Saturday, March 29, 2008

Keeping a Firm Hand on the Food Budget

We've been renovating the kitchen since March 7th. Just over three weeks now. Without a kitchen, cooking has been, let's say, interesting. Before starting the project, I loaded up our upright freezer with 35 $1 (on sale) Banquet frozen dinners, hoping that would get us through. When the project expanded, of course, we had to re-stock. Since frankly with the Banquet dinners, you get what you pay for, I decided to go a bit more upscale with our next batch. I hit a local bargain haven, the Grocery Outlet where you can find great deals on such brands as Amy's Organic, Seeds of Change, Stouffer's, etc. I went up a bit more on the price point, paying as much as $1.99 each. Most were still in the $1.49-$1.79 range though. I bought $40 worth; a week later, as the project had expanded even more to include countertops, I had to head back to the Grocery Outlet and stocked up on 40 frozen meals. The Seeds of Change ones are especially tasty--they taste like real food, not a frozen dinner.

Other than lunches here and there, and Friday Pizza Night, we haven't gone out to eat. Until this morning, we hadn't even hit our favourite breakfast place! We've thus been able to stick fairly closely to our usual food budget, despite the lack of a kitchen.

I really miss cooking! I miss the smell of sauteing garlic and olive oil, the rich scent of baking sweet potatoes, the caramel smell of bar-b-que pork in the Crock-Pot. (Yes, I know I could still do Crock-Pot meals, but frankly, it's just too much to handle right now.)

1 comment:

Sharon said...

That's amazing that you haven't gone out to dinner during this renovation! We had hardwood floors put in our kitchen and it took over two weeks. I think we ate out three times a day all 14 days!