Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Bucket Lists and Food Budget Adjustments and Dogs!

Today began the "Let's see what Babara can take with her from the kitchen",  experiment. Which quickly turned into the "While we're at it, let's just clean out all the cabinets".


To the far right there is a top to a food processor, with no bottom container!


 We have yet to get to the stovetop cooking pans or tools, but my "to pack" pile in the office now includes  a pottery six muffin pan, a normal sized muffin pan, a couple of round glass cake pans, a pie plate, and a heavy wooden cutting board. Plus my slow cooker and blender, a portable mixer and immersion blender.  Add to that a four or five quart soup pan, my good two quart saucepan, a medium skillet, and a one quart saucepan ( which I may reject in case they need it for bernaisse and hollandaise). We obviously had plenty of pans between us, which my non bending over body has missed.
 
Small Casserole dishes like these and the ones below plus a small loaf pan, are on my short wish list!



The process continues, with me not taking any casserole pans because I've decided that in the future even if I cook larger recipes I'll divide them into smaller casserole pans. Which are on my list (see above).  Still trying to decide on the Kitchen Aid-whether I'll have counter top space for it as well as if I will use it beyond Christmas cookies. I also unpacked the fall decor box (hey, it's officially fall!!), took my stuff and put the rest out around the house.

I've been wanting to come up with a fall bucket list in the midst of this, and think I'll have one to share on Friday as well as a September/October goals list. This one will surely be different from past years. No festivals, no pumpkin patch, no trick or treating, no fall happy hours with pumpkin brew and/or wine, no leaf drives even because of the fires.  There will be fall colored crafting, pumpkin edibles in the extreme, and I am not sure what else. It was excruciating for me to walk away from the the jumbo pumpkin muffins at Sam's this morning, let me tell ya.

In other news, I've been working on the groceries for one angle and trying to figure out my general budget. I began with a grocery budget of a couple hundred dollars which I shared here somewhere around 2014 and that amount has obvously risen exponentially (I'm not including the early Covid grocery spending and delivery in this, I refuse open that one up!!). I'm not the only person who cooks or shops in this house, but I am the one who shops and cooks the most as I am the only non working resident.  I tend to cook and shop for the weekdays and the other two tend to make one really, really good meal each weekend day. I have spent as much as five hundred a month in the current shopping climate, mainly because I am generally getting stuff for large meals that serve three and make piles of leftovers.  That will change, well, drastically. Both because I've been spending wayyy to much in general, and because my eating style will change some.

My best way to estimate was to figure the things I eat every week for breakfast and lunch and snacks and how often I need to shop for them. Add to that two or three family sized meals that I'll cooking and freeze in the beginning, and I have a rought list.  Which I typed into a grocery website as if I was getting delivery or pickup, since I have no math brain whatsoever.   A pal sent me a document that showed average spending based on age and gender from the USDA for 2020.  They show the thrifty plan for a gal 51 to 70 is $171 a month,  the liberal plan is $320 a month, and the low cost and moderate plans in between the two.  For food only. I dont include non food in my food budget as I get it elsewhere than a grocery-I'll share this in a post of it's own. I also don't drink alcohol anymore (Thanks so much, menopause!!)

I fully expect  to exceed the liberal plan by whatever amount necessary for a month or so as I build up my basic stores. I'll completely be starting from scratch here,  from the flour and sugar and salt and pepper to the tea bags and everything else.  While I am a not a great cook, I do like flavor, so spices and sauces and/or the makings thereof will need to be purchased. I'll probably rely on all the flavored mixes and "grinders" available, at least to start. Once pantry stock up time is up, my goal is to keep it at the liberal plan and slowly try to move south of that as I am able and feel comfortable (with no guilt if I can't). I have no plan to go into "prepper mode" in any way whatosever until I have the basics and my kitchen is put together. While I don't figure it in the budget, I will be living right near two cooking fools, so expect  come home every Sunday with food, I admit it.

We'll see how my expectations and reality come together in the food area. As always, I'll share with you, the readers-good, bad, or in between. If any of the single folks want to share how much they spend on food alone, I'd love to hear it.

We have a possible dog adoption "home visit" tomorrow, so this afternoon we are doing the best we can do to make the house presentable considering there are packing preparations going on in multiple rooms. I'll share pictures if this progresses, the sweet girl is a six year old that looks to be dachsund mixed with something equally small as she's under 25lbs. Her mom could no longer take care of her and the family members from afar swooped in and gave the cutie and her sister to the rescue-and the sister is already placed.

As very long time readers know, this was similar to what I did when Magic and Elvis died (at sixteen and seventeen years old).  While my intent was to wait a few months, we were looking at beagles a few weeks later, and had one before the first of the year when the last one died the day after Thanksgiving. Not only are we serious dog people, we are obviously all of the opinion that getting another dog eases the pain!!

13 comments:

  1. Just getting new spices and herbs along with other food stuffs would put you over the top. I know it did me when we moved twice.

    God bless.

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    1. At this point I'm going with the theory that each time I make a recipe I'll get the staples for that one (like for mustard maple chicken with rosemary I would need those 3 things) and go from there.

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  2. I would start my spices with 5 basic ones and go from there as needed. Garlic powder, onion powder, chili powder, cinnamon and some seasoned blend (for me it would be Cavander's greek because it is so versatile but everyone has a personal favorite. I did a start from scratch budget for a food stamp project not too long ago and it took me 6 weeks to cob together a kitchen filled with basics. Of course I started with and kept an extremely low budget.
    You are very smart to be planning to add items as they are needed for recipes. BTW I love the small casserole dishes!

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    1. Anne, I actally use alot of seasoned blends and girnders like garlic rosemary, and italian so I figured each time I make a meal like italian beef stew I would add tht. I do used jarred garlic (what can I say its a thing with me) I figue that for every large cook and freee meal I will also have indiviual ones or be reheating.

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  3. I can't help you with the budget for groceries because prices here in Canada are so much higher than the States. I do know that the first grocery stock-up is always a biggie!

    Giving the pup a new home after she was so callously sent away by the family, sounds like a win/win to me.

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    1. Yes, Im trying to divide up the big stock up and not make it all at once! sue has decided to wait on the pup for now, it may be too early

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  4. We're still on the $100 a week grocery budget (two people) we've been on since retiring in 2012. Food only, as paper products, cleaning supplies, etc., are budgeted elsewhere. I am actually finding it easier to stay on budget thanks to today's recipes using more fresh ingredients than recipes did in years past, plus the opening of an Aldi's in a nearby town. Plus it's very often cook once, eat twice or even three times, around here.

    We buy very little prepared foods, so that is likely the trade off/reason why. I can see from my grocery store visits that those prices have risen over the years.

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    1. I am sooo happy to be moving near an aldis. I think I will be equally cooking and freezing, cooking single recipes, and it has to be said, buying meal for one (be they fresh or frozen). I expect once I have stocked up I will be between the two fivty and three hundred dollar range, but we will see.

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  5. I admire your plan for putting your kitchen together. I moved in March and am still working on it since I went into prepper mode since it was March and the beginning of the stay at home phase of the pandemic. Stay safe!

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    1. Im looing forward to it. I have done no preppping. I may stock up some in my apartment but I have not seen shortages as such in my area, I do clicklist and substitutions are very rare.

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  6. I'm not understanding why you wouldn't take from the shared home, what you brought to the shared home. You live on a fixed income and are planning to continue supporting your son. I'm just confused on this.

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