We finally made vegetable curry tonight for dinner and it was delicious (and quick and easy)! It was just what my body needed after eating so much junk food these last couple of days. I found the recipe from Kidspot Australia and altered it a bit to my liking. I will definitely be making the vegetable curry again, but maybe as a side dish next time since this did not have much protein in it.
Vegetable Curry
Serves 4-6 as a main dish, more if using for a side
I’m actually finding grocery shopping a little more fun when I have challenged myself to eat good and healthy meals on a smaller budget. This week was a little harder, though, because I purchased splurge items for a Valentine’s Day dinner and dessert, and we were also out of expensive items like cheese, olive oil, and almond butter.
The Stores and their Deals
The Meal Plan
The Grocery List
The Final Cost
Here was what I planned for dinner (and leftover lunches):
The reality:
We had so much chicken chili left that I didn’t want to waste, we practically ate it all week (Marc also had a work lunch one day, so he didn’t have to pack lunch on that day). So I now have ingredients for vegetable curry and chicken and lentils for next week.
Total cost: I spent about $85-92, but I now have two dinners for next week. I also purchased yogurt and bread at the store later in the week – about $6. So for less than $100, for 3 adults, we ate healthy meals for one week, with two whole meals left over!
We have plenty of butter leftover, but we could have easily gone through more milk. This week I need to buy cheese, olive oil, and almond butter though, so we will see how our budget does when I go grocery shopping today!
While looking for warm and filling dinner recipes (that wouldn’t break the bank) I came across Gluten-Free Goddess’ Santa Fe Chicken Chili. The ingredients are all items we use on a regular basis and I love a bowl of warm chili (especially in the winter).
I used leftover chicken from the day before and homemade broth that I made from the chicken as well. I added a little more spice than what was called for and added in some chili powder and paprika too. We served it with some pepper jack cheese and avocado and it was delicious! The chili was very filling and it made way more than 4 servings; probably more around 8 servings.
I will definitely make this dish again. The hardest part of the whole dish was dicing the sweet potato!
The recipe:
Saturday I made stew and yesterday I made a whole chicken in the crock-pot. It’s so easy cooking with a slow-cooker!
I made a different slightly different version of the stew I have posted before. Stew is so versatile, I think sometimes it would be hard to mess up!
Easy Saturday stew:
Directions:
Yesterday I also made a slow-cooker whole chicken like THIS ONE. I didn’t have any lemon, so I seasoned it heavily with garlic and paprika and tossed it in with a little bit of butter.
After I pulled the chicken out of the slow-cooker, I added about 5 cups of water to juices left in the crock-pot, 1/2 onion, carrots, and celery and a bay leaf and let cook on low overnight. I then strained the mixture and put it in the fridge to use today in a chicken chili recipe I’m going to try!
Week 1 of budget grocery shopping/savings challenge has commenced! I went grocery shopping yesterday and I was a little unsure of how much I would actually save, but after all was said and done, I’m happy with the results and I am sure I will learn more along the way. In our small(ish) town there are a few places to get groceries, but only one store (Raleys) sells the dairy products we like. I was willing to go to other stores if the prices were substantially different, but if not, I was just going to stick to Raleys.
The Game Plan
The Menu
The Grocery List
The Cost
If you are starting to eat clean, whole foods on a budget, you may be having some sticker shock. Despite so many people saying “eating organic doesn’t cost more,” sometimes it does, especially if you are not used to buying bell peppers for $3 each instead of $3 a pound. Or hamburger for $5 a pound versus $1.20 a pound. Some things are just more expensive.
The good news is that organic, fresh, clean, and whole foods generally have more nutrients and are better for you than the other choices, so they leave you fuller on less. If you cut out all the processed junk in your diet, you will find that it is actually easier to eat less, since most of the processed foods are only empty calories anyways.
I’m going grocery shopping today. It will be a test to see if I can actually cut down our grocery bills and be a smarter shopper. In keeping balance of saving money and eating healthy and organic foods, there are some things I don’t want to skip buying because they are expensive, and some things I am willing to compromise on.
Whole Milk: We buy non-homogenized organic milk that comes from pastured cows from a dairy that is fairly near to us, that is sold at the store. It’s not ultra-pasturized like all the other milk (including organic) and it’s the only milk, other than raw milk, that isn’t homogenized (that I have ever seen).
Cost: $4.59 for a half-gallon. In two weeks we go through 2-3 bottles.
Where to save: Drink less milk, eat less boxed cereal (which isn’t healthy anyways), and eat more of their whole milk yogurt instead.
Harder decisions:
Butter: we really enjoy the butter from the same brand as our milk (Strauss). It’s grass-fed, local, and organic butter. It is used mainly for cooking and when I make french toast.
Cost: $7.79 for a pound of butter, we go through about a pound a week.
Do we go for the non-grass fed butter? I feel that grass-fed dairy offers so much more than the other stuff, like more vitamin E and Omega 3′s.
Where to save: Perhaps we can buy 1 box instead of two, and cook more with other healthy fats.
Eggs: We have had a hard time finding local and pasture-raised chicken eggs, so we buy the organic eggs that come at least from our state, and claim to be pasture-raised.
Cost: $5.49 for a dozen. Or close to $8 a dozen in our CSA box. We go through about a dozen a week.
Where to save: We go through so many eggs, I think we will go back to regular grocery store eggs that are on sale for $1.80 for 18. Since being pregnant I can’t stomach a runny egg yolk, so must of our eggs are cooked on higher heats (which destroys a lot of the extra nutrients) anyways. There is a local egg place that sells flats of eggs as well – we need to look into that.
Produce: Some fruits and vegetables get sprayed with pesticides more than others and are more effected by chemicals. Certain produce products should be bought organic, but not all of them need to be. The “Dirty Dozen” include:
What can you buy non-organic? Here is the “Clean 15“
Other ways to save on produce: Buy local, and and buy in season! Where we use to live, the farmers market was huge and you could get a variety of organic and non-organic produce at super cheap prices (you could save $1-3 a POUND on produce!). But we now live in a different town where the farmers market is only during the summer and organic produce is hard to find. Luckily some of our grocery stores sell local (which they should, since we live in CA, and surrounded by all kinds of different produce all year round, yet there is still lots of produce from South America… even though we grow some of the same produce!). Buying at the farmers market usually ensures that you are supporting the farmer as well, not the big corporations.
Wondering what’s in season? A quick Google search will help you out, but our old CSA supplier has an awesome website where you can look up both produce and recipes by the season – visit them HERE.
Meat: Grass-fed and pasture-raised meat products are again, much more expensive than other meat. Items I will continue to buy from pasture-raised animals: whole chickens and ground beef. If you make broth with animal bones, they should be from grass-fed animals as well.
Cost: a pound of grass-fed ground beef costs approximately $5. A whole chicken costs around $10-15
Where to save: Buy more bone-in poultry products and cheaper cuts of meat. We can also not go heavy on the meat everyday and substitute some of it for beans and extra veggies. Stew, soup, and chili dishes are great for making a little bit of meat go a long way.
Other money saving tips:
Make a meal plan before going grocery shopping: a plan will help to avoid those impulse buys, and on a related note, don’t go grocery shopping hungry!
When making a meal plan, chose meals that have similar ingredients and ingredients you regularly use: If you are trying to save money, you are sabotaging yourself if you have to buy an expensive spice or ingredient to make one meal. I’m not saying not to try new things once in a while, but I can tell you that the $8 bottle of fish juice in the back of my refrigerator went bad before I used it for the second time.
Don’t buy junk food: Skip purchasing juices and sodas and packaged products that seems cheap, but are empty calories and only leave you hungry (or sick).
Don’t Waste Food: If buying pershible items in bulk only leads to it going bad before you can use them, either don’t buy in bulk, or prep and freeze the extras. Many of us are guilty of wasting food, which is sad for our wallets and for a world stricken with starvation.
How does everyone else grocery shop?
Marc and I are in the process of buying a home. We just had an offer accepted on a short-sale house, so we have anywhere from 6 weeks to several months (and please God, not longer than several months!) before we make our down-payment, closing costs, and sign the papers for our new home (and then spend money on small upgrades/needs, like paint and such).
Currently, we are pretty much able to spend whatever on groceries, eat out when we want (a little too often), and put some money away in savings too. But in a few months, things are going to get tighter:
A new home also means higher monthly living costs for us (because where we live, housing is not cheap, and the housing market here is not cheaper than renting, plus all those extra utility costs).
We have a baby on the way (due mid-May!).
My mother is living with us (and has not been able to find a job yet, especially since the county we live in, and all the surrounding counties are on the top 10 list of places with the highest unemployment in the country).
I would like to continue to not work, and stay home with our child and future children and on top of all that, I still have the joy of paying student loans.
We already do not pay for cable, just $8 for Netflix. Our internet and phone bill are also non-negotiable. Marc and I don’t regularly go shopping or buy things we don’t need. I don’t buy paper towels or napkins, and I wash my hair 2x a week, so there are mainly two places where we can save:
Grocery Shopping
Eating Out
