Tagged with " Thanksgiving"

Our Thanksgiving

Nov 26, 2009 by     4 Comments    Posted under: blessings, Grocery Challenge, saving money, Spain

We scrimped and saved for this meal to share with our friends and it was worth it! Here are some photos below. It was an American Thanksgiving with a few splashes of Spain added.

15 of our best-est Spanish & Brazilian buddies came to the house.

Day 19 My Grocery Saving Plan

Nov 8, 2009 by     2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge, saving money

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Day 19:

Today I spent: $0 on groceries

Total spent these last 19 days: 70,35€

Average per day: 3,70€

We called about a turkey at another market and got a better price: 3,95€ kilo!   That’s better than the 5,40€ from the poultry store here in Loeches. Anyway, we ordered two 5 kilo birds because those are as big as they have them here.

All we invited are coming and we are so glad to have a shared day with them. I’ve prepared a Power Point with some photos and a mini presentation to project on our living room wall… just to teach them what THANKSGIVING is. As we Americans know, it is a day that we celebrate for very specific reasons.

I hope to post more updates after the 16th of this month.

After church today I opened a jar of my chili with beef that I had canned and we ate that over rice with a salad.  For supper it will be more of the same or egg and toast.

Day # 8 my Grocery Savings Plan

Oct 27, 2009 by     2 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Gardening, Grocery Challenge, saving money
eggs

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.

20 EUROS for 20 days-Part 1

Nov 28, 2008 by     6 Comments    Posted under: Blogroll, Grocery Challenge

Coins Here we go again! You probably wonder why I challenge myself this way. Good question!

In order to attain my goals in other areas, I have to work with the resources that I have. This time, my goal is to save most of my December grocery money until Dec.18th when our kids, Anita and Neil and grandchildren, Elijah and Ana come to see us. Jerusha will fly in on Dec. 21st. It’s a blessing to have our family with us during the holy-days, so I want all my resources saved for that!

Here are some facts:

My grocery allowance for each month is $400 USD. Now, here is where it can get dodgy; I have to convert that into Euros. Each month the exchange rate is different and I’m happy to say that even though it is not yet (did you hear the  hope?) at parity, it’s improving. We’ll exchange at 1.26 this month which means I’ll have 317,46€ for my grocery money for the month of December. To put things in perspective, that same $400 USD over the summer was worth 243,90 €, so I’m feeling very pleased to get 317,46€!

I’ll budget 20€ of those Euros for the next 20 days leaving 297,46€ to spend when the family comes. In our house, we just can’t have it all.  We save in one area in order to have enough in other budget areas. It’s a reflection of our priorities.

Now, to clarify… we are NOT going to eat on 20€! I am planning on using that 20€ where needed to complete what I already have. If you scroll down a bit on the blog, you’ll see that I have found some good deals on chicken, turkey, garbanzo bean flour, canned tomatoes as well as all the fruits I have canned. In other words, I’m going to try to have 20 days without spending! This is not a sacrifice for me, rather an adjustment to accomplish the greater goal of more treats for my family.

So NOW I begin… I have separated 1- 20€ bill for spending!

Here’s my plan for the 1st 10 days- PART 1:

November 28th (today)- Cream of Green soup (left over broccoli from yesterday, cabbage, spinach, onions & leeks), leftover turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, sliced tomatoes & pumpkin pie

November 29th- Cream of tomato soup (last week I bought a big bag of tomatoes for only .99 per kilo), pan fried German sausages, mashed potato patties, carrots

November 30th- Navy Bean soup, fried chicken, french fries, sliced tomatoes

December 1st- leftover cream of tomato soup, macaroni & cheese with ham, salad

December 2nd- Cream of broccoli soup, fried potatoes & onions with leftover German sausage & eggs & toast

December 3rd- leftover turkey soup, meatloaf, **baked potatoes, broccoli

December 4th-potato & corn chowder, turkey tacos, re-fried beans, salad

December 5th- navy bean soup, *meatloaf sandwiches, sliced tomatoes

December 6th-Split pea & ham soup, turkey rice casserole, salad

December 7th-Turkey soup and *toasted ham and cheese sandwiches after church

* on homemade bread

** I bought a 50 lb sack of potatoes on sale in early November

Breakfasts:

  1. oatmeal
  2. grits & eggs
  3. pancakes
  4. muffins

Suppers:

  1. Leftovers
  2. soups
  3. sandwiches
  4. spanish tortilla
  5. salad

turkey cinnamon sice apples

Our little 6lb. turkey ready to go in the oven (it fit into my 8×8 pan!), & 6 jars of cinnamon spice apples which I served instead of the cranberries sauce. People here just don’t know what cranberries are and use the word “arandano” which is a blueberry. I bought the apples on sale for .99 akilo last week. It’s a good thing I did because this week, they are 1,79€ a kilo. All was very yummy, but it would have tasted better with kids and “grands” sitting around the table!