Meal Plan for the week:

Monday: Minestroni Soup
Tuesday: Takeaway Pizza
Wednesday: Pumpkin & Sweet Potato Soup
Thursday: Salad, Steamed Veges (Lamb Chop for DF)
Friday: Mexican Beans & Rice
Saturday: Steamed Veges & Rice/ Spaghetti Bologaise for DF
Sunday: Mexican Beans & Jacket Potatoes.

This week should be very minimal in grocery expenditure as I have most of the items I need at home already. I am hoping that January will be a 'Clear Out The Pantry' month.

On that note, this is a loose meal plan for next week:

Monday: Vegetable Risotto
Tuesday: Minestroni Soup
Wednesday: Salad & Grilled Tofu/Lamb Chops
Thursday: Lentil Dahl
Friday: Vegetable Curry & Rice
Saturday: Dining Out (friends bday)
Sunday: Bolognaise for DF/Steamed Veges & Rice

The only items I need to buy food-wise are:
Meat for DF/Meat for Dogs
Tofu for myself
Fresh fruit & Veges
plus some other extras for lunches etc.
We don't need many other grocery or household items, so I am hoping this will be an under-budget month.

My posts have been dwindling the past few months, but I am going to attempt to post more in January.

December totals will be up soon. Unfortunately I already know we spent more than we earnt last month - my broken car window tipped us over the edge.

Groceries are still high, on average almost $20 more per week than what I am wanting to spend. I have decided that I will trial buying fruit and vegetables from a store near us. The past few weeks I have gone there as the farmers markets have been closed (due to christmas and new years), and have spent roughly the same amount, or less, than at the farmers market. And the fruit and vegetables are the same: organic & freshly picked. The store owns several large farms and grow their own produce. They are kind of a local secret around here, always have been well priced. I never went as I liked going to the markets, but lately it seems like a drag going to the markets on a Saturday morning.

So I will see how that goes. Who knows, maybe our grocery bill will decrease a little?

It's back to normal at work today and from now on - no more holidays, super busy days or public holidays. Which is kind of nice, it means constant money, but also it was nice having time off too!

An update to my entry about making sushi for the first time:

It worked out splendidly! It rolled perfectly and everything was even, nothing fell apart. DF loved it and took some for lunch the next day.

I think this could well be the start of a new obsession. Atleast it is summer and a good time to be eating cold rice and seaweed. I am sure that it is atleast partly healthy...? We make them with avocado, cucumber, tuna, tofu, carrot, capsicum and pickled ginger in different combinations. I was thinking brown rice would be an interesting experiment, but I am not so sure it would work. Has anyone ever tried this???

While it's not a super-cheap meal, it's not particularly expensive, atleast in my books. Dinner and leftovers for lunch the next day can be made for around $10, which is a pretty ballpark figure for most of our meals. I know many people feed their families of four, five or six for less than this amount, but I like to have fun in the kitchen now and then. And when I find a recipe that I can make without a stove or an oven, don't stand in my way! Lol.

Well, I am trying to keep my expenses to a minimum because I know that this weekend's spending will be quite high.
Yesterday, however, I spent $8.50 on lunch with a friend plus $3 on a drink at work. (usually my drinks at work cost 50c as we get cheap cans of coke for the staff - but we had run out! so i bought a can of mother for $3)
I used my free coffee card for a coffee, even though my friend was very adamant that she wanted to pay (I snuck in before her though). Normally I would let people pay if they insisted - but she is very generous, and unfortunately I know how much she earns and I feel really bad when she wants to pay for me. She is an apprentice, earning a third of what I do (for the same job!). Would anyone else feel this way? The reason I know how much she earns is because I have helped her with her budget. Am I being a bad person by not letting her pay for me?

Last week I transferred another $100 into my savings - so for the month of September I saved $200 more (in my home loan account) than my 'normal' automatic deductions.

Today I have to get petrol and a couple of grocery items. I need: chickpeas, coriander, yoghurt, cheese and some kind of dessert for BF.

Tonight for dinner we are having a chickpea and cauliflower curry I found in a recipe book.

And I haven't forgotten that Homebody asked for the recipe for the lentil dal I made last week - I will post it soon!