Food Costs - Menu, Cooking Ahead & Budget

 First, I have never really understood the concept of a budget and Vince is more than happy to vouch for that fact. I figure we have to eat and I want to cook the best meals I can cook for a reasonable price. I do my meal planning, then buy whatever groceries we need. I try to fix at least two meals per week that will have leftovers for that week and two that will have leftovers for the freezer. One week each month, we eat meals from the freezer and there's very little cooking that week. Since we had that load of beef coming this week, I had used up all the leftovers to be sure there was room in the freezers for beef so now I need to build the heat and eat meals back up.

I do not have a grocery budget. I don't see the need for a "budget". I buy what we need. I cook what we buy. I have limits on what I will spend and as sad as it makes me, I will NOT buy my beloved Dr. Pepper at the price they are today. I'm sure my body thanks me. I do get them when we go out to eat because I'm pretty picky about water and in this area, water can be pretty bad. There's a Mexican restaurant we like and Vince brings water from home. 

I've had questions about my grocery shopping. I'm not an expert. I just do what works for us. We eat almost every meal at home. When my friend and I get together once a week to stitch, we eat out. Otherwise, we rarely eat out. About the only times we do eat out is when we go out with friends or when we have several appointments in town and it's just easier to eat out. There are several reasons for this.

 I try to have the meal plan ready at least a week in advance but two weeks is better.

This morning, I did as much as I could to get ready for this week's meals.

First, I had a ham bone from ham we had a few days ago so I got it out, simmered it most of the morning, then canned 6 pints of rich ham stock.

Today's meal is Stir Fry so I got all that prepped.

In the background, you can see the half gallon jars of pasta sauce that's about 2/3 full. A few days ago while putting the beef in the freezer, I came across two gallons of tomatoes. I thought I was done with tomatoes. That wasn't enough to fill the freeze dryer so I made them into pasta sauce. Since I don't eat pasta sauce, I'll probably put that into pint jars and can it this afternoon. That should give me 5 or 6 pints.

I also grabbed a package of ground beef because on Christmas week's menu, I have Philly Cheese Steak Casserole and Pasta with Meatballs. I will get both of those done this weekend and put them in the freezer so I can take those things out, defrost them, heat them and have dinner without a big mess or a lot of time.

When we got the beef, I counted the packages and divided the total cost by that number so every package I take out, I will put the cost down as $11. The ground beef was to be put into 1.5 pound packages but they don't really weigh it (I guess!). Some packages are always over and some are under. The package I took out this morning was 1.75 pounds so 1 pound will go into the Philly Cheese Steak Casserole and 3/4 pound will go into meatballs. The cost per meal will be based on that division of $11. I am really not concerned about the cost - it is what it is but I would like to know how it all comes out in the end - buying a cow and having it butchered vs. going to the grocery store. I don't even care if it's more to buy the cow because I get it from a friend whom I trust 100% and when I buy it in the store . . that kind of trust is not there!  :(

And, when I use a package of prime rib or cook 2 ribeye steaks, those will each go on my list as $11 because it's per package.Here's the menu/cost breakdown for this week's meals.

We will eat 3 meals out and we are eating at places where we go when we do eat out so I can fairly accurately guess what we'll be paying - about $60 for those three meals out. Definitely not fine dining but it works on busy days. For four meals at home, the cost is $28.26. I count breakfast at about $6-7 per day. We mostly have eggs, bacon and toast or ham and toast. Some days we have pancakes or Dutch Baby . . typical breakfast things.

Sometimes there's a zero for costs - like the pasta sauce. I made it from tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, oregano, etc. from the garden so I didn't add in any cost for that.

I don't add in for salt and really normal things - bread crumbs I make from leftover bread. I should have included Parmesan cheese for the pasta so every single thing I used isn't listed but it's a fairly close estimate to what I spend on meals.

Here's our menu plan for Christmas week!