Saturday, September 4, 2010

Day 201- I'm a Late-a-saurus

Went out last night and forgot to set my alarm. Still woke up before nine. Oh well, still a good 2 hours later than normal. Hope begging Bear kept you company.

So, I found this week's (last weeks?) food money, and in a fit of snackyness spent more than half of it on a bag of chips ($3.99 + 8 cents tax), leaving me with about $3 from this week, around a dollar from the two weeks before that, and $7 for next week.

This whole not shopping thing is totally WIN.

Or, you know, not.

Now I have no idea what to buy for next week. Do I go crazy in the bargain "grilling" veggies department? Do I get myself a treat, like the frozen meatballs or some Earth Balance? Should I save the extra to replace oil, salt, and spices? They're all starting to run a little low.

What do you guys (ladies?) think?

Decision making is easier with a d20, but then it always goes wrong.... So I'll be thinking about next week's food today. And probably most of tomorrow. And maybe Labor Day, too.

Good weekend, everyone.

12 comments:

  1. Perhaps it would be fun if you planned for a month (or a week) when you can just splurge on a lot of things. That would give you something to look forward to (and might push you into saving a bit more here and there in order to have a lot more to splurge on). Could be just a date, like your birthday (if that's coming up) or any randomly selected date within the next weeks.

    As for the current money, grilling veggies will give you the best bang for the buck right now. Stores are trying to get rid of them, so while some might be not so fresh, you can find some real bargains. Do you/have you tried to use coupons while you shop? I do believe I saw one for Earth Balance not too long ago...

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  2. Definitely refill on the spices, etc - nothing will taste good if you can't flavor it properly.

    As for grilling veggies, that sounds super yummy.

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  3. TJ- Grilling veggies sound good, right? No grill, but they make super tasty sammich filling. I also find myself tempted by the idea of perogis. After all, it's been a whole week without all-potato-all-the-time. RE: coupons, I don't get the paper, so miss out on most of those, and while I recently got a printer, I still haven't picked up paper for it. Printing them out usually costs more than I save, though- unless it's doubled.

    Kim- Spices, YES! I think I'll raid the dollar store by my mother when I go over there tuesday. The have tony chachere for $1, and a better selection of spices than the place by me. Even if they are old...

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  4. As long as they're sealed, age should be irrelevant.

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  5. Not really- spices degrade in light, and over time as well. Ground spices degrade faster- that's why fresh ground pepper is so much better than the stuff from a shaker. I want to say the aromatic oils evaporate, but I think that's wrong- they do lose flavor and potency, though.

    But, yeah, grocery store spices are usually past their peak, anyway.

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  6. Why not 'borrow' spices from your Mom, then you could spend on other stuff. I don't think that would be cheating. Spices go bad before anybody can use all anyway, so why not share? Mom would love it (mine would for sure!) Thanks for the Bear pics...that dog should be in commercials, he looks like a real ham.

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  7. I borrow a couple, here and there, when there's something special or specific I need to do, but I tend to stick with flavor families, so I go through rather a lot of a couple spices, and just drop the others if I can.

    Um... Bear is a ham, yes, but I don't think commercials would work- he's a bit too busy. And he forgets to listen when there's interesting stuff around. It'd be a lot of "no, Bear, don't eat the camera," and "no, Bear, don't jump on the director," and "no, Bear, sit doesn't mean play."

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  8. Grilling makes veggies even better in my opinion, but no grill? Hmm. Got one of those skillet looking grill things?

    And love pierogis but its a lot of work. Just like making ravioli's, gotta have a lot of room to work with (we live in a cramped apartment were our kitchen is like a mini storage unit, really sad/pathetic).

    Pierogi (veggie) favorites: potato/onion; potato/sauerkraut; potato/mushroom or mushroom/sauerkraut.

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  9. Turns out white potatoes are off sale, again, so no pierogi this time. I don't know how well they'd work with sweet potatoes, so they'll have to wait.

    when I can't grill, I do usually just sauté or broil. No snazzy pan, though. If I were a stay in one place kinda girl, I'd pick up a small charcoal grill- I love the smoky flavor it gives veggies- and it makes roasted eggplant for baba sooo much better. But I'm a moving kinda girl, so no bbq.

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  10. The dollar store often has those small table top grills. They should be dirt cheap this time of year.

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  11. I feel a lot better knowing I'm not the only one who rolls a d20 to help with decisions (although sometimes I just keep rolling until I get the answer I want).

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