Hey, it’s that time again! And boy was this a fun week. I was pretty much like a kid in a candy store while doing my grocery shopping for this week. Why? Because for some magical reason, after I picked up everything on my list, I still had TEN DOLLARS left to spend. I’ve never been so excited about spending ten dollars in my life. LOL
I could barely decide on where I was going to go buck wild with that ten bucks…
I never really know how close I’ll be to my $30 weekly limit as I’m picking out my recipes and making my grocery list, I just know that it’s going to be “cheap”. This week I was surprised at just how cheap it was! I had three recipes planned, two of which used beans that I already had on hand. The rest of the ingredients, plus the few staples I needed for the week was just over $20 bucks. That made me feel like the champion of the world!
What Did I Buy?
Are you ready for this? I had to take THREE photos this week…
The only two staples I needed this week were milk and eggs, although maybe I should consider tomato paste a staple since it’s used in a lot of different things and I generally have some 1 Tbsp portions on hand in the freezer.
After I had collected everything I needed for the recipes, my “splurge” items were three bags of shredded cheese (because there was an INSANELY good sale, $1.25 each!), a sweet potato (to make more cornbread), peanut butter, and a pomegranate (also on sale, $1.50 each). I was so happy that I had some wiggle room in the budget this week and could take advantage of the cheese sale. I used one bag in a recipe this week and the other two went straight into the freezer.
I also used one can of white beans from my pantry, and about 1 can worth of black beans that I had frozen.
Here’s what the grocery list and receipt looked like:
So, I ended up going over $30 a bit. I must have made a calculation error as I was putting items into my grocery basket, but I wasn’t too far off and I figured I could make up for it in the coming weeks. If I HAD to stick strictly to $30, though, I could have put back either a bag of cheese, a can of tuna, or a can of green chiles because I had extras of each.
The stars by the items on my grocery list were things that I wanted to double check to see if I already had in my pantry or freezer, and of course the peanut butter has a question mark because that was only if I had extra room in my budget (which I did!).
What I Ate
Vegetable Enchilada Casserole was my main entrée this week. It was warm, comforting, and had TONS of flavor. I ended up cutting mine into 9 slightly smaller portions, which gave me three leftovers to freeze. I’ll be VERY happy about that later. ;)
While making my menu plan, I noticed I had a couple cans of white beans in my pantry (that had been there for-ev-er), and I remembered this Tuna & White Bean Salad. I had forgotten all about this one and was super excited to make it again once I remembered. It’s really delicious, light, and healthy. I had two cans of beans, so I bought two cans of tuna, but only ended up making one batch. That means I already have the goods to make another batch, practically for free, in the future!
Crackers cost WAY too much, IMHO, so I had to figure out how I was going to eat that Tuna & White Bean Salad. Sure, sometimes I just eat it with a fork, but I prefer some type of crunch-tastic carb vehicle. Then I remembered my leftover tortillas from the Enchilada Casserole and the lightbulb went off! I made these super tasty (and easy) Baked Tortilla Chips. #win
And lastly, I made this awesomely dreamy One Pot Creamy Sun Dried Tomato Pasta. At this point I almost felt like I had too much food, so I think in the future I’ll space my recipes out a bit more. Instead of making them all near the beginning of the week, I’ll wait until the second half of the week when my portions are dwindling, to make my second option.
I kept day dreaming about that Sweet Potato Cornbread, so I made a second batch, but this time in muffin form (oops, already deleted the photo off my phone). Surprisingly, it took the same amount of time to bake (for me) as it did in the cast iron skillet. I suspect that’s because I had let the skillet heat up in the oven, while the muffin tin was room temperature. Anyway, I ate a few of those and the rest went into the freezer. I’ve been taking one out at a time and reheating in the microwave for 30 seconds–perfect!
One of my splurges this week was this pomegranate. I LOVE pomegranates, so when they’re on sale for $1.50, you bet I’m going to snatch that up! They’re so insanely beautiful (and delicious).
I removed the seeds, kept them in this bowl in the fridge (covered), and then just a few spoonfuls every day. I love the burst of cold juice and crunchy center. Seriously the best thing ever. I love that I’m still getting a lot of variety in my food intake week to week, even if there’s not a lot of variety within the week. I suspect that variety from week to week is just as valuable, nutritionally speaking.
I also bought some satsumas because they were really cheap. They are bigger than the free satsumas I got a week ago, but not nearly as sweet. Still good, though!
For a little variety, I dove into the freezer and ate a bowl of Bacon, Bean, and Potato Soup this week. It was just as delicious as I remember!
Oh, and I ate out once this week… A slightly disappointing bowl of ramen. But ramen, in any form, is hard to resist! :)
Leftovers
Here’s what went into the freezer this week: 3 portions of the Vegetable Enchilada Casserole, about 8 Sweet Potato Corn Muffins, and leftover tomato paste.
I had one leftover can of tuna, one leftover can of green chiles, and 1/2 lb. fettuccine, all of which is shelf stable and will wait in my pantry until I call upon them some day in the future. ;)
The only thing that went into the garbage was a couple small scoopfuls of Tuna & White Bean Salad that I didn’t finish. Not bad!
Thoughts
I think I almost had too much food this week. I didn’t finish all my satsumas (they’ll be good till next week) and I was just really full a couple of days. If I had spread out when I prepared my recipes, I think I would have been a bit better and finishing them off and having a fresh supply of food, rather than having a TON of stuff in the beginning of the week and a bare fridge by the end. New lessons learned every week! :)
Just found your blog and I love it!! I love this weekly recap…I tend to buy too much and have things go bad (though I try to freeze it or something if I realize I cant use it in time!). I want to work harder on cutting my grocery bill down, but most budget friendly recipe ideas are so…boring or out-dated. I really love your approach. Thank you!!! Will be following from now on with BlogLovin’ :)
I love it! What technique do you use to deseed your pomegranate? I struggle with getting the seeds out without getting juice all over me!
This is the way I do it. Super easy and no mess. :)
https://youtu.be/wFUMLxL6IO4
I just used a paring knife to score the skin all the way around, then pried it open. I turned the open halves upside down and kind of turned them inside out, then used my finger tips to gently brush out the seeds. There was a little juice, but it’s a lot easier than that water bowl method, which I find terribly messy and cumbersome. :)
You can cut it in four pieces and fill a mixing bowl about 1/2 of the way with water. Dump the pieces in there and pull them apart under the water. The seeds will sink, and the membranes and skin will float. Your hands won’t get stained!
I love reading your blog and have made several of your dishes. I am an accountant so the cost breakdown of each recipe put me in nerd-vana. :)
I do have one question. Have you thought about making your own peanut butter? I have been buying roasted shelled peanuts in bulk from Costco and then blending up a cup at a time. Fresh peanut butter tastes so great!
If I had a resource for bulk peanuts like that, I probably would! I do love fresh peanut butter. :)
If you have an Aldi, they sell shelled roasted peanuts (no salt or any other ingredients) for less than $2. I think there are about 3 cups of peanuts which makes a lot of peanut butter. Sorry I don’t have the container in front of me so I don’t know sizes and costs, just going off the top of my head.
Oh I SO wish I had an Aldi! Everyone always comments about the awesome deals they get there! :P
Quick question on the cornbread. What’s your method on freezing the cornbread muffins? Have you frozen the skillet version before? I have some milk I want to use to make your original skillet cornbread, and if it freezes well I’d love to make a few batches and freeze some for future meals. Maybe that way I can keep myself from eating a full skillet of cornbread in 2-3 days.
I think the best practice would be to wrap each individual piece in plastic wrap, then place them all in a freezer grade storage bag. I was a bit lazy so I just popped all the muffins into a freezer bag without pre-wrapping. That will hold up, but not for very long (I knew I’d eat them fairly soon anyway). Oh, and always make sure they’re completely chilled before wrapping and transferring to the freezer.
Are your weekly recaps a new feature? I don’t remember seeing them before, but I’m loving them!! Please continue!
Yep! They’re new. :) I’m glad to know that you’re enjoying them! After I did a month of sticking to a $30/wk grocery budget, I decided to keep it up and keep doing the recaps.
I got excited for you with that extra ten spot! Luxury is having tasty things stored away for when you want them isn’t it? Must try that cornbread soon – I’ll be muffining it so glad to hear your feedback on the time.
I think the lesson you learned is an important one – I live very differently than you – cooking for three perpetually starving teens here – but I have found that myself – best to space things out or the locusts are at it all early in the week and then I’ve got to figure something else out by friday morning! Hmmm, friday morning now – and no plans for dinner tonight LOL! Off to peruse MY freezer
Loving these weekly recaps!!
I’ve never frozen cheese before. How does it affect the taste and texture when you defrost it? Although, I guess if you’re melting it it probably doesn’t matter too much. Have you frozen cream cheese before?
Asking because now is usually a good time to get all kinds of brick and shredded cheese with the holiday cooking/baking sales, but with just two people it’s hard to make it last long before it goes bad.
Natural cheeses freeze very well, I find. “They” say that it becomes more crumbly after thawing, so it might not be that great for slicing, but I’ve never really noticed much difference with it. :) I defrost it by simply transferring it back to the fridge, or leaving it out at room temp if I plan to use it immediately. Cream cheese might be a different story, though, because I think sometimes they add ingredients to emulsify and stabilize the texture. Those ingredients don’t always freeze/thaw too well. I have frozen goat cheese with great success, though.
I’m so jealous that you can get cheese at that price!! I live in Ontario, Canada and the best price I’ve ever seen for a bag of shredded cheese is $6. There are a lot of other things we pay more for, but the cheese prices seem to be particularly outrageous.
Hi Sarah: I am from Ontario as well. I save money on cheese by shredding it myself. I buy the big blocks when they are on sale for 4 or 5 $, shred, then toss half with a little cornstarch and freeze in a zip lock bag. I store the other half in the fridge to use soon. Hope this helps!
It was seriously an insanely good price for me, too. Almost 50% off! :D
Did you ever figure out of the casserole frozen and thawed well?
I froze a few pieces, but I haven’t thawed and eaten any of it yet. :P
My store had the same sale on cheese this week, $1.25 for bags and 8 oz blocks were 99 cents. Let’s just say I I bought a lot of cheese.
I like seeing your shopping trips too, always interesting to me to see what groceries people buy and what they do with them.
Absolutely love your blog!! My boyfriend and I have made a good handful of your recipes over the past month and couldn’t be happier about it. Both of us are college students, so we really like your $30/week plan and are trying to adopt a similar budget. However, we are curious as to what you do for breakfast? Especially if you have items that can be made in advance for quick eating. We have done your overnight cold oats and loved them btw! Also, do you include breakfast into the $30/week budget?
I usually do some sort of oatmeal (one big container of oats usually lasts me about a month) or eggs in a tortilla with a little sriracha. :) You can see my full meal breakdowns in the weekly recaps that I did during the September Challenge. :)
This is the kind of update I like, we live in new orleans and having the rouses receipt is so helpful. We ate the enchiladas all week.
I always love all your posts but for some reason I’m really enjoying your recap with your receipt. I guess it must be the nosy neighbour in me that likes to see what you bought and how you used it! I am from northern Canada so not really a close neighbour but one who visits daily :)
Hahah, I totally get that. I’ve seen receipts on the ground before and totally wanted to pick them up and just see what other people buy. I can’t believe I just admitted that.
Ha! I do that too!!
Man, I think I really need to work on shopping for multiple dishes and not just one. Usually I have one dish in mind, and shop pretty well for that dish, but then of course it doesn’t last me the whole week, so I have to go shopping again three days later. It seems like you’re saving a lot of time going just once per week.
Also, I truly did not know that you could freeze beans! I mean, it makes sense — I just had not thought of it before. Thanks!
I’m having a heck of a time finding sweet potatoes in my city so I subbed canned pumpkin in your recipe and they came out great! I also divided the recipe up into a muffin tin and came up with 16 cornbread muffins. They are SO GOOD. I definitely noted the recipe down and am planning to make it again!
$1.50 for pomegranates!! That’s insane. They’re 2 for $5 in the NYC area and that’s if there’s a good sale going on! :( Loving these weekly posts.
Hi Beth! I love your website and could pretty much live on your recipes! I’ve been wondering something for some time, and would love to hear your thoughts… I try super hard to stick to a modest grocery budget– I shop for whole, minimally processed ingredients. Here’s where I get into trouble: milk and eggs. I try to buy organic products from happy animals and I end up spending so much on dairy and eggs (I’m a pescatarian, so I don’t have to worry about meat in my budget). My milk and egg (and tuna, although it’s a splurge) issue stems from the fact that it’s important to me to eat high quality products that aren’t loaded with harmful stuff and are also friendly to the animals that help produce them. But it’s sooo expensive to shop this way! I was wondering if you struggle with this dilemma, especially now that you’re at a point in your life where you have a little more flexibility with your food budget. Is animal-friendly/earth-friendly/organic a luxury? What do you think? Thanks!!
That’s actually something I’ve been thinking more and more about lately. I’ve come to realize that real change in society happens as a result of where we put our money rather than government policy, so I feel more responsible for my choices. One of my goals over the next year is to switch over to more sustainably produced food. It’s going to be hard. Yes, it will cost more, but that just requires sacrificing something else in return. That’s what working with a budget, in any area of your life, is about–prioritizing your wants and needs (I want to support sustainable practices, but I need to get X amount of food every week). For a long time just getting enough food was priority #1 because I had so little money. Now that I have a little more, my priorities are shifting a bit. So, I wouldn’t necessarily call it a “luxury”, but more like another level in the hierarchy of needs. Once you have food and shelter on lock down, you can put more energy (or money) towards other things that are also important.
Thanks for the insights! I wonder if you might consider doing a challenge at some point in the new year (similar to the SNAP challenge) that focuses on making earth-friendly food choices while on a set budget? I think it would be a fascinating experiment and help raise awareness about supporting sustainable practices.
It would be pretty interesting to compare a week of eating organic/local dairy and eggs, shade-grown coffee, and ethically-raised meats to a week where saving money was the highest priority. I just wonder how it would affect your budget… and if you’d notice any other differences with regard to the quality of the food.
Thanks for all you do, Beth!
Ooooo! Beth, I’m a long time fan but have been working on buying local and organic for a couple years now. I can’t wait to see how you approach sustainable food!
Thank you for sharing your lessons learned with us! I usually cook all of my food on Sundays, but you’re right – by Friday I don’t have many options left. Or something is about to go bad by then. As always, thanks for sharing with us. I’m shocked you got so much food for $33!