Grocery Budget

We recently revised our budget for groceries down a bit, and I am happy to report we are staying on budget.  Last week, we came in at $59 for the week.  The next two weeks are a bit different, as we will be traveling on the weekends for family functions, so I sketched out a menu and grocery list for 9 days.  Nora and I went to the grocery store and CVS yesterday, and we spent $68 - including a small bag of gummy worms.   I think I've even got all of my staples covered.  I will probably buy a gallon of milk at some point; if we have any kind of cereal in the house, it disappears fast.

Part of staying on or under budget has been making some of the foods we used to buy from scratch.  Tortillas, syrup, and croutons all turned out very well.  I think we're going to start baking bread ourselves, too.

The other (major!) part of our grocery-store-economy is that we have a freezer full of venison.  Working that into meals sure drives the cost down.  My plan (hope?) is that we will be under budget so consistently that when we do finish using the venison, we will have a kitty to spend on a side of beef or some other comparable large amount of meat for the freezer.

Now if we could just be more disciplined about our entertainment budget, we'd be doing great!

Menu Plan Monday

I am really enjoying menu planning - and so is my budget.  We were pretty successful last week - some things got out of order due to a missing ingredient: flour!  It seemed pretty challenging to make flour tortillas without flour, so we just switched things around a bit. I think I've managed to get all of my staples for this week, so I shouldn't need to get anything at the grocery store!

Cuban Black Beans with Grilled Pork Tenderloin

In addition to menu planning, I'm trying my hand at making some of our more-commonly purchased "convenience food" here at home.  Last week was tortillas and waffles (made and frozen).   This week, it will be pancake syrup (we used up what we had on waffles!) and croutons. There are other foods I'd like to make instead of buy, but I figure I'll start with a few things at a time.

  

Without further ado, this week's menu:

Breakfasts:  Hard-boiled eggs, steel-cut oats, lemon scones, waffles and syrup

Lunches:  Leftovers, sandwiches, soup

Dinners:

  Monday:  Shepherd's Pie (I add frozen corn, and pretty much make the gravy with a pinch of this, alittle of that)

  Tuesday:  Beans on Toast with Eggs

  Wednesday:  Stir-fried Chicken with Sweet Chili Sauce (I add a little ketchup, a few drops of fish sauce, and some cornstarch dissolved in cold water to thicken it), Stir-fry veggies (frozen), Rice 

  Thursday:  Lasagna, Salad (with croutons), Bread 

  Friday:  Brats, Corn, Salad

  Saturday:  Chicken and Cheese Enchiladas (just tortillas wrapped around cooked chicken cubed up and a ton of cheese, smothered in canned enchilada sauce and more cheese, then baked at 350 till bubbly), refried beans, fixings 

  Sunday:  Leftovers/catch-up day

Desserts:  Rice pudding (using leftover rice from Wednesday), Cherry Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Pound Cake (yes, it is as good-tasting and bad-for-you as it sounds)

Please visit Laura at Organizing Junkie for many more delicious menus!  

Menu Plan Monday

This is my first attempt at publishing my menu for the week.  I have done menu planning sporadically in the past, and I'm hoping to stay a bit more accountable about it.

Monday:

Venison Burgers (with all the trimmings)

Crash Hot Potatoes (from the pioneerwoman.com)

Grapes

Tuesday:

Pork Tenderloin

Cuban Black Beans

Tortillas

trimmings - lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream

Wednesday:

Pizza (Chicken Garlic)

Salad

Thursday:

Tofu Stir-fried with Basil

Stir-fry Veggies

Steamed Rice

Friday:

Tuna Melts

Carrots

Grapes

Saturday:

Grilled Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce

Broccoli

Biscuits

Sunday:

Out to eat for Dinner

Sandwiches/leftovers for supper

Thank you Laura at Organizing Junkie.  More great menu plans and recipes are over there!

Menu Plan Monday (figuring out formatting)

This is my first attempt at publishing my menu for the week. I have done menu planning sporadically in the past, and I'm hoping to be a bit more accountable to keeping up with it this way.

Monday: Venison Burgers, Crash Hot Potatoes (from thepioneerwoman.com), Grapes

Tuesday: Pork Tenderloin, Cuban Black Beans, Tortillas, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and sour cream

Wednesday: Pizza and salad

Thursday: Tofu stir-fried with Basil, steamed rice, stir fry veggies

Friday: Tuna melts, grapes, carrots

Saturday: Grilled Shrimp, broccoli, biscuits

Sunday: Out to eat for dinner, sandwiches/leftovers for supper

Thank you Laura at Organizing Junkie.

Home at last?

The day after we put in the offer on the house, the seller accepted. Everything. No negotiations on the "throw-away" items our Realtor suggested we include. Just accepted it. Our house inspection is today, and we don't expect to find anything major. We close on April 16 (!!), which means that all of the sudden, we find ourselves in warp drive. Nora wonders why we can't move in right this instant. To me, moving in is less than an instant away.

Add to this, we just got some news we have been expectantly waiting for.

Now we wait

Wow.

We put in an offer.

Yesterday at this time, we were still kicking around the idea of this house. At about 4 pm, we met with our Realtor and put together an actual offer. This is the first time we've ever considered buying a house, so the whole process has been a learning experience. So now we enter a whole new ballgame: waiting.

Long time, no posts

Wow - it has been a while. And a lot has happened.
We took a job in Aiken, South Carolina (near Augusta, GA), and so we left Ketchikan, AK on January 16, 2008, and picked our way down the West Coast, and then along the southern part of the US. We took our time - we didn't get to Aiken until February 2. It was a great trip - Nora was amazingly good, despite some tummy issues. We got to see so many amazing things - the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the Grand Canyon, Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands . . . We also got to hang out with some family along the way - in TX and FL. It was so nice to take a trip as a family. We haven't done a whole lot of that - it's prohibitively expensive to travel away from Ketchikan, so we saved our travel for holidays.
We really like Aiken. It's a gorgeous town, with lots of things to do and see. We are looking for a house, and *hopefully*, we are getting close. We have a house in mind, and we may make an offer on it very soon. Till then, we will continue living in a hotel. It's not quite as awesome as it may seem. On the plus side, I haven't cleaned, done laundry, or cooked in a few months. On the minus side, I miss being able to do those things . . . even if I may sometimes grumble about them. I think it's hard on all of us - we can't really relax, or put down roots. My best friends, if considered by the amount of time I spend with them, are our Realtor, the front desk staff at the hotel, and maybe some of the wait staff at local restaurants.
It will change, I know. Soon, this will all be a distant memory.