and asked, "wait, who pays for the wedding? Oh shoot! The bride's parents!" I just thought that was so funny. The look on her face when she made the realization that she DID NOT have a $30,000 budget to spend on her future (far into the future) wedding, was priceless. She knows me all too well.

The Realistic Attitude

$30,000 is a lot of money. $30,000 can pay for a really good 4-year education. $30,000 can be a down payment on a house or a condo (depending on where you live). $30,000 can buy 2 cars. $30,000 can put a new roof not just on one house, but on a couple of houses. $30,000 is simply out of line for a one-day celebration, considering what else that $30,000 can buy.

Granted, a wedding is a big thing to be celebrated. But it needn't cost MY arm and MY leg. And it certainly should NOT put a newlywed couple into debt. Believe it or not, the bills for many of these expensive weddings aren't being footed by a Daddy Warbucks. But they're being charged on the couple's credit cards. Starting out a marriage in unnecessary debt could put a real strain on the relationship from the get-go. Ouch! My head hurts thinking about such foolishness!

When the dollar signs are in my kids eyes

So, how do I plan on handling this with my own kids? Well, I think we've laid the groundwork already, by talking about finances and value on a regular basis. When one daughter wanted an ipod nano (used, off of craigslist), she was spending her own money. Yet still I asked her, "will you get $45 or $50 worth of entertainment from that? What other entertainment could you get for that same $45 or $50? This is your money. Is there something bigger you'd like to save for? A car, perhaps?" I ask these kind of questions on a regular basis. Sometimes my kids stop and think, then change their minds. Sometimes they firm up their desire for spending their money. But in all cases, they think about it, and make a mindful choice in the end.

What I don't want for my kids is for them to feel that they have to "settle" for a poorman's wedding. Even though they are years away from any wedding plans, we've had a few conversations about what would make them feel special on their wedding day. Nothing has to be done a certain way. They can pick and choose just what elements would make memories to hold onto. And a small budget can indeed create a grand celebration with wonderful memories.

Too often, frugality can leave people (kids especially) feeling deprived and poor. In all areas, we've tried to demonstrate to our kids that we are constantly making choices about how to spend our money. Wedding planning offers a bazillion opportunities to talk about value for dollar spent. But the planning begins now, long before they lay eyes on their knight in shining armor. Discussions about thoughtful use of money aren't limited to wedding plans.

I ended the wedding conversation with a few sentences. "This is all fun to talk about, but for now, your focus is on your studies. Get an education that will lay the foundation for your career, first. Your opportunity for an education is right now, these 4 years. The opportunity to find a mate will span many, many years."

I don't know how much we'll actually contribute to any of our kids weddings. But I do know that the figure will be a fraction of the cost of the so-called average American wedding.

What ways have you seen or used yourself to reduce the cost of a wedding, while creating a lovely day to be remembered?

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Birthday yummies -- cherries and chocolate


My daughters birthday fell on the first day of finals week. So for their actual birthday, I just made cupcakes, knowing we'd have the full-fledged cake and ice cream on the following weekend.

The cake for the weekend celebration that I made, turned out so good, I'm still thinking about it. It was a chocolate cake with cherry filling, black cherry butter cream frosting and a fudge glaze. But what really made this cake great was the cherry juice that I drizzled over the cake layers, before putting the cake together.

I baked a scratch chocolate cake a couple of weeks in advance. I wrapped it well and kept the layers in the freezer.

Scratch cakes can be a bit dry and do well to have the cake layers glazed or moistened with a thinned-down jam or some fruit juice. I used the liquid from preserving black cherries last summer. I spooned a couple of tablespoons over each layer and allowed to stand for an hour before adding a filling.

I didn't want frosting as a filling, but instead made a cornstarch/black cherry liquid filling on the stove. When it had cooled, I spread it between the layers.


The frosting was a butter cream, flavoring it with more of the black cherry liquid, some lemon juice and a bit of almond extract. Once the frosting had set, I added a cornstarch, cocoa powder, sugar and water glaze on the sides of the cake and drizzled a pattern on the top of the cake. The fudge glaze was very dark chocolate in flavor.


When the cake was sliced, we found the layers to be very moist, the cherry filling to be a nice fruity touch, without being too sweet, and the frosting and dark chocolate glaze added the right extra touch.


For ice cream, I used some of the whipping cream that I had frozen, along with half and half, for a cooked custard base. I also flavored the custard with the black cherry liquid, and added chopped preserved black cherries just before churning.

When using frozen whipping cream (unwhipped), the texture is rather globby, and fat separates in small chunks, upon thawing. I put the cream through the food processor before adding to the custard, to improve the texture. The ice cream was a real treat with the cake.

This was one birthday cake/ice cream combo that won't be forgotten any time soon.


Tuesday, April 1, 2014

March Grocery Money Journal

Starting out the month, we have $170 budgeted, plus the running surplus of $73.88 from the last two months. I'd prefer not to spend into the surplus, but build a bank to fall back on or use to stock up on extremely good buys. We'll see how the month goes. March of 2013 was an expensive grocery month for us. I hope not to repeat some of my mistakes from last year.

March 1 Walgreen's for 2 last gallons of milk, on sale all week for 1.99/gal. Spent $3.98

March 7. Fred Meyer for whole wheat pasta (13.25 oz boxes), 79 cents/each, limit 4 w/ coupon, store brand coffee 31 oz cans $5.99, bought 2, found some items in markdown, Hormel bacon (1 lb packages), $2.79, bought 2, 16 oz containers of cottage cheese (containers a bit squashed, but seal still good), 59 cents, bought 2, 16 oz containers sour cream (same situation with containers as cottage cheese), bought 2, 59 cents/each. Total spent $23.08

March 10. Making my biweekly (fortnightly) run down the main highway and back. Usual stops, Walgreens, gas, Trader Joe's, Post office, other Walgreens, Cash and Carry restaurant supply, and sometimes the fabric store. This week, just the gas station, post office, Trader Joe's and Cash and Carry.

Trader Joe's for 22 bananas (yep, exactly 22 each time. That's how many we go through before getting sick of bananas.) spent $4.18

Cash and Carry for some "special" produce, as we need a break from carrots, onions, potatoes, kale, pumpkin, raisins, dried cherries, frozen blackberries and plums, bananas, and canned tomatoes. Bought 4 pounds of strawberries for $6.48 (that's $1.62 per pound), a 3-pack of celery for $1.92 (that's 64 cents a bunch/head), and 1 head of Romaine lettuce for $1.27. Spent $9.67, for a month to date spending of  $40.91.

March 13.  Milk is on sale at Walgreen's again this week for $1.99/gallon. I stop in and get 4 gallons (2 whole milk for yogurt, and 2  2% for drinking). Spent $7.96

March 15. 2 more gallons of milk at Walgreen's. Spent $3.98

March 15. Albertson's. I buy 3 heads of cabbage at 49 cents/lb and 7 lbs of butter at $2/lb. Spent $17.83

March 17. My daughters's birthday. I head down to the Cash and Carry for mozzarella cheese, $13.35/5 lbs (birthday pizza) and 4 lbs of strawberries for $6.48. Spent $19.83

Also near Trader Joe's so stop in for 9 bananas (19 cents/each) and 1 large head of cabbage (99 cents -- it weighed about 3 pounds, so a good deal for cabbage for our area). Spent $2.70

March 18. Whole chickens on sale at Safeway, limit 4, at 79 cents each. I buy 4. Spent $17.20

March 23. Dollar Tree -- I pick up 4 jars of peanut butter. Spent $4.

March 24. Chickens still on sale at Safeway. We stop by on our way home and buy 4 more, at 79 cents/lb. Spent $17.11

March 27. Today's the day the produce stand opens for the spring. Their prices are better than supermarkets or the wholesaler on many items, so I make a point of going there. Bought 25 lbs of carrots ($7.98), 10 lbs of small oranges ($5.99), 3 small avocados (3/$1), and 1 head of green leaf lettuce (69 cents). Spent $15.63

Trader Joe's for 11 bananas (19 cents/each). I had hoped to pick up some cocoa powder, but they were out of stock. Spent $2.09

I've been rather nervous about grocery spending for the last half of this month. It just seemed like I was buying more than usual, and would run out before month's end. So far, I've spent $149.24, leaving $20.76 plus last month's surplus.

I found ground beef on sale for $1.99/lb and didn't know how much I'd be able to buy. Now it looks like I can afford 10 lbs.

March 28. It turns out that no cocoa powder at Trader Joe's was a good thing. I needed that every penny of that money to buy ground beef. Safeway has ground beef on sale for $1.99/lb. My hope was to buy 10 lbs. But as the packages worked out, the closest I could find was just over 11 lbs., for $22.33.

Total spending for the month -- $171.57. Just a tad over my monthly budget of $170, but I left most of the running surplus in tact ($72.31 in surplus going into next month).

My big stock-up items this month were whole chickens and ground beef. I also continued buying and freezing milk early in the month, when on sale at Walgreen's. And I picked up 7 pounds of butter this month. We go through about 1/2 pound of butter per week, baking and table use. So, the 7 pounds with what I have here, will last a couple of months. Our freezers are packed with meat, now, with 1 whole turkey, 2 10-lb hams, 7 whole chickens, several packages of hot dogs, and now 11 pounds of ground beef. This should get us through the summer and into early fall, for meat.

Sometime in the next few weeks, I'll need more pantry staples, like vegetable oil, flour, and beans. I'd like to stock up on cocoa powder in the near future, as well, as prices on cocoa are expected to rise due to global demand. I'm making my packaged yeast last for as long as possible, by making sourdough bread on a weekly basis. And as you may have noticed, I'm sticking to buying the basics, and skipping items like chips, crackers, bakery items, and boxed and frozen dinners.

Snacking consists of popcorn made on the stove, toast, nuts, fresh fruit, celery/carrot sticks, and homemade yogurt. I set out an afternoon snack for the family on weekend afternoons, so we don't plow through the more expensive items (like the nuts). In my meal planning, I'm carefully balancing the more expensive meals (with meat or cheese) with dried bean and grain meals. And I've taken to writing out a daily menu for breakfast, so everyone knows what's available to grab each day for breakfast. Oatmeal is on the rotation 3 days per week, as oatmeal is easy for me to make, and a low-cost breakfast item.


Some thoughts on markdowns -- Keeping my price per unit in mind, sometimes a markdown is not a great deal. I found broccoli slaw, 12 oz bag, marked down for 99 cents. That worked out to $1.32 per pound. I can do better on the price per pound of broccoli and make my own broccoli slaw. I often find quarts of milk on markdown for 79 cents per quart. That works out to $3.16 per gallon. I can do better than that, buying milk in gallon jugs, at the regular price, let alone the markdown  or a sale price.

Here's an interesting vocabulary item I found out at the Cash and Carry this month. A bunch/head of celery is correctly known as a stalk, and a single stem from a stalk is correctly known as a rib. But recipes are far from consistent on this and commonly call for a stalk of celery, when what they mean is a rib. I guess a little common sense can be our guide here. Adding an entire stalk or two of celery to a batch of soup could be a bit overwhelming!

That's it for last month! I'm hoping April goes well, grocery spending-wise.

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