$6 Left

Last weekend I finally ventured to Costco for the month and when I was done, I had $6 left for food in April.  It’s been awhile since I ran out of money this early in the month and I know exactly what happened.   Marshmallows and All Beef Hot Dogs several times a week add up. Plus they taste really good with chips and soda…also expensive and not healthy.

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Our new fire pit is so much fun, but I didn’t know what else to cook out there at first.  We’ve since broadened our horizons.   Marinated chicken and homemade whole wheat bread dough will roast on a hot dog fork.  And oh man!!! They are delicious.  You can also fork roast vegetables (like zucchini, mushrooms, peppers, and onions) and fruits like apples.

But really that’s not the point.  I broke one of my own rules this week and it didn’t end well.

Necessities FIRST! Rare treats after.  

I can have roasted marshmallows once in a while (but 4 bags a week might be overdoing it.)  I just should have made sure that I had enough money for all the essential foods first.

Necessities are any affordable foods that promote health:  In season fruits and vegetables, whole grains like oats, brown rice and 100% whole wheat bread or flour, unprocessed meats, nuts, beans, and some dairy items like milk, butter and cheese.

Rare treats are processed foods like crackers, chips, lunch meats, desserts, sodas, juices, and other beverages. They also might include higher priced healthy foods like steak or fresh raspberries. I’m not saying never buy these, just make sure of the necessities first.

We’ll be ok on $6 this week.  It’s enough to buy a couple of gallons of milk and my pantry is well stocked with enough stuff that we’ll eat just fine.  It’s a good chance to practice my creative pantry cooking skills, but I’ll be doing things differently in May.

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8 thoughts on “$6 Left

  1. Justine says:

    Man! What is it about April? It did that to me this year, too 😉 I’ve been out of grocery money for 2 weeks, which means I ended up going over budget (pulled from another category) because I refuse to not buy fruit when we are out of it. I will be cooking fairly creatively (and from the freezer) for the remainder of this week, and will DEFINITELY be planning better for May. In fact, maybe I should get started on that right now so I don’t find myself scrambling to the grocery store 5 days out of 7 for the first week of the month, trying to figure out what’s for dinner (and consequently, spending all the $$ too early).

  2. Anonymous says:

    Next month, do some foil packet dinners on the fire! We like hamburgers with onions, potatoes, and carrots in them. Or we also like turkey kielbasa sliced up with various veggies in a foil packet.

  3. Kristal says:

    You could do home made pizza on the fire pit on a pizza pan. You could use flour tortillas for the crusts or make your own.

  4. Aimee says:

    Shoot. I’m in the same bucket. Oh well. I thought I was sticking to the rules, but sometimes I don’t gauge the paper/bath/etc products with the rest of the stuff well. I think that’s what did me in this month. Onward and upward!

  5. Amanda says:

    I like iron skillet pizzas. You can use a 10 inch wide board as a pizza peel and just leave the skillet in the coals. It’s pretty good . We had 3 skillets in our fire pit at once

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