minor victories

So much for staying absolutely on budget this month -- I bought a new phone ($180) which is going to have to be amortized over several months (the much cheaper phone plan I'll be on will help.)

But I did have some good minor wins this week in my nemesis category, "food." First of all, I raided my spare change jar to help pay for a dry cleaning pickup, so I have $31 to spend this weekend on groceries instead of the $27 I thought I did :) Second, even though I had a friend come unexpectedly for dinner last night, I did not freak out and spend lots on groceries. Luckily, I had a lot in my pantry that I could use to assemble a very cheap, but pretty elegant dinner.

I already had:
--good quality cornmeal
--eggs
--feta cheese
--garlic
--balsamic vinegar
--salt
--butter
--half a bottle of white wine that we opened the other night and was still good

So I bought mushrooms ($1 for 8 oz, on sale, woo) and a shallot ($.50). I fried those up, then made polenta from the cornmeal, salt, and butter, then assembled the dish: polenta, drizzle of balsamic, mushrooms and shallot, a bit of feta crumbled on, then a fried egg on top of the whole thing for each of us. And a glass of wine. Then we went over to someone else's house for dessert. And while I was at the grocery store getting the mushrooms and shallot, I did NOT give into the urge to buy ice cream, which is a win on many levels.