Location: One tank gone second thoughts are on my mind. What's this trip gonna cost me this time? The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind. But the new road is an old friend.
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Cheap meals re-visited - What are YOU eating these days?
What are your summertime, frugal meals these days?
I have a reduced grocery budget this pay period and the freezer and pantry are dwindling.
Location: One tank gone second thoughts are on my mind. What's this trip gonna cost me this time? The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind. But the new road is an old friend.
Posts: 39,066
Oh - and I have to admit, too, that I went into an Aldi this week for the first time in a decade.
Holy cow has that place changed! I mean, same general principles, of course, but the items they are stocking are drastically different. I'm still scared of some things after having terrible experiences (yogurt comes to mind), and DH wouldn't even go in. He sat, twitching, in the parking lot. (His entire life his parents ONLY shopped at Aldi and he was mortified having to take Aldi soda and snacks to school and use Aldi deodorant, etc.)
Anyway - I was pleasantly surprised. Soymilk. Organic milk. Whole wheat bread. The prices were pretty good. I don't know if they're much better than the sale prices at the regular store or TJ's on some things - their frozen fruit seemed comparable, frozen veggies, etc. And not much better than sale prices or store brands.
We have a greatly reduced grocery budget--heck, I actually have a budget for the first time in years. We figured out the monthly cost of Erik AND Anders's school tuition, and let's just say something had to give, and it was my grocery spending. Ah!
I'll come back to this, but I've got to get Erik to camp.
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Heather
Mama to E, 6 2/3 and A, 4 1/2
We have a tight budget right now too, as we wait for our old house to sell. We are eating a lot of our CSA produce, and also produce from our own garden as we are now starting to get tomatoes and such.
Our menu for this week:
tonight-ratatouille, homemade bread and faux-tatoes(cauliflower)
Wed-pizza night
Thurs-tortellini salad, fruit and bread
Fri-pasta w/ sauce, garlic bread, veggies
Sat-chicken breasts on the grill, veggies and fruit
I will have to check out Aldi. I haven't been in a couple of months and the last time I was there, I didn't see any organics. I would love to be able to pick some organic things there, as it is quite close to us.
Location: One tank gone second thoughts are on my mind. What's this trip gonna cost me this time? The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind. But the new road is an old friend.
Posts: 39,066
yeah, we opted to not get the CSA share for financial reasons this summer, and were just buying from the Farmer's Market. Well, since we were spending $60 - 80 a week at the Farmer's Market, it was cutting way into our food budget.
I am also up about four pounds right now and it's surely from having to eat cheap the last couple pay periods. I'd like to change that, of course.
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Lots of eggs, beans, and greens from our garden. Very cheap. Spending money on the kids' food and keeping ours very simple has been the best strategy it seems.
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Yeah, I used to be skeeved out by Aldi, but we have been doing all of our shopping there for months. Just recently, they started carrying hummus and it is really good! Their soymilk has the same ingredients list as Silk and tastes the same to me. Not a big fan of their frozen peas, so that is one thing we get an another store, Luna loves her frozen peas!
We've been eating a lot of rice. Rice and lentils, rice and veggies, etc.
Also, taco salad with the Aldi red kidney beans cooked in a bit of taco seasoning.
Still eating a lot of the cheap eggs we find locally. Eggs and toast, french toast, quiche, etc.
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meatballs with 1 lb of hamburger and the rest chopped onions and cooked brown rice. That made it for one meal for us, plus enough leftovers that we all could have had it for dinner again. (Kids got 5 each, Carl and I took 3)
Sloppy joes--again, with brown rice as an extender.
Pasta salad--sausages cut up and mixed with blanched carrots and pasta. My kids hate it, though, they want it all separate. But if we do sausages (the chicken with no preservatives from TJs), then they each eat one and want more at dinner. Sigh.
Pizza, we do that weekly. Not the cheapest, as we use a lot of cheese, but the kids love it. Plus I have to buy soy cheese for Erik.
I tried to find an Aldi near me but I guess it is only an east coast thing?
I am in Sacramento, CA.
and I am about to "put the smack down" on the grocery shopping.
I have been going to FoodMax, which I fondly refer to as the "ghetto grocery store"... super cheap and they have a decent stock of ethnic foods.
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Becky,
SUPER DUPER single mama to my 2 lovely ladies!
patchouli wearin, dirt lovin, tree huggin, tiedye makin, tofu eatin, belly dancin, festival goin, vegetable growin, tea drinkin, hippy stinkin!
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We get some stuff at Aldi, too. Fat free refried beans, taco shells, certain cereals (I wish I liked their muesli!), blue corn chips. Some of the special stuff they just get in once is pretty cool. I need to try their hummus. I've been buying really big containers of hummus at Costco, though!
My favorite summer meals are cold wraps: hummus and spinach and tomatoes, black beans, salsa and corn, fakin bacon tempeh and coleslaw (that was way better than you'd think - it smelled like BBQ cooking, so I just went a different direction from BLT).
Location: One tank gone second thoughts are on my mind. What's this trip gonna cost me this time? The devil I know is starting to look awfully kind. But the new road is an old friend.
Posts: 39,066
Really - I didn't see a HUGE difference in some things versus TJ's - and you guys have those, right?
I know they were abundant in LA when we were out there
I love their frozen green beans, frozen wild/organic blueberries (a little water, a little sugar, and we top waffles and pancakes with these), organic broccoli florets, etc.
of course, if you buy gelato and goat cheese like I do, fuhgettaboutit
Okay - really - the goat cheese is stinkin' cheap and we all have dairy issues, so a little goes a long way to top things like pizzas and toss into pasta salads
eta: and they have really good, affordable tofu.
I emailed them to BEG them to start carrying dried beans. I finally saw one mix of beans last time I was there. They said it takes several months to get the process rolling, so I'm hoping the momentum will keep up. It just seemed so logical to have lentils and beans!
I shop a lot at TJs, yes. Though I try to limit my trips there, because TJs has a TON of things we don't need but I really really like. I can make a list of at least 10 things I have to deliberately NOT buy when I'm there, and that's just off the top of my head.
Very cheap. Spending money on the kids' food and keeping ours very simple has been the best strategy it seems.
Tawnya, your memory lives on in your children.
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