I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and a relaxing weekend.  We hosted a total of fourteen people, which went remarkably smoothly.  And, it left us with not a crazy amount of leftovers.

Because I had pre-shopped last week, I didn’t have to buy too much this week.  My only pre-Thanksgiving stop was to pick up our Farmers to You delivery on Wednesday.  That totaled $197.15 with two 16.5 lb turkeys (not pictured).  The pickup is usually on Thursday, but was moved for the holiday.

So, why did I choose the above items?  The sage, cider, onions, and Brussels sprouts were for Thanksgiving.  The Asian pears were on special.  We enjoyed the first bag so I got another.  The tomatoes were also on special and we have many tomato eaters.  They turned out to be fine, but mine prefer the campari or heirloom varieties.  The bread and butter were nice splurges for the holiday weekend.

I had hoped this would get me through the weekend, but we ran out of milk very quickly with so many people here.  So, on Friday I spent another $95.21 at Wegman’s.  That brought the total for the week to $292.36.  Entirely tolerable with the holiday spread.

I can already tell that milk will dictate when I next go shopping.  I expect to be at BJ’s (monthly shop with coupons) and Stop & Shop (a few sale items) this week.  I may go to Wegman’s depending on what I decide to do for meals next weekend.  Apart from milk, we’re all set through Friday.

And, what did we eat this week?

Monday:
Pasta with Sunday sauce, spinach salad
I used the beef sausage from our meat delivery this time.  It worked ok, but folks preferred the spicy Italian in this recipe.

Tuesday:
Green tea poached salmon with soba noodles, cut peppers
I thought folks who wanted could put the peppers in their soup, which did work.  They also added some color interest.  Right now Tuesdays include swimming and baseball so while a split dinner is not required, a somewhat fast one is.

Wednesday:
I can’t remember.  I know it wasn’t snacky, but it also wasn’t complicated because Thanksgiving was coming up.

Thursday:
For Thanksgiving we had apple cider and herbs de provence turkeys.  We also had two types of stuffing, Brussels sprouts, green beans, mashed potatoes with gravy, butternut squash, braised leeks, prunes and apples, and cranberry sauce.

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza
I took a break.

Saturday:
Turkey soup

Sunday:
Roasted pork belly with sage & apples, mashed potatoes, and broccoli.

I made a few stops, but nothing huge.  In fact my biggest spend was the farm share pickup, which included a number of items that will last us at least another week if not more.

I started the week with two stops on Tuesday.  First, I spent $66.51 at Wegman’s.  There were two gallons of milk that didn’t make the picture.  Unlike the farm share, these items were largely for this week.

Tuesday afternoon I spent $8.97 at Stop & Shop for a few sale items.

I picked up my farm share on Thursday.  At $76.49, it was bigger than last week, but should have us covered for veggies for a while.  As of now we’ve eaten half the turnip and an Asian pear.  I put the chicken in the freezer to go with the chicken left over from the previous week’s order.  We still don’t have enough for one meal for us though so I’ll need more before we eat it.  It’s part of the exercise of leveling the amount of money spent on the farm share each week.  That being said, there are plans for most of this between now and Thanksgiving.

Finally, I stopped at the farm stand on Friday, primarily for the tomato, apples, and green beans.  But, I brought the total to $26.73 by buying salsa, avocados, and black beans so I didn’t have to make an additional stop at a grocery store.

That brought me to $178.70 for the week, way under usual!

I’m still trying to focus on the proteins in the freezer.

Monday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and applesauce
Late: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Pasta with Sunday Sauce and spinach salad

Wednesday (ate the same thing at multiple times:
Chili with corn bread

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and carrot sticks
Late: Tuna noodle casserole

Friday:
Early: Leftover pasta with Sunday Sauce
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Texas carnitas with black beans, Mexican rice, roasted corn, and avocado slices

Sunday:
Chicken pot pie

Let’s start with the October spending.

October TOTAL: $1,247.54

• Stop & Shop: $176.24
• Wegman’s: $507.24
• BJs: $125.84
• Local: $276.71
  • Walden Local: $234.00
  • Other Local: $42.71
• Other: $161.51
  • Star Market/Shaw’s: $121.56
  • Target: $39.95
  • Other: $0

So, even with the meat share we’re inline with where we have been.

And, how did that translate to this week.  Well, it was a big week.

On Tuesday I made a big stop at Wegman’s – $121.98.  Heavy hitters were milk, other drinks, and fish.

On Tuesday I made the monthly trip to Shaw’s for oatmeal and pizza supplies.  English muffins were buy 1, get 2 free so I picked up a set of them also for a total of $48.15.

On Thursday I spent $29.26 at Stop & Shop in the first of two smallish trips for the weekly sale items.

I also picked up my other new CSA-type box on Thursday.  I like the concept of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture), but we’ve had two problems with the CSA we tried and the others I have researched since. First, while we’re ok to eat many things, beets and kale are not among them and they play a dominant role in all the CSA offerings.  Now, the one we did do let you swap one item out per week, but I would really love a program that enabled you to have a few “No Thank You” items.  Second, we have eight people.  A small CSA gives us the correct amount of local produce, but it is typically designed for 2-3 people.  The large CSAs don’t offer additional quantities as much as additional varieties.  So, for example we are still stuck with six ears of corn when we actually need sixteen.

So, I’m trying Farmer’s to You.  It’s sort of like an online farmer’s market in that you go online and order what you want, with a minimum dollar amount each week.  They have produce, dairy, meats, pasta, etc. just like a farmer’s market would.  But, because you order on Sunday for pickup on Wednesday or Thursday, the farmers just prep what’s been ordered.  The slight downside is that it’s a year-round program and we don’t have so much produce available here in New England in the winter.  As you can see I tried the chicken the first week; it was really good, to the point where the boys commented unprompted.

Because of a sign-up incentive this was only $10.94.

On Thursday I spent $23.10 during my second trip to Stop & Shop.

Finally, on Sunday we spent $108.06 during the monthly trip to BJ’s.  Hopefully this will take us past Thanksgiving because BJ’s gets really crowded at the end of November.

That brought me to $341.49.

What we ate was driven by two factors this week.  One, late night soccer is still on meaning we eat split dinners multiple days a week.  And two, I’m trying to focus on the proteins in the freezer.

Monday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and carrot sticks
Late: Leftover take out pizza or leftover homemade macaroni & cheese

Tuesday:
Cod, rice, and tossed salad

Wednesday (Halloween):
Early: Leftover beef barley soup and beer bread
Late: Homemade pizza

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and carrot sticks
Late: Takeout Chinese

Friday:
Early: Macaroni & cheese with spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Roast chicken with bistro potatoes and tossed salad

Sunday:
Beef fajitas

I made daily, relatively small stops this week.

I spent $65.77 at Wegman’s on Monday.  This was primarily a trip for milk and bananas which we’ve been using in great quantity.

On Tuesday I went in to Stop & Shop for their sale items plus mushrooms (which were not on sale).  That totaled $31.34.  The snack packs were for soccer on Saturday, but that got canceled with the Nor’ Easter coming through.  The boys will not be sad as none of those items are things we ever have at home.

I spent $0.58 and $3.42 on an heirloom tomato and green beans at the farm stand on Wednesday.

Finally, I spent another $89.53 at Wegman’s on Friday, driven by the need for additional milk and bananas.

That brought my weekly total to $190.64.

And for the first time in ages I kept track of what we ate!

Monday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Pork chops with apples & cider
Potato bread
Spinach salad

Wednesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets and carrot sticks
Late: Take out pizza

Thursday:
Early: Leftover pot roast sandwiches, carrot sticks
Late: Homemade macaroni & cheese

Friday:
Early: Spaghetti & meatballs
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Beef barley soup
Beer bread

Sunday:
Shepard’s pie
Green beans

We didn’t get too off track this week, even with a trip to the fancy meat store for Mother’s Day steaks.

I spent $41.27 at Wegman’s on Wednesday, mostly basic restocking.

On Sunday, yes Mother’s Day, I went to Stop & Shop.  It was empty!  I spent $33.87 on things for the BBQ and to get us through the beginning part of the week.

DH also picked up $144.73 in steaks.

Thus we ended the week at $219.87, more than half of which was steak.

Our weeks of relatively boring, quick meals continue.

Monday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, green beans
Late: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Early: Scrambled eggs, bacon
Late: Take-out Indian

Wednesday:
Pork tenderloin, pan fried potatoes, tossed salad

Thursday:
Early: Beef roast, rice, green beans
Late: Leftovers

Friday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, applesauce
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Early: Pancakes
Late: Out

Sunday:
Steaks, baked potato, baked beans, tossed/spinach salad

This felt like a light month, but one never really knows until one runs the numbers.

April TOTAL: $664.14

• Stop & Shop: $227.89
• Wegman’s: $244.91
• BJs: $158.38
• Other: $32.94
  • Local: $0
  • Star Market/Shaw’s: $32.94
  • Trader Joe’s: $0
  • Target: $0
  • Other: $0

And it was an exceptionally low month!

There were some bigger spends this week (which will go into next month’s total), but no so much as to totally throw off the month.

On Monday, I spent the $32.94 at Shaw’s that you saw in April’s spend.  Somehow I missed taking a picture.  I got four boxes of oatmeal, one can of corn (free with McDonald’s game coupon), two packages of shredded cheese, and six pizza dough balls.

On Wednesday, I stopped at both Target and BJ’s.  I spent $69.43 at Target.  Juice, almond butter bars, and Life cereal were all on sale.

Then I spent 109.99 at BJ’s.  It probably should have been more, but on the way in to Target I forgot my list (and coupons) for the day.  That didn’t cause me many issues at Target, but I definitely didn’t remember everything on the BJ’s list.

I spent $19.96 at a different Shaw’s on Thursday.  This stop would not have been necessary if the first one had had enough pizza supplies or the tomato sauce (free with coupon).  I didn’t get as many pizza dough balls as I intended here either as they were all completely thawed.  Plus, Kraft seems to have changed their cheese packaging so I bought one to see if it was still their previous “pizza cheese” mix; the description makes me think so.

Finally, on Saturday I did a big shop – $196.81 – at Wegman’s.  The weather was beautiful so we decided to grill.  I had been planning for a big shop there Sunday morning, but went Saturday afternoon instead.  This will cover most of our meals for the week and then some.

But, the “baseball season diet” continues.  It’s not so much that it’s terrible, but that it is boring.

Monday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, carrot sticks
Late: Homemade pizza

Tuesday:
Early: Hot dogs, applesauce
Late: Tuna noodle casserole

Wednesday:
Take out pizza

Thursday:
Early: Leftovers
Late: Chinese take-out

Friday:
Early: Pancakes
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Hamburgers, baked beans, chips, strawberries

Sunday:
Chicken & garlic with fresh herbs, wild rice with mushrooms, green beans

This was not a bad shopping week at all.  I only made two stops and stayed under plan despite buying six very nice steaks for our first BBQ of the season.  It will be interesting to see the numbers for the month next week.

I spent $66.21 at Wegman’s on Monday.  This was largely a restocking visit.

On Friday I spent $144.37, including steaks for the Saturday BBQ.  This was more for specific meals.  There are steaks, potatoes, and salad for the BBQ; hot dogs and buns for the inevitable quick dinner; pizza dough; and broccoli to go with dumplings Friday night.  I used a rain check for the shredded cheese, which is basically only in stock when it is not on sale.  The English muffins were buy 1, get 2 free which is the one time I will buy them.

We only managed to eat together twice this week.  On Monday everyone ate the same thing, but not at the same time.

Monday:
Shepard’s pie, green beans

Tuesday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, spinach salad
Late: Homemade pizza

Wednesday:
Early: Pancakes
Late: Indian take-out

Thursday:
Early: Chicken nuggets, carrot sticks
Late: Take-out pizza (This was a last minute rain-induced change so no dough was thawed.)

Friday:
Early: Dumplings, rice, broccoli
Late: Homemade pizza

Saturday:
Steaks, baked beans, baked potatoes, tossed salad

Sunday:
Chicken & garlic with fresh herbs, french bread, spinach/tossed salad