The Professional Domestic

Week 11 was all over the place in the meal department. Sunday we had a chuck roast with squash and veggies, Monday was my birthday! I didn’t want anything for my birthday but my husband did convince me to at least go out for dinner so we did do that Monday after work. Tuesday was again birthday themed with a dinner at my mom’s. I share my birthday with my niece so mom made soup, salad, fruit and cookies for the three of us to mark the occasion. It was fun with just us girls! Wednesday we had roast leftovers. Thursday we got a pizza because I was knee deep in orders for home delivery, Friday we ate the ever classic corned beef and cabbage for St. Paddy’s Day, which I cooked in the crock pot and Saturday we had a 60th birthday party for a friend and ate there. Looking back on all of this now I can see why my stomach was acting up yesterday! Don’t worry I’ll get back to cooking normally this week.

Groceries were again minimal this past week with $65.09 spent.

Most of our groceries this week were centered around St. Patrick’s Day with a corned beef roast, carrots, and cabbage. I didn’t find any earth-shattering deals, just picked up a few things we needed.

Total spent week 11: $65.09

Total for March: $139.39
Grand total for the year $1062.59

Did you find any great deals this week on groceries?

See you next week! -MM

Happy week 10! We ate a lot of turkey sandwiches this week for lunch after last week’s 23 lb turkey!

Groceries were very minimal and I only spent $72.30. I was only going to pick up a 1 lb package of ground beef to make meatballs but Caledonia was offering 80/20 big packs for $3.99/lb instead of $6.09/lb for the 90/10 1 lb. that was a no brainer for me. I divided the package when I got home and made more meatballs and froze 3 packs for later use.

It was an extremely busy week. I had 4 bakery orders going out between Friday and Saturday and I was swamped trying to get other things done but I did manage to get a few good meals made.

Sunday we had spaghetti and meatballs
Monday we had leftovers
Tuesday we had chicken stir-fry
Wednesday we had big salads with leftover turkey
Thursday we ate out
Friday the hubs and I split a fish fry
Saturday we went to a party

For some reason I took no photos of the meals we ate this week. I’ll do better with that!

I get asked a lot of questions about my grocery posts and one is what about eating out. Eating out is not included in our grocery budget. Meals out come out of the entertainment budget and I specifically asked our kids to just give us gift cards to restaurants for Christmas because it’s hard to buy for us sometimes, and they obliged :). Being able to use a gift card is awesome because I don’t want to cook on Friday nights after work.

I also get asked how we spend so little on groceries especially now with grocery prices being so high.

1. I shop specials and I order from the store ahead of time if there is a particularly good deal coming up. I get info for the 1 day sales at Caledonia before everyone else because I have to post those sales on Facebook for them. If you see a sale item that you know you are going to use a lot of or can store it long term don’t be afraid to stock up or call a store and talk to the managers. They would be more than happy sell you a large qty.

2. I use what I have instead of running out to get things for a recipe. If you have run out of an item for a recipe try using a substitution instead of running to the store. I didn’t have macaroni one day when I went to make goulash but I had a brand new box of rotini pasta. That same recipe I used two green onions in the dish that I had in the garden instead of buying onions. Shopping from your pantry stock really helps keep grocery trips down.

3. I try not to waste food. We all do it, I am no different, but I have really been cracking down on our food waste. I have stopped throwing out stuff from the freezer now that I have dedicated myself to using my Food Saver vacuum sealer. It’s a game changer.

4. I grow as much of our veggies, fruits and herbs as possible. I haven’t bought sage, basil, parsley, jams/jellies, or onions, etc. in a very long time. I finally broke down and bought a bag of onions last week because our onion crop sucked this last year but I am proud to say our potato crop lasted us 5 months!

5. I make pretty much everything we eat from scratch. Sometimes I cheat, like having Eggo waffles or fish stix in a pinch, but even the teriyaki sauce we had on our stir-fry I made from scratch.

6. The hubs and I share a lot of meals. Literally! We will buy a large sub and halve it. Friday nights we have been sharing a fish fry. You may think that guys need a lot of food to feel full but they really don’t. Guys tend to over eat in my observations! Plus sharing a meal is almost intimate in nature. I watched a couple I know share a meal out at a meeting and it was so sweet to watch one take a fork full then let the other one take a fork full. Quality time and save money…that’s a win!

7. I don’t include things we don’t eat in our grocery budget. You can’t eat toilet paper!

Total spent week 10: $72.30

Total for March: $72.30
Grand total for the year $923.20

Do you share meals with your spouse?

See you next week! -MM

Week 9 groceries were pretty significant for us. I always say buy only what’s on your list when you shop, but last week I made an unexpected purchase. A 23 lb Butterball turkey jumped right into my cart! Yes it was the last frozen turkey from the Thanksgiving season and it was only 99 cents/lb. You bet I grabbed it. Other significant purchases last week were a London broil for $10.68, 6pk pork chops for $6.39 (great price and I froze 3) and of course creamer for $8.99 (I need to work on getting a better price). I also had 2 doz eggs delivered from our farmer friend who came at the right time to push my sons car out which was stuck in the driveway. What service!

Total spent on groceries: $133.13

Although I was super excited about the turkey I picked up, I did have an epic fail last Wednesday night which REALLY upset me. I have been reading Mavis Butterfield’s blog for a very long time and in her latest posts she is trying to use up what’s in her canning cabinet before summer starts. To use up her home canned goods faster, she has been setting out a few jars each week with the intention of using the contents in a recipe. I thought that was a fantastic idea but instead of just my home canned goods I would also use something that had been in my pantry for a bit.

I decided to make Mavis’s recipe for Saturday night beans and the reason I was so excited was that I had two packs of pulled pork already frozen in my freezer and I had a bag of dry navy beans in my pantry I needed to use. I talked about these beans all day at work. I spent my lunch preparing them and putting them in the oven and I skipped down the back steps at the end of the day and couldn’t wait to get home to check on their progress. When I got home I checked and they weren’t done yet so waited another hour and checked again. And checked again, and checked again. The beans just never softened up even though I had done everything I was supposed to (soaking overnight etc.) Finally at 8:00 pm I just ordered a pizza. I was crushed. Seriously. My son thought I was being ridiculous. It wasn’t such a big deal, Why was I so upset? I wasted 6 hours of energy cooking in my oven and wasted all of those ingredients and I had nothing to show for it. I threw the whole thing in the trash.

After sulking for a while I got online and realized my dry navy beans were too old. Yes, dry beans that are too old will not re-constitute. Who knew? I didn’t know that. I didn’t think they were that old actually. The article said best to use old beans as a pie weight. Great. sigh….

Lesson learned. I won’t make that mistake again, but I will try Mavis’s recipe again with fresh ingredients. I’m sure those beans are fabulous!

We did however, eat that big boy turkey on Saturday with four other friends and we had a fabulous time together. I think we all need to go back to eating with friends and sharing meals with each other. Can you imagine what it would have cost to feeds seven people out at a restaurant? No thanks lol!

Here are some of the meals we ate in week 9:

Total spent week 9: $133.13

Total for February $133.13
Grand total for the year $850.90

Have you ever had an epic fail in the cooking dept?

See you next week! -MM

In week 6 I tried not to buy much of anything in the category of groceries. I used what we had in the pantry and freezers and came up with some pretty great meals for us. Total spent in week 6- $34.39

I had a lot of ground beef in the freezer so tacos and chili were made, one night we went to a friends for dinner, one night was just fish sticks, rice and broccoli and two nights were leftovers. Super bowl Sunday I made pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw We went to mom’s on Tuesday night and she made mac and cheese and fruit and salad so we wouldn’t have to cook before we left on vacation. She’s the best!

Week 7 & 8 we were on vacation! Alright not that entire time. We left Wednesday the 15th and got back Wednesday the 22nd. Yes the hubs and I drove from NY to FL and back in eight days. We traveled through eleven states! For three meals on the road we used the gift cards we received from our kids for Christmas. We were pretty sick of restaurant food by the time we got back for sure.

As far as groceries during that time, my son, who was still at home, shopped and cooked for himself. I reimbursed him for the money he spent. In week 7 he spent $69.56 and before we left I spent $55.78 getting odds and ends he might need. The meals he made for himself were spaghetti and meatballs, (he made the meatballs from scratch), beef and broccoli and rice, (he made the teriyaki sauce from scratch), steak and glazed carrots, and tacos for taco Tuesday. Pretty impressive if you ask me! He had some trouble making the meatballs and teriyaki sauce but he said they tasted good so that’s something we can work on together soon.

We got home Wednesday night to a lovely snow and ice storm, I was too tired to cook so I just made myself a bowl of spaghetti. On Thursday I made a full on dinner of pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon with roasted mushrooms and sweet peppers and corn from the freezer. Friday we split a fish fry for Lent and yesterday I baked two large split chicken breasts and had butternut squash and stuffing mix to round it out. The only things I picked up at the grocery store for week 8 were stuffing mix, milk, Lactaid and English muffins for a total of $17.78.

Total spent week 6 – $34.39

Total spent week 7 – $125.34

Total spent week 8 – $17.78

Total for February $314.31
Grand total for the year $717.77

Tell me what YOU ate this last week and hey egg prices are finally falling in our area!

See you next week! -MM

I bought a lot of groceries in week five but also got some really great deals!

The store had a sale on split chicken breasts and fresh chicken wings for $1.49/lb! Have you seen the price of chicken wings lately in a restaurant?? Each package of wings had 8 full wings in it so that’s 16 flats/drums and I got two packs for around $3 each! I also picked up two packs of the split breasts and each contained four breasts. Egg prices are steadily falling, thank goodness. I picked up an 18 pack for $5.99 and this week I see another store has a dozen eggs for $2.89 and butter 2 for $6 so I will be stocking up, especially with Lent baking season starting in a couple of weeks.

Total spent in week 5- $136.80

The beginning of the week was good in the meal department. We had of course chicken wings on Sunday while we watched the Chiefs game for which I thought my husband was going to have a stroke watching. (He’s a diehard Chiefs fan). Monday we had just two of those huge split chicken breasts stuffed and with veggies on the side for the three of us. That’s how big they were! Then pepper steak with mash potatoes on Tuesday. Wednesday was cereal/leftover night because I didn’t feel like cooking. But Thursday, Friday and Saturday we had take out because we were working so hard all of those nights down at church getting ready for the thrift sale we had there on Saturday. It’s amazing how fast our bodies react to bad food because by Saturday my stomach was not happy! Don’t worry I got back on track for Sunday.

Total spent this week $136.80

Total for February $136.80
Grand total for the year $403.46

Tell me what YOU ate this last week? Are prices starting to fall where you live?

See you next week! -MM

I am so excited with how Week 4 went and actually for all of January! The only items I purchased were a frozen dinner bowl , a loaf of Italian bread and a couple of other odds and ends for a total $23.54. We had everything else we needed to get by and if I ran out of something, instead of running out and buying it I just made do and improvised.

It was a good week in the meal department. Sunday I made a big pot of meat sauce with spaghetti and Italian bread which we ate for lunch for about 3 days after as well. We also had a big pot of chicken soup, and crockpot chili sauce chicken with stuffing and beans. We even had a white pizza on Saturday night which we got for free for the hubs doing a favor for the pizzeria owner. Those are the best kinds of pizza right? I also made two loaves of raisin bread to test out my yeast for St. Joseph’s bread season which is right around the corner. It was very yummy.

Total this week $23.54
Grand total for the year $266.66

What did you have this week for dinner that was interesting? Have you ever though of a no spend month? That is definitely one of my goals coming up.

See you next week! -MM