I promised to be more diligent about my record keeping this week and I was. It’s not that I suddenly became an organized person; I owe most of my diligence to the fact that I had very little to keep track of. As I’ve mentioned many times before, my $25/week CSA provides me with enough food for about ten day’s worth of meals. The only thing it’s missing from it is fruit so I had to buy a few bananas. Oh, and olive oil. Having a great selection of vegetables and meats doesn’t really do me any good if I have no cooking oil—especially when I’m having four family members over for spaghetti (using sauce made from my wonderful CSA tomatoes, of course).

When I hit the store on Monday for the two ingredients I needed to make dinner happen—olive oil and spaghetti—the cheapest bottle of olive oil I could find was $8. Considering I’d already been out to a going-away brunch for a friend and I knew I had upcoming breakfast plans, it was going to put me over the edge. But then I realized there was no way I could use an entire 16-ounce bottle of olive oil in a week. Well, there was a way, but I wasn’t going to do it. Even being overly cautious, I figured I’d use about $2 worth of olive oil each week. This remedial division left me very happily barely under budget. (Total after the jump if numbers are you thing.) Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: budget analysis, cheating, CSA, olive oil, spending