Day # 12 My Grocery Savings Plan
Day12 and I have spent a total of 19,50 euros for the past 12 days.
I baked lasted Thursday so I have plenty of bread, cinnamon rolls, coffee cakes and peach turnovers. Our guest left after lunch and I’m still left with:
9 eggs
10 apples
3 potatoes
1/3 of a zucchini (I cut off a small piece to add to my soup today)
1 tomato (since I pick 1 roma tomato and 3 cherry tomatoes from my ‘almost gone’ summer garden, I still have not run out!)
The truth is, I feel so RICH! There is always plenty of good food here and I enjoy the management of the kitchen and the planning of my meals. I guess I’m just like every other homemaker out there… we just love our job!
Breakfast:
scrambled eggs
toast
homemade sausage (I always have sausage on hand because I make it and then can it in jars… sealed under pressure)
french toast with syrup (I brought back some pancake syrup from the USA last time we were there)
orange juice
Dinner: (Guest here)
1st plate: sausage & white ban soup (using the leftover sausage from breakfast, the broth from the chicken & sausage that I canned and then saved when I opened the jars, kale from my garden)
Chicken filetes
French Fries
Green Beans
Salad
Bread
Cupcakes
Supper:
Tonight we are going with friends to a FREE concert with traditional hymns to celebrate the Reformation. Happy Reformation Day!! We will probably just eat some leftovers in the fridge before we go out.
Day 11 of My Grocery Spending Plan
Here we are… Day 11 of trying NOT to spend $$$ on groceries, but rather save it for the Thanksgiving dinner John & I are inviting friends to.
Total spent today: 0€
Total spent these last 11 days: 19,50€
Today we had 3 guests for breakfast. Here is my menu:
Breakfast:
Ham (well, I found out that 2 are vegetarians… so, I’ll have to work the ham into some menus this week)
2 egg omelets for each of the 3 people + John (8 eggs used), I’ll eat a piece of toast to get my day started.
Oven baked potato cubes
toast (homemade bread) jam- homemade
Cinnamon rolls
cereal/milk
sliced apples
yogurt
The 2pm dinner is: (just John and me)
Leftover lentil soup
Leftover paella ( we still have at least 4 more baggies)
Supper with a guest.
Mexican Chicken Casserole
Brown Rice
Salad
Peach turnovers (from my peaches I canned last summer)
You can see how fast we can go through eggs! Our guest will stay another night, but it will be just he and John eating them. So I’ll be o.k. for about a week I think.
I’m anticipating on not spending any CASH at all for a week…we’ll see!
Total for 11 days: 19,50€
Day 10 of my Grocery Saving Plan
Day 10: spent today: 14,02€
Total for 10 days: 19,50€
Meals for today were:
Leftovers! morning noon & night! I say get rid of the Tupperware party in the fridge!
We have 3 guests coming in tonight and 2 will leave tomorrow for Puerto Rico. They are relatives of a missionary who works in Spain. Then this gentleman may decide to stay an extra day with us. We always have leftovers when we have guests so we needed to get busy on the leftovers.
We also have a trip to the village for 3 nights next week and I really don’t like to pack up odds and ends of food… just makes the trip a bigger hassle.
What I bought at the store today:
2 doz eggs
2 tubs of margarine (for baking)
2 kilos of apples
2 kilos of red potatoes
2 tubs of quark (closest to sour cream that we have)
1000 grams of strawberry yogurt
1 bag of peanuts (John needed some right then!)
2 loaves of bread (for sandwiches)
1 bag of lettuce
I also made 2 loaves of bread today for toast, a pan of cinnamon rolls, 1 coffee cake, 1 cinnamon bread and thumbprint cookies.
We have guests in the house so that accounts for the all the baking, which I like to do for them… also for the eggs. The thumbprint cookies I took to our cell group to share. Also, I like to do all of my baking at once so I take advantage of the energy used by turning on the oven.
I’m still feeling encouraged about my savings and will order a turkey for sure! I’ve been passing out the invitations. What fun we’ll have!
Total: for the last 10 days: 19,50€
Day #9 My Grocery Savings Plan
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Posted under: Gardening, Grocery Challenge, saving money
Day # 9 I have spent ZERO today and have spent only 5, 48€ in 9 days! A real victory for me as I gather up the fragments and use all that I have.
Tomorrow I’ll go again to market to buy some items needed for the guests that are arriving tomorrow after midnight but will need breakfast the next morning.
My menu for today is:
Dinner:
1st plate:
Lentil Soup (using my cherry tomatoes & 1 potato)
2nd Plate:
Chicken thighs -Leftover from Yesterday. I fried them yesterday with this WONDERFUL seasoning that my sister-in-law sent to me from the SPICE HOUSE called: Milwaukee Iron Seasoning. Well, all I can say is: YUM!
Green beans
Baked Sweet Potato ( last one)
1 sliced tomato
Supper: omelets & toast (using 3 eggs)
What I have left:
2 tomato ( I found a roma tomato in the garden!)
1 potatoes
2 lemons
a few small onions from my garden
LOTS of Swiss Chard in my garden
½ zucchini
5 eggs
Day # 8 my Grocery Savings Plan
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Day #8 and I’ve only spent 5,48€. I like it. John called the butcher to see about the price of turkeys per kilo and try to order one, so my efforts to save $ for a turkey are paying off in my frugality (comments below)
Today the menu is:
Dinner at 2:
1st plate: a re-worked potato/carrot soup (adding beef broth & hot peppers)
2nd plate:
Fried Chicken Thighs (freezer)
Instant Mashed Potatoes (from pantry)
Fried Cabbage (last of the cabbage)
Sliced Tomatoes (1 left!)
Supper:
Leftover burritos or paella from yesterday
What I have left:
1 tomato
2 potatoes
2 lemons
a few cherry tomatoes from my garden
plenty of Swiss Chard in my garden
a few onions
8 eggs
I spent today: 4,98€ on 2 fresh pumpkins. This was the 1st year ever that I have seen them in the store so John rushed out to buy them. I had hoped for more than 2 so I could can them for pies, but that was all there was. John went for me because I continue with this flu bug!
My total for 8 days on groceries is: 5,48€
I feel that I’m doing well on my savings budget and we got the price per kilo (2.2lbs) for the turkey today: 5,40€ or $8.10 per kilo in USD. We look forward to sharing our feast with friends on November 21st to celebrate our Thanksgiving.
Day #7 My Grocery Savings Plan
2 Comments Posted under: Gardening, Grocery Challenge, saving money
Day #7:
Here is my menu for today:
Breakfast:
I eat lightly usually a yogurt with cereal in it. John will eat the leftover meatloaf and any other thing he finds in the fridge.
Dinner:
1st plate:
Cream of squash soup (I’m making it with hot thai seasonings this time)
croutons
2nd plate:
Machaca Burritos- a Cailfornia favorite using 1 jar of my canned shredded beef, 3 scrambled eggs, cheese, salsa, wrapped in a large flour tortilla
Quesadillas
Leftover salad
Fried flour tortilla wedges sprinkled with cinnamon & sugar
You may have noticed that I’m trying to finish off a package of flour tortillas in the fridge!
Supper:
Paella- we are still working through all the paella in the freezer in 2 portion baggies.
leftover salad
Money spent on groceries today: $0
Total spent the last 7 days: .50¢
What I have left:
8 eggs
2 potatoes
a bit of cabbage
2 tomatoes
1/2 of a zucchini
I also can still pick 2-3 cherry tomatoes each day from my garden.
We have guests coming on Thursday evening so I have to get a few things to buy for that, but I don’t plan on spending anything until then.
Day # 6 My Grocery Savings Plan
Today at church, I bought a bag of homemade bread crumbs from a friend who made them to help our financial committee raise funds. The cost of the bag (about 1 kilo) was $.50 (fifty cents) and although I really didn’t need any, I needed and wanted to participate. I use bread crumbs a lot especially when I make ‘filetes de pollo’.
My spending for day #6: .50¢
My total for the past 6 days: .50¢
My menu for today is:
1st plate:
Potato/Carrot soup (I used leftover stock I had and the 3 carrots)
croutons
2nd plate:
A Colombian friend at church gave us 2 very large ‘tamales’ so we ate those for lunch. Very yummy.These are NOT to be confused with Mexican Tamales.
I’m very thankful for them.
I handed out about 15 bags to my friends with pomegranates and then came home with lunch. VERY nice!
Supper:
Meatloaf (taken out the the freezer, which I cut in slices and froze… I still have several packages left)
baked potatoes w/ sour cream & butter & home-grown chives
salad (this is the last of my cabbage and lettuce) w/ black olives and sliced beets
Green Beans w/ chorizo, onion & garlic
cookies
What I have left:
eggs: 11
potatoes: 2
tomatoes: 3
1 sweet potato
½ zucchini
I can probably go several more days without buying produce because I still have some in the freezer and canned.
Day #5…Grocery Spending Plan
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Grocery Cart
Today I spent $0 on food! Five days in a row!! Hallelujah! I was gone working at the church until 4pm and John ate leftovers. For supper I took out some pizza from the freezer & made a salad.
We are gathering up the fragments here and trying not to waste anything.
Total spent since October 20th: $0!!
Day #4 of my Grocery Spending Plan
This is day #4 in my efforts ‘to not spend money on groceries,’ but rather eat what we have in our pantry. My goal again, is to save all the resources possible for the Thanksgiving Dinner I plan to prepare for friends. I confess that over the years I’ve become very lax in preparing special dinners. I’ve tried to think why that is is and here is what I’ve come up with:
- we forget what the American holidays are
- we are too busy working
- there are just 2 of us… ok, no excuse!
- too much work…
- too much money to do it because our USA customary holiday foods are harder to get & more expensive.
- we don’t have any cranberry sauce or canned pumpkin (this year we do) Thank you Jerusha and Joye!
This year, we have cranberry sauce, pie crusts (yeah I can make my own but here is no vegetable shortening here only lard) and canned pumpkin (no fresh pumpkins, but Anita can get them in France).
We plan to invite several from church and serve buffet style. I look forward to it! John will enjoy it and especially the leftovers.
Today for our main meal of the day I fixed:
1st plate:
Cream of Butternut Squash soup w/croutons
2nd plate:
A layered enchilada casserole (using a jar of hamburger I canned, homemade enchilada sauce, & some of the cheese I took out yesterday)
salad
Supper will be:
Paella *leftover from when Jerusha & Nathanial were here that I froze in 2 portion baggies)
salad
Day #4 I have spent: $0!
Since October 20th: $0 spent.
Day #3 for Grocery Spending Plan
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Day #3:
Well, here we go… day #3. I still have lettuce and tomatoes, potatoes, 1 zucchini squash, 3 carrots, 1/2 a cabbage & onions that are fresh.
I found a recipe for pinto bean burgers with a yogurt horseradish sauce and made them last night for supper. I went to my pantry and got a jar of beans I canned earlier this year, took out cheddar cheese from the freezer, added the cilantro from my garden, some onion, Worcestershire sauce, and egg, bread crumbs, salt & pepper and fried them up putting them on hamburger buns with lettuce and tomato. We ate them last night with 3 leftover for lunch today. I have a rice recipe I will try today to go with it. Our 2:00 pm meal will look like this:
1st plate:
Cream of Green soup ( I make this using all the green veggies I have on hand, like broccoli, zucchini green beans etc. It was leftover from when the kids were here.
bread
2 nd plate:
Pinto bean patties (cheese is mixed in)~ these were yummy!
salad
new rice recipe (brown rice & wild rice)- We really liked this.
1/2 of the zucchini, sauteed in olive oil & herbs
So far, I’m doing well on my plan to see how LITTLE I can spend on groceries.
Day #3 I spent: $0….nothing…nada!
I have left:
11 eggs
1 liter of non-fat milk
I’m using my last package of paper napkins, so John & I have switched to cloth to make the package stretch.
I’m also on my last tub of margarine which I use for some baking. For eating we use only butter.
Total spent since October 20th: $0
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