Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Wednesday food post

I didn't do as well last weekend on the food-spending front. It was shaping up to be another tight month as I recovered from the two big expenses (books and new phone) that blew up August's budget, but then I realized that I had $90 set aside for an expense that was not going to materialize after all and transferred $80 of that into my cash budget...and relaxed a little too much, really. For some reason I was just starving all week; I ended up spending too much on going out for coffee/treats in the middle of the afternoon because of it. I don't know what was up with that, but hopefully this week will go better. [I scheduled this post for Weds but am writing it on Sunday.]

Groceries for this week:

Farmer's market:
$3.00 -- pretzel (put this down under "could not eat enough all week, I don't know")
$1.50 -- donuts (gift for my roommate)
$4.00 -- nectarines
$2.00 -- brussel sprouts
$3.00 -- spices (whole coriander and cumin seeds; ground pepper)
$2.50 -- jar of tomato sauce

Total: $16

Grocery store:
$2.69 tater tots -- see, I told you I was weirdly hungry all week. I ended up buying these to have for dinner on Friday night (I know.)
$2.39 milk
$1.55 rice
$6.23 sweet potatoes
$3.42 broccoli
$3.50 ice cream -- another "I caved to a weeklong craving" item
$0.33 ginger
$6.99 olive oil
$3.19 1 lb butter

Total grocery store (with tax) $30.29

Total food shopping: $46.29 (or about $6 over budget, with the extra coming from my "general spending money")

This isn't really good. I impulse-bought about $10 of treats, which if I'd stuck to just eating what I had at home, would have meant I was $4 or $5 under budget. Annoying. And none of this even counts the coffee and muffins and whatever that I paid for out of my general spending money this week either.

Food plan for the week:
--I made a tomato sauce with ground beef from the meat CSA my roommate and I joined, the jar of tomato sauce I bought, and carrots I had left over from last week. I'll eat that with pasta for lunch all week.
--For dinner, I'm going to have Miso sweet potato broccoli rice bowls
--I also made a nectarine coffee cake for breakfast/dessert. Next week I'll have to pick up some steel-cut oats since the weather here seems to have turned and it's about time to start making oatmeal for breakfast again.

7 comments:

  1. I recently had a grocery trip where I bought only: strawberry frozen yogurt, strawberries, cotton candy ice cream (for BF), and a marble McCain's cake...sometimes it just needs to happen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OK, that made me laugh! Some weeks you win, some weeks you don't :)

      Delete
  2. I've had some pretty pathetic grocery shops myself. I bought a rotisserie chicken, pasta salad, ice cream bars, Maynard's candy, and pop. I like to think the chicken and pasta salad made up for the crappy sugary stuff I also bought, but really I could have made about 3x the amount that I got for the "convenience factor".

    I'm losing this week. My meal plan is getting thrown around like crazy. Which means I am having Lebanese food (takeout) for dinner. Tomorrow's pay day, so I'll allow the splurge. Schwarma here I come!

    I also realize this has very little to do with your actual post. Sometimes I just like to indulge my tangent :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. OMG, now I want Lebanese food so much though! :)

      It's actually very comforting to hear about other people's grocery shopping disasters though :)

      Delete
  3. How are the miso rice bowls? Sounds like something Mr. DebtFreeJD would like, and I'd be willing to eat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are astoundingly good. I mean really, really great. Highly recommended! I used an immersion blender to make the dressing and it worked great -- no need to pull out the food processor or what have you.

      Delete
    2. Oh, one note: I recommend using a sturdy variety of rice -- I used Himalayan red rice, which I got from Whole Foods -- instead of regular white or brown rice. I like that the rice isn't mushy. This would totally also work with wheat berries or barley or something like that, although I like the flavor of the rice better, I think.

      Delete