Monday adventures

In an effort to get back into the kitchen, I decided I would stop at Bottom Dollar as part of my morning errands. The selection of Bottom Dollar was completely due to location. I wanted to do my morning errands on foot.

My husband took the car to work and so I walked the children to school (as I do every school day). I continued from there (in the rain!) to Minuteman Press where I dropped off the last issue of the Greater Lehigh Valley Writers Group newsletter for the 2012-2013 season. I will not be resuming duties in the fall.

I need to move forward. 

So I stopped at Bottom Dollar with $12 in my pocket. My checkbook has $50 left to make it until Friday...

I spent $3-and-some odd cents. Head of fresh broccoli, corn tortilla chips and a bag of Fresh Express iceberg garden salad mix.

I came home and made hummus. Got a little too much lemon juice in there, now it's runny. Have no more chick peas to mix in. Nor do I have tahini. I'm tempted to mix in some of the calamata olives left and some of the olive tapenade from Wegmans. Tossed in some zaatar seasoning. I could add roasted red pepper dip. That could work...

Got some harissa and zaatar bread from the freezer. Maybe I'll make couscous with raj el hanout. 

Today will produce some fine adventure...

Lost my mind

The last few days have been full of quick meals like vegetarian chili, food from the freezer, tuna sandwiches and homemade French fries.

Some really yummy scrambled egg wraps with raspberry salsa and Morningstar vegetarian sausage.

Child has an ear infection again so we're limiting dairy.

Today we ventured out to use a discount coupon for 6 Dunkin donuts for $3.

We ate them all.

Today is partially a celebration since we did fabulously with the September grocery budget. We spent about $120 on dining out, which included my husband's birthday dinner and several highly discounted Starbucks drinks.

We got pizza once and maybe steak sandwiches once.

Grocery budget will come out to less than $150. But the freezer is totally empty, the garden depleted and a friend recently brought fresh broccoli, cauliflower and green beans. And crackers.

Budget contemplating on pizza night

My jaw feels almost perfect these days, despite the obvious exposed bone in my gum line. I have even chewed some food on that side of my mouth, and I can say that the healing where #29 was is in better shape than the last bottom molar on the other side of my mouth.

I go in to my regular dentist Tuesday to have that tooth tackled, so this weekend may be a storing-up-calories pig out in case I am reduced to pudding and yogurt once again.

We delivered girl scout cookies tonight, ones that had not been paid for. Our family pooled our funds and decided to stop at Dario's for pizza on the way home.

I had $14, my husband had $16 and the cookies yielded $14.

Large white with fresh ricotta, chopped tomatoes, broccoli and spinach = $15. Add a drink for the child, a 2-liter of coke for Mom and Dad, some fried zucchini sticks and French fries and the bill was just under $25 before tip.

This got me thinking about our budget:

DECEMBER:
- We spent $460 on medical expenses.
- $271 on groceries (and some of that was 'extra' food storing up for when I'd be traveling for two weeks in January)
- $236 on dining out (bad us: Target café, Target Starbucks, Five Guys, Wawa, MexTex Trio, Dario's, Forks Mediterranean Deli and China Fun. But in our defense, that $236 covered 17 transactions)
- our spending for the month was $1,000 more than our income, so we visited and depleted the savings account. Those medical expenses and our quarterly bills (water, sewer, garbage, life insurance) snuck up on us

JANUARY
- Overall spending was $300 more than income, which considering I was out of work for almost a month is reasonable
- groceries amounted to $136
- dining was $157, this included seven transactions. Two visits to Tic Toc diner, a trip to Friendly's on the way home from Girl Scout camp, MexTex Trio.

FEBRUARY
- This month our spending is on track to match our income
- I've spent $127 on groceries, but that doesn't include the $81 at Wegmans where I used gift cards
- dining: $89, including tonight's pizza, Chinese to celebrate daughter's report card, Joe's Steaks and several coffee runs.

Must curb spending. I can do better.

Pet supply shopping at Target

I had several coupons for Target expire, and I needed a few cat items so we picked up some odds and ends after my 12-4:30 shift. Child needed Zyrtec.

I had a budget of $70, but spent $92. Had to transfer some funds from savings. I literally had to walk out of the store before I finished in the Market section.

Too many good deals. And how can you say no when you can eat them?

- Archer Farms imported from
Belgium, dark chocolate covered biscuits (sounds like Petit Écolier to me), two boxes on clearance for $1.18 each
- ground Italian sausage, about a pound, on sale for $1.55 (regular $3.09)
- fresh express Veggie Lovers salad, regular price, $2.99 on sale for $1.99
- Campbell's condensed Cream of Chicken soup, on clearance for 35 cents, regular $1.02 (for some reason my daughter begged for this)
- pretzel rolls, $2.49
- beef round steaks, 3, $3.35, $3.18, $3.52 (normally $5.49)
- three boxes of Boo Berry cereal, on clearance for $2.26 each, minus $1.50 coupon
- green giant vegetables, on sale 10/$10, five boxes
- two boxes of green giant vegetables at $1.37 each
- frozen strawberries, $2.26
- Very Vanilla Silk, $2.99
- one block of Market Pantry mozzarella, one block extra sharp cheddar, $2.19 each
- sauve shampoo, 97 cents
- cetirizine, the big bottle, $12.49
- Kleenex, two boxes, $1.39 each minus a 50 cent coupon
- 7 lb bag of Purina One urinary health cat food, $10.99 minus $2 coupon
- 40 pounds of Tidy Cat, $11.99 minus $2 coupon
- Morningstar breakfast patties, 3 boxes at $3.29 each
- two Market Pantry family dinners (one orange chicken and one chicken tamales), $5.49 each minus $1 coupon
- tampons, 2 40-count boxes, $6.99 each minus $1.50 coupon and a free box of 36-count pantiliners

Total: $109.77
Minus team member discount: $11.78
Red card discount: $4.90
Tax: $1.11
Final total: 94.20

Lots of shopping

  This is the second or third time I started this blog entry. The interface has been eating my entries, whether I hit 'save' or 'publish.' Last time I got as far as about 700 words before losing everything so now I'm typing this in Pages on the iPad with the hope of copying it into Blogger when I take my husband back to his office at one.



The iPad failed as well, so I'm guessing it's a mobile application failure.

Last week (and I suppose today too) was the end of the month. I dread the end of the month. It's the budget make-or-break time. I knew I had spent my allotted budget ($300 on dining and groceries combined) going into the final week, so as long as I didn't spend any money on food we'd hit the goal.

I made it to Thursday. By Thursday, we had eaten close to everything in the house. My plan for dinner was to make a tuna rice casserole. I had broccoli in cheese sauce in the freezer, plenty of rice for the steamer and a big can of tuna. Except I had class until 2:30, had to pick up the child at 3:15, and retrieve the husband from his office at 4:30. So the rice never got steamed. And with 40 minutes to steam the rice and another 40 or so to bake, it looked like the casserole wasn't going to happen unless I wanted to have dinner at 7 pm. I would seriously have a hunger meltdown before then.

We went to Giant. Figured it would be cheaper than eating out. And potentially quicker. I was thinking Crôque Monsieur sandwiches, but then daughter asked for TV dinners. I was astounded.  TV dinners??? We get them about once a year, or maybe every other year. I said okay. I'm apparently crazy.

So, everything in this shopping trip probably qualifies as completely unhealthy, unnecessary and impulsive.

We bought:
- Cool Ranch Doritos, on sale for $3 (did not get opened until Sunday night, watching old episodes of True Blood)
- two packages of microwave popcorn, one butter and one kettle corn, $1 each
- Dole Romaine bagged salad, $2.50 (these were for the tortoise. I should have picked up a second bag because the greens looked so good...)
- Stauffers beef tips in bourbon sauce, $3.29 (this was my dinner. It was edible, but not enjoyable, and the sodium content had me drinking water for hours afterwords.)
- Edwards frozen key lime pie, $5.99 (yum!)
- Hungry Man popcorn chicken dinner, $2.79 (this was what my daughter picked and man did it look like a school lunch.)
- Hungry Man Salisbury steak dinner, $2.79
- black raspberry ice cream, $2.69 (still unopened)
- spinach white pizza, $4.29 (this was our appetizer and our green vegetable component)
- 8 ounce block of Swiss cheese, pepper jack, sharp cheddar and Vermont extra sharp cheddar cheese, 4 @ $1.67 each
- one dozen extra large eggs, $1.79
- sliced Italian bread from the bakery, $1.99 (still gunning for those Crôque Monsieur sandwiches, hence all the cheese too)
Total: $39.79

Saturday, in the middle of our freak snow storm that dumped 10 inches of snow and made the roads a slushy slippery mess, I went to Target for groceries, with my daughter who just got out of dance class and thought the aisles of the store were a great place to practice your jazz routine. I quickly convinced her otherwise.

This sounds more normal for us:

- market pantry diced tomatoes, seasoned, 3 cans at 57 cents each
- market pantry petite diced tomatoes, 2 cans at 53 cents each
- raspberry salsa and summer fruits salsa, one was $2.79 and the other was $2.99
- Barilla whole wheat rotini, three at $1.16 each
- market pantry petit peas, one can at 77 cents
- market pantry unsweetened applesauce in the individual containers, $1.67
- large bottle of canola oil, $3.39
- gold medal unbleached flour, $2.79
- market pantry whole wheat flour, $2.99
- frozen vegetable blends, steam in bags, $1.67, $1.66 and $2.29
- Silk pumpkin spice, 4 at a clearance price of $1.36 each
- horizon heavy whipping cream, $2.49
- horizon organic half and half, $2.99
- archer farms yogurt, 10 at 55 each, minus a 50 cent coupon
- ricotta $1.87 minus a 50 cent coupon
- 2 boxes of Kleenex, one extra soft and one with lotion, $1.59 and $1.57 minus a 75 cent coupon
- 40 pounds of cat litter, $15.59 minus $1.50 coupon
- 2 boxes of Morningstar breakfast patties, $3.49 each
- 3 varieties of Gardein vegetarian products, $3.99 minus $2 coupon
- now I have two mysterious Market Pantry items left, and all I can remember is sweet potato fries of which I bought two bags, they were either $1.97 or $3.09 and what the other item is... Who knows?

Total: $89.74
Minus team member discount: $9.42
Minus red card: $4.02
Tax: 82 cents
Final total: $77.12

But the story doesn't end there. In the tail end of the storm, I had to go to work and my daughter asked for hot chocolate. So my husband drove me in and they bought:

- Archer Farms Peanut butter cup hot chocolate, $3.99
- Archer Farms salted caramel hot chocolate, $3.99
- Silk soy milk, $2.99

Subtotal: $10.97
team member discount: $1.10
Red card discount: 49 cents
Total: $9.38

Coffee, canned soup, blood sugar and budgets

I did buy a few odds and ends at Target last week so we could make it to pay day, and I didn't record it here because life got hectic. On Wednesday last week, I had a 'blood sugar episode' that ended in an indulgent dinner out. That was the day my daughter went to the ENT and received the news that she is getting tubes in her ears Nov. 2.

My husband made scrambled eggs that morning, while I packed my daughter lunch. When the adults sat down to lunch, we had pop tarts and coffee and my husband made himself peanut butter crackers. I promised to eat something later.

I forgot.

So my blood sugar dropped to 90 and with no appropriate fuel in my body I started to shake-- from my hands to my knees. And I ate a bowl of soup, but my daughter took half. (chunky chicken-broccoli soup transformed into a corn chowder with a can of creamed corn, soy milk and curry.)

My husband took me out to dinner. We went to Delahanty's where daughter ate half my jalapeño poppers... She had a jr burger with cheese, bacon and fries. Husband had fettucine Alfredo with bacon and peas. I had a beef and sour sandwich. We all had dessert, and I added a Weyerbacher imperial pumpkin ale for the season and we spent, with tip $62.

Moral of the story: Eating is necessary. And I still don't understand how people can send kids to school with a breakfast of cereal, pop tarts or, as I witnessed last week, Twinkies...

Good news is: Even with this dinner, and my scattered shopping trips, our budget remains in tact. Thus far in October, we have spent: almost 20% of our income thus far this month on food. Gulp. $125 on dining out and $115 on groceries. Hmmm... That leaves $10 for the next two weeks. I'll aim for $50, which will keep the total food expense for the month under $300.

One of the terms of our current budget is NO FANCY COFFEE. But I cashiered last night and discovered many varieties of Archer Farms coffee on sale for $3.50 for the 12 oz bag which is normally $6.99. My favorite tea (Tazo rest) was on sale for $2.79. (I have one 32-ounce mug most mornings and use one tea bag.) And I grabbed a cheap 28-ounce jar of peanut butter.

I bought in total:

- Market Pantry peanut butter, $3.49
- Archer Farms coffee, 4 bags at $3.50 each
- 3 boxes Tazo Rest tea, $2.79 each

Subtotal: $25.86
Team Member Discount: - $2.59
Red Card discount: -$1.16
No tax
Total: $22.11

September '11 report

Another month ends. I'm pleased with the way my budget ended the month from a theoretical standpoint. My goal was to spend $250 on groceries and eating out. This essentially meant not eating out. At all. Ever.

I can be really good with a grocery budget, but my weakness is dining out. I'm not talking the occasional cheap fast food either. We have our favorite family-owned Mexican restaurant where we spend $75 for a multi-course meal that has enough leftovers to feed us for a second and sometimes third meal. We have local pubs we like, and cheesesteak shops and diners... Sigh. And Wegman's café where one of the boards that I serve on meets for lunch.

But I think I succeeded this month-- $160 on groceries and $140 on dining. Now I am fully aware that part of the reason this was possible was because I did an extra grocery trip in August to prepare for the hurricane.

September brings quarterly bills: life insurance, water, sewer, garbage. Early October brings car insurance. Luckily, this September brought a third monthly paycheck for my husband and I. So even with all these bills, Quicken reported that we made $1,000 more than we spent. Then, why is my checkbook empty? And I mean EMPTY. I had to transfer $150 from savings to have grocery money.

So, in search of a bargain, we headed to Target.

We spent $96.01, but many items classify as 'household' and 'gifts' vs 'groceries.' My estimate is that $48.01 was groceries.

We bought:
- Energizer batteries for our garage door openers (household), $5.99
- 2 bags cool ranch Doritoes (one for a party we attended), 2/$5.00
- Archer Farms jalapeño cheddar kettle chips, $2.79 (for the party)
- Fresh Express veggie lovers salad, $1.99 (regular price, $2.99)
- Campbell's chunky soup, chicken broccoli, 2 cans at $1.50 each
- spaghettiOs with meatballs, 2 cans at 99 cents each
- Market Pantry macaroni and cheese dinner, 4 boxes at 57 cents each
- Pacific Foods tomato herb soup, $2.69
- Archer Farms cheese and bacon dip, $2.99 (for the party)
- 5 pounds of rice, $2.99
- chock full of nuts New York roast coffee, $3.54
- 3 12-ounce cans of tuna, $2.19 each
- 1 pound strawberries, $2
- 2 large cans Libby's pumpkin, $2.94 each
- 2 1-lb packages 93% lean ground beef, $1.99 each
- green giant frozen asparagus cuts, 2 packages, on clearance for $2.08 each
- here my memory gets fuzzy: one of these was a mixed vegetable in sauce with green beans and potatoes and one was steam in bag broccoli with cheese sauce, one was $2.06 and one was $1.89
- Alexia sweet potato fries, $3.59 (grumble-- I could buy my own sweet potatoes and cut them myself for cheaper)
- half and half, the quarts, 3 at $1.54 each (that's half price I think)
- 18 eggs, $2.84
- Very Vanilla soy milk, $2.79
- extra sharp cheddar, 8 ounces, $2.49
- birthday cards, one 99 cents, the other $2.79
- snuggimal (birthday gift), $8.49
- 100 piece bags of Hershey candy, 2 at 9.99 (with $5 free gift card)

Went to Giant last night

One week left in the month to meet my budget goals.

I really wanted cake last night and I wasn't up to baking one. So somehow, my husband talked me into heading to Giant. I had $30 in the checkbook (to last until Oct. 13 if I didn't remember to get somewhere with an internet connection and cancel a scheduled transfer to savings). I had the very strict goal of a total of $250 for dining out and grocery shopping.

Before I sneaked to Giant last night, I had spent $130 on groceries and $122 on dining out. But I have one more week to go.

I spent $22.98 last night, and I bought things I can't or won't buy at Target. I was shocked at how many things cost way more at Giant than they do at Target.

I bought:

•  17 ounces tortilla chips, $2
• Polaner all fruit black cherry jelly, $1.99 (Giant has way more varieties of jelly than Target and my child is on a PB&J kick)
• Polaner all fruit blueberry jelly, $1.99
• 2 large containers of Light and Lively Cottage Cheese, large curd. No one else carries large curd and I can't stand small curd. Not that cottage cheese is appealing in any form, but it's a quick protein. $3.49 each
• 15 ounces dry kidney beans, $1.15 (figured I have black beans and white beans in my freezer, might as well add kidney beans)
• 32 ounces vanilla yogurt, $2.39
• blueberry creme coffee cake, $3.99

Hurricane Preparations

Today, once again, I headed to Target on my day off. I have already spent my grocery budget for this month, but with Hurricane Irene headed into the Lehigh Valley this weekend, I feel better getting a few victuals. Of the processed kind that I normally would rebuke.

Now I suppose I should 'fess up and admit that we went out to dinner last night. We were celebrating child's maturity in giving up some old toys, the start of school AND her scholarship that will allow her to continue dance. I had gone to the dance studio and paid for her shoes, having taken the money out of savings to do so, and, not knowing the value of the scholarship, had about $60 leftover.

Being prudent, I said we were going to go someplace cheap and reliable, and that there would be no dessert or appetizers. We went to Delahantys in Phillipsburg, NJ, one of those few towns where you can still get an hour with a quarter in the parking meter. And we've always loved the food.

Bill, with a nice tip, came to $32.05. And we all had a good meal and a relaxing time.

But back to the hurricane. I'm not a worrier when it comes to weather events. But having a small child in the house, I figure I better be prepared for her if nothing else. It has me more worried that my husband and I both have to work Saturday and Sunday, husband during the day and me at night. And my sister-in-law has a surprise party planned for prime hurricane time on Sunday, and being in her own world she refuses to reschedule because she ordered a cake.

So, headed to Target, much later than I had planned because my little diva had to finish her ensemble and her hair combing. Bought her two pairs of school shoes, one of which became two small on the ride home. Have to exchange that tomorrow. I spent $81.27 for everything, but minus the shoes it's about $50. I also used my resusable bags and saved another 15 cents that way.

What did I get?

HURRICANE PROVISIONS

• one of those fancy lighters, the plastic kind for lighting grills, because I couldn't find the matches and am really bad with a cigarette lighter. On clearance for $3.48
• Pirate Booty, veggie flavor, two bags at $2.79 each. Because if we lose power for an extended period of time, I'd rather eat Pirate Booty than cold canned vegetables.
• Market Pantry Ritz style crackers, $2.74 (we have a full BIG jar of peanut butter)
• Market Pantry strawberry fruit bars, $2.99 (50% of the days Vitamin C)
• Market Pantry blueberry peelable fruit bars, $2.99 (ranks much lower on nutritional content but still offers some vitamin C and looks fun, a lot like the Pull N Peel licorice I'm addicted to)
• Ocean Spray 100% Juice, two bottles at $2.29 each (because ironically all my juice concentrate right now is FROZEN so if the power goes out, I'm going to hesitate to open that freezer door because it's still full of ALL sorts of stuff. And I figure if we are all drinking it, a bottle will only last a day so it won't have a chance to go bad unrefrigerated)
• Ocean Spray Sparkling Juice, 4 cans, $2.29 (all of these ocean spray products are regularly $2.99 and I thought the juice might be nice to have on hand as something different should the power be off for a long time)
• Market Pantry 100% juice punch juice boxes, $2.37 (school's coming even if we don't need them for the storm)
• Bread: one loaf of Market Pantry Multigrain ($2.54) and one loaf of blueberry streusel bread ($3.69). More use for than peanut butter. Or a can of chicken or tuna.
• one jar blackstrap molasses, $3.29 (because eventually today if my daughter will ever cooperate, I hope to make a HUGE batch of granola with various nuts, oats, and dried fruit.
• two six-packs of Clif Bars blueberry crisp (it's my favorite flavor). They were on sale for $5 a box plus I had a coupon for $1 off. We still have at least six chocolate chip Clif Bars and a box of Market Pantry nutrition bars. 
• a four pack of everyday tissues, $4.99
• bleach, $1.92
• and other household stuff not due to the storm: dishwasher liquid ($3.44 minus a 50 cent coupon), rinse aid ($3.24) and dishwasher disenfectant ($3.99)

Meeting our pledge/budget

Budgets stink.

They remind me of struggle and how often I don't meet my goals. They rub it in that as soon as things get decent the car breaks or you fall and smash your month or someone gets cancer... You know, life.

It's been ten days since we pledged not to eat out, not to buy fancy coffee (the kind to brew at home) and sacrificed daughter's dance lessons to try and maintain financial stability. I think we've done admirably.

I had a hunger scare at work last night, having eaten my protein bar, and talked myself down from a $4 snack (I had a coupon) to a $1 cookie and a 68 cent clearance organic vanilla milk. The combo was $1.46 after my discounts.

As mentioned in last night's post husband splurged on a bottle of Gosling's blackrum ($14)and a bottle of Vouvray ($12) which will probably be our indulgence for September. We also got a $4 movie.

But it's depressing because our mortgage took 40 percent of our income this month, with groceries and medical combined making almost 30%.

Groceries cost $286.40.
Dining was $69.42 (most incurred before the pledge.)
9-ish days to go.

Of the money spent on groceries:
$78 went to Aldi
$10 to the Easton Farmers Market
$45 to Giant
$3 to Nature's Way for nettle tea
And the rest to Target

Overdid it?

I just got home from Target. I did a cashier shift last night and saw some good deals on items in the grocery department. I went back today and spent the rest of my grocery budget.

I've spent $272.40 on groceries so far this month, and $65 on dining out. I think I can keep the total grocery budget this month under $300. Remember I went to Aldi and stocked up too, but today's deals have my freezer is super dooper stuffed.

I bought:
- cool ranch Doritoes, on sale for $2.50, Target's normal price is $3.69
- Graham crackers, $2.01 (I definitely think Aldi is cheaper)
- Archer Farm Strawberry fruit bars, $2.99
- ocean spray blueberry cranberry juice, no high fructose corn syrup, $2.71
- 64 ounces welches mango-white grape-peach juice, $2.50
- fresh express veggie lovers salad, $1.99 (normally $2.99)
- hunts no high fructose corn syrup ketchup, 2 bottles at $1 each, normally $1.42 each
- vinegar (a big bottle for the laundry) $2.39
- refried beans, $1.14
- salsa, on clearance for $1.48, normally $2.59
- old el paso Spanish rice, $1.86
- old el paso taco shells, $1.52
- small can of green chiles, two at 69 cents each
- archer farm multigrain tortillas, $2.28
- teriyaki sauce, $2.24
- another Asian sauce, $2.22
- ready to serve pasta sauce, $1
- archer farm vodka sauce, $3.29
- avocado, 59 cents
- 1 lb strawberries, $1.49
- bananas, 5 at 17 cents each
- 1 pound 80/20 ground chuck, $2.49
- package of two thick boneless pork chops, $1.49 (I bought 4)
- 1 pound ground turkey, $1.49
- frozen pulled pork sandwiches, $2.11
- frozen 100% juice concentrate, 1 @ $1.47, 2 @ 1.24, 1 welches @ 1.49
- Chobani blueberry yogurts, 3 @ 49 cents each
- archer farms buffalo blue cheese dip, $2.69
- market pantry oriental beef with broccoli, $4.50
- archer farms margerita pizza, $2.99, regular $4.99
- market pantry self rising crust frozen pizza $2.50, normally $4.50
(those pizzas were lunch)
- archer farm monster cookie ice cream, $3.99
- wax strips (the kind for hair removal) $3.99, regularly $4.99
- sauve shampoo & conditioner, 22 ounce family size, $1.67 each
- 12 pack of Clif bars, $12.69
- market pantry chocolate nutrition bars, five pack, $3.99
- cat litter, 27 pounds, $8.89
- 50 Playtex tampons, $7.99 minus $1 coupon
- 48 count panty liners, long $2.74
- 64 count panty liners, regular, $2.74
- band aids, $2.19
- boca spicy chicken patties, $1.99
- Morningstar breakfast patties, 3 boxes at $1.99 each
- 36 double rolls of charmin, $18.99
- tide (52 load bottle) $12
( the charmin and the tide yielded a $5 gift card)

Minus 15 cents for bringing my own reusable bags

Subtotal: $162.42
Team member discount: $15.88
Red card savings: 7.08
Tax: $1.34

TOTAL: $140.80

The Pledge: No More Eating Out

Sigh.

The whole wide world seems to hurt right now. Economically everything sucks, pardon my language. I'm pretty fortunate because I have lots of practice being on the poorer side and even more practice making do and living within my means.

But last night, my daughter's dancing studio called and my dental bills tumbled in with the daily mail. And it just didn't seem possible that we could pay everything and still maintain our debt free lives. The only debt we have is our house. Which we would make a nice little profit on if we sold, even now. In this horrible market.

My daughter has advanced from the one hour to the ninety minute dance classes. And I can't afford the tuition. It's a significant jump. Plus registration fees and shoes, I have one week to gather $200. Could I-- yes. But that would mean more dipping into savings when what's left in the savings account won't even cover repairs to my teeth. If I don't have the money to get my mouth fixed, I certainly won't spend money on tap and ballet.

We talked to the child about it and she shrugged and didn't seem that disappointed. She's a good kid. Yet something still bothers me about asking her to make a sacrifice when as parents we haven't.

I look at our monthly budget and I cringe. When we applied for our mortgage, I remember hearing that 29% of your income should go toward housing. Now this was also at a time when 3 months salary was considered an adequate safety net in savings. (We have almost 2 months today. Several years ago we had six months.) Anyway, today we spend about 27% of our income on our mortgage, which includes our property and school taxes.

I mention all this to offer hope to everyone else who's struggling... There is always room to tighten the belt. I turn to my budget. Where do we already save money?

1. We have one car, that's 12 years old and has no car payments
2. We have no debt (except the house), even student loans are paid off
3. no cable
4. no internet
5. no land line phone in house
6. We spend about $250-300 month on groceries
7. We don't go to the movies, rent them, or use Netflix
8. We borrow materials from the library
9. We don't eat much meat
10. We garden and cook from scratch, now I can add canning to the list if I ever get that right
11. We use vinegar, baking soda, isopropyl alcohol, etc., instead of cleaning chemicals
12. We walk whenever we can
13. We have only used the air conditioner four days this summer

So, how do you cut more?

The key is to balance your desire to save money with the potential to deprive yourself. Deprivation will make you unhappy.

I came up with two suggestions:
1. Replace our New England Coffee with generic Aldi store-brand coffee (That could easily save $20 a month)
2. And this is the HARD one: NO eating out. At all.

In the past I've tried lowering the eating out budget, but I never stick to that. So I'm going drastic. Instead of eating out, we are going to stop at the grocery store and find what we want there. Even if it's frozen pizza or TV dinners.

It is a drastic move, but it's our main expenditure, pleasure and splurge as a family. We spend, on average, 10% of our income on eating out. Lately, it's been closer to 20%. That's why we're going to try this. For reference, we spent the same percentage on groceries that we do on eating out.

May's First Aldi Trip

Did my first round of grocery shopping from the May budget. I'd like to cut the grocery budget as much as I can, as I don't know how much more I can do to cut the price of gas for the car, oil to heat the house, or even the electric bill. Food seems to be one of those necessities that at least has some flexibility as to what you spend on it.

I gave myself a budget of $50, a goal of two weeks of food, and $65 cash in my wallet.

I headed to Aldi to see how I could do. Now, I forgot the ketchup. I also didn't see cream of wheat. But all in all, I think I did well. We'll see what you think:

• Bananas, 2.5 lbs, 76 cents
• Frozen peas, 95 cents
• Steam Easy Spring Vegetables, two bags, $1.49 each (hmmm.... twice as much old fashioned "California Medley" is much cheaper.)
• 64 ounces plain soymilk, $2.29
• Whole wheat pasta, $1.o9
• 1.5 cups chopped pecans, $2.89 (yeah, a splurge. So I can make those fruity nutty oatmeal cookies that almost taste like Quaker Oatmeal Breakfast Bars)
• Three cans chunky-style soup (two chicken and dumpling, one broccoli/cheese) 1.39 each
• tomato sauce, 4 tiny cans, 25 cents each
• 75' of Aluminum foil, 2.29
• Big jar of medium salsa (for the husband: he doesn't like the mango salsa that has all the vitamins in it) $1.69
• carrots, (fresh) 99 cents
• 2 cans apple-raspberry 100 percent juice concentrate 92 cents each (hmmm... looks like we're sticking to apple from here on out, 30 cents difference)
  
• 2 cans white grape-raspberry 100 percent juice concentrate $1.24 each
• Miracle Whip (aldi brand) $1.69 (enormous jar. Sigh. I miss my nayonnaise)
• 2 cans medium sweet peas, 55 cents each (for the tortoise)
• Box of raisins, $1.49
• three boxes of plastic baggies in various sizes for the freezer, $1.95 each
• bran flakes, $1.49
• aldi brand peanut butter captain crunch, $1.49 (succumbed to the "um, mommy? Can I please have peanut butta cwunch?")
• three boxes cheap mac and cheese, 35 cents each
• one bag tortilla chips, 99 cents
  
• A big bag of lemons, 2.69 (anything tastes good in lemon butter sauce)
• spring and butter lettuce, $1.69
• Italian blend lettuce, $1.99
• Broccoli crowns, $1.49
• strawberries, $1.19
  
• 
  

Total: 51.16

Salads on a budget

So, it's been a great food day here.

Breakfast was cream of wheat made with organic 2% milk and fresh sliced strawberries.

Then, an hour long bike ride.

Lunch was a feast of our favorites... gourmet salads and biscuit sandwiches.
My husband was lamenting that my vegetarian sausage (Morningstar breakfast patties) multigrain biscuits sounded yummy. So I made the last two sausages for him and my daughter and fried an egg for myself.

Then I prepped salads:

All salads received romaine lettuce (from the warehouse club), asiago (from Aldi), stilton with amaretto and dried fruits (my inlaws bought it at the warehouse club and couldn't figure out what to do with it), and cheddar. My daughter and I added raisins. My daughter picked Wegmans organic Caesar salad dressing, and I went with the sesame ginger vinaigrette (also from Wegmans) and then for my salad, the clincher, I added hot wasabi bar mix. Fabulous stuff!

I call this salad on a budget because I literally rooted around my cupboards and threw whatever I found in. If you've read a few entries in this blog, you'll already know that I rarely go to the store if it wasn't my plan. I substitute whatever I can, wherever I can.

I may include one of my oatmeal fruit cookies for dessert.

Giant trip

So far this month we've spent $120 on groceries and $120 on dining out. (Plus $40 on a bar tab at the GLVWG conference, but that's another tale and another category.) When I see that I've stayed that close to the budget, I have a tendency to refuse to go to the store no matter what.

But I only have two sticks of butter.

And I think I could make it until April with two sticks of butter but I was thinking about making those sausage-filled French waffles tomorrow for a friend. French requires butter.

My husband volunteered to go to the store. But my list was geared toward Aldi and he was going to Giant. So, I gave him the list and he said he'd do his best.

He spent $26.38 and got:

• 12 ounces of honey, $2.29
• 13 ounces of Giant coffee and 13 ounces of Giant decaf coffee, $2 each
• 2 1 lb boxes of pasta plus 1 lb box of vermicelli, 89 cents each
• 2 lbs bananas at 59 cents a pound, $1.20
• 2 quarts of strawberries, buy one get one free, for a total of $4.49
• 2 packaged Dole salads, $2.50 each
• Silk soy milk, unsweetened, half gallon, plus one half-gallon silk soy milk, chocolate, $2.99 each plus 55 cents off each because of a coupon
• 1/2 pound butter, $1.19 (butter prices are cheaper at Aldi, Wegmans used to be cheaper but their butter prices just went up. I believe Aldi's is $1.79 a pound and Wegmans is now $1.99)
  

New era

To my followers:
Thus far in March I have spent $100 on dining out and about $85 on groceries.

I have been lamenting for months that I would spend so much less if I could keep myself from eating out.

Well, if you've been curious what happens when I tighten the belt and remove some of the gourmet items from our cuisine... you may get your wish.

I am now unemployed.

So, the postings in this blog may change in character. And a new budget is in order...

Wish me luck.

Shopping/budgets

I just finished paying some bills, and I'm disappointed in myself. I hosted two dinner parties recently... but when the end of the month rolled around I had spent $363 on groceries. I always shoot for $250, and allow myself some wiggle room, so I label $300 reasonable. And even the $363 would be fine... but we also ate out several times and spent $121 on that. So that raises the grand total to close to $500. Not acceptable. But in my head, I understand that each dinner party raises my grocery budget by $50.

Now, today is August 13. We have spent $50 on groceries thus far this month. (I had one dinner party July 31 and the other August 7, so that actually lowered my grocery bills for right now because I still have supplies from those dinners in the house. And we had a lot of leftovers.)

I won't be cooking much this week... I have to work crazy hours. Last night my husband made garlic-vegetable pizzas on my crazy white bread I made the other day.

I thought I would spend about $50 a week in August, going to the store each week for just what we need to survive that week. Except for that initial trip to get supplies for the dinner party, I have not been to the store. (We have no milk, no eggs, no cheese, no fresh vegs.)

And now I discover that will have houseguests for a week beginning this weekend. There goes the August budget.

Budget blown and eating gone to pot

Yesterday, we had a healthy breakfast of blueberry muffins, peaches and homemade granola. Then the day just fell apart. My mom took us out to lunch after the art museum, where my daughter had turkey and spinach with rice.

When we came home, we discovered that the bathroom faucet had turned itself on full force, flooding the bathroom, dining room, stairs and basement in the three hours we were gone. We lost our newest computer, as I was doing homework on the dining room table when I left. My school books are soggy and my cell phone quasi-ruined.

So amid the mopping and talks with the insurance company, my daughter's dinner became a slice of leftover pizza my in-laws left in our fridge Friday and my husband and I had Brie, homemade bread and peanut butter after she went to bed.

My daughter woke up with a fever in the middle of the night. So, my husband suggested doughnuts and coffee today. The monthly food budget is already blown. I've spent $200 on groceries and $125 on dining, roughly. We need coffee and some other odds and ends from the store, but with the insurance adjuster coming we may just be living from the freezer for a couple days. But in the freezer we have: a ham hock, spinach-cheese filling for calzones or lasagne, homemade bread, vegetable beef soup, chili, lots of chicken with fruit, croissants, brownies and blueberry muffins...

Oh! And I have some beef for beef stew in there...

End of month review

January certainly did not follow the typical pattern around here. I just reviewed the finances for January and unless I spend unforeseen amounts of money today, we ended up spending $162.53 on groceries and $151.01 on dining. Remember we had a house guest for close to three weeks, and that accounts for some of the cost. And last night I splurged and treated the family to dinner out. That was $37. The great thing is our pantry is not as depleted as usual. I even have enough beef in the freezer for a batch of stew. I have lots of frozen veggies (even artichoke hearts), lots of sauce and plenty of noodles. 

I did not bring the camera last night so you don't get to see the feast we enjoyed. We went to MexTex Trio, a fabulous restaurant in downtown Easton. We've been there four times now (and if our finances were better we would probably be there once or twice a month.) They have a kids menu that includes chicken breast and spanish rice, or quesadilla, or tacos/burritos. We tried the chicken breast. We've tried several of the option and our daughter prefers the Nachos de Rey off the appetizer menu. It's enough to feed an army, so we usually share.

Since MexTex had some technological issues, we had to pay with cash. That meant my husband had to walk to the MAC machine. And it meant there was no wiggle r

oom in the budget for the evening. We had $50.

My husband offered to share nachos with our daughter. I ordered a round of hot chocolate for us. It's $2.50 a cup but man is it incredible. And I teased it was dessert, and we were having it first. (And since my husband got to walk several blocks in the cold it seemed a nice treat to warm him.) I couldn't decide what I wanted so I ordered a chicken quesadilla with a side of spanish rice and a side of fried beans. Then we shared everything. The bill came to $3o.15. I added a $7 tip. We all left full.

I hate to do an entry without a photo, so this is a photo of the fritos and dip we had the other day. The dip was an organic ranch mix that you add to sour cream. It was the first time I tried it, and being me, I added It's a dilly to give it some zing. The family loved it. That little cup was all I made, just enough for a little snack for each of us.