Living on a Budget: Week One

A couple notes about my calculations:
1. I am not counting the cost of things like olive oil, butter, flour, milk, salt and pepper, garlic or other similar items in the recipe calculations. Of course they cost money. I have them in my kitchen already, and I'm too lazy to do the math to figure out how much 1 tablespoon of flour costs.  I'll just count it when I have to buy new replacement items.
2. My husband doesn't really eat breakfast or lunch each day. He has a glass of chocolate milk in the morning, then he devours whatever I make for dinner. I make a lot at dinner. I do send him to work with snacks; I'll count those in bulk as I buy them.
3. I won't be able to remember every snack I consumed. I'll include fruit and other miscellaneous things at the end in a miscellaneous post.


Monday (10/1)
Breakfast: Fage yogurt - $1 (I am so addicted to this stuff.)
Lunch: Leftover enchiladas from Sunday.- Free
Dinner: Lemony Garlic Pasta with Chicken and Salad - $4.62

I modified this recipe for the pasta. --I ditched the walnuts and used angel hair instead of a "shapes" pasta. I also roasted the chicken separately rather than cooking in the same pot.
I roasted a whole chicken in the crockpot. This is scary. And messy. I didn't take pictures; I never would have gotten the grease off my phone. I used the carcass to make chicken broth for a later recipe. Carcass is a gross word. I used this website as a guide.
Salad: Lettuce, Tomatoes, Balsamic Vinegar and Olive Oil
Brownies from a box for dessert

The cost break down:
1/2 box of angel hair pasta: $.50 [on sale = $1/box]
1 cup parmesan: in my fridge
1 broccoli crown: $.40 [on sale - $.88/lb]
Chicken: $1.80 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Chicken Broth: in my fridge
Lemon:  $.33 [on sale - 3 for $1]
Lettuce: $.44 [on sale - $.88/head]
Tomato: $.15 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Brownie mix: $1 [on sale for $1/box]

Grand total for the day:$5.62

Tuesday (10/2)

Breakfast: Fage Yogurt - $1
Lunch:  Lemony Garlic Chicken. Leftovers. Free! Brownie. Leftovers. Free!
Dinner: Roast chicken, Mac 'n cheese, and Salad - $4.16

I used the roast chicken from yesterday. I significantly modified this mac 'n cheese recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/baked-macaroni-and-cheese-recipe/index.html. I didn't use milk because I had heavy cream that I needed to use; so I used a cup of heavy cream and a cup of water. I also used about 1/3 of a brick of cream cheese that I had. And, who has powdered mustard? I just used a healthy squirt of regular yellow mustard. I also did not buy paprika.

Elbow macaroni: $.50 [on sale - $1/box]
Cheddar: $.83 [on sale - $5/8cup bag]
Heavy cream: in my fridge
Chicken: $1.80 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Lettuce: $.44 [on sale - $.88/head]
Tomato: $.15 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Cucumber: $.44 [on sale - $.88/cucumber]

Grand total for the day: $5.16


Wednesday (10/3)
Breakfast: I forgot breakfast. Oops! I did go to Starbucks, but that comes out of my fun money not the family budget. I also had a brownie. Who needs a diet? Free!
Lunch: Lemony Garlic Chicken. Leftovers. Free!
Dinner: BLTs with Macaroni and Cheese and Corn on the Cob - $6.57

Bacon: $3.99 [on sale - $3.99/pkg]
Bread: $.66 [on sale - $1.75/pkg]
Lettuce:$.44 [on sale - $.88/head]
Tomato: $.60 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Avocado: $.50 [on sale - 2/$1]
Mac 'n cheese: Free!
Corn on the Cob: $.38 [on sale - $.19/ear]

Grand total for the day: $6.57

Thursday (10/4)
Breakfast: Safeway brand Greek yogurt (yuck!): $.89
Lunch: Mac 'n cheese: Free! Hot dog: $.23
Chili with Cornbread: $7.31

Chili beans:  $2 [on sale - 10/$10 can]
Ground beef: $1.49 [on sale = $1.49/1lb]
Tomatoes: $1.66 [on sale - $.99/lb]
Green pepper: $.50 [on sale - 2/$1]
Red pepper: $.50 [on sale - 2/$1]
Bacon: Free!
Onion: $.20 [on sale - 3lbs/$1]
Spices: On my shelves
Sour cream: In my fridge
Cheddar: $.63 [on sale - $5/8cup bag]
Cornmeal: $.33

Grand total for the day: $8.43

Friday (10/5) - Monday (10/8): I went to Missouri, so very little food was made at home. 

Other miscellaneous things we ate as snacks:
Grapes: $5.17
Clif Bars: $10
Almonds: $3.05
Bananas: $.63
Apples: $1.79
Pears: $2.09
Raspberries: $3.98

Grand total for miscellaneous: $26.71

Total for this post: $52.49

Living on a Budget

Budget? What's that? Oh yea...it's that pesky tool intended to improve financial health.
I've been trying to get in the habit of living on an actual budget. But, it's rather difficult.  I have a serious problem distinguishing between what I want and what I need. Maybe my blog readers can help keep me accountable?

I have an especially difficult time when it comes to our food budget.  I buy too much produce that we can't eat in time. I'm terrible at using leftovers. I always need some fancy ingredient which drives up the cost of our grocery bill. I need a solution! I turned to the internet to discover how other people do it. Based on my in-depth research, it sounds like I need to do a few different things:

1) Plan my meals
2) Make meals based on what's on sale (especially meat and produce)
3) Use everything!
4) Coupon
5) Simplify the menu
6) Pay with cash

My well-(over)stocked freezer

However, most of these things come with some difficulty. Planning my meals, using the sales to make my menu decisions, and couponing requires a lot of time. Simplifying the menu is difficult because there are so many delightfully inspiring things in my cookbooks and on Pinterest. Use everything...leftovers never taste as good, who needs two cups of heavy cream, and I really thought we'd use three heads of lettuce. Pay with cash, but the closest ATM for our bank is 15 minutes away. Ugh. There, now you know my excuses.

Maybe a little refrigerator organization would help me to use everything in the fridge. Hmm.

Right. Time to get past the excuses. Just do it. (Thank you Nike for a life motto!) Since you, my lovely readers, are keeping me accountable, I thought I'd tell you my plan. I created 35 days of dinner menus. (I'll send you my extensive excel spreadsheet if you're interested.) About 1/3 of the items are meatless meals - meat is flippin' expensive. There are a variety of meat dishes too: chicken, ground beef, pork, fish, sausage and a few pricier meats, like steak, shrimp, and salmon. Each week, I will pick six or seven menu items based on what's on sale. I'll also stock up on meat that I can freeze for later in the month if there is a good deal ($.99/# chicken!). And, I've started attempting to use coupons to buy staples (pasta, rice, flour, sugar, beans, etc) and treats (ice cream, oreos, brownie mixes, etc).

This week, we're having:

• Lemony Broccoli Pasta with Chicken and a Salad
• Roast Chicken, Mac 'n Cheese, and Salad
• BLTs with Mac 'n Cheese (leftovers!!), and Salad
• Spaghetti with Garlic, Olive Oil, and Pepper with Salad
• Chicken Quesadillas with Black Beans and Rice
• Chili with Cornbread
• Bean Burgers with Guacamole and Broccoli

The Lemony Broccoli Pasta, Mac 'n Cheese, and Chili should all make enough leftovers to keep me eating at lunch times. I'll post menus, pics and prices next week.