What I Spent, What We Ate ...This Retirement Week

So I had planned a couple fun posts here, one on current house projects and the other on no cost entertainment. But both require picture taking and other efforts and this morning I have the sore throat from hell. Instead, I'm hitting you with another frugal post on retirement food spending. I can't even call it food porn, because me remembering to photograph what I'm cooking is a rare, rare thing unless I'm doing it for a how to post or article.

So to get to the point. One the first I spent $120.00, and I spent an additional $8.00 at another store (the lamb below). I will probably shop again tomorrow when the new sale flyer is out but have enough food to plan meals for the rest of the week (we only buy what is on sale plus produce and such). We did get more juice, milk and some cantaloupe this morning for another ten dollars or so (gallons of each).

Breakfast: My sister buys her own (shes one of those pie for breakfast people), my son has eggs and sausage and either a small piece of Sara Lee coffee cake or something similar. I move between three things: Oatmeal and fruit, eggs and whole wheat toast and the occasional whole grain waffle and syrup. Son and I both drink orange juice daily (yes, we are breakfast people).

Lunch:  Sister buys her own at Trader Joes, or takes leftovers. Son eats leftovers. I occasionally eat leftovers, but the grocery budget includes healthy choice and lean cuisines and once in awhile I allow myself a peanut butter and jelly or tuna fish sandwich.

Snacks: These are almost always on hand-prebought hard boiled eggs, low calorie microwave popcorn, whole wheat crackers and cheese, mini cottage cheese containers, and sugar free jello and pudding, plus whatever looks good and both mini corn dogs and rice krispie treats for the bottomless pit. Oh, and V8, I have a low sodium one daily. We do not eat desserts as such although this week I grabbed an original Sara Lee cheesecake.

** Adult son eats breakfast and lunches here on his breaks. He is only here for dinner three nights a week at the moment (if he is not going out with friends) and some of those other times he eats leftovers and sometimes he eats at work. When the day comes he is on his own we will still cook the same amounts (but probably freeze more instad of using as leftovers and my costs for breakfast and snacks will slightly less. 

Dinners:

Monday: We had the previously photos pork shoulder and mushroom gravy with fresh vegetables and fruit (I am not a salad person as such I prefer vegetables, both cooked and raw, sister is one of those salads with everything types and buys those herself).

Tuesday: A bagged "sheet dish meal" from the frozen section with Parmesan chicken, roasted potatoes and asparagus that was, believe it or not, fantastic. Also fresh fruit for me (trying to increase the fruits and grains). 

Wednesday:  Lamb shoulder chops, baked potato, cooked spinach and either salad or fruit. We've started buying either shoulder chops or lamb steaks at Sprouts. They are expensive overall, but their meat sales are excellent. We get our chicken tenders there on sale, because chicken breasts are so "puffy" and plumped these days.

Thursday: A fajita mix cooked in the oven (the normal things, just laid flat and roasted instead of stir fried)  This sounds weird, but it actually gets browned and except for the son, we don't eat this on tortillas. We put it into salads similar things.

Friday:  Salmon Burgers, rice and asparagus (sister's night).

Saturday: Deli chicken (we get only the dark meat), stove top stuffing and broccoli and fruit (again, sister's night)

Sunday:  I had planned hamburgers and fixings, but son went off to see that four hour movie, and sister's boss and gotten pizza for the staff and she brought home two pieces. So I had breakfast for dinner, she had the pizza and I have no idea which leftover (all the meals above had them) son had when he wandered in.

And there you have it, our week of meals. Last night son cooked the burgers on the grill and we had fixings and coleslaw and such and tonight we are cleaning out that fridge of leftovers, although that's for another week. 

As you can see our dinners are a mix of frozen prepared, cooked from scratch in the oven or slow cooker, and taking advantage of deli and grocery. But with a few exceptions if it wasn't on sale I didn't buy it. This week was unusual in that there was not one meal out, although the previous week had an order in from Grubhub and this week we'll definitely be going out once, or perhaps even twice.  And as I said before, I still have enough food in the fridge to plan multiple meals this week because except for produce, milk and juice and bread, I shop to fill the freezer and pantry, not to a meal plan. Even in retirement.

It's also worth saying that first, we eat anything protein or produce wise, literally. And we enjoy leftovers for lunch, another day (but not the day after). These two things obviously make alot of difference. If you don't eat pork or fish, or whatever, you results may vary, as the saying said.

Oh, and while I get cage free eggs and try and get the dirty dozen organic, we are not obsessive about organic, although perhaps we should be. And we do have a protein for almost every dinner meal, I even put meatballs or sauce in our minstrone or potato soup.

And that's all the typing for now. Should I be listing everything I bought? 

Off to have tea. Lots of tea. And orange juice, lots of orange juice.