Day 29 & 30

Day 29

Came home exhausted. Made pizza using the pizza sauce I made from earlier this week, slightly under ripe tomatoes from our garden, and leftover meat from Sunday's Korean BBQ for dinner:



Total Cost of Food: $0

Day 30
Went over to the parent's house for dinner. I don't think we have a picture but we indulged in green beans, veggies, fresh clams, fresh lobster, and two types of chicken along with soup. We were mighty full. Afterward, the brother-in-law treated me to two martinis when we all went out that night. That was a lovely treat.

Total Cost of Food:
$0

Day 28

Breakfast: oatmeal w. blueberries
Lunch: I had 3 Vietnamese style spring rolls (filled with lettuce and leftover soy sauce chicken) and an apple while the hubsters had brown rice, chicken, and stir-fried zucchini along with an apple.

Dinner was kick@ss. Our friends invited us to dinner at their place and they spoiled us with Korean bbq, salad, and stir-fried veggies. Dinner + good company + Glee = happy.



The only negative to yesterday is that our car started making grinding/grumbling sensations as we drove to their house and we noticed a strong gas odor. We stopped the car for a few minutes and restarted--it seemed fine--but a minute or two later, the sensation started again. We were almost to their house by then so we continued on our way. After dinner, Big J took our car for a quick spin and diagnosed a possible problem with the alternator. We then drove home only to have the car shake more and the smell of gas became so strong that we (meaning I) was afraid of a potential explosion so we parked in a supermarket and got Big J to drive us home.

So...today, we're going to take the car in to the body shop. We already spent $600 fixing the car last month...and now we will have to spend God knows how much to fix this problem. The car is only worth $1500ish right now. At some point, we really should just sell it instead of throwing more money at it. If we can fix it for <$300, we'll go ahead and do it. The car is on it's last leg anyway...if it can survive for another 2 years on $300, we'll keep it. In two years, we will be better equipped to figure out what kind of car we need next.

Anyway....we saved a lot this month but we'll probably need to spend a lot too. And that's the way the world goes around.

Day 27

For breakfast and lunch today, I had oatmeal with blueberries. Husband had oatmeal for breakfast and some leftover soy sauce chicken, rice, and green veggies.

We are low on fresh veggies so we stopped by Costco on the way home from work tonight. Again, it is not a good idea to shop when hungry but we didn't do too poorly. We got a a 6-pack of lettuce and some fresh mozzarella cheese. Hubster's wanted pizza for dinner but I balked at paying $10 for a mergherita pizza when we had all the requisite ingredients to make it ourselves at home. I got home, defrosted some pre-made pizza dough, opened a can of tomato sauce and made the pizza sauce. It took maybe an hour from start to finish. Maybe it wasn't one of my most efficient (or come to think of it, cost saving) experiments but I'm pretty happy with the results. We spent about $9.50 today at Costco...although the cheese cost $6.99, we still have 1.5 logs left...plenty for caprese salad, pizza, and other random goodies over the next few days. Hopefully it'll stay fresh in the fridge to last that long!




Although pizza is great for leftovers, husband finished 2/3s of it all by himself so there isn't any left haha.

Total Cost of food: $9.50
Estimated Cost of food: $3 (cheese) + $.50 (canned tomatoes for pizza sauce) = $3.50

Day 24, 25, 26

The weekend went by like a blur as usual.

Friday:
We had leftovers for lunch as usual but we came home and made chili together for dinner. We used homemade chicken stock, fresh tomatoes from my parents, and some grass-fed beef that I bought at the beginning of the month in anticipation for the experiment. It was enough for 5 large servings so husband ate that on Saturday as well.



Total Cost of Food: $11 (for the chicken)
*******

Saturday
My mom helped me buy a free range chicken from a Chinese market (the kind wit the head and feet still on) so on Saturday, I poached it, removed it from the broth, cut it up and soaked it in a soy sauce marinade. I put the bones back into the broth and let it simmer for a few more hours before cooling it and setting it aside. For lunch that Saturday, I ate an apple, chicken broth, and 2 pieces of chicken while hiubsters ate the leftover chili. Dinner was a potluck at my sister-in-law's house. I made chocolate chip brownies from previously purchased ingredients in my pantry. No pictures...but we ate very heartily.

Total Cost of food: $0
********

Sunday

My sister & her husband treated the family out to lunch on Sunday. No pictures. For some reason, neither of us had much of an appetite during lunch. For dinner, we treated my in-laws in celebration of hubster's promotion at work. They have a family tradition of treating the entire family out for dinner whenever someone gets a raise/promotion. We were really sick of Chinese food so we decided to treat them out to Korean BBQ. Yes, that dramatically raised our monthly food expenditure but it is a tradition so it must be done.




The food was fine but not nearly as good as it is in SoCal. The banchans here were a total disappointment and obviously geared for the American palate. The meat was good in flavor but some of the cuts were too thick. Thinner slices are better for grilling. For 7 people (6 adults +1 child), the meal came to $130 after 18% gratuity. We were all quite stuffed when we were done and there was still about 2lbs of cooked meat leftover. So really...we can still make another 4 meals per person out of that since there are 32 ounces in 2lbs and the recommended portion size of meat is 4 oz. It came to about $18.50/pp including tax but since we can get 8 more servings out of the leftovers, it comes out more to $9.00/per serving. Not bad but I have a feeling we shall be very sick of meat for a while.

Total Cost of Food: $130.00

Day 23

We're running low on various household supplies but I'd been waiting for Costco coupons before I go replenishing the store of goods. Thankfully, the flyer came last week just as we were down to 2 rolls of toilet paper in the entire house. I did not intend to spend much but it is nearly impossible to leave Costco with what you just went in to get. Today, I left $75 poorer. How on Earth??! It's too bad that I put everything away before I thought to take a picture of it but the following is what I purchased:

1. Kirkland brand toilet paper. Hubster's prefers Charmin' but it's just TP folks. Got it $14.99 after coupon.
2. Grapeseed Oil. Not a necessity but it is much healthier to cook with than olive or canola oil. Plus, it has a very high smoking point making it great for hot woks and frying. Apparently heating olive oil at too high of a temperature causes the compounds to react in a way that produces carcinogens. No good. $6.89
3. Cascade dishwasher liquid- the "tablets" were on sale for $12 after coupon but I realized the tablets only did 90 washings while the giant non-sale bottle of regular liquid probably does 2x that at a mere $8.99. Sometimes, coupons don't equal good value.
4. Always 2pk $9.50 on sale.
5. 50 pack of black velvet hangers. We need to organize our walk-in and I like the uniform look of the same hangers. I originally wanted wooden IKEA ones but I think this is a better deal.
6. Ginger Gold Apples $4.99
7. Covergirl Lashblast mascara 3-pk $11.00

Grand total: $76.88

Total on Food: $4.99 + 6.89 = $11.88

Day 22

Dinner with the parents! Last night was Autumn Moon Festival so we went home for dinner. Even though I told my mom the night before that we were coming over, she didn't know for sure if we really would make it because I didn't answer my phone. (My batter died). In any case, she whipped up this deliciousness in one shake of a lamb's tail for us. I love parents.






Mother also hooked us up with fresh green beans and tomatoes from her garden. A few weeks ago, I asked my mom if the chickens from Asian markets were free range/antibotic free etc...although we suspect that they are due to their lean size, we aren't positive. A search online for the farm and packaging plant mysteriously yielded no results. I even looked up the USDA regs to decipher what various letters and numbers meant but to no avail. The chicken is a "product of USA" but I do not know if it was raised in the US or simply "processed" here. I do know, based on my understanding of the law, that even imported chickens must adhere to "the same" inspection guidelines as domestically raised chickens but I still don't know where that chicken came from. And I'm not sure that I want to eat "mystery" meat. I like knowing where my food comes from and that the animals are treated well.

So...after this chicken, I am going to go in with my sister-in-law to buy locally raised chickens from the farm. They are more expensive...about $16.50/ea, but it is well worth the peace of mind.

Anyway...total cost of food today: $0
Est. cost: $0

Day 21

We're going strong! We had random leftovers for lunch. Hubster's had leftovers from dinner while I came home early and made a sandwich of freshly baked bread with rou song. I also ate the last of our apples so I must venture forth to buy more fruit. Late last week, I bought an organic chicken and finally got around to cutting it up yesterday. I processed it into 8 pieces and took as much meat off the bones that I could before using the rest to make chicken stock. I always add a spoonful of apple cider vinegar into my broth because the acid is supposed to help leach out more minerals from the bones. I let the entire thing simmer for about 8 hours until it was reduced by half. After that, I skimmed off all the fat using a mini sieve specifically designed for that purpose.

Since I felt bad that the hubster's only got leftovers for lunch, I wanted to make sure his dinner was extra nutritious. For dinner, I made him shui jia mian using homemade dumplings (courtesy of Mama-in-law), pure chicken stock, and some leafy greens. I love making chicken stock. I prefer making chicken stock to any other kind of stock. I love it how it turns unappetizing bones and vegetable cast-offs into a golden amber liquid. Oh all that lovely quivering collagen makes me so happy! Anyway...le dinner.



Afterward, we went to sister-in-law's house for a Glee party. She made us fresh apple cake, hot out of the oven. It was so good!

Total spent on food: $0
Est. Cost of Food: $0