I thought we would be into the fresh food by now but we’re still waiting to spend a couple days in the maternity ward so limited produce in the fridge.  Let’s see what we’ll be eating…

Monday:  salad (1 head of lettuce to use up)

Tuesday:  burgers & beans (need to make buns)

Wednesday:  pizza (toppings TBD)

Thursday:  bratwurst (will attempt hot dog style buns with the Tuesday baking)

Friday:  stir fry

Saturday:  tuna casserole

Sunday:  buttermilk pancakes

Mix-ins, toppings and sides are really loose around here.  What needs to be used, when do we get to the store and what fits within the timing of making dinner.

My brother was visiting and (I hope) enjoyed the fruits of my menu planning.  He was surprised and impressed (I think) that we are having weekly home-made pizza.  I love doing it because I know the husband loves having it.  I’m still searching for the perfect crust but it’s a fun (and tasty) search.

But what I was getting at was that it has really helped me to have a couple of “tradition” days like Wednesday and Sunday (pizza and breakfast), so I can concentrate on only 5 other meals.  I’m still not that imaginative with my menus, I’m taking it slow.  Actually, I think I was more imaginative in the beginning of this process.  As I’ve spent the last 4 weeks expecting a baby any day (as if I have any say in the matter) I’ve lost some of my momentum for thinking up tasty meals.  I’m so lucky to have a husband who will eat just about anything.  And say it’s wonderful.

Our budget was $80, we spent…

Sprouts Farmers Market – $42.66 (no savings   I forgot my bags, so no credits there)

Trader Joe’s – $12.84

Vons – $17.54 (savings = $11.77)

Ralphs – $5.99 (savings = $0.90)

Costco – $35.73 (applesauce, butter, beer)

CVS – $11.90 (savings = $11.76)

A grand total of $126.88.  Definitely over our budget but what you can’t see is the 3 month supply of applesauce and husband’s body soap, 3 month supply of beer and probably month long supply of butter depending on how much baking I do.  So, considering Costco and CVS were bulk buys and not a weekly expense I’m okay with where we are at.  Except for the issue of forgetting my bags at Sprouts.  It’s a pretty rare problem ever since I opened up about it, but it definitely annoys me when it happens.

My mother-in-law has been visiting on the heels of my brother.  (Both in hopes of helping with Toddler L during our days away, as if that has worked out for us – NOT.)  When she was last in town I had a batch of Artisan Bread in the fridge and made some for dinner.  Even with my beginner challenges it was such a success she has made it twice in the month since.  I am thrilled to have introduced this great bread basic to a woman who is known for real baking on a regular basis and making bread whenever she has the whim.  MIL  says this is so easy she’s a true convert (at least for the great bread-with-meal loaves).  If you haven’t checked out the book or the website/blog and tried it yourself you’re really missing out.

Don’t worry I say that as a slow convert myself.  But really, yuuuummmmmmmmmmmm.

Let’s see what we’ll be eating this week…

Monday:  eggs in spicy tomato sauce

Tuesday:  pesto pasta with shrimp

Wednesday:  pizza

Thursday:  chicken strips, carrots

Friday:  spaghetti

Saturday:  pulled pork sandwiches

Sunday:  wholewheat pancakes (finally got in the whole wheat buttermilk pancakes last week – yummmm!)

This week’s menu is a lot of pantry items and I’m not planning a lot of fresh fruit and veg.  That’s intentional, I’m not punishing my family.  It’s that we don’t know from one day to the next if we will be at home the next week or so.  I need foods that can keep if they don’t get made.  No nice summer salads this week.  Oh well, at least the weekly pizza is going well.

Our budget was $80, we spent…

Sprouts Farmers Market – $29.63 (savings = $0.10)

Costco – $49.64

Trader Joe’s – $5.50

Vons – $1.17 (savings = $2.80)

Walgreens – $1.16 (savings = $5.60)

A grand total of $87.10.  Not bad considering most of what we bought were bulk items that will last from a few weeks to many months.  Stocking up really can save big bucks when done right.  Thanks to all the coupon experts out there that have made it so easy for me to save money.

It still surprises me how much I enjoy being in the kitchen.  Sometimes.  When it works, it really works.  I have gotten so used to cooking now that it’s not a stretch for me to make from scratch something I don’t have in the cupboard.

Father’s Day dinner was steak, shrimp and a side of pasta.  No veg but the husband was thrilled – all his favorites on one plate.  To top it off I decided to have some ice cream with his wonderful oatmeal chocolate chip cookies crumbled on top.  (Don’t worry, someday I promise to post that recipe so you can all judge for yourself.)

Somehow that didn’t seem like enough though.  I needed chocolate syrup.  I didn’t have any chocolate syrup, haven’t bought it in forever.  No worries, I’ll make some.

What?  Make some?  Make something that can be purchased in a bottle for convenience?

Why that’s just crazy talk.

Yup.  I’m crazy.  Cuckoo.  There I was, in the kitchen after dinner making chocolate syrup.

It took about 5 minutes.  And then we had sundaes.  And they were really good.  You can do it too.  Go ahead, try it.  Chocolate syrup in the fridge whenever you want it?  Life is good.

Here’s the recipe from Cooking Cache.

1 cup cocoa powder (unsweetened)
2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup cold water
1 tablespoon vanilla

Combine all of the ingredients, except the vanilla, in a medium saucepan. Mix well.  Cook over medium heat until boiling.  Continue cooking until thick.  Once cool, add vanilla.

(according to Cooking Chache – Cost Analysis: (30 ounces) Store bought: $1.89 Homemade: 90¢)

The real challenge is in waiting until the chocolate is cool to add the vanilla.  I couldn’t.  I needed to eat it right away.  And it was good.  I know I said that already.  But I’m still surprised by the little things in life.

One last food item and I’m out of here.  Some of you may remember my Life to Leftovers conundrum that Jonathan Bloom of Wasted Food helped me out with.  Or I should say his readers helped, much to our mutual delight.

Now I have a similar challenge for you.  I just put about 2 cups of (unpitted) cherries and a handful of grapes in the freezer as they were probably hours away from being past there delicate prime.  The grapes, I know, can be eaten as a frozen treat but what else can they do?  And how about those cherries?  I don’t make pies and I don’t can (yet).

What’s a girl to do?

I recently wrote how much I am enjoying the menu planning.  And then last week I had no menu at all.  This week was a bit of a struggle.  It’s kind of like going to the gym.  (Not that I do that either.)  If you take a day or so off it is so hard to get back into the habit of going.

I’m definitely glad I have a menu for this week, I think it will be much easier to just look at the list and pull the corresponding ingredients from fridge or freezer each day.  But I’m still lacking in the creativity department.  Gotta kick that up a notch next week.

Let’s see what we’ll be eating…

Sunday: hoho (husband on his own)

Monday: vegetable casserole with tofu topping

Tuesday:  no cooking, we’re out at a jobs in the new green environment conference

Wednesday:  burgers, corn on the cob

Thursday:  chicken strips, sauteed carrots

Friday:  waffles

Saturday:  shrimp in creamy tomato sauce

To round out the week we had a major shift in our shopping trips compared to last week, for which I am very grateful.  From 10 stores to 3 was a huge improvement for my frazzled brain.

Our budget was $80, we spent…

Sprouts Farmers Market – $41.88 (savings = $0.15)

Target – $12.03 (coupon savings + $2.00)

Costco – $29.64

I know I said last week that Costco would be a monthly (or less) trip and yet here we went again the following week.  I confess, it was due to my poor cupboard sweep.  In the list making last week, I did not note that we needed apple juice.  As that is a staple in our house (Toddler L gets a shot in his water), it just makes sense to buy it at the best price.

So back I went.  Unfortunately, by going back I opened myself up to a request from the husband.  Beer.  I’m not opposed to having beer in the house.  I’m opposed to being denied the occasional beer if it’s in the house.  (Six weeks and counting!)  But when you have a husband that doesn’t ask for much and makes (from scratch) your favorite cookies, you let him buy beer.  Even when it puts you over budget.  Luckily, (at least when I can drink it) he has good taste in beer.  And again, that usually means the best savings are at Costco.

At a final tally of $83.55, we did pretty well.  Not the “way under budget” I was hoping for this week, but as $12.67 of that was beer (he split a case with a friend – all to help the budget, what a guy), I am not too upset.

I am really excited about some ideas to put the design back in compact by design, so stay tuned to see what that ends up being.

This weekend had all the makings of being perfect.  I got a truly wonderful surprise on Saturday when a group of friends had a surprise baby shower for me.  I don’t expect those kinds of things and I certainly didn’t expect this.  I hadn’t even considered having a shower as we have so much from our first for the new baby to use.

Occasionally I have been given to some apprehension about having a baby in a year we decided to buy nothing new.  But the few items we would not have been able to find used were just gifted to us (thanks again ladies!!) and I think we are pretty much set.  We were given a gift card to a favorite kids consignment store as well as a renowned kids store – Crate and Barrel.  (What?, that’s what the card said.)  (I will admit though, my first thought [okay second thought, right after YEEESSSSS!], was how expensive everything was going to seem.)

The husband and Toddler L gave me a cake and a glorious bouquet of flowers from our neighborhood, independent florist.  And after a strict reminder that I would appreciate NOT getting a store-bought card, husband went into the card drawer (we have many blank cards from pre-Compact days) and found something perfect.

Alas, the weekend did not carry through quite as beautifully and I haven’t been able to write or do all that I would have normally written or done.

I have no menu plan for the week.  Right now, I’m leaving it as a fill in the blank.  If you’d like, feel free to make suggestions.  I have moderate cooking skills, basic staples and foods and no imagination at the moment.

Let’s see what we’ll be eating…

Sunday:

Monday:

Tuesday:

Wednesday:

Thursday:

Friday:

Saturday:

Perhaps we will simply have Mother’s Day cake every day.

Yes, I think we might.

As for the number of stores visited this week just to do our grocery shopping, YEE GADS.  I know.  But we walked to one and all others (minus one) were directly en route to other destinations.  And with savings like what we saw at CVS (3 boxes of favorite cereal 88¢ each), Ralph’s (6 boxes Barilla pasta 99¢ each) and Walgreens (husband’s preferred deodorant 27¢) it’s hard to not make a quick pitstop sometimes.

Our budget was $80, we spent…

Sprouts Farmers Market – $27.91 (savings = $0.15)

Vons – $7.69 (savings = $4.80)

Ralphs – $5.94 (savings = $9.80)

Walgreens – $2.27 (savings = $2.50 + $2.00 credit | original cost $4.49+tax…final cost $0.27)

Target – $1.84 (savings = $4.49)

Cost Savers – $14.49

Trader Joe’s – $11.62

CVS – $2.64 (savings = $10.93)

Bakery Outlet – $4.18

Costco – $46.93

So, before Costco we spent $78.58 , still under budget.  But Costco pushed us over.  I’m still trying to figure out how to work the Costco trips into our budget.  We didn’t really buy that much, just 5 items.  But the savings made it worth while for sure.  I probably would have spent about $16.00 for just a portion of these items if I had bought them this week at another store.  Now I don’t have to buy them for at least a week or several months depending on the product.

I’m figuring about $30 extra spending due to the Costco trip.  If I allow myself that much over budget for a monthly trip I can plan to work at keeping the remaining weeks as much under budget as possible.  Typically, I’m pretty happy staying under budget, but this scenario would have me really working to keep it as low as possible.  I don’t know how feasible this is but it’s the current thinking.

What do you think?

Do you warehouse?  As I was considering the inherent value in this I found a post on the very subject over at Money Saving Mom.  Apparently there is great debate over buying in bulk.  Who knew?