February Food Spending Week 2, Meal Plan February Week 3

*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. 

This week I give you the 1940 Polka Dot nightmare.....

Love the linoleum floor with the black line design, hate the pink color on the metal cabinets but at least it's not as intense as the pink on the chair covers.   It's got a good  working "triangle" layout(the stove/oven is behind the black desk thing/opposite the sink and the fridge is just off the left edge of the picture).  A large chunk of the space is taken up by that clunky black desk and area next to it where you can see the sewing machine too.  Our neighbors at the first house I was born into had a kitchen table and chair set like that, minus the polka dots.  The table was metal and could be folding in upon itself or unfolded to make it larger and there was a drawer in the table like in the picture where they kept their flatware.
My most favorite part of this kitchen?  All that glass block!  Glass block became popular back in the 1930's at the end of the Art Deco period(notice the Deco design on the floor too).  When I was growing up and well into my adult years, having glass block in your home was very unpopular and dated your house as being old and unstylish.  The first apartment Hubs and I shared was a basement dwelling in Baltimore.  One entire wall in the bedroom was glass block.  I suppose in order to legally call it a bedroom, it had to have that block since there were no windows in the room, as 3 sides of the room were underground.
I think it's about time for a resurgence of using glass block in home design. ;-)

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--Subway Sandwiches(Hubs Super Bowl request)

MONDAY--leftover pizza or grilled cheese and soup

TUESDAY--Lasagna(with some shredded veg), Tossed Salad

WEDNESDAY--homemade Boston Baked Beans, Cornbread, Green Beans

THURSDAY--Enchiladas, Mexican Rice w/peppers

FRIDAY--Hot Dogs on rolls, Carrots and Cauliflower
SATURDAY--Leftovers

Pretty much had what was planned.
I talked about what I bought at the stores last week HERE.

The weekly spending was $36.26.

2 Weeks in and I've spent $120.63 of my $300 February food budget.  $179.37 left for the month plus $92.32 leftover from January that didn't get spent.

Going into February Week 3, we have leftover Lasagna(1 large portion), a small helping of BBBeans and leftover Enchiladas(a meal's worth). I froze a portion of the Lasagna and the extra enchilada sauce I made, to use/eat at a later date. 

This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Burger King burgers(in celebration of an excellent report card, at #2 son's request)

MONDAY--leftover Enchiladas

TUESDAY--Hubs is taking me out to local Asian restaurant, I'll make cheese steak for #2 son

WEDNESDAY--Spaghetti & Meatballs(homemade meatballs leftover in freezer), Spinach Salad

THURSDAY--Quiche, Green Bean dish

FRIDAY--Roast Chicken and Veggies
SATURDAY--Leftovers-from spaghetti/quiche/roasted chicken

This menu gives us 1.66 meals out/take-out, 2 nights of leftovers and 3.33 newly cooked dinners.
I plan on using up some frozen items.....homemade meatballs, a pie crust and some swiss cheese that's been hanging around.  I'll see what veggies I have languishing in the freezer that I can throw into the quiche too.  We'll also use up the leftovers from last week plus the bags of salad still left(2 bags) from what I bought a week ago Saturday.

Items needed for this menu are...eggs for the quiche, and a whole chicken.  Since I don't have a chicken in the freezer whether I buy a chicken will depend on the prices I find this week...if it's more than .88lb I'll go to Plan B.  I don't usually plan a meal around a protein I don't have on hand but I'm just craving roasted chicken right now!  If the prices are too high, I'll go with Pork Roast or Chops or Baked Fish instead of the Chicken.  Hey, when you are frugal you CAN have what you want to eat but sometimes you just can't have it WHEN you want it immediately!lol
I have the crust, filling veggies, cheese for the quiche.  I don't plan on buying cream though.  I'll use a combination of 2% milk, evaporated milk and dry milk....all items on hand.

Besides the needed food items, we'll be buying milk as usual. The only stocking up opportunities I see so far are cans of frozen OJ at $1.66 at the independent grocer.  I do plan on buying eggplant(.79.lb)and strawberries(BOGO-if they are FL or CA ones).

I'm figuring on $40 or so for this week's goodies. 

So what is everyone else eating this week?  

Sluggy