
1. Sold 2 dozen eggs.
2. Returned $12.30 worth of pop cans.
3. Made five pints of applesauce.
4. Harvested beans, peppers and mint.
5. Dried the mint to make tea with.
6. Used a 50% off coupon at Joanns to buy glue sticks for my hot glue gun. I saved about $4.00.
7. Finished formatting my book for print and ebook format! I ordered a proof of the physical copy just to make sure everything is okay before I have a bunch printed.
**************
If you remember, last week I bought a few basic groceries- milk, eggs, cabbage, onions and carrots. I still have most of the milk, cabbage, and onions left.
Meals Last Week:
1. Breakfast for the most part was skipped by Hubs, and I had two scrambled eggs (a total of $0.28 for the two) many days last week. There may have been a day or two where Hubs had yogurt and/or granola. The granola was technically free because it is leftover from the farmers market, and the cost to produce it has been covered in those expenses.
2. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, I used some apple cider that we got for my birthday to make mulled hot cider. It cost $1.00 per quart (we used one quart per day) and the spices cost about $0.25. Generally we try not to buy beverages, and that is why! During those three days we spent more on cider than dinner.
3. For Monday's lunch I made "leftover chili" with some leftovers from the freezer, plus one jar of homemade enchilada sauce ($0.10), one jar of home-canned beans ($0.35), a little bit of molasses for flavor ($0.05) and homemade chili powder seasoning (free). I served it with some sour cream and homemade cheese ($0.20). Total cost for this meal was $0.70.
4. For dinner on Monday I made pumpkin soup. I used a free pumpkin, free broth from the freezer, a bit of onion, 1/3 cup or so of sausage from the discount store, peppers from the garden and a little bit of flour for thickener, with salt and pepper for seasoning. It turned out very good. I estimate the cost for this meal around $0.56; the cost of the onion, sausage and flour.
5. On Tuesday my sister came over to visit. We had to run some errands, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to cook. I decided to make a stroganoff dish for lunch with canned venison chunk meat, seasoning and pasta from the bent 'n' dent, milk and flour. Total cost for this meal was $1.17, and it fed three people with some leftovers.
6. For dinner on Tuesday we had leftovers from lunch, scrambled eggs, and... candy. I know, that's kind of lame. But we had a church activity that night and I didn't have a crock pot meal ready.
7. On Wednesday we had leftover chili and pumpkin soup in bread bowls ($0.11 each) that I had made. However, the bread bowls were really too big, and there wasn't that much soup left. We ended up scraping out the bottoms of our bread bowls and then spreading them with peanut butter and honey... which probably cost another $1.00. Next time I will make the bread bowls half the size. Estimated cost for this meal was $1.22.
8. Eating Out This Week: Wednesday night was date night, so we ate out; I believe the total was around $15.00. Thursday night we ate out with friends (someone else ended up covering the tab) and Saturday we had lunch at Arby's, on the way to a wedding. The Arby's meal- one sandwich and curly fries for each of us- cost about $20.00. "I could get a burger and bottomless fries at Red Robin for that amount!" I told Hubs. If you don't order off the "bargain menu", fast food can be just as expensive as a sit-down restaurant. It's kind of ridiculous! If I would have planned better, we could have eaten sack lunches. But I didn't plan better. Before we got to the wedding, we stopped at a Dollar General to buy a card for the happy couple. And we also bought something to eat before the wedding, and this happened to be... candy. I think it was about $5.00.
9. For lunch on Thursday we had tacos. I used the rest of the chunk venison from Tuesday, along with tortillas that we already had in the pantry, salsa from the garden and homemade cheese from the week before. I had a crock pot meal planned (and cooking) for dinner, but then I remembered that we were going to eat out that night. The crock pot meal was a little overcooked by the time we got home that night, but I put it in the fridge to eat again anyway.
10. On Friday I re-warmed the crock pot meal (venison steaks, carrots, and potatoes) and we ate it for lunch. I estimate the cost of this meal was about $1.62; the cost of the potatoes and carrots. For dinner I used the leftover meat, carrots and potatoes, along with some free frozen broth and a little bit of milk ($0.12) to make soup. Hubs ate his soup out of one of the bread bowls ($0.11). Total cost for dinner was $0.23.
11. On Sunday we had lunch at my parents' house to celebrate my brother's birthday. For dinner I made scrambled eggs with salsa and peppers from the garden, along with a generous helping of homemade goat cheese. I used eggs from our chickens and ducks, which I'm counting as free because we sold enough stuff this year to pay for their winter feed. Does that make sense?
We Spend a Lot at Restaurants.
Total cost for this week's food was $48.77. If you don't count the restaurants and Saturday candy purchase, the cost for food was only $8.77. I've discovered that Hubs and I spend a lot, LOT more money when we are away from home. We really enjoy restaurant food and money is not an issue at this point, so I don't try to curb spending in this area (unless it using a coupon or something like that). I would consider eating out more of a lifestyle choice, similar to buying a fancy car or more house than you need. Restaurants are a fun way to waste extra money, if you have it.
Sometimes I feel do bad about the principle of eating out or buying things like candy or ice cream. I never did that when I was single; it goes against my frugal morals. But now that I'm sharing my life with someone else, he has just as much right to spending money as I do. He is certainly the one who makes most of it! Sometimes as wives, we try so hard to spend as little as possible in our chosen area (like groceries), and then our dumb husbands go and blow it on a bag of Doritos or candy without even blinking. For a couple with debt, this would be more of a struggle. But for me, I have to remember that marital happiness is worth more than money, and I buy a lot of "dumb" stuff too. I buy books, kitchen gadgets, plants, and animals that we don't really need. It's easy to blame the other person for spending in your chosen area of frugality, while you overspend yourself in other areas; buying too many ebooks or indulging in multi-level marketing products, for example. No, they're not really "investments"... they're a fun way to waste money just like the bag of Doritos or $10.00 Arby's meal.
Being generally responsible with money as a couple (not carrying debt, saving a large percentage, buying less car and house than you can afford, etc.) will allow room for fun things like eating out OR buying yet another orchid. Money struggles cause power struggles, and I am happy to be free from both. Most of the time... ;)
Groceries for This Week
For this week, I bought a 1-lb. tub of sour cream and a "free" Ibotta banana. Normally I buy a brand of sour cream called "Monticello" that costs $1.28- well below the price of the other brands. This week, however, the Monticellos were not there, but I found a same sized tub of Deans sour cream for $1.16. So that was nice. I also bought a box of Little Debbies for my brother's birthday. Total cost for groceries this week was $6.83 (though $1.94 of that was technically "gifts", and $0.25 will be given back to me for the banana rebate).
Some "free" groceries I want to use this week include a summer squash, onions and potatoes that my mom gave me, leftover bread and/or granola from the farmers market, bread bowls in the freezer and more garden produce.
Til next time,
-Bethany