Category: Project: Food Budget 2.0

Project: Food Budget {Week 51}

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What a week.  Not what I imagined in many, many ways.  As I’ve discussed in other Food Budget posts, when my routine goes out the window, my meal plan is not far behind.  Groceries cost $126 (that was two trips), and we grabbed Wendy’s for $12 on Tuesday night when “The Bug” hit our house.  A day of cleaning up after and soothing a very sick little boy leaves no energy (or appetite) for cooking.  I’m glad to report that we seem to be on the mend.  Only our middle guy got the full-fledged virus.  The oldest seemed a little off, but nothing came of it.  Here’s hoping for a weekend with no more menu changes.

Monday — Dinner Out (pre-scheduled and budgeted in a different category)

Tuesday — Wendy’s (unexpected outing)

Wednesday — Chicken stir fry over rice

Thursday — Gnocchi that never was made last week because of a faculty picnic.  (I’m substituting red pepper for the zucchini.)

Friday — Homemade BBQ chicken pizza and salad

Saturday — Picnic food: Burgers on the grill, potato salad, deviled eggs, veggies and dip, and something sweet.

Sunday — Leftovers!

ONE WEEK TO GO!!!!!!

Fellow bloggers:

Project: Food Budget {Week 48}

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Hi.  The piggie is back…yay!  This week we spent $38 on one shopping trip, $12 on dinner at church, and $68 on a second grocery trip.  That’s $118 for the week.  Not bad.  I don’t know why I haven’t been able to pull myself back to the 100 dollar mark  since we got back from our trip.  I definitely think it is an organizational issue.  I’m deciding to give myself some breathing room because we’ve added a few new concepts to our food planning.  First, I am being more intentional about snacks.  Snacking had been sort of willy-nilly, and I’m trying to have snacks planned mostly for the kids but also for the hubby and me.  I, too often, grab a spoonful of peanut butter.  Nutritionally, that’s a pretty good choice, but we never have clean spoons!  Ha ha.  Additionally, I am now making sure my husband has a good breakfast in the moring, and I am making him a lunch to take to work.  I wasn’t really in the habit (God bless my mom who has made my dad a lunch every workday for FORTY years!  And you know what, he has had the same lunch box the whole time.  Amazing.), but in an overall re-thinking of our families eating habits, I knew that I needed to make him a good lunch as a very tangible way of showing my love and support.  He does so much for our family; the least I can do is pack him a sandwich.  Here is how our week looks:

Monday: Turkey burgers with green beans

Tuesday: Breakfast for dinner (because I delayed shopping, and we always have breakfast stuff in the house)

Wednesday: dinner at church

Thursday: Meatball sandwiches with tossed salad

Friday: Bratwurst with red cabbage and apples (sounds weird, tastes good…I’ll share the recipe soon.)

Saturday: Ah!  Not sure.

Sunday: Roast in the Crock Pot with red potatoes and carrots

Please visit my blog friends…

Week 48 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget {Week 45}

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I’m back!  And I’m ready to really do this food budget thing again.  I can’t believe I missed three weeks of posting, and I sincerely apologize to my fellow budgeters for dropping the ball.  Sorry, guys.

This week was a major re-stocking week.  We came home after EIGHT WEEKS of traveling to find a quarter inch of very spoiled milk (how did we forget to dump that?), a box of stale Kix, and a lot of condiments.  That’s pretty much it.  Even so, we were only slightly over budget at $165.  (In case you’ve forgotten, my self-imposed budget is $100, but my actual budget is $150.)  The $165 includes one Arby’s dinner, but it does not include our ice cream stop last night.

Since the beginning of this project, I’ve only planned dinner menus, but now, I’m being more deliberate about snacks.  My hubby kept reminding me that I wasn’t buying snacks (except cookies…we always have cookies), but because I wasn’t buying snacks, the kids were doing a lot of begging and whining.  So I’ve decided to start planning snacks.  This week, I cut up carrots and celery.  I also bought grapes and pistachios.  I must have chosen well because the grapes and pistachios are gone, and the carrots are almost gone.  Now what to do with all that celery…

Week 45 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget (Week 41)

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Have you ever lived on the road for an extended period?  We aren’t exactly backpacking across the country.  We have the wonderful comforts of living with our families and visiting friends, no backpacks, and no hitchhiking.  But after more than a month of living with others, I miss a lot of normal things.  I miss grocery shopping, and I plan to volunteer to do more of it for our hosts.  I did get to grocery shop with my sister last week.  We took our babies, and I had this weird/wonderful moment of realizing that Kristy and I are actual grown-ups.  Adult sisters take their babies to the grocery store.  The tiny nephew decided that he would much rather nurse at the market, so I scooted around the store following my sister’s list while they hung out in the food court area.  I had fun!  Although it is a little hard to pick out food for someone else.  Which cereal?  Which lettuce for burgers?  Tomatoes on the vine or plum tomatoes?  It made me remember the early days of this challenge when I stood in the aisles staring at shelves and packages and weekly fliers, figuring unit prices.  I need to get back on that train!

We had another week of traveling and eating out.  We spent about $125 for the week.  Over budget, but boy was it fun.

 

Week 41 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget (Week 39)

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Hi, again.  These food blog posts are difficult while we are not at home.  Our budget is weird, but I want to keep in the rhythm of posting anyway.

We spent $77 on groceries.  That included only one planned meal, but we also bought our family’s “usuals” like bagels, cereal, cheese, bananas, yogurt, etc.  We don’t want to be total freeloaders! 😉

I can’t remember if I shared the Pork Carnitas recipe before.  It is worth checking out here.  That’s the one meal we planned for the week on the night that my sisteer and her family arrived.

Week 39 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget (Week 35)

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Howdy, howdy!  Look at me…on time with the food budget post.  Woo hoo!

This week was a little on the mixed up side.  We shopped last weekend to get ready for Memorial Day and the start of the week, and I didn’t plan the whole week.  I went shopping for the rest of the week this evening.  I have not been on top of my game on budgeting, and I don’t have an accurate total for the week.  Hmm…what to do about that?  Honestly, things are probably going to get worse before they get better.  We are going to be doing some traveling over the summer, and I have no idea what our budget is going to look like.

Here is my menu:

Monday–Picnic food–Hamburgers, hot dogs, pasta salad, watermelon, and brownies

Tuesday–Leftovers

Wednesday–Pizza

Thursday–Leftovers

Friday–Turkey clubs and baked fries

Saturday–Chicken stir-fry with rice

Sunday–BBQ chicken in the Crockpot, corn bread, and mixed veggies

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Project: Food Budget (Week 34)

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Hello, Food Budget fans!  My entry is late, but I’m going to make it up to you by giving you links to actual recipes!

This was not a good budget week, but it was an excellent food week.  I spent $160 on groceries over several trips.  That’s $60 over my self-imposed budget and $10 over my true budget.  Bummer.  This happened for several reasons.  First, I didn’t shop at my usual store.  I shopped at Publix instead of Wal*Mart, and I was shocked at the prices of several items.  Now, if I was a good little budgeter, I would have waited to buy the more expensive items at a different time, but I didn’t.  I plowed through my list against my better judgment.   I got some good BOGO deals, but I don’t think they made up for the higher prices.  Secondly, we were out of some important basics, like sugar, flour, paper towels, and toilet paper.  Finally, we had guests!  Yay for company!

Menu:

Monday–Pork Carnitas.  The recipe is here.  We all loved them!

Tuesday–Penne with Chickpeas and Broccoli with Spinach Salad on the side.  The penne recipe is here.

Wednesday–Turkey Burgers with Sweet Potato Fries

Thursday–London Broil marinated in Italian dressing, Twice Baked Potatoes stuffed with veggies and cheese, and Apple Slaw.  We had Lemon Pie with ginger snap crust for dessert.  That recipe came from Real Simple magazine.  The recipe is here.  The pie was a hit!  The crust was a bit hard but so yummy.

Friday–leftovers

Saturday–Chicken and Rice with Tossed Salad

Sunday–(uh oh…not sure yet)

Please take a look at my fellow bloggers:

Week 33 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget (Week 33)

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(Please don’t forget my giveaway!  Take a look at Tuesday’s post for details.)

This week was not normal, but it was fun!  We celebrated a paycheck on Monday by eating out at a place that offers free kids’ meals on Mondays.  Our bill came to $24 for an excellent meal.  Totally worth the tiny splurge.  On Tuesday, we attended F’s t-ball end-of-the-year party.  For only $10, our whole family enjoyed pizza, snacks, cake, drinks, and swimming.  On Wednesday, we had our meal at the church.  The cost was $9.  We needed a rather small grocery run with all those dinners away from home.  The groceries came to $68.  Total: $111

Sorry for the boring post.  Time for a game of Uno with my guys.  Must go…

Week 33 Participating blogs:

Project: Food Budget (Week 32)

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Before I get to the food, I have a quick announcement.  On Tuesday, May 15, I will be posting a book review of the latest publication from MOPS International.  You may remember my first book review from the fall.  You can see it here.  Once again I will be giving away a copy of the book.  I hope you’ll stop by.

Hello, friends.  I set my mind on having a good, organized week (at least in terms of food), and here it is! I went over my budget a little, but at least I had an actual menu and shopping list after a couple of weeks of winging it.  I spent $118 on groceries.  We spent $9 at church, and J & I spent $3 on lunch this afternoon.  That’s a total of $130.  Here’s my menu:

Monday: Hearty Western Casserole with cut-up cucumbers and dip (Crock Pot)

Tuesday: I had a pot-luck with my women’s group.  I took a pasta salad.  My boys (including hubby) had hot dogs, baked beans, and some of the pasta salad that I set aside for them.

Wednesday: Dinner at church

Thursday: Chicken kabobs (chicken, pineapple, and green peppers) with rice

Friday: Baked gnocchi with spinach and tossed salad

Saturday: Quiche and cantaloupe

Sunday: Roast in the Crock Pot

Please visit my fellow bloggers.

Week 32 Participating blogs:

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Project: Food Budget (Week 31)

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(Hanging head in shame.)  I’m so sorry food budget readers and fellow bloggers.  I’m a complete delinquent this week.  I’m a day late (again), and as I’ve written before, routine is everything for me.  If I don’t follow my tried-and-true routine for meal planning, budgeting, and shopping, the whole system falls apart, and this week was one of those weeks.  I feel like I spend more time apologizing for my slips than celebrating my successes here on the blog, but I suppose when I signed on for a 52 week challenge, I should have anticipated some rough weeks.

But I did do one good thing this week, I had friends over, twice.  First, I hosted a La Leche League meeting in my home on Tuesday.  I made a little snack of strawberries, grapes, crackers, and a spread for the crackers.  Nothing fancy.  On Thursday, I held a little pot luck lunch for the National Day of Prayer.  The pot luck concept is genius!  I’m so glad that I remembered this really fun way to open our home, enjoy some friends, eat yummy food, and not feel overwhelmed by food prep or the stretching of a budget.  Pot luck is perfect.

Promising a better week to come!

The Week 31 Participating Blogs: