With all the orange juice and cottage cheese and pears I’ve been consuming (okay, and there may have been a doughnut involved at some point, as well), I didn’t expect we’d make it. Especially since our anniversary dinner was this week (mmmmm….Ethiopian!), and we ate at restaurants as a family twice due to exhaustion/bad planning.

But you know what? We’re under budget this week. Maybe we won’t need to tack on extra money for the fetal food demands, after all.

The breakdown:

• Groceries: $40.80 (Yes, really. We have the pole beans that are producing about a lb of green beans a day to thank for that. And the legume and rice stash in the cupboard. Lentil mung bean dal!)
• Billy’s lunches: $10.75. He did better this week, bringing his lunch every day but one, when he just HAD to have a burger. I understand you meat eaters occasionally HAVE to have a burger. I just avert my eyes. Do what you must.
• Restaurants with the family: $28. Burritos for dinner one night, and poor planning this weekend that left me out of the house and foodless when the need for Second Breakfast hit. That meant buying a bagel with cream cheese and tomato slices for me, which then meant bagels all around. Even a mediocre bagel will do in a pinch. And cream cheese is making me oh so very happy these days.
• Anniversary dinner: $35. Not bad at all for the best meal I’ve had in ages, and with enough leftovers to provide a truly delicious lunch the next day. Jarra’s. I highly recommend. Food, reasonably priced and incredibly good. Somalian/Ethiopian history and a lecture about the Ethiopian airforce by the owner/waiter? Free.

Total: $114.55

Under budget by: $10.45

Next week’s challenges: Finally make those kale chips. Find a way to hold to the budget while still satisfying the latest cravings: stuffed shells and lasagna