Summer Plan Update
This was a really weird week for me. I broke down and needed some synthetic food, in the form of a Big Mac. So I got one. Then I went to a baby shower which was at a sushi restaurant. I didn't think I'd ever had food budget money again, but apparently the shower organiser had decided to cover the bill. So that was good and I was off the hook for another total potential fail this week.
So, here's the business of the week. P gets back in town tomorrow. He tends to like for certain things to be on hand that don't necessarily fit into the $10/week budget. However, I'd intended to stay on this budget until the 21st. So what I'm going to do is reopen access to the Cave, in order to defray some of that increased cost, and also to try to stick with the budget. I'm not sure how well this will go, so it's possible I might go over. But I'll try not to. If it looks like going over is unavoidable, I might modify things to give me $10/week/person instead of just $10/week. So, we'll see how that goes.
However, I am being sent to Nebraska on Thursday (and from now until then I'm studying for my final), so I'll be out of pocket for a little bit (my plan is to eat the foods I've canned, which means I'm not likely to be going to the grocery store again until I get home from Nebraska). So if you don't hear from me for a little while it's because I'm not here. I'll try to keep track of any monies I spend while I'm on vacation, but I'm excluding this trip from the budgetary concerns since I'm not actually spending my own monies while I'm away. If I get any grocery shopping done before I leave town, I'll schedule a Saturday post so you guys can see what happened. If I don't, then that's okay too. I should be back around the 18th or 19th, so we'll proceed from there. Also, I will try not to forget my camera, so I can show you what I eat while I'm away.
In terms of progress, I only have one can of corn left. This makes me a sad panda, a little. I used a couple more chicken breasts, and that was pretty much it from the freezer. Normally I eat chicken only rarely, but I've been eating it a lot lately. Francis has been eating some too. I found this box on the pantry (I'd had cans on top of it so I guess I forgot it was in there) that had some bean soup mixes in it. I used one of those to make a bean porridge, and I ate a lot of that the last week in lieu of really cooking. This last week I've tried to avoid spending a lot of time in the kitchen, since I've been under a lot of stress with my class (and it's stupidly hot here which makes me not want to eat, let alone cook). I can't wait until it's over. Just a few more days, I keep reminding myself. It's just not a good sign when you adore the professor but can't deal with anything else about the class. Anyway, I digress. Again. I've eaten up most of the canned pineapple. What a surprise, huh? There're some mandarin oranges that went the way of the belly as well. I used up most of the salad dressings in the fridge, though I didn't actually have a single green salad. And of course, you already know the frozen mango is gone. I've eaten all the shells I'd frozen, and about half of the cheese breads.
Everything else in the freezer is basically the same, so there's plenty of stuff for P to eat without him needing to grocery shop. He's not obsessed with banana peppers, so I didn't get more of those. My guess, though, is that he'll eat out every day since that's more his style. Or alternately, he'll eat lots of the home-canned meat sauce w/ pasta. Or the other jarred sauces from the guest spending with pasta. Apparently he learned some cooking in Chicago, so maybe he will eat some stuff in the freezer!
Additionally, some pistachios were donated to the cause by a friend of mine. I put those together with some walnuts and butter from the freezer and the last of the phyllo dough, to make baklava for everyone at school. It seemed to be enjoyed. So that also helped eliminate some ingredients from the freezer. Oh, and I moved a bag of almonds to my nightstand to snack on in bed.
On to the spending!
This week I spent:
McDonalds:
Big Mac - $3.56
Kroger:
Bread flour - $2.75
Healthy balance juice (2) - $1.29 (had a BOGOF coupon for this, and then the bottles both had $0.55 coupons on them, which the cashier rang up too, much to my surprise and delight)
Total: $4.04
Grand total: $7.60
Total to date: $99.24/$95.84
This puts me under budget, regardless of how each individual person feels about the $4 kraut mishap. So, lookin' good. See y'all in about a week and a half!
So, here's the business of the week. P gets back in town tomorrow. He tends to like for certain things to be on hand that don't necessarily fit into the $10/week budget. However, I'd intended to stay on this budget until the 21st. So what I'm going to do is reopen access to the Cave, in order to defray some of that increased cost, and also to try to stick with the budget. I'm not sure how well this will go, so it's possible I might go over. But I'll try not to. If it looks like going over is unavoidable, I might modify things to give me $10/week/person instead of just $10/week. So, we'll see how that goes.
However, I am being sent to Nebraska on Thursday (and from now until then I'm studying for my final), so I'll be out of pocket for a little bit (my plan is to eat the foods I've canned, which means I'm not likely to be going to the grocery store again until I get home from Nebraska). So if you don't hear from me for a little while it's because I'm not here. I'll try to keep track of any monies I spend while I'm on vacation, but I'm excluding this trip from the budgetary concerns since I'm not actually spending my own monies while I'm away. If I get any grocery shopping done before I leave town, I'll schedule a Saturday post so you guys can see what happened. If I don't, then that's okay too. I should be back around the 18th or 19th, so we'll proceed from there. Also, I will try not to forget my camera, so I can show you what I eat while I'm away.
In terms of progress, I only have one can of corn left. This makes me a sad panda, a little. I used a couple more chicken breasts, and that was pretty much it from the freezer. Normally I eat chicken only rarely, but I've been eating it a lot lately. Francis has been eating some too. I found this box on the pantry (I'd had cans on top of it so I guess I forgot it was in there) that had some bean soup mixes in it. I used one of those to make a bean porridge, and I ate a lot of that the last week in lieu of really cooking. This last week I've tried to avoid spending a lot of time in the kitchen, since I've been under a lot of stress with my class (and it's stupidly hot here which makes me not want to eat, let alone cook). I can't wait until it's over. Just a few more days, I keep reminding myself. It's just not a good sign when you adore the professor but can't deal with anything else about the class. Anyway, I digress. Again. I've eaten up most of the canned pineapple. What a surprise, huh? There're some mandarin oranges that went the way of the belly as well. I used up most of the salad dressings in the fridge, though I didn't actually have a single green salad. And of course, you already know the frozen mango is gone. I've eaten all the shells I'd frozen, and about half of the cheese breads.
Everything else in the freezer is basically the same, so there's plenty of stuff for P to eat without him needing to grocery shop. He's not obsessed with banana peppers, so I didn't get more of those. My guess, though, is that he'll eat out every day since that's more his style. Or alternately, he'll eat lots of the home-canned meat sauce w/ pasta. Or the other jarred sauces from the guest spending with pasta. Apparently he learned some cooking in Chicago, so maybe he will eat some stuff in the freezer!
Additionally, some pistachios were donated to the cause by a friend of mine. I put those together with some walnuts and butter from the freezer and the last of the phyllo dough, to make baklava for everyone at school. It seemed to be enjoyed. So that also helped eliminate some ingredients from the freezer. Oh, and I moved a bag of almonds to my nightstand to snack on in bed.
On to the spending!
This week I spent:
McDonalds:
Big Mac - $3.56
Kroger:
Bread flour - $2.75
Healthy balance juice (2) - $1.29 (had a BOGOF coupon for this, and then the bottles both had $0.55 coupons on them, which the cashier rang up too, much to my surprise and delight)
Total: $4.04
Grand total: $7.60
Total to date: $99.24/$95.84
This puts me under budget, regardless of how each individual person feels about the $4 kraut mishap. So, lookin' good. See y'all in about a week and a half!
Have a wonderful trip!! I'm so glad to hear P is coming home too - yay for both of our guys being home! :-) They really do have remarkably similar schedules!
ReplyDeleteGood luck on your finals, and have fun on your trip. Sometimes you just need relaxing-time, so don't forget to get some of that in.
ReplyDeleteAny idea what he learned to cook? My father's now able to do waffles, in addition to the bbq-ing, tacos, spaghetti, and mac and cheese he knew when I was a kid.
Astra,
ReplyDeleteThanks! P is sending me to visit my best friend for a week, so I'm sure I'll have a good time. Plus, there're proper A&W root beer floats available.
j,
Thanks! My final might kill me. I think the plan right now is pie making, fruit harvesting (my friend has an orchard on property), vegetable harvesting and toodling around town. And harvesting enough stuffs for me to bring home some too.
I know he learned to cook salmon, but outside of that I have absolutely no idea. He's more of an eating out kind of guy, than a cooking kind of guy. You dad sounds like his cooking range is pretty similar to P's, lol.