tempeh-and-chard
Mmmmm….tempeh and rainbow chard….

Okay, so not under budget last week after all. We ended the week at $142.29. That’s $17.29 over our $125 per week budget (for two adults and one child). This is going to be a learning experience, though. I need to remember that. I’m a wee bit competitive, so I’d really wanted to come in on or under budget right out of the gate. Ah well. Honestly, I should feel pretty good about that $142.29. We saved the $5 - $7 bucks Billy would have spent on lunch each day, and he had healthier food as a result. It’s a good start.

What I’m going to do differently this week:

• No toddler-dictated purchases at the grocery store! I always carry a jar of pumpkin seeds, raisins, and almonds in the stroller basket for him to snack on while he rides, but that doesn’t seem to cut it at the store. I guess he associates grocery shopping with having a special treat. Obviously I created that expectation, so we’ll ease our way out of that bit by bit. For now, I’m going to bake some healthier granola bars and bring one along for him to eat while we shop.

• All baked goods to be baked by me. The granola bars, the naan, the bread. All of it. I baked two loaves of whole wheat bread on Friday (the basic yeast-bread recipe from my baking bible, The Tassajara Bread Book, with Blackstrap molasses). I’ll do that again this Friday. Friday shall from this point on be known as Bread Day. I’m not going to buy the sprouted wheat bagels I’ve been eating for breakfast anymore, and will instead spread my peanut butter on slices of that homemade bread. Those bagels aren’t cheap, and aren’t better than homemade bread. And two slices of the bread? Half the calories of that bagel. (Win/win, my friends.)

whole-wheat-bread

• Speaking of peanut butter, that’s a new one around here. Before this project, we were strictly an almond butter family. Freshly ground organic peanut butter is HALF the price of the non-organic freshly ground almond butter. Peanut butter it is.

What did work well last week that I’m going to do again? The meal plan. The reason I was able to come so close to the budget was that I planned our dinners ahead of time and bought only what we needed at the store. No waste. On the other hand, it was kind of unsettling to see such an empty refrigerator by Sunday evening. I’ve realized I associate a well-stocked fridge and cupboard with well-being. Security. Or prosperity. Or something. Abundance. I’m into abundance. But sometimes abundance meant buying too much, or buying and then going out to eat instead of cooking, and perfectly good vegetables rotting away and then hitting the compost heap. It’s better this way. I’ll get used to the empty crisper and bare shelves each Sunday night. It means I’ve planned well and only bought as much as we can use. (Don’t worry. We have emergency rations in the basement in case of earthquake, terrorist attack, swine flu, or a plague of frogs or zombies. Or zombie frogs. Wow. Zombie frogs would be unpleasant.)

Here’s this week’s plan. It uses mung beans, red lentils, rice, miso paste, soba noodles, falafel mix, and seaweed already in the house. The rest I’ll have to buy. We’re even out of garlic. We’re NEVER out of garlic.

  • Monday: mung bean and red lentil dal, white basmati rice, sautéed greens* and garlic, avocado salad
  • Tuesday: miso soup with tofu, seaweed, greens, carrot, turnip, soba noodles
  • Wednesday: pasta w/ tomato sauce, broccoli (Billy’s cooking for the kiddo and kiddo’s friend. Ever so slight added degree of difficulty in that an additional mouth will need feeding. Only slight, though, as that mouth is attached to a four-year-old.)
  • Thursday: tempeh and greens, brown rice
  • Friday: Mjaddrah, falafel, cucumber slices, hummus, homemade naan
  • Saturday: baked tofu and string beans w/ garlic, brown rice
  • Sunday: scrambled eggs, broccoli, toast

*Specific greens to be dictated by what looks best at the market

I planned this menu, and last week’s, by choosing things we like to eat. These are the things I always cook for us. I didn’t think about the cost of the individual items. Having compiled this menu, I don’t have an estimate of what all that food will cost. Maybe that’s a mistake. If we go over budget again this coming week, perhaps I need to look at the cost of our ingredients. Looking it over, though, I don’t see much wiggle room. Organic vegetables, eggs, and dairy are non-negotiable for us. The beans and rice are cheap. The baked tofu, not so cheap, but oh so good. We may need to start eating that less often, and getting the regular, cheaper tofu more.

I’m trying to meet this budget without changing the things we eat. I want us to eat the same things, and I’m banking on good planning and home-cooking and baking to make up the difference. I wonder if that’s going to be possible. We came close this week, but there are still lots of legumes and grains in the pantry. The legumes will mostly be gone after this week, and then it’s just our supply of rice. Give it two more weeks and we’ll have eaten through the supply of food purchased before the project began. Then we’ll really see what’s possible.

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