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Archive for November, 2008

Wicked Weekend

November 30th, 2008 at 07:09 am

Dh and I just came home from watching Wicked (the musical show), it was fantastic! The best thing was it was for free, although we still spent some money on some food, drinks and parking.

Other than going to the show our weekend was spent just doing some housework and gardening. The zucchini that almost died a few weeks ago is still surviving well, even though it was the biggest seedling to start with it has caught up with the other plants. 2 of the other zucchini plants are already flowering. Also started organising the pantry again, I've managed to clean 1 whole shelf! I'm doing it one at the time because I can actually get it done that way. I've been meaning to clean this pantry for 2-3 months now and everytime I think about doing it I get so overwhelmed that I just never start it. So I think by cleaning/organising it one shelf at the time I might actually get it done.

Well that was my weekend and tomorrow is back to work again...sigh.



The Week's Challenge ruined.

November 22nd, 2008 at 02:45 am

Yesterday was the last day for calculation how much our home made meals costs us for a week (as my previous post was all about). Well it was ruined yesterday because DH forgot to bring his lunch yesterday and had to buy subway. The money came out of his allowance (not from the grocery). I also wasn't an angel yesterday. I been getting hives lately so after work DH and I stopped by at the doctors to see whether I should be tested, he doesn't believe it is necessary for me to do since it is mild allergy I just have to take anithestimane when it flares up. Anyway back to the challenge - because we got stuck in traffic for over an hour and spent another half an hour or so at the doctors I thought it was best I buy my dinner and DH can have his lunch that he left in the fridge. So yeah I also spent money on food yesterday, which will also came out of my allowance money.

So this was the rest of the challenge (the first 4 days is on my previous post):


19 Nov – $7.60
Breakfast – Oats & Coffee - $0.60
Lunch – Sandwiches (Tuna with Mayo) and Egg Sandwich - $1.00
Dinner – Chicken and Mushroom with Pasta (& we also open a bottled of red wine) - $3.50 & $6.00

20 Nov – $5.60
Breakfast – Muesli (for DH), Scramble Egg, Mushroom & Tomato with Toast and Coffee – $1.40
Lunch – Leftover Chicken & Mushroom Pasta - $0
Dinner - Fried Rice & Beef with Potato, Carrots and Peas with Soysauce (and leftover wine from yesterday) – $4.20

21 Nov – $15.50 (including takeout)
Breakfast- Oats & Coffee - $0.60
Lunch – DH forgot his lunch and bought Subway $7.90 & I had leftovers from last night - $0
Dinner – DH had his lunch he forgot to bring to work - $0 and I had Chicken Kebab - $7.00


So overall for the week we spent just under $53 (including the $14.90 food that was brought). If we didn't get takeout then it would probably be around $45-$48 for the week, which would have been an average of about $6.50 (rounded up) per day. At this average our main meals cost us about $200p/m. This make sense to me because right now we are averaging less than $250p/m on groceries which includes toilettres, cleaning products for the bathroom and kitchen, snacks such as coffee and tea, etc.. You get the point...

The more we make our meals at home the cheaper it is for us obviously but I never realise how cheap it can be. This sure has given me a lot to think about. Even though the meals that we bought yesterday were cheap meals they were still a lot more expensive compare to if we had just cooked it at home.

A week's challenge

November 18th, 2008 at 07:09 am

Last week I heard someone say that they think that cooking at home is more expensive than getting takeaway (takeout). These people normally get takeaways. And when they cook at home, they thinks its more expensive. They made something at home last week and thought it costs them more (it costs them over $20 for the meal for 2 of them).

Are you serious! Probably because they shop at the wrong places and probably only buy brand name expensive stuff.

This really got me thinking on how much our food actually cost per meal. So for the last few days I have been calculating our meals. These are our meals and costs for 2 adults. I'm thinking of doing this for a week, so I'm half way there.

15 Nov - $10.20
Breakfast - Oats & Coffee - $0.70
Lunch - Hotdogs and Salad - $4.25
Dinner - Roast Chicken with Gravy & Vegies - $5.25

16 Nov - $5.00
Breakfast - Toast with Eggs $ Bacon & Coffee - $1.20
Lunch - Leftover Roast Chicken with Gravy & Salad - $0.50
Dinner - Stirfry with Rice - $3.30

17 Nov - $6.50
Breakfast - Oats & Coffee - $0.70
Lunch - Leftover - No cost
Dinner - Homemade Tacos with loads of vegies - $5.80

18 Nov - $2.50
Breakfast – Muesli, Toast & Coffee - $0.80
Lunch – Leftover Taco with boiled Potato with sour cream- $0.70
Dinner - More Tacos (DH just loves it so much) and I also had some Tuna and mayo sandwich - $1.00


Let's just round it up to $25 shall we. So our main meals for 4 days only cost us $25, thats $6.25 per day for two people!
Okay we do eat a lot of leftovers because we normally cook in large batches, main reasons is we like to take leftovers for lunches to work. This might be boring for some but it doesn't bother us. And we also make things from scratch which really helps to cut the cost down. In above menus even the taco seasoning and gravy are made home made. And we also like to have a lot of either salad &/or vegies with each meal, apart from breakfast of course. Speaking of breakfast, I can't believe that for most morning it actually cost us less than $1 to make.

Okay, so I will have to concede that you can't just buy 50cents worth of sour cream for example, you actually have to buy the whole bottle. Sometimes you will end up having waste but if you are resourceful you should be able make something else with it.

A handful of strawberries.

November 15th, 2008 at 06:11 am



Update on the zucchini - it is surviving.

It finally rained the other day and since then the days has been a lot cooler, although it is starting to heat up again.

We got up early today and did a lot of planting - lettuces, silver beets, rockets, more zucchinis, tomatoes, cucumbers and sunflowers. Now we just need to get the birds, snails and other nasties. It's a constant stuggle with those things.


These are the strawberries that I managed to pick from the garden today too. The strawberries were actually planted last year. We are actually getting more fruit from them this year, although the birds got some of them. I have now resorted to putting a net to keep them out.

Zucchini is dying

November 12th, 2008 at 10:10 am

Today's weather was a lot hotter than expected and it might have killed the zucchini I transplanted yesterday. Even though I watered it this morning before leaving for work it still got burnt. I don't know if it is going to survive, tomorrow is going to be really hot again but it is going to cool down in the late afternoon. I'm hoping the watering it got this afternoon will help it survive. Lucky I didn't plant all the zucchini seedlings yesterday.

Gardening

November 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am

I did some gardening late this afternoon, planted some zucchini and pumpkin in the ground. There are still more seedlings that needs planting but I think I'm going to wait until the weekend when hopefully the weather will be a bit cooler. It's a bit hot here in the next few days, the seedlings might not survive it. I did some weeding to get the area ready for it.

A tomato that I planted last month has now got couple of fruits. Can't wait to have fresh tomatoes from the garden again. The basils are also going along just in time for the tomatoes. Tomato and basil salad is my favourite.

Less than 50 days to Xmas

November 8th, 2008 at 07:24 am

Can you believe it, this year has gone by so fast! This is the time of the year when I start analysing our year's performance and also start doing next year's spending plan/budget.

This year has been very good for saving. All our goals this year has already all been achieved beyond expectation. Unfortunately next year won't be as good but because of what we have achieved this year it means we won't need to be as agressive in trying to save for everything next year. This year's achievement has really given as a lot of breathing room. The main thing that we want to concentrate on next year is to put more money into the car fund and house repair fund. There's still $2.5K left in the holiday funds, not sure if we will have time to go overseas next year, if we do then I can add some more but for now I'm happy with how much is in there for now.

And of course around this time of the year is when I start thinking about christmas. I've bought enough presents for the little ones (nephews and nieces) and some for adults, we don't really buy much for adults so I'm almost done with buying presents. Right now we just got over $400 left in the Xmas fund.

Can't wait for christmas!

October Update

November 4th, 2008 at 12:38 am

I've been MIA from blogging. Just been so lazy lately. On the good side the laziness probably help keep our spending down in Oct and made it to be the best month this year.







I think I will make my goal this month to blog at least 3 times a week. It probably be about boring stuff...so you've been warned.