Veni, Vidi, Vici

Grocery bill for the week: $4.29.

I came. I saw. I conquered.

I resisted potato chips, Lean Cuisines (on sale for two crummy bucks apiece! ARGH!), cranberry juice, tubs of margarine, ice cream, and a dark chocolate bar that donates part of its price to the rainforest or something.

But no! I picked up two (2) gallons of milk, and I paid $4.29, and I walked out. This has got to be the least I’ve spent in a week on groceries since…well. I don’t know since when.

I’m so proud of me. If I can keep that up for another week or two, I might actually be able to afford the payment on Homer. (Kidding.) (Mostly.)

On the menu for the week:

Tonight: Meatloaf with green beans and creamy potato soup

Friday: Grilled steak with whiskey-peppercorn sauce, steamed mixed vegetables and rice

Saturday: (we’re out at a pub, kids are having whatever the babysitter feels like giving them)

Sunday: Roast turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and The Horror That Is Brussel Sprouts

Monday: Turkey pot pie (probably will make several and freeze them; it’s an eighteen pound bird, and there will only be eight of us chewing on it Sunday – five of those children)

Tuesday: Ground beef skillet with noodles and green beans (I’ve got a lot of green beans out there)

Wednesday: Slow-cooked pork roast (which sets us up for a pork casserole Thursday), wild rice pilaf (it’s a starch! No, a vegetable! It’s two great foods in one!)

Saturday morning, I’m making blueberry pancakes using some sweetened, dried blueberries I’ve got (I have no idea how this is going to work out, I’ll let you know), and Sunday we’re having eggs-n-toast-n-bacon.

We’re out of margarine; however, I’ve got enough butter to grease a freight train. I got into something of a lather during the holidays and kept going to Costco convinced that I was ‘nearly out’ of butter. I’ve got about three pounds of it in there right now, more than enough to get us through to February 1.

Look out, she’s got a butter keeper, and she’s not afraid to use it!!

I’ve got the lion’s share of a 25# bag of flour and a brand new bag of yeast out there, plenty of salt and sugar.

However, the biggest threat to my resolve is going to be the snack bin. I have a big old Rubbermaid out in the garage that I fill with all kinds of ‘healthy choice approved’ grab-n-go snacks for the kids to take to school for their morning snack. They go out there while I’m wrestling Captain Adventure into his clothes in the morning, dig through it, select a snack and put it in their backpack.

It’s a big time saver for me in the mornings, eliminates a source of bickering (‘but mommy, I don’t want that, I want this other thing I had this one time that Grandma got for me from a specialty store in Guam’) and the kids love it.

We’re down to the ‘least favored’ things, and I’d say we’ve only got a week or two of those. I’m going to need to come up with things I can put in baggies and stick out there to supplement; and, I’m going to need to remember to actually do it.

Especially given that such ‘homemade’ things tend to have less of a shelf-life than the pre-bagged variety, this could become a challenge.

Still, I have high hopes that I can get through January without buying anything other than milk and eggs at the supermarket. Taking a break from that $500+ monthly bill will be of tremendous help in getting us back on track after a rather painful-in-the-wallet Christmas season.