Cheap & Cheerful Suppers for Mid-October

Friday

Friday
homemade pepperoni pizza

roasted garden beets

tossed garden salad

spiced fig-applesauce (pureed sweet preserved unripe figs blended with applesauce, cinnamon, and ginger)

Saturday

Saturday
eggs

pan-seared garlic green beans

rice

tossed garden salad

Sunday

Sunday cookout and movie (we watched ET)
hot dogs (buns optional)
tossed garden salad
garden summer squash
scratch apple pie (using our apples -- the apples that squirrels and raccoons knocked off the trees, I picked up, cut off blemishes/bruises, chopped and froze for pies and crisps)

Monday

Monday
beefy chili soup
cornbread, garlic sticks, crackers
fall garden salad -- radish greens and roots, roasted carrots and beets
blackberry cobbler

Tuesday

Tuesday
roast whole chicken and gravy
oven-roasted root vegetables
pan-seared garlic green beans
cornbread stuffing (using the last of cornbread made last week)
blackberry cobbler (leftover from last week)

Wednesday

Wednesday

leftover chicken used in stir fry with green beans

rice

fruit salad of apples and fall raspberries

leftover apple pie

Thursday

Thursday

hot chicken sandwiches (chicken in gravy over a slice of bread)

roasted purple potatoes

baked apples

carrot leaf soup (pureed carrot leaves, a couple of small garden carrots, diced onion, instant mashed potatoes, chicken bouillon -- I used the whole stems of the carrot leaves, some of which were fibrous. After pureeing the soup, it still seemed like there were fibers, so I pressed the soup through a mesh sieve. The end result was an absolutely delicious soup.)

Our Friday movie nights have shifted to Sunday movie nights for October. One daughter has a role in a theater production and performances are Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday matinees throughout October. Since she's the big film enthusiast, we wouldn't want to do a movie night without her. But I still made pizza on Friday because I couldn't wait until Sunday to have pizza again. LOL!

I had some pumpkin eggnog that I bought on markdown 2 weeks ago. I froze some, but still we didn't drink the rest. So I made a batch of eggnog scones, using this recipe. The batch was large, so I froze some of the scones to bring out later. We've had scones for breakfasts and snacks the last couple of days.

I decanted the first jar of blackberry vinegar this week. The finished vinegar has a mild blackberry aroma. I've been using this vinegar in salad dressing this week.

Our garden is still producing enough for our meals, thankfully. In addition to what's listed here, we also made a pot of cream of sorrel and squash blossom soup, multiple tomato sandwiches, a few tossed salads, and ate fresh apples and frozen blackberries for our fruit. 

As you can see, our meals are turning more and more autumnal with each week, lots of root veggies, hearty dishes, and soups. I have hated saying goodbye to summer (foods and weather), but at least autumn has some really great foods to enjoy.

That's what was on my menu. What did you eat this past week?

What Area of Spending Are You Most Frugal? (and other budget priority questions)

housing
car/transportation
food
travel
utilities
clothing
entertainment

I find it interesting to see others' thought processes in regards to frugal living choices. I learn so much from you all. So I thought I'd pose some questions to you, as well as provide my own answers. In addition, it was helpful to myself to write some of these out. Especially the last question concerning how I will navigate the continuing inflation.

And what's been your biggest savings triumph in that area?

me: Food -- over a 35-year period, my family has saved perhaps $79,625 on groceries alone. I'm guessing at this, but I think a typical, similar 4-adult thrifty family spends about $450/month on food. My family currently averages about $275 for 4 weeks. That's a savings of $250/month or $2275/year. I'm guessing that we had similar savings over the years, as our grocery spending has always been very low. Over 35 years, that's $79,625. This is just my estimate on others' spending. According to USDA's chart, my family should be spending $887.20 per 4-week month, in the Thrifty Food Plan.

most recent 2022 USDA chart here :

https://fns-prod.azureedge.us/sites/default/files/media/file/CostofFoodAug2022Thrifty1.pdf

Is there an area of spending in which you avoid scrimping more than others? 

me: For my family, I would have to say housing. We're willing to do without a lot of discretionary spending, so long as we can live in our house on a large suburban lot. We would rather not travel, keep the house on the cool side in fall and winter, not eat out or go to movies, have 1 car instead of 2, just so we can live in our current house. It's not huge, but it's big enough that we've all been able to have our own space (4 introverts, 1 extrovert when all 5 were living here). I know that others may feel much differently, and choose to live in a small house so they can afford more experiences, or spend less time preparing meals, or not keep a garden, or shop for specific clothing or cars.

Have your spending and budgeting priorities changed over the years?

me: We spend more on food at the grocery store now, not only because of inflation over the years, but we buy more "luxury" foods (like nuts or dried fruit other than raisins, or pepperoni for pizza) than we did when our kids were younger.  We actually spend less on restaurant meals and entertainment now than we did when our kids were growing up. We wanted to provide some of the fun activities for our kids as other kids had, and that included a Happy Meal or two, trips to Coldstone Creamery, current "kid" movie at the theater, one time at Chuckie Cheese for each kid. Now, we really don't care about eating out or going to the movie theater, and that's not just due to Covid. We now enjoy picnics in a park or at the beach, not because they're frugal, but because we enjoy the scenery of natural spots.

With the current rate of inflation, will you make sacrifices in some areas so you can afford more in others?

me: The sacrifices that we'll make will be in the "extra categories" like travel, entertainment, and new clothing, so that we can enjoy more of the basic comforts, such as heating and good food. We'll still be adding to our general savings account and retirement accounts,

How about you? What are your thoughts on both your past and future budget priorities?