It's a great question and there isn't one answer. For me, I have to totally stop spending money. So this week I've been digging around in my freezer for food. Last night I made chili (oops - meant to make taco meat!) served with rice and green beans. WEIRD!!! But we didn't go hungry!
We have another all day track meet coming up so I bought lunch meat. It's a total rip off, but it's definitely convenient. Hopefully for the following track meet I'll have my act together and make some chicken and egg salad.
I mentioned in a previous post that I messed up my grocery money so I'm playing financial catch up right now. I may end up using monopoly money like my sister does so I can go back to a weekly grocery budget (gets confusing with a bulk beef order and wanting to limit trips to the butcher). How do you handle your grocery budget when you buy some stuff in bulk and some stuff weekly? I probably gave some advice about this in my blog a while back, maybe I should re-read my blog!
I bought a pork roast from the grocery store. I really like supporting our local butcher so I have to remember to be more financially responsible in the future :-)
Here's my plan for the next few days:
Breakfast: I found some sausage links in the freezer and some ground pork that I will make into patties. My husband still has cereal and we have yogurt available for my son. As long as my daughter gets a piece of meat she's happy. As long as my daughter eats meat we're all happy since she has blood sugar issues (crabby crabby crabby!) if she doesn't eat meat first thing in the morning. I usually eat a hamburger and some veggies.
Lunch: Sandwiches for my family, not sure what I'll have.
Dinners:
- Fri - Spaghetti Sauce with burger, sausage and ground pork
- Sat - Pork Shoulder roast in the crockpot
- Sun - Hot Dogs from the butcher shop
- Mon - Carbonara with burger and bacon (I'll try to find the recipe and update it. I know it was on my other blog, but can't seem to find it right now)
- Tues - Chicken/Tuna/Egg/Peanut Butter Sandwiches (track and baseball night)
- Wed - Bacon, eggs and smoothie night!
- Thur - Ham and Bean Soup (depending on weather)
- Fri - Beef and Broccoli
With the baseball and softball season coming up, I really need to figure out food that I can bring with to the games. My husband won't eat until about 7:00 and I will have to leave the house with his food at about 5:15. I haven't figured out how to pack hamburgers and have them stay warm. I don't want to serve him chicken salad sandwiches 4 nights a week! I could put the beef and broccoli in one of the kids' thermos. Any other suggestions anyone?
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we started t-ball this week, and wow does that mess up my menu plan/schedule! my daughter has has games twice a week-we leave at 5:15 and don't get back home till after 8. i really need to figure out something for these nights-this past week did NOT go well ie we had popcorn as supper after one of the games :0
ReplyDeleteWe buy a half cow a couple times a year. The first time it was hard to swing. What I do now is set aside money for it every month and put it in a special savings account at my bank. That is my "sinking funds" account. I put money in it for all of the big things that don't need to be purchased every month, like car insurance or clothing.
ReplyDeleteI like the monopoly money idea. That might help me with the growing bits of my grocery money that I spend on Amazon buying diapers, paper products, and some other things when I can get a better deal than the usual grocery store price.
Annie - that's what I was doing, but I was putting away too much money, then struggled with our other food money. I might try the monopoly money starting with our May 20th pay period and see how that goes.
ReplyDeleteSara - if you figure this out now, you're life will be much easier! I'm just now figuring out that I have to make dinner in the morning then the kids and I eat before we leave and after we get home, if hungry. My husband is another story.
As far as the hamburgers go, maybe try putting them heated into a preheated thermos and then he can assemble them at the game? (Do a test run of course to see if they stay satisfactorily warm for a couple hours) My husband is a farmer so several times during the year field work keeps him out over lunch - I've done several things in the thermos to alternate with cold meat sandwiches. Sloppy Joes (w/o the bun), taco meat/bean/cheese/rice, beans 'n weenies. Or maybe some runzas (is that just a Nebraska thing?) those could stay warm if heated hot and then wrapped in alum foil and a towel and put into a cooler.
ReplyDeleteAnon - Excellent ideas!
ReplyDeleteNever heard of runzas...I'll have to google it.
I'd love to see some present-day (and ALL day) crock pot recipes....I'm talking fix it and forget it for a good 8-10 hours....
ReplyDeletehotdogs in a thermos, hamburgers wrapped in foil will stay ok for a bit
ReplyDeleteoh just thought of our favorite ham and cheese
ReplyDeleteWe do a lot of burgers and I wrap them in foil and then put them in a small cooler for hubby to eat at the field. They're not hot for him, but still warm. For cold foods (all day tournaments) I like to cook steak bites with a good marinade and then they taste good cold. Eating dinner at the fields is definitely a challenge!
ReplyDeleteShopannies - ham and cheese? Warm or cold?
ReplyDeleteMary - how long do the burgers stay warm for? A few hours? We leave a little before 5 and Wes doesn't show up until about 6:30 or 7:00. Do you think they'd be warm?
Have no idea how to cook steak bites but they sound awesome! Like sirloin steaks chopped up, marinated and then sauteed?
I am loving the beans and rice idea...he'd love that.
I recently blogged about having a Power Savings Month, which is essentially what you are doing, only on purpose. I think it can be really cathartic for your kitchen and your budget to occasionally stop spending money and become really creative in order to use up extra items laying around the house. Good luck!
ReplyDelete