Friday
scratch pepperoni pizza on sourdough crust
tomato and avocado wedges
roasted broccoli and cauliflower
scratch pepperoni pizza on sourdough crust
tomato and avocado wedges
roasted broccoli and cauliflower
Saturday
vegetable fried rice topped with beef and broccoli
Sunday
burrito bowls -- beans, corn, rice, avocado, tomatoes, salsa
Monday
tuna-macaroni salad
steamed mixed vegetables
tangerines
Tuesday
beef and bean chili
scratch cornbread
carrot-raisin salad
stewed prunes
Wednesday
Mexican-ish salad -- shredded cabbage topped with shredded beef, pinto beans, cheese, tomato, avocado, with salsa, mayo, vinegar, avocado oil dressing
leftover cornbread
pumpkin pudding
Thursday
spinach and onion frittata
oven-roasted carrots, purple potatoes, mushrooms
apple and crabapple sauce
Shopping the week
I use a specific organic whole wheat flour that isn't carried in most of my local stores. And it can be pricey when bought at either of the two stores that do sell it. I ad found it on sale at one of the stores this past fall and bought several bags (5-lb bags). But now it's no longer on sale. Fortunately we have the internet to help us find good deals on specific products. I found this flour at an online store that I've used before with two stackable coupons. Because I bought 4 bags (plus some magnesium), I received free shipping. At the double coupon price, my flour was less than what I'd found locally on sale. Spent $26.02.
I also went to WinCo for a big stock-up. I don't have a photo this time. It was too cold to take my time. I just wanted to get everything put away and grab a hot cup of tea as quickly as I could that day. Anyway, this is what I bought:
4 small bags frozen mixed vegetables (still on sale)
2 large bags frozen broccoli cuts (cuts are less expensive than florets, but you still get lots of chopped floret pieces)
2 heads of cabbage
5 lbs carrots (they were sold out of 10-lb bags today)
2 bundles celery
2 3-lb bags (that really weighed 3.5 lbs ea, so I got 7 lbs total) of onions
8 large oranges
2 lb bag mandarins
12 Fuji apples (still crisp and juicy)
4 large Roma tomatoes (so much more flavorful than the slicing tomatoes I bought in December)
4 avocados
several bananas, maybe 7 or 8
4 Bartlett pears (same price per pound as apples)
3 green peppers
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 gallon whole milk
2 lb block cheddar cheese
quart Greek whole milk yogurt
2 dozen eggs
1/2 lb pepperoni (for pizzas, enough for 3 large. I bag it up into 3 smaller bags and freeze until needed.)
1 large bag frozen pork breakfast sausage (my husband has these every day)
about 1.25 lbs bulk raisins
1/2 lb bulk chia seeds
1/2 lb bulk peanut butter powder (I put this in smoothies as well as mix with a little water to eat by spoon as a hi-protein snack)
3/4 lb bulk dried apricots
1/3 lb bulk almond flour
small bag bulk flax seed meal
2 pints fresh DIY grind peanut butter
1 lb yeast
5 lbs organic all-purpose flour (same brand as whole wheat, but easy to find in stores and a better price)
1 bottle mustard (on sale this month -- I'll buy a couple more next time to put away for summer cook-outs)
I spent $106.59 at WinCo. With the online shopping, I spent $132.61 this week. For the month of January (one other WinCo trip, one Walmart trip, plus pro-rated portion of quarterly beef deliveries), we spent $404.14. That's just over my upper grocery limit. Not horrible. I'll see how grocery spending goes next month.
My normal monthly range is $375 to $400. However, this does feel fairly typical for us now. We've made a few changes to our diet in the last few years. We're eating higher quality beef, more produce, and adding in a couple of individual items (like the full fat Greek yogurt, greens powder, beet powder, and organic flour). It all adds up. It was just 6 years ago that we were spending about $250 per month for the four of us. Hmph. So back to this month, spending about the same as November and December each, but no holiday to buy for. However, produce prices are also higher in winter, and we've run out of our own garden fresh produce by this point in the garden cycle.
What was on your menu this past week? If you lost power this past week, I'd be interested in hearing how you managed meals. In fact for anyone who has lost power before at any time, how did you do meals?
For my household, our power is usually restored with a few hours to overnight. Even so, we can cook here without electricity, as our stove-top is gas and can be lit with a match or lighter. Before our gas stovetop, I was able to heat water and soup in a power outage, using candles in a shallow pan in the oven on the bottom rack, then placing a pan of water or soup on the rack just above.
We shopped at $273.66 which is way below any other month. We had $119.23 in Birthday items (coffee, breakfast with kids and an Aldi purchase). I'm pleased with how the low spend month went for us. We'll continue this into February.
ReplyDeleteMeals were good too. Sunday I think was leftovers. Monday we had kids for dinner (scalloped potatoes, green bean casserole, fried pork chunks and ham). Tuesday was leftover from Monday, Wed. was cheese broccoli soup with homemade bread (this was frozen so we each had a slice). Thursday was a focaccia bread pizza with freezer parmesan, 4 slices of fresh mozzarella, half a bag of shredded mozzarella and cherry tomatos and a handful of frozen green peppers, onion and tomato mix all blended into a sauce. Tonight will be whatever leftover there is in the refrigerator at supper time. We have a few mandarins and oranges but no other fruit except what is frozen.
Alice
Hi Alice,
DeleteIt sounds like you did a great job with you grocery budget this month!
Yum, your meals sound delicious. I'm glad your kids could come over for dinner this week. Are they able to come over often?
Luckily, we didn't lose power. We don't have gas (none in our neighborhood), so our plan was to use our grill for cooking. It's on a covered porch, so we wouldn't have had to clear much snow. However, it would have been pretty cold out there with temperatures in the teens. But as a backup, we bought an extra jar of peanut butter.
ReplyDeleteHi Live and Learn,
DeleteI've often thought we could always barbecue if the power was out. But as you mentioned, it might not be pleasant outdoors if the reason for the power outage has to do with wintry weather.
Extra peanut butter -- you wouldn't go hungry. Sounds like a good back-up plan.
No power outages here. If the weather isn't too awful, we can use our camp stove. We have a generator (not a whole-house one) and have used it to keep the fridge/freezer going. We generally eat things like sandwiches or cereal during power outages, and use the electric kettle to make something warm to drink. We've always had power restored within a day. Depending on how big the outage is, we also have gone out to eat. If we were really in a bind, we have a fireplace, and could use our Dutch oven to cook food.
ReplyDeleteWe treated ourselves to a take-out meal this week. A local chain (Traverse Pie) was having a $30 family meal deal, which included a whole pot pie (you bake it yourself), a salad, bread, and a whole fruit pie. It's advertised as feeding 4, but we got 2 meals out of it (the salad only lasted 1 day so I had to make another one)--this included my husband, my son, and me, and my son is a big eater, so that tells you that it included a lot of food! It was nice not to have to cook for 2 meals, and the price was a bargain, especially when considering what it costs to eat out these days.
Hi Kris,
DeleteI'm glad you didn't lose power. We've talked about buying a generator, with similar output as what it sounds like you have, enough to keep the fridge/freezer on and maybe a couple of small things here and there, like charging devices.
The family meal deal sounds like such a bargain! At our nearby pie shop (you go up to the counter and order and they bring it to self-seating area), a whole pie is just under $30. So for $30, to receive a whole pot pie, salad, bread, and a whole pie is unbelievable for my area. Just a sandwich at our pie shop is about $15. This isn't a fancy place, either. You got a great, great deal! And you're absolutely right on the cost to eat out. We consider it from time to time for the 4 to 6 of us, but it's just too costly. I'm glad you found this deal for your family.