Not bad this week. We went to a different branch of our usual store due to an event in town between us and our usual store. I don't go to this one normally because this branch tends to have fewer of the lower priced brands in stock (oddly enough since it's actually in a lower-income area). Our total was $61.10.
Dairy-$12.95
Meats-$15.85
Produce-$14.59
Grains, pasta, and bread-$7.49
And the rest in odds and ends.
We brought home a lot of food for the money we spent. Pasta was still at $.38 for 12 ounces, so I bought up some of that plus brown rice at $.55 a pound. I decided to try some new ways to make pasta since the price is so good right now. We also stocked up on a favorite fruit juice that was on sale, one we particularly like to drink when we aren't feeling well. We'd probably have been at about $50, but this includes some food for a celebration.
One of my planned "tests" with the pasta: frying it. I've heard this described, and it sounds easy. Yes, it'll add calories and fat, but I'm going to experiment with the minimum amount to get successful results. I think fried pasta with mozarella melted over it could be a fun, quick, and cheap main dish. Perhaps add a little cooked ground turkey...
We're now between terms here, and while we'll be taking a class each over the summer, we won't be at a full time load. I'll be working full time, but we'll be able to use some of the extra time to work out some new cheap-and-fast meals by this fall. I looked at a list of meals we came up with about 10 years ago with estimated costs, and at least half the items are no longer included in our menus. Some of those were made with ingredients that are more expensive, or were dishes my oldest knew how to make, or ones we discovered were much higher calorie than we thought. That's part of the creativity of being frugal, you adapt to changes.
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