Here we are: the last personal project blog. My final budget update on this site. (For those of you still interested–and thanks for the support, all of you–head over to my main blog, where the Friday budget updates will continue.)
I’ve noticed that I’ve gradually gotten worse at reporting impulse purchases, but our approach to them is different. Rather than seeing them as grocer spending, we see them as overall impulse purchasing/discretionary spending. It means if we blow too much money on fun food stuff, no other fun stuff happens–no movies, no coffee out, no shoes. While our food spending may not have decreased overall, we’re definitely budgeting better–still managing to eat well & have fun dates while *gasp* saving for retirement and having a real savings account. #BigKids
I was sick this week, so I never felt like really making food. I mostly drank 50/50 berry & ate crackers (or cookies). Toward the end of the week, we discovered our new favorite winter-weather salad with beets. I found a way to enjoy beets–or at least hide them under other things I like eating & chew them without gagging. Progress!
This Saturday, the winter farmers’ market starts. Between school work & picking up our CSA, we haven’t been to a farmers’ market in weeks. Since I’m hoping to get all but $10 of our food goods at the winter market, this coming week could be very interesting. People sound surprised when I say that we’ll try to eat just from winter market, but there’s loads that people grow through winter, plus several merchants sell dried goods & ground flour. And $10 gets you a lot of grains/proteins in the bulk food section of the store. I say, bring on this next zero-waste adventure! To be continued…
MENU
Breakfast: homemade toast & apple butter or granola with milk or pumpkin cookies (Hey, don’t judge!)
Meals:
Sun. lunch: kale & onion quiche
Sun. dinner: cheese ravioli with homemade roasted tomato sauce
Mon. lunch: home fries & eggs
Mon. dinner: free pizza! (I love student organization meetings!)
Tues. lunch: eggs & home fries
Tues. dinner: egg & cream cheese baguette sandwiches
Wed. lunch: sweet potato ravioli with arugula pesto sauce
Wed. dinner: smashed potatoes & bleu cheese/beet salad
Thurs. lunch: homemade vegetable noodle soup
Thurs. dinner: smashed potatoes & bleu cheese/beet salad
Fri. lunch: homemade vegetable noodle soup
Fri. dinner: lasagna at a potluck, to which we’re bringing pumpkin whoopie pies
Snacks:
vegan pumpkin cookies, chai
SHOPPING
CSA (this is the same list from last week, as it was a double share)
radishes
kale
arugula
pint of pickled beets
a mondo-sized bag of kettle corn, demolished in <24 hours
braeburn apples
pie pumpkin
butternut squash
mint tea
dried fall herb blend
dried oregano
sorghum molasses (the taste of Indiana autumn–incredible)
pint of persimmon pulp
1/2 gallon of apple cider
Organic Groceries ($53)
baby kale
bleu cheese
coffee
ground ginger
almond milk
cream cheese
eggs
pecans
oats
sugar
potatoes
wine
Impulse Purchases ($20)
out for drinks = buying more drinks & frozen pizza at CVS…
From Garden
spinach
radishes
rosemary
WASTE
- 2 bunches of radishes (into the trash, because they were GOO after being forgotten for weeks in the back of the fridge–epic failure)
- several bags from the bulk aisle that were torn or had flour remnants in them, though we’re trying to reuse more of these
- a box & baggies from a pumpkin whoopie pie mix (hey, I’m not proud if it)
- 1/2 bag of arugula–composted, but it should have been eaten
- 1/4 log of goat cheese, trashed after being left on the counter for an entire day
- beer bottles, wine bottles
- box from pasta for soup
- plastic bottles from several juices & milk
- lots of compost
project V515 