Yes, I am almost broke and here’s why. Can you believe that the jar of local honey pictured below cost $11.99?? And then as if that was supposed to be a good deal the big jug of 100% pure maple syrup (grade b) was on sale for $18.99! I thought I might come out ahead this week after having our leftovers from the party get us through the beginning of the week, but as it turns out I could have never bought these sweeteners without that help! Luckily, the super expensive syrup should last us a long time (I do use a little in my mocha on most mornings), and I am going to have to start watching the honey more closely. But my guess is that jar will last us 2 – 3 weeks since I use it a couple of times a week to make granola.
Speaking of granola I figured out a super cheap way to make it. I was planning to buy all of the ingredients I normally use (cashews, almonds, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds) when I realized that a Trader Joe’s bag of sunflower seeds is much cheaper than their pumpkin seeds and a bag of almonds is a fraction of the cost of their cashews. While we prefer to have all of those goodies in our cereal (the cashews are my 3-year-old’s favorite part!) it is good to know that if I am tight on cash it doesn’t mean we have to skip the granola all together.
So anyway, I only have 15 bucks and some change left for the farmer’s market on Saturday. T
his is what I’ve been spending my money on… Continue Reading »
By Lisa, on November 4th, 2010
As previously mentioned we are experiencing a complicated budget week between hosting a party and house guests. My parents arrived the day after our Halloween Party and we all took advantage of the leftover food, but I knew it wouldn’t last us throughout their visit. I did buy a few extra things from the farmer’s market last weekend (from a separate entertaining budget) in preparation for their visit including bell peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, and apples. I was feeling kind of guilty that I bought some things outside of our regular $125 budget, but thinking back that isn’t really that much food!
In addition to those extras, this is what I got with our remaining $19.85 last week from the Farmer’s Market…
- Broccoli
- Cucumber
- Tomatoes
- Two dozen eggs
- Bag of spinach
So this is how things totaled up at the end of week 4 after I spent every last penny! Continue Reading »
By Lisa, on November 2nd, 2010
This is going to be one complicated week when it comes to budgeting. First of all, our Halloween Party (which involved feeding dinner to 90 people) was of 
course not included in our weekly grocery budget of $125. Let’s just say we spent even more than that on just the one evening of food for everyone! And we ended up with some leftovers after the party, which we’ve of course been eating (and didn’t technically “pay” for out of our grocery budget). The second complication is the arrival of our first set of extended houseguests since starting our budget. You obviously need extra food for extra people and I don’t know about you, but when the houseguests are my parents they inevitably end up buying some groceries of their own (more on that later)!
Back to the party. I thought it would be a little easier to just serve one big dinner as opposed to making a bunch of separate little dishes or appetizers. So everyone knew to expect some grub and in exchange they each brought an “adult beverage” to share with the crowd. And, oh a crowd it was! Part of our invitation went like this: Continue Reading »
$125 budget week). At first, we were actually going to have a decent dinner of quiche until some lovely errands and laundry caused me to run out of time to wait for it to bake. So I opted for a quick broccoli/cheese omelet, and no one seemed to mind the change in plans except for my 5-year-old. I guess I made the mistake of originally telling her we were going to have quiche, but she normally loves eggs so we of course told her to eat what she was served because that’s what was for dinner!
