Monday, January 2, 2012

December Food Spending Week 5, Meal Plan January Week 1

*I am taking part in Precious' MONEY SAVING CHALLENGE again for 2012.  You can find her blog FRUGAL MAKES CENTS and a list of other participants and their blogs  HERE.
Check it out.  You might find some new ideas for incorporating frugality into your life there!*


I love searching around for old photos and advertisements featuring kitchens from years gone by.  These are mostly the kitchens from my youth in the 1960's or earlier.  Some I look at surely stand up to being innovative and attractive even by today's standards, some are very "kitchy" lol now and then there are those that fall under the heading of "It SEEMED like a great idea at the time!".
With that I give you the Pepto-Bismol Nightmare Kitchen....


What was FORMICA thinking?lol
I guess the he-men who obviously ran that company in the 1950's were trying to appeal to the women's feminine side?
Egads!!
It's a cute novelty but imagine having to walk into that room every morning at 7 am and fix your family breakfast(not to mention having to spend more time in there throughout the day).  No wonder our mothers drank and took up prescription sedatives.....

Enough of that, onward to the Meals and Food Spending. 8-)


Last week's meal plan is in the books.  Here is what actually happened....

SUNDAY--Ham, Rolls from scratch, Deviled Eggs, Rutabaga, Green Beans, Cranberry Glop, assorted pies
MONDAY--Leftovers
TUESDAY--Leftovers
WEDNESDAY--Date Night-I have a free dinner for 2 to Applebee's
THURSDAY--Leftovers
FRIDAY--Cheese Steaks
SATURDAY--Crudites and chips with dip, homemade Pizza-using dough Hubs picked up last week for cheap

Instead of 2 meals to prepare, I made 3 meals. The ONLY explanation for making myself do more work than I wanted/had to was yes, I got tired of eating leftovers. lol
We still have a substantial amount of ham leftover to use this coming week.  I used the hunk of bulk bought roast beef deli meat #1 son wanted me to buy before Christmas(and then he didn't eat)to make the cheese steaks the night #2 had a sleepover.  Whatever meat was left after that was frozen.  We still have some barbecue pork and homemade rolls left to use up this week.

The food spending was fairly low last week.
In all, we spent $72.82 last week at the grocery/drug stores.....well not really, we actually only spent about $45 last week.  But this $72.82 amount includes $27.35 I spent the 2nd and 3rd week in December at Rite-Aid.  I forgot to add this amount in earlier this month, so I just tagged it onto my spending at the end of December.
I made 4 trips to various stores.   Reg. retail of $475.08(including the Rite-Aid items)so I saved 84.61% last week(mostly due to the Rite-Aid savings)....without R-A items it would have been about 60%.

My Dec. food spending total was $307.74.  Just over my budgeted amount of $300 for the month.

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftovers-Pizzas, BBQ
MONDAY--Ham, Harvard Beets, Mashed Potatoes, another green Veggie
TUESDAY--Fish, Wild Rice, Apple Salad
WEDNESDAY--Mac and Cheese, Broccoli
THURSDAY--Omelets,Fruit Salad, Toast or E. Muffins
FRIDAY--Rigatoni and Meat Sauce, Salad, Garlic Bread
SATURDAY--Kielbasa on rolls, Onions, Ginger Carrots


Items needed for this menu.....Salad Greens, Eggs, Rigatoni, Fruit, Milk.  There are some fish deals locally so I make do a little stocking up on that item.  No other plans for food shopping this week at the moment.
For January I am going to keep the $300 Food Budget since the daughter will be home for almost all of this month.  February's budget will go down to $250 since it will just be 3 of us again.

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy

6 comments:

  1. That kitchen matches my bathtub! I live in an old funky house and thought the pink tub was the funniest thing I had seen. That kitchen trumps my tub for sure!

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  2. I have to say, though,, that it looks like the washer and dryer are in the kitchen, which I would love! It also looks like a double-oven, one of which is at shoulder height. I'd love that, too. I'd just do it up in something more modern. Avocado green, maybe. :)


    LOL...word ver. was "rewirrus". Probably what those old appliances are asking for...

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  3. Oh, set an extra place at the table for me on Saturday, would you? YUM!

    Thanks for the shout out. I am so looking forward to the challenge this year.

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  4. Wegmans had "special today" chickens and it killed me to only buy two. But since we are moving, I can't stock the freezer. We'll be eating a lot of pizza. I'm taking a good portion of what I pull of the chicken and mixing into the cat's food. The white/breast meat will top salads. Well, I'll be making stock too!

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  5. LOTS of leftovers still! I can't wait until all the chips are eaten up and out of the house so I can start to lose some of this holiday weight!
    I plan to be more frugal this year!

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  6. I have been terrible about following my food menu. It's the holidays and something was constantly coming up. Thank God for canned spaghetti sauce!

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