Week 2 Recap:
We were on vacation last week, which completely blew our food budget out of the water given that we ate every meal out. I know some people don’t mind cooking an occasional meal in an efficiency-type of hotel room while on vacation, but I’m not one of those people. I hate lugging groceries to the shore and I hate going food shopping once I’m there. That’s precious time that could better be spent on the beach.
We did a few things to save money on our meals, though. I opted for water with almost every meal, as did The Boy on several occasions. We skipped appetizers and salads (at most of the places, meals were a la carte). And with the exception of the last night, we skipped expensive desserts in favor of ice cream elsewhere.
I bought snacks for the 5 hour car ride to Philadelphia (the vacation was bookended by a few days at my mom and stepfather’s house) and for the beach itself. I hit Target for some necessities beforehand and bought our snacks there (trail mix; dried fruit; shelled edamame; mini-muffins; veggie straws; chips; GF cookies for me and probably some more stuff I’m forgetting). We came home with a decent amount left, so I didn’t need to purchase many snacks this week.
This Week:
Both kids are spending a few days back in Philly with the grandparents, so one would think our food expenditures for this week should be considerably less than usual. At least, that’s my hope. We will likely go out to dinner one night because it is highly unusual for us to be sans-kids. To counter-balance that, I am going to be more diligent about bringing my lunch to work. (Possible lunch ideas: cheese sandwich on GF bread; salad; hummus/guacamole dips with chips; trail mix; plums.)
I went shopping at Giant Eagle on Monday afternoon and was pleased to have spent a total of $152.27. (As we’ve discussed, GE is not my preferred supermarket; I only went there because we had prescriptions to pick up and I didn’t want to spend my last day before heading back to work running around doing errands). So, of that $152.27, the breakdown was $124.80 for food-related items and $27.47 for things like toilet paper, OTC allergy medicine, dental floss, etc. My biggest splurge food-wise were 3 packs of Sprite for $10 (that will last us the rest of the month) and some frozen foods (pizza, Stouffers mac and cheese) because The Husband requested those for his lunches. (He’s off from work for a few additional days yet).
Dinner Plans
Monday
– We’ll order pizza. I have a Glutino pizza for myself (our preferred pizza place has GF pizza, but I strongly suspect it is Aldi’s. While I don’t mind their GF pizza – it’s OK, not my favorite – I won’t pay $9 for what I can get for $4.99).
Tuesday
– Tortellini for the husband; big salad for me, hopefully with leftovers for Wednesday’s lunch.
Wednesday
– Grilled cheese. Maybe with fresh fruit as a side.
Thursday
– I’m planning to go to a book journal making program at a local library, so The Husband will be on his own. Mac and cheese for him, most likely.
Friday
– This is usually pizza night for us, but we might go out.
Saturday
– We are contemplating going to the Heinz History Center because we really want to see the Mister Rogers Neighborhood exhibit (the kids weren’t too enthused about that idea awhile back so we’ve been saving that for ourselves). This could be a dinner out instead of Friday night. Not sure.
Time to see what the other Project: Food Budget participants have been up to. Follow along with us by checking out posts from:
Emily Levenson (host of Project: Food Budget)
McGinnis and Bean
Rainaldi.org
Red Pen Mama
Erra Creations
Eryn Says…
Seeking White Space
facepalmmama
Gardening in High Heels
Copy & Post
Rachel Olive Miller
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