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This was a big spending week. We had planned a dinner out at the new Olive Garden with some people from church for next weekend but other peoples plans changed so we went this past weekend. We had a wonderful time but that one dinner was a big portion of our spending this month. To add to that, we have been taking a class on Sunday’s after church service. After we were finished Joe asked if we could have lunch out (again, third week in a row). Thankfully, this week we went to a Mongolian Grill place that is a pretty good choice. It is the kind of place where the veggies and meat is raw and then cooked on a grill.They are MSG free and being able to pick what goes in the meal and watching it cook is nice.

Here’s the recap. I was kind of flustered when I got home from shopping and the groceries were put away before I took a picture.

Olive Garden- $56.58
Mongolian Grill- $28.88

Albertsons:

  • Coffee
  • 5 pounds whole wheat flour
  • Cheesecake Mix (For Joe’s Birthday)
  • Chipolte peppers
  • 2 gallons whole milk
  • 2 pounds butter
  • 1.41 pounds brussel sprouts
  • 5 bell peppers (Joe wants Stuffed Peppers for his Birthday Dinner)
  • 1.06 pounds bananas
  • 2.29 pounds butternut squash
  • 10 pounds potatoes

Albertson’s Total: $40.35

Total food spending for this week: $125.81

New Total for January: $283.55
The dining out really increased our amounts this week.

A couple of things that I wanted to mention this week is Birthday’s at our place and our produce purchases.

What we have always done for Birthday’s is I will make the birthday person anything they want for dinner or they can choose to go out for dinner to a favorite place. Usually, the birthday person will choose to eat at home (except when it’s my birthday- I pick going out). Joe’s birthday is Friday. He has suggested 4 or 5 different things he wanted for his birthday dinner but at the store he finally settled on Stuffed Bell Peppers. Bell peppers aren’t in season right now but besides that it is a simple and fairly economical meal to make. And for dessert he wants one of those cheesecake things that come in a box. No problem. It’s his birthday so I’ll make him whatever he wants. Our opinion is that if we try to eat mindfully the bulk of the time we can splurge and eat other things on occasion. Birthday’s are a great time to eat anything. I should mention, that we are not dealing with any food allergies, if we were then we would have a different opinion about ‘splurges’.

Produce: We would like to eat in season and local. Living in Wyoming in January that is difficult. Most of the items in the store are from Mexico or Honduras and alot of it isn’t looking very good. This week, I didn’t purchase very much produce. We still have things left from last week (sweet potatoes, carrots and cabbage) and we also add lacto-fermented fruits and veggies and items I froze to our menu as often as we can to make up for the lack of fresh produce. In addition, I sprout radish seeds, broccoli seeds, sunflower seeds and wheat that we use those on top of things in place of lettuce. I was surprised at how good sprouted wheat tastes.

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Do you budget dining out separately from other food purchases? Or does it all get lumped together?
 
This post is a contribution to GCC Shopping Round Up hosted by Gayle each Tuesday.

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