Reminder: You have till Tuesday evening to submit your affordable recipes for my Saturday contest. Keep ‘em coming!
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Shopping: None, but I’m feeling weak. I barely resisted Linens ‘n Things – Cooking Sets, (on sale!!!)and Gymboree – Girls clothes - (cute!) I’ve decided I need to swear off Mir’s Want Not because it always tempts me to buy goodies I don’t need just because they are on sale. I’m sure that’s not the intent of her blog. Nevertheless, that is the effect it has on me.
Menu
Breakfast-Pancakes and OJ
Lunch- Fried rice (leftover rice, minced chicken, peppers, carrots, onions and garlic), watermelon, apples, grapes.
Dinner- Chicken Enchiladas (made 2, froze 1), cucumber/tomato salad with vinegarette dressing, Baked Apples.
We are swimming in fruits and veggies this time of year. Between the garden and the $230 of food I bought, I am really curious to see if we can make it till the end of the month.
We usually spend $600-$700 per month on food, so it truly would be surprising if we could get by. Of course we also had some stuff in the pantry. But hubby is predicting that it will be looking pretty bare by the end of the month if we don’t go to the store. We’ll see.
I’ve already found myself being more mindful about my cooking, and choosing more affordable recipes, while still aiming for lots of variety. Either a fresh bread (biscuits, muffins, rolls) or a dessert does a lot to jazz up a simple meal. And you save sooo much simply by cooking from scratch. Sure, you spend more time cooking, but so far it feels kind of like an adventure to me–an interesting challenge. We’ll see how it feels by the end of the month.
I used to do once a month cooking all the time, and was always amazed at how affordable the food was when I bought it all at once and had a good plan.
I’m not sure how I got out of the habit. Probably it was because cooking it all in a day or two is such a huge undertaking. But so far this experiment is making me think at least I’d like to do once a month PLANNING. Then I can cook as I go, doubling recipes and freezing whenever I get the chance, to build up my freezer stash.
Book cravings: I can hardly believe it, but in the last 3 days people have offered to loan me two of the three books on my wish list. Here I was thinking I’d actually have to do without. What a blessing!
I'm Mary, wife to John, and mom to 10 kids ages 3-20. Six of them were adopted, from Ethiopia and Korea. I spend my days applying Bandaids, reminding kids to use their inside voices, persuading kids fractions are useful, cooking spicy ethnic food, and snapping gig after gig of pictures. Very late at night, I write about it all.
I am out of a lot of good habits too! Bulk cooking and cooking from scratch used to be common but I have gotten into too much convenience. That is what I am trying to do this month–get back into my habits! It is really not that hard, just more time consuming, but I really do like doing it!
That is soooo cool that you’ll still get to read some of your favorite books! $230 is a pretty tight budget for a family as big as yours! I’m excited to see if you make it or not. Other than you, Tonia (intent) and me, do you know if anybody else is doing 30 Days of Nothing?
Heather
Heather,
Here’s another person I’ve been reading
Maced with grace: I got nothin
I think there are a few others listed on Tonia’s site too…you just have to wade thru all the comments to find them…
Hang in there, sister! You’re inspiring all of us to look at what we can do without and how to reel in our spenind habits. My husband thanks you!
Dawn
http://homeschoolmama.wordpress.com/
My favorite cheapest recipe:
I invite my family over to a freinds house to eat their supper.
It’s good to be my friend!
stick with it! This will be such an awesome experience for you and your family!