I had a plan. I looked up the USDA guidelines for spending, it’s pretty handy actually. It tells you based on how many people are in your household and their ages, how much you should be spending on groceries for a week. My number hovers right around $50. There are different categories (super frugal, penny pinching, somewhat safe etc.) So you can decide just which bracket is most appropriate for you and your situation.

My roommate and I share some food expenses, in that we both assume the other is welcome to anything we buy. The exception being if I purchase something specific for a recipe, she won’t use it, and vice versa. But general things like milk, eggs, cheese, butter, bread, jam, fruit, is free to be shared. The nice thing is we both tend to buy similar things anyway, and so rarely do we create much waste (and rarely do we run out of food). I really couldn’t ask for a better system.

Any who I digress, I try to set my food budget at $50-$60 a week, and up to $20-$30 for eating out and the like (coffee with friends, snack out, ice cream, dessert etc) But this week I totally threw the budget out the window (unintentionally). I stocked up on a few things we were out of, and refilled the pantry and fridge with some things we were missing. I also bought a few random ingredients to make a chicken and hominy soup that were out of the scope of normal. I also got a few things for my upcoming work trip out of state. Airplane food! Thus preventing me from buying food on the plane or in the airport. Thus saving me money.

So what exactly did I buy? I went to WinCo, New Seasons, and Fred Meyer.

First I went to WinCo. If you haven’t been, go, go now. It’s awesome. It’s always cheaper than any conventional grocery store. They have a huge bulk section and great prices. You pack your own bags and only pay with cash or debit card. I don’t usually buy fresh produce there, but today I needed a few products that I knew I could find only there. They have a good selection of peppers and Mexican products as there is a large hispanic population in the area. Here’s what I got:
2 cans of hominy
1 poblano pepper
1 lb tomatillos
1 bunch cilantro
yukon gold potatoes
funyuns (don’t judge me)
saltines
graham crackers
soy yogurt
sour candy
chicken bouillon
strawberries
avocados
boxed mac n cheese

total cost: $42

Then I went to New Seasons. I needed cold brew and a whole roasted chicken. But rarely do I make it out of that store with only the 2 items on my list, so…..
1 jar cold brew coffee
1 whole chicken
goat’s milk gouda
grapefruit beer (only available during the summer and a special treat that I absolutely adore)
2 jars peach lemonade (on sale, I use it in my smoothies)
1 box of bruschetta crackers

total cost: $42 (well balls, had I just bought the chicken and cold brew it would have been under $20)

Then I had it in my mind that I would get some smoked salmon for tapas. Coincidentally, roommate texted asking me if I might be able to pick up her granola for her morning yogurt. So, off to Fred Meyer I went!

Granola
Smoked salmon

total cost: $9

So I think that puts my grand total for everything just around $103 for the week. absolutely not where I had hoped it would be. I was hoping to land squarely around the $60 mark but that went out the window (oh and I forgot to include the $10 or so I spent at Trader Joe’s yesterday on cereal, milk and something else, which i cannot remember)

So I kinda blew it for the week. Which is especially unfortunately as next week I will be traveling for work and won’t really be in the position to buy groceries. We get breakfast at the hotel during work trips, and lunch is catered daily. We are given a $20 allowance for dinner daily, which I use to buy dinner and lunch for the next day. We get reimbursed afterwards so I try to not go overboard. But it would be a lot easier if we had access to a kitchen and fridge to store everything. luckily there is a Whole Foods in town so I can find foods that agree with me.

That’s all for now. I have the chicken bones and veggies in the crockpot making stock for my soup tomorrow. Frugal win!

I’m borrowing this blog post idea from a blog I have read for years. The Non Consumer Advocate  has always been a favorite of mine. Katy lives locally here in Portland and I just love her writing style, her aesthetic, and everything about her! In fact, once I saw her walking out of our local grocery store and almost crashed my car. I considered looping the block, finding a place to park, and politely accosting her, but I didn’t have the guts. I still regret not stopping to say hello! So any who, here are five frugal accomplishments from this week:

1) The only groceries I purchased on Monday were a $9 organic whole roasted chicken and a $2.59 box of Annie’s organic cereal. Now, the box of cereal isn’t cheap, but it will last me the week so I’m ok with it. The chicken made 5 meals of chicken noodle soup, and 3 meals of broccoli chicken Alfredo. The bones went into the freezer for making stock next weekend. I try to use the whole thing if I’m going to buy meat. And I was feeling dreadful Monday so the thought of making anything made me queasy. Luckily, chicken soup is so easy I could whip it up in my sleep.
2) I went on my mother’s Amazon prime account and bought Holden a new dog crate for $54. Again, this may not seem frugal, however in the long run it is. First of all, at a local store the kennel would cost over a hundred dollars. I didn’t have to pay for shipping. And my dog will now be safe and secure when we leave the apartment. See, my roommate has a young golden named Reddington and I have a 9 year old Doberman named Holden. We also have an 18 year old cat named George. Their safety is of upmost importance to us. That is why we crate the dogs if no one is home. Holden busted through his kennel door last week, and though I scoured the internet all week I could not find a replacement door. So a whole new kennel it is! (Though admittedly, a new kennel every 9 years isn’t bad at all. Those of you with big rowdy dogs will understand that one!)
3) I subscribed to Hulu so that we could watch the new show the Handmaid’s Tale (based on the amazing book by Margaret Atwood). We don’t have cable (that’s the frugal part) but we do subscribe to Hulu and Netflix (and my mom let’s me use her Amazon Prime account which has tons of free movies and shows too) so we are pretty well covered as far as entertainment. Hulu has a lot of newer things, and up to date shows. We are homebodies and would much prefer to stay in at night watching a movie or something together as opposed to going out on the town (also frugal!) so we are considering this a win!
4) I was surprisingly not hungry for dinner at all last night. I had spent all day at the vet with George getting blood work done and picking up his medication (definitely NOT frugal, but he is my love so I will absolutely fork over the money for his well being). By the time we got home around 4pm, I just wasn’t hungry. Nothing sounded appealing. So though it was Friday night and most people our age were out partying or doing something with friends, we stayed in, (I didn’t even eat dinner) and we watched Twin Peaks on Netflix. If you haven’t seen it I HIGHLY recommend it! Like, go watch it right now.
5) Finally, I took a big box of things to Goodwill. This may not be directly frugal, but it has an impact. Goodwill gives people jobs who could not otherwise obtain them, resells things so they don’t end up in landfills, and offers a way to donate your unwanted items. It cleared up a spot in our living room and hopefully will provide useful items for someone else in our community. Today we are going to post my roommate’s desk on Craigslist in hopes of getting the giant thing out of our living room. That’ll bring in cash for her and space for us!

What frugal things did you accomplish this week?

So this is what lunch looked like today. Such a random hodgepodge. But it was what I had on hand this morning and I didn’t have to spend a dime going out to lunch!

What I had:
Fancy cheese and crackers
Olives
Home brewed iced tea
A fancy orange that the name of which I cannot recall

Standard lunch fare? Probably not. But it hit the spot today and ended up working just fine. See, I went out to dinner last night and was under the impression that I’d have leftovers to take for lunch today. Well we ended up going to sushi so needless to say, no leftovers.

That’s about the only frugal thing I did today, other than going to work for a solid 9 hours. Woo hoo!

Moving. Moving sucks. Moving is expensive. I find that no matter how well I plan, I can’t seem to make moving frugal. Just when I think I have it all figured out, there are always hidden expenses that pop up unexpectedly. Grumble grumble.

Holden is torn between being excited to have another dog friend around all the time (seen here with Reddington) and struggling with feeling like he gets less attention. He obviously isn’t getting less attention, but every time I pet Reddington he gives me the look. Silly boy. George is also less than thrilled about being closed in my bedroom for a few days. I want to let him adjust before I have him out with the rambunctious pups. He has taken to peeing in Holden’s bed as a protest. Thanks George.

So back to those not so frugal aspects of moving. I was lucky enough to be able to snag a few bags of pantry supplies from my mom’s basement. Pasta, canned tomatoes, spices, oils and vinegars, a few other odds and ends. It’s very helpful to not need to stock up on EVERYTHING from scratch. But when I went to the store I still needed to buy: butter, milk, frozen veggies, rice, more pasta, flour, sugar, tea, produce, cheese, olives, and a few treats. Add to that the groceries I needed to make dinner and yikes! My bill was easily almost $100. Sad face. I came home, put everything away, prepped the veggies, and felt a little better as I got to cooking dinner. But I know I have to go back to the store today to get a few more things for the week, so I’m preparing myself.

Another frugal fail: I keep a bag in the freezer full of produce bits and chicken bones, when it gets full I pop it all in the slow cooker to make chicken stock. I roasted a whole chicken on Friday and saved the bones from what I ate and told myself to put the extra bones in the freezer. So last night I took the extra chicken out, but the meat off the bone and then threw the bones away……oops. And I didn’t even realize until this morning! Gah! I was going to make stock today, but I don’t have enough bones now. So I’m pissed with myself! And annoyed. Oh well. Another day this week I will make stock and it will be fine. But I’m still annoyed with myself.

I also had to make a Target run yesterday to get a few of the random things I didn’t think about. Lightbulbs, a shower head, broom, cheese grater etc. Bleh. I don’t like spending money that I don’t anticipate. Tough weekend for my wallet guys! And it’s not finished yet! I know that as soon as I’m all settled in it won’t be such a burden.

So what am I making for dinners this week? I’ll post my weekly meals tomorrow!

I have had the same iPod for…….about 10 years.  In all likelihood, more than that.

There is nothing wrong with it *knocks on wood* and has been a loyal friend for many, many years. I got it while in college and a friend’s spouse worked at Apple. So I got it at a discounted price.

Granted, I am not the one who has to have all the new gadgets when they come out, but I have chosen to keep this iPod for as long as it so chooses to cooperate. I have fixed it a couple of times, and the free apple repairs have been awesome. Why should I spend a few hundred dollars, every couple years, when this one works just fine? It has all my favorite music on it, and people on airplanes always laugh when I pull it out of my backpack. I have upgraded my headphones to Bose headphones that I think I also got for free about five years ago. Needless to say I am quite pleased with my music listening situation.

Though this is not necessarily a conscious frugal decision, I have never had a yearning to replace it in all these years.

All my little frugal choices add up. Not getting a coffee on my way to work, packing my lunch, not replacing my perfectly acceptable iPod, batching errands, not grocery shopping hungry, all these things add up. Being frugal is never going to make me rich. It’s going to add small amounts back into my pocket on a regular basis. Think about it. If I purchased a fancy coffee drink every Friday as a special treat, that would be $4 a week. 4×52 is 208. $208 dollars a year is a lot of money! That could be a minor car repair, house repair, multiple grocery visits, the list goes on. And that’s just coffee! So the steps do add up I promise! What about you? Do you have any older electronics that you have held on to past their prime?

-Morgan

I think I want to give this blogging thing a try again. It’s been a while (read: years) and I think I’m ready to take another go at it.

See, I actually really enjoy blogging. I like writing about my life and my day, my accomplishments and set backs, it keeps me accountable. The thing is, I want my blog to be pretty, like all the blogs I love so much. And I’m not so good at that part. I take pictures on my phone, and that’s about it. So who am I against all those other beautiful, well curated blogs? But it really doesn’t matter. It’s about the content and doing what I want to do (damnit!) So I’m going to blog again. And really, that’s all there is to it!

Morgan

(Cado is especially excited about Auntie MoMo starting her blog again. He told me)