Monday, June 11, 2018

Budgetary Confusion

With a $350 target, I had a much larger cushion than the $140 I wrote about-then, I forgot about items I bought for DD2 before she left on her trip. Last night, neither of us felt like cooking as it approached 6:30, but were hungry after having a light lunch at a grad party then getting tasks done at home all afternoon. We dodged throwing in the spending towel and not eating out by frozen pizza, but other items such as chicken strips (DH's favorite kind) and assorted other basics and non-basics jumped in the cart. (OK when Old Home French Onion chip dip is on sale for $ .80, you must buy two and potato chips to go with it. It is Minnesota law.) Now, I really do have a tight budget to the end of the month of $136.

We now have pizza and chicken strips in the freezer and I had to make room so took out some frozen soup and a loaf of deeply discounted bread. Supper is sorted for tonight now. I know DD2 will get bored quickly with lunches once home, so I want to reserve some of the funds to go towards some brainstormed easy meals for weekday lunches. A challenge within a challenge is to come up with enough main dish meals, hopefully with leftovers, for the 14 days left in June once she returns for $100. No, make that $80 because I'll need a bag of apples and bananas each week as well. That's an average of $5.71 per meal, for three people.

I see veggie curries and fried rice in our future, but I'm not complaining as I love them both. I've the week to plan for so will scour some frugal cooking sites for inspiration. I'll hoard meat portions for DH who might complain. I'll keep track of costs and quantities of ingredients. In the meantime, please share your ideas. This challenge is gun for me, but know this narrow budget planning is a necessity for many.

7 comments:

  1. We do quiches a lot - just throw any leftovers we have together, cover with eggs, and we have dinner....we don't usually do a pie crust or anything. Last night we had some broccoli & ham that needed to be used up before they went bad so - ham & broccoli quiche it was :)

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    1. An egg bake, which is what we call a crustless quiche, will be a good filler one or two nights.

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  2. I have a great chicken curry recipe - https://stayhomeinstead.blogspot.com/2018/01/easy-thai-peanut-chicken-curry.html

    Other easy, clean out the fridge recipes:
    Oven baked chicken risotto - we keep the base recipe the same, but add in whatever fridge mix ins we have available. Have tried pretty much everything. http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/oven-chicken-risotto

    And, we love naan pizzas. We get naan at Costco, but I've heard it's easy to make. Alternatively, they sell it at Trader Joes. Clean out the fridge & make homemade pizza. We like it with pesto & chicken, meatballs & red sauce, pepperoni, whatever you have lying around

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    1. Homemade pizza is great for using up bits and flat bread is so easy to mix up. So are hoagie sandwiches. The soup i still a bit frozen, so I'll either save for supper or eat for lunch the next couple days, but I used the bread, its under the grill now, topped with remnant cheese and pepperoni and deli meat. I'll throw lettuce and cucumbers on to make a delicious hot sandwich. I'll make one for hubs when he gets ome.

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  3. When I cook chicken in crockpot, or it could be baked, I have lots of ways to use it. The portion can be small in each. In pasta salad, chicken and rice, chicken and dressing (all in pan with egg and soup), chicken in spaghetti, chicken and baked vegetables. You most surely have rice and pasta and some kind of vegetables. Also, shred chicken for bbq chicken on bun.

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    1. All great suggestions, Linda and some of our favorites.

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  4. Curries sound very good to me too; this doesn't feel 'budget' but gourmet eating.

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