Saturday Spending
And, this is back too. Obviously, it's not summer anymore. And also obviously, I'm not still on the $10/week budget. Also, I get to use the Cave again.
But, now that I'm living on my own and my whole life is different, I wanted to lay out some new rules for my grocery spending. This week I forgot to save any receipts from buying groceries, but I'll be doing that from now on again so y'all can see what kind of stuff I'm up to, in terms of shopping and also in terms of keeping the new budget.
So, the new rules:
1) My new budget is $20/week. I actually believe this is far more money than I need, but I wanted to make sure that if I go on an olive and/or cheese binge, I've got enough wiggle room to compensate for it. Also, I'd like to entertain more. This means, since I only have a two person table, that I'd have only one person over at a time (well, unless people want to eat on the couch and/or floor). But still, I want a little extra food monies for days I want to have someone over (maybe 1-2 times a month is what I'm shooting for right now).
2) No more pasta. Seriously. Due to the limited storage space in my new place, it's time for me to start using up more of what's in the Cave without replenishing it. Once I get down to bare bones (which realistically should take me the duration of my lease), I'll have a better idea of whether I'll be staying in Houston for a little while longer (thereby making me want to start rebuilding food storage) or moving to New York (thereby making me NOT want to move a bunch of food storage across the country). So, since I have a bin full of pasta, pasta is off limits for grocery spending. I have a couple exceptions to this: torellini (since I'm not going to make that myself) and ditalini, which is the only type of pasta I like to make macaroni pasta with. I'm starting my new life with 2 boxes of tortellini and probably 8-10 pounds of ditalini, so I won't be needing to replenish any of that for a while.
Where I see pasta issues coming up is that I have deep associations with specific pastas for specific types of dishes. Maybe everyone does, but I don't know. So for me, the trouble will be when I'm out of long pasta and want puttanesca and I have to force myself to use penne or another shape. And so on.
3) No more beans. This is for the same reason as the pasta. Except that I feel a lot more flexible with beans than I do with pasta, so I don't really have any exceptions here. Possibly chick peas but I'll decide that later, once I get through the four pounds of those I currently possess.
4) Before I go to the grocery store (for anything other than fresh produce), I have to look through the Cave to see if I already have it. If I do, I can't buy it. Period. If I'm out of whatever the item is (after looking through all the bins of food and in the pantry and anywhere else I might have food squirreled away), then I may buy one and only one of the given item.
5) Stop buying tea for anyone other clients. Seriously. No, seriously. And once the Sleepy Time tisane is gone, no more of that either until I get through the pound of chamomile flowers I have. Seriously. I can buy tea again once I have no more than two pounds in the house. Currently I have... well, a lot more than that. I don't really want to talk about it.
And I think those are my only rules right now. Can anyone think of something I forgot to include?
On a completely unrelated note, I had no idea River from Firefly was going to be in Chuck at all. But I am pleased.
But, now that I'm living on my own and my whole life is different, I wanted to lay out some new rules for my grocery spending. This week I forgot to save any receipts from buying groceries, but I'll be doing that from now on again so y'all can see what kind of stuff I'm up to, in terms of shopping and also in terms of keeping the new budget.
So, the new rules:
1) My new budget is $20/week. I actually believe this is far more money than I need, but I wanted to make sure that if I go on an olive and/or cheese binge, I've got enough wiggle room to compensate for it. Also, I'd like to entertain more. This means, since I only have a two person table, that I'd have only one person over at a time (well, unless people want to eat on the couch and/or floor). But still, I want a little extra food monies for days I want to have someone over (maybe 1-2 times a month is what I'm shooting for right now).
2) No more pasta. Seriously. Due to the limited storage space in my new place, it's time for me to start using up more of what's in the Cave without replenishing it. Once I get down to bare bones (which realistically should take me the duration of my lease), I'll have a better idea of whether I'll be staying in Houston for a little while longer (thereby making me want to start rebuilding food storage) or moving to New York (thereby making me NOT want to move a bunch of food storage across the country). So, since I have a bin full of pasta, pasta is off limits for grocery spending. I have a couple exceptions to this: torellini (since I'm not going to make that myself) and ditalini, which is the only type of pasta I like to make macaroni pasta with. I'm starting my new life with 2 boxes of tortellini and probably 8-10 pounds of ditalini, so I won't be needing to replenish any of that for a while.
Where I see pasta issues coming up is that I have deep associations with specific pastas for specific types of dishes. Maybe everyone does, but I don't know. So for me, the trouble will be when I'm out of long pasta and want puttanesca and I have to force myself to use penne or another shape. And so on.
3) No more beans. This is for the same reason as the pasta. Except that I feel a lot more flexible with beans than I do with pasta, so I don't really have any exceptions here. Possibly chick peas but I'll decide that later, once I get through the four pounds of those I currently possess.
4) Before I go to the grocery store (for anything other than fresh produce), I have to look through the Cave to see if I already have it. If I do, I can't buy it. Period. If I'm out of whatever the item is (after looking through all the bins of food and in the pantry and anywhere else I might have food squirreled away), then I may buy one and only one of the given item.
5) Stop buying tea for anyone other clients. Seriously. No, seriously. And once the Sleepy Time tisane is gone, no more of that either until I get through the pound of chamomile flowers I have. Seriously. I can buy tea again once I have no more than two pounds in the house. Currently I have... well, a lot more than that. I don't really want to talk about it.
And I think those are my only rules right now. Can anyone think of something I forgot to include?
On a completely unrelated note, I had no idea River from Firefly was going to be in Chuck at all. But I am pleased.
Hmm.. I might want to consider some similar rules. I did finally deplete most of my noodle supply.
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Ruby, on getting through the noodles! I'm adding rice to my list of things I'm not allowed to buy too. I've got a good 20+ pounds of it (not just one type, of course), so it should be on the list like the others.
ReplyDelete