…to be continued.  Hopefully someday soon.

A big part of my keeping to a budget has been menu planning. Each week I take a look at what’s in the cupboard and decide what to make for dinner each evening. Breakfast is every man for himself and lunch is dependent on whether the husband is home or not. Planning dinners has allowed me to shop sales and make sure the food we buy gets used and not thrown away. Plus I love to find recipes and then ignore them when I cook, the menu plan gives me a starting point. So let’s see what’s on for this week…

I am not even attempting a menu plan this week.  We move on Wednesday and I’ve spent the past six days packing boxes.  I hate packing the kitchen so I don’t even want to spend any mental time there right now.  Our meals will come from the freezer and cupboard, be simple, easy and use no more than two pans, a spoon or a spatula as everything else is packed.

We are using a system that is somewhat based on $80/week for grocery and non-edible and the $50 a week budget. Each week we calculate how much we spent overall and I announce if we are under or over budget.

eating out – $49.42

grocery – $7.99

grocery non-edible – $5.42

Apparently sending the husband and Toddler L away for a few days is all my budget needs.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa for feeding my family.

Every week I talk about food waste. Why? Other than it’s so cool and fun? In the hope that it will make me aware of how much food (and money) I’m throwing away when something gets tossed in the garbage and not eaten.

Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. via Wasted Food

Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl started documenting her food waste in March 2008, added pictures and then challenged her readers to join the fight. Don’t be a Grouch, keep it out of the can.

Just a quick post to say that we are doing a great job of cleaning out the freezer, have made a huge dent in the cupboard and there’s little more than condiments in the fridge.

And I haven’t thrown a single thing away to do it.  Not even the fortune cookies I found that are probably at least a year old.  I figure Toddler L will think himself so lucky to have such a special treat.  And it’s not like a two year old is much of a fortune cookie connoisseur, a little staleness will not be noticed.

It may not be the most economical choice but it is husband’s one desire to not move food so we are eating everything we can and will buy new (local) goodies to stock the (new) cupboards.

Now back to my packing.

That’s a pretty good adage when it comes to making the most of our possessions.  But what about the re-make aspect?  To me, that’s where the real fun lies.  I think the Wary Meyers agree.

They found not only the use-ability but also the humor in their used up stuff.  Their new book, Wary Meyers’ Tossed and Found Book is definitely on my Wish List.  I especially love the how-to sketches and behind-the-scenes planning pages.

By scrounging through flea markets and trash bins the Meyers have found items that lived a great life and given them a whole new existence.  Basketball hoop turned side table anyone?  From garden to dining table – ceiling?

If you’re inspired, check out a great article about John and Linda Meyers on Design*Sponge.

via Make

I saw this site and just had to share.  It has nothing to do with the Compact or frugality or environmentalism or design or anything at all really.  But it made me chuckle and that’s worth something.

It Made My Day!!  Little Moments of WIN is a collection of everyday situations.  There is nothing terribly special about the situations except that they may be funny.  Here are some moments that made me laugh,and look for new opportunities to say IMMD.

I was digging through my old first grade notebook today. In response to a prompt that read “I am happy to be a kid because…” I wrote, “I can sit on the toilet backwards and yell Yeehaw!” IMMD.

There was a power outage in my dorm, and while I was walking through the pitch black halls someone started whistling Luigi’s Mansion. IMMD!

My 12 year old daughter ran up to me with her iPod. She put one earbud in each nostril, cranked up some tunes and the music came out of her mouth. Then she opened and shut her mouth making it seem like the music was going on and off. IMMD!

Do you have an IMMD moment?

via Land-O-Links

A big part of my keeping to a budget has been menu planning. Each week I take a look at what’s in the cupboard and decide what to make for dinner each evening. Breakfast is every man for himself and lunch is dependent on whether the husband is home or not. Planning dinners has allowed me to shop sales and make sure the food we buy gets used and not thrown away. Plus I love to find recipes and then ignore them when I cook, the menu plan gives me a starting point. So let’s see what’s on for this week…

Saturday – meatloaf, corn on the cob, sweet potato fries

Sunday – HOHO

Monday – leftovers

Tuesday – WOHO (the husband and toddler are gone for a couple of days.  I’ll be eating down the cupboards.)

Wednesday – WOHO (I could make a mini pizza because it’s Wednesday but I can’t plan when it’s just me.)

Thursday – WOHO

Friday – beans n’ biscuits

We are using a system that is somewhat based on $80/week for grocery and non-edible and the $50 a week budget. Each week we calculate how much we spent overall and I announce if we are under or over budget.

eating out – $98.91

grocery – $67.58

grocery non-edible – $12.58

We are still eating down our stores so the grocery budget has been scaled back.  In fact, I haven’t been to the grocery store in weeks.  The husband has been going to pick up the essentials.  That’s why the grocery total is as high as it is.  Milk and produce may be expensive but its the ice cream that really puts us over the top.

Every week I talk about food waste. Why? Other than it’s so cool and fun? In the hope that it will make me aware of how much food (and money) I’m throwing away when something gets tossed in the garbage and not eaten.

Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion. via Wasted Food

Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl started documenting her food waste in March 2008, added pictures and then challenged her readers to join the fight. Don’t be a Grouch, keep it out of the can.

What the…?

Yes, that’s half an onion.  I have a theory about why I’m throwing away half an onion that’s about a month old.  I’ll explain it later.

I also have a large quantity of what was supposed to be tapioca pudding.  In preparation for our upcoming move, the husband has asked that I use up all the food in the cupboard.  He’d like to move no food whatsoever.  I’d like fewer fine lines and wrinkles.  Some of us live in reality and some of us ignore it.

But I digress (shocking I know).  In my wifely duty of pleasing my husband I decided to make tapioca pudding with the tapioca that had been in the cupboard for almost two years.  This was  a bad plan on two counts.  One, my husband prefers rice pudding.  (Oh right, I like tapioca.  Ooops, silly me.)  Be that as it may, apparently tapioca can’t be trusted to sit in an open box for almost two years and still maintain high standards of quality.  Not to mention the fact that I had the heat too high and therefore had the unfortunate result of cooked milk and egg that was neither smooth or silky in texture.  And that was on day one.

We each ate a bowl anyway.  I declared it inedible but the husband, always the trooper, swore he liked it and would eat it all.

Lucky for him, I stuck a spoon in it on day two.  Definitely the worse for wear.  Now the tapioca wasn’t just chewy it was sort of…dense.  The husband didn’t even protest when I told him it was a goner.

Now I’m craving tapioca pudding.  Guess I should go eat that ice cream so we don’t have to move it.

Target is doing their bit.  So is Ikea.  Now the Public Works Department for the County of Los Angeles has stepped up to the plate.  Or in the lingo of spokesman Luke Walton, they’re taking it strong to the hoop.

Public Works will conduct its first countywide “Brag About Your Bag®” reusable bag campaign beginning on “America Recycles Day”, November 15 and runs through “A Day without A Bag”, December 17, 2009. We will team up with Albertsons, HOWS, Ralphs, Top Valu, and Valu Plus supermarkets to host countywide reusable bag giveaway events and distribute over 50,000 reusable bags.

The “Brag About Your Bag®” campaign goal is to unify the County of Los Angeles, the 88 cities, non-profits, and other entities to help educate by:

* increasing public awareness of the litter impact on the environment;
* promote the use of reusable bag;
* increase at-store recycling of plastic bags; and
* reduce plastic carryout usage

Plastic bags certainly have a lot of uses once they make it home.  But if you don’t have a dog and aren’t considering making that lovely 1950′s era knit dress maybe this will be the tip-off for change.

image via Craftzine

A big part of my keeping to a budget has been menu planning.  Each week I take a look at what’s in the cupboard and decide what to make for dinner each evening.  Breakfast is every man for himself and lunch is dependent on whether the husband is home or not.  Planning dinners has allowed me to shop sales and make sure the food we buy gets used and not thrown away.  Plus I love to find recipes and then ignore them when I cook, the menu plan gives me a starting point.  So let’s see what’s on for this week…

Saturday – OUT

Sunday – banana pancakes

Monday – spaghetti

Tuesday – black beans and biscuits

Wednesday – pizza

Thursday – garden burgers

Friday – tuna casserole

We are using a system that is somewhat based on $80/week for grocery and non-edible and the $50 a week budget.  Each week we calculate how much we spent overall and I announce if we are under or over budget.

eating out – $114.39

grocery – $29.64

grocery non-edible – $0

Your votes were headed and the weakly accounts are here to stay.  After being waylayed by travel and poor health menus are again being planned and spending is being counted.  Last weeks spending is more a result of the latter although the fact that there was some sort of eating out almost every day would beg to differ.  Luckily we have been eating down our pantry so groceries were limited to the bare basics.  I’m hoping we can keep the same spending this week, without the abundant eating out of course.

Every week I talk about food waste.  Why?  Other than it’s so cool and fun?  In the hope that it will make me aware of how much food (and money) I’m throwing away when something gets tossed in the garbage and not eaten.

Americans waste more than 40 percent of the food we produce for consumption. That comes at an annual cost of more than $100 billion.    via Wasted Food

Kristen, over at The Frugal Girl started documenting her food waste in March 2008, added pictures and then challenged her readers to join the fight.  Don’t be a Grouch, keep it out of the can.

Can you say bad week?  Let’s itemize…

1) About a 1/2 cup of hummus – no bread or veg to eat it with, dated early October

2)  About 2 tbsp of tzatziki sauce – I just didn’t come up with ideas to use it up, also dated early October

3) Full package + half pack of tofu – dated early October (noticing a trend?), I try to be a tofu eater but all it really does is show my lack of creative cooking when I can’t get through one package in 2 months*

4) Probably about a 1/4 cup of cream – I planned to use it for bread but haven’t made bread in a couple weeks with travel and all

* I haven’t actually thrown out the tofu yet assuming you, dear reader, will tell me this is just another case of “best by” date propaganda.  Any tofu eaters out there that can tell me how long it keeps when unopened as well as when opened but stored in water?