Solo for $70: Week 8

Aaaaaand the grocery store just didn’t happen last week.  I spent about $100 on eating out almost every meal every day.  On the one hand I’m disappointed.  On the other, that’s about half of what I had been spending on weeks like these that just get busy and easily start to spiral.

When life starts picking up, I tend to hunker down.  Cleaning my house doesn’t happen as frequently and meals don’t get made.  I find a comfy place on the couch and spend my little free time there trying to recuperate as best as I can.  Meals turn into whatever is close  and won’t make me feel like a total sloth.

I’ve learned some things about my relationship with food after two months of tracking my spending.  I don’t need as much as I thought I did.  Buying (and therefore, spending!) less makes it easier to keep the kitchen clean and doesn’t feel as overwhelming.  I also notice that eating out is not necessarily a bad thing.  It can often be a way to care for myself when I need a little self care.  I’ve started to make different choices–half sandwiches instead of whole, lighter soups since I’m not very hungry in the evenings and the feeling like there is enough.  There is no need to scarf down everything on my plate when there will always be plenty!

I made it to the store yesterday for the week ahead and look forward to continuing on with my findings.  Constantly honing, assessing, learning and developing.  It feels like the most boring place on the planet around here, but it’s been so interesting to take a closer look at these daily components of my life.

Solo for $70: Week 7

I think I might actually be getting the hang of this!  I spent $38 on groceries this week and managed to stay riiiiiiight at budget last week.  I ended up discovering Panera’s $5 bowls of soup with a hunk of bread for dinner a couple rainy/sicky nights and went out to lunch a couple of days which ate into my $40 surplus pretty quick.  But still!  Progress!

Here’s the menu for the week:

Breakfasts: Bagel, egg & cheese sandwich with banana
Lunch:  Salads (bulked up with beans, avocado, carrots and tomatoes)
Dinners:  Taco soup (more on that tomorrow), left over frozen Trader Joe’s Indian food and quesadillas with pizza Fridays of course!

Solo for $70 Week 6

Oh my word we might actually be getting somewhere!  I spent $29 on the groceries above.  There is something about roasted cauliflower that is SO GOOD with indian spices.

I had houseguests over the weekend and they left me with a nice supply of fruit and bread for breakfast (I’m eating those with eggs from last week’s run).  I also had $15 left on my Starbucks card for coffees this week.  The rest of the budget will likely be eaten up by pizza Fridays and a lunch or two out, but things are going so, so much better.

One bonus of buying less?  Less you have to haul in from the garage only to take back out in the form of trash.  I am very, very pleased!  Grocery budget surplus, I’m comin’ for ya!

Solo for $70: Week 5

OMG we are finally getting somewhere!  My experiment of spending $70/week on food (for just me!  Which should totally be plenty!) has been a dismal failure to date.  But fail forward, right?  (That’s a thing, isn’t it?)

I’ve learned that I have no problem eating breakfast at home, still like my morning latte habit and lunches are no brainers as long as it’s a salad that’s easy to pack (mason jar salads you are lovely, but still well above my current skill level.)  Dinners were a STRUGGLE, having me spend anywhere from $10-$15 a day depending on where I stopped.  When I took a look at that habit (so adult!) I realized it was less about the food I was stopping for and more about the utter lack of desire to cook.

I decided I’d try to embrace the frozen meal and figured I could chuck some vegetables into a hot oven with a little olive oil and salt and pepper.  I mean, I put them on a pan first, but not much more than that.

I spent $65 for the goods up there and threw an additional $20 on my Starbucks card for the week.  While it’s not quite $70, $85 is waaaaaaaay closer than things have been since I started.

Progress!

Here’s what’s on zee menu!

Breakfasts:  Egg & cheese bagel with fruit
Lunches:  Salads for three days and one day of leftovers
Dinners:  Frozen meal with roasted cauliflower or green beans

In the interest of full disclosure, I have houseguests coming in on Thursday and we’ll be eating out most meals.  This is something I’d like to eventually be able to have a surplus for.  Like tuck aside the money from when I come in under budget maybe.  

Why are you laughing?