What We Ate and How Much We Spent on Groceries – Week 9 of 52

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