Dinner Archives - Page 7 of 8 - Making Sense Of Cents

Once a month cooking and other spending updates

Last Updated: October 1, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 7 Comments

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Has anyone ever done once a month cooking? Do you know of any good links for beginners?

I’m thinking about doing this because the BF wants more snacks and quick meals that he can make really quick for when I’m not home or for when we are both really lazy to make anything that night. I plan on going grocery shopping tonight for things on my list that I don’t have but I need. But I’m not sure on how I should be freezing everything and storing it all? I’m completely clueless, so please HELP!

Also, I went out to eat again. My friends will be the death of me but at least we have fun.

Another thing, I got a Northface sweater that was originally $150 for only $40 at the Plato’s near my house. It had the tags on it and everything, and I sold stuff when I went in so I didn’t pay a dime! I need winter clothes and I’m sure I’ll wear this Northface all the time.

Also, I caved, I went to JCrew and bought clothes, but that’s just a sad story of my shopping habit so I’ll save that for another day. I didn’t spend too much, but I needed work clothes and just more casual stuff also.

Life updates and Pinterest and everything else

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

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I’m extremely addicted to Pinterest. That salad above looks great, that dog costume is hilarious, and I REALLY want those boots, but they are so expensive. And I really want to go shopping but I’m trying so hard not to. I really wish that I would have never looked at Pinterest. I’m wasting SO MUCH TIME!

Anyways, life is good. We ate out a little too much this week but we didn’t go to crazy. I switched more money to savings this week so that I don’t have so much “fluff” in my bank account (and so that I’m not tempted to spend more money since it’s in the checking account. So right now the bank account is a little lighter than I like (around $800). I don’t know why this worries me so much, but it does. I know $800 will last me until I get paid next week, but it still scares me. Anyone else like this?

I also got everything straightened out with my professor who gave me a ZERO on my mid-term. She claimed it was an accident and that it was her assistant’s fault. I don’t know if I believe her. If she’s telling the truth, then I want to find out who her assistant is because I actually got a 95%, so this must mean that her assistant must know who I am and this person must hate me.

How’s everyone else’s life going? I hope everyone’s having a good weekend!

Dinner the past couple of nights.

Last Updated: October 13, 2011 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

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Ok so I’ve been kind of bad with eating in everyday. I went out to eat Tuesday and Wednesday night without the BF, so he went out to eat also because we were both too lazy to cook. Hopefully the rest of the week will be better!

The meals I made last weekend/this week are pretty much what I usually make. Chicken Parmesan and pasta, tacos, burgers, and chili. It was all very good though. I really need to mix it up though. I also made an apple and cherry pie also. Very good, I’ve never had a pie that had both apples and cherries in it, and it was perfect! I took a picture but the picture looked really gross, so I decided not to put it up. Anyways, some of you have been asking for my chili recipe. It’s really good and people always rave about it, but it’s pretty basic.

I just brown ground beef with some onions and sprinkle some meat seasoning on it.
Then I drain the beef
and add in one can of ChiliMan chili, one can of tomatoes (I usually cut in 2 tomatoes, but I was out that night), and 2 cans of tomato soup.
I then add a TON of onions and more seasoning (a dash of lemon, pepper, and salt).
sprinkle cheese on top and put some sour cream in the bowl.

It’s great! And I realize the last picture looks kind of gross with the pot full of chili, I’m not the greatest food picture taker, sorry about that.

Check out The Penny Hoarder’s giveaway! (If you can’t tell, I really want to test my luck and win stuff!)

Saving money on groceries

Last Updated: December 8, 2014 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 6 Comments

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Groceries of course can be expensive. I’m trying to keep my budget for groceries around $200 to $250 a month. I still go out for meals every now and then, and the BF has a serious problem with getting fast food everyday. He’s trying to bulk up, so it’s hard to say no if he’s not feeling comfortable with his body.

Here are some ways to save on groceries:

Learn how to cook from scratch. I’ve been trying to do this more, but I’m very inexperienced with cooking, so everything I cook doesn’t always taste the greatest, however, I’m working on this! We’ve been trying to do this, but it’s hard at times!
Use coupons on things that you know you will use. Don’t go crazy though! We really only use coupons on household items, but this has been going good. I haven’t paid more than around around a dollar for shampoo, soap, toothpaste and so on in forever!
Make a grocery list. I usually don’t make a list when I go, and this is probably an area where I could possibly save a lot of money if I made a list.
STICK to this list! See above…
Plan your meals for the week. We’re trying our hand at meal planning. But that’s not going too well. I usually crave something else than what I usually have planned for the night, so that throws everything off.
Grow a garden. I have a lot of friends who have their own gardens and I’m always so jealous.
Don’t let food go to waste. We are kind of wasteful in our house. There’s only 2 of us, so sometimes it’s hard for us to eat everything. If we bought less, we’d save money and less would go to waste.

Made more burgers the other night

Last Updated: October 4, 2011 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 2 Comments

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The BF eats a lot. And I mean a lot a lot. The other night he asked for both sloppy joes and burgers for dinner. The plate of food above is ALL his. He ate 3 burgers in one sitting (and two more burgers around an hour later). Thankfully he doesn’t gain weight and can eat anything and everything. Everything tasted good. I’m glad he wanted more burgers this week because we usually make burgers one night and the rest of the buns go bad because we won’t have burgers for awhile.

How does everyone save money on meat?

Grocery Shopping Update

Last Updated: December 19, 2015 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 10 Comments

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I went grocery shopping today, and I don’t think I’ve gone for awhile. Maybe around 2 weeks? I might be wrong, I have a horrible memory (as if you all didn’t know that yet). Today I spent $83, which I don’t think is too horribly bad. I’m trying to just go shopping every 2 weeks, as this helps with time and me not buying too much junk food.

My total today would have been A LOT cheaper, if I didn’t go grocery shopping when I was hungry. EVERYTHING looked good. I spent around $7 on guacamole and bought lots of croissants (around $6) and other little junk food things that sounded good. Big mistake, but at least I’ll be happy with the food I bought.

There’s also a Qdoba right next door to the grocery store, but thankfully I resisted the urge to walk in and get a burrito.

Anyways, this grocery challenge that I imposed on us has been going well. $83 for two weeks is not bad. I’ll of course run into the store and spend maybe $20 next week on bread, milk and some fruit, but this still isn’t too bad. This will put our monthly food budget to around $250 a month! YAY! I can do this!

Me and the BF ate dinner in this whole weekend also! We did go out for drinks, but I consider that entertainment money, so in my head that doesn’t count.

How has your grocery shopping been going?

Dinner tonight

Last Updated: September 30, 2011 BY Michelle Schroeder-Gardner - 4 Comments

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I made kind of a weird dinner tonight, hopefully no one thinks it’s a completely gross combination of food. I made burgers with pasta salad and apple crisp. Me and the BF have been craving some weird food items lately, so I just mixed it all into one meal. Everything was really good! The BF ate the whole pan on apple crisp in seriously less than 5 minutes!

This whole eating in everyday thing is really going to work! I’m so happy. I’m worried about the weekend though, that’s always too hard.