Week Five

We went a little nuts this week. We spent a little too much money because of lack of time, exhaustion(I didn't feel like making a big meal one night) and the gf is going out of town for 3 days.

I went to the Sunday Santa Monica farmer's market and do'h forgot about the Wednesday farmer's market. I spent $20.

Sunday farmer's market haul:
1. strawberries
2. carrots
3. potatoes
4. roasted cashews
5. dried fruit


Then I headed over to Trader Joe's for soy vanilla milk, mushrooms, Organic tofu and shredded cheese. I spent $10.41.

Pavilions was having a sale and had some good coupons in their weekly news print. We got Silk soy milk, 2 boxes of cheez-its, Gatorade, A&W Root beer, cheese, pizza, an instant Indian dinner, cheese burritos, white corn on the cob. We spent $35.80.

We spent $66.21 on our grocery bill. But to be honest we did splurge and get a Papa John's Pizza Tuesday night. They just reopened the the Papa Johns across the street from our apt. and I love their pizza. Also, I was a big exhausted because I'd locked myself out of our apt. when I took the dog for a walk. So we had to walk 2.5 miles to my gf's work. She gave us a ride home when she got off work. I was a bit pooped after walking Riot that far, so I convinced the gf that we should just do pizza for dinner. Luckily, they were doing a "Grand Re-opening" and their pizza's were only $10. Still a pale in comparasion in what we used to spend each week on food.

Over Budget Again! - Definitely Time to Increase

I went $6 over this week. The Wednesday Santa Monica farmer's market put us over. I needed more tomatoes, but also bought baby bok choi, broccoli, sunflower sprouts, cilantro and spinach. I had $3 left over from my Sunday shopping trip and spent $9 on Wednesday. This leads me to believe, as this is the third week in a row, that we should probably up our budget to $225 per month. Or about $56.25 each week.

The baby bok choi, broccoli, cilantro, spinach, sprouts and tomatoes went into a stew, salad and stir fry. Not all together, but my latest haul did find their way into those dishes.

In financial news, the purse tightening has allowed me to get caught up on my car payment, insurance, the electric and gas utilities, my cell phone. I wasn't drastically behind, but the extra money I've saved has allowed me to catch up in one month's time. I hope subsequent months will allow me to make big strides towards completely paying off my debt.

For the first month I think we've done pretty good. Eaten well and healthily, whilst paying my bills on time.

Week Four

This week the gf and I grabbed a friend and headed to the Santa Monica farmer's market, one of the largest in LA.

We spent $30 and got:
1. 1 lb of baby potatoes
2. 3 pack of strawberries
3. a bundle of broccoli
4. 2 tomatoes
5. bundle of radishes
6. bag of lettuce
7. 4 Asian cucumbers
8. bag of dried fruit and nuts

The strawberries were the most expensive item by far, at $10. We also stopped at a Japanese grocery store and got some organic noodles for $5.

Today I stopped at Trader Joe's and got a 1/2 gallon of vanilla soy milk and two boxes of organic quinoa for $12. Leaving us only $3 for the rest of the week. The tomato selection at the Santa Monica market was pretty slim, so I plan to go to the Wednesday Santa Monica farmer's market to get more.

I don't have a budget for eating out, as the gf and I have been trying to stay in and make our meals in an effort to save money. But last night we were invited out with my softball team and spent $25. I don't plan on creating an Eating Out Budget, because we don't do it often. Nor will I include eating out in our monthly food budget.

Over Budget = Time to Increase Budget

In week two and week three we've gone a little over budget. I went over budget last week (week three) by $6. I'd spent $23 at the farmer's market, leaving me $27 for the grocery store. We got a loaf of bread, lactose free milk, bottle of Sprite, cheese pizza, can of mushrooms, can of pineapple, bag of frozen peaches, a bag of Starbucks coffee and a tub of vanilla ice cream for my protein shakes for $33. Taking us $6 over our weekly budget. hrm...

Since last week was the second week we've gone over budget in less than a month of trying to eat organic/ethically for less than the allotted amount for food stamps. I believe eating organic and ethically on a budget is possible. And eating well! Organic does not have to mean expensive.

But going over budget two weeks in a row leads me to consider a slight increase in the $200 a month budget, which currently works out to $50 a week.

Week Three

The gf and I went to the West Hollywood farmer's market Sunday, located at Croft and Melrose Place. We spent $23 and got:
1lb of Spinach
3lbs of Gold Potatoes
5lbs of Strawberries
A bag of roasted pistachios (the gf's favorite)
2 bundles of asparagus

5lbs of strawberries is a lot, so I cut up a bunch and froze them. The rest will be eaten throughout the week.
And I'll make roasted asparagus tonight for dinner, with the leftovers saved for lunch.

We still had broccoli, cauliflower, mixed lettuce, carrots, celery, and radishes.

I have to admit that last week we went over budget a bit. There was a $10 trip to McDonalds, because the gf and I were in a hurry to get to our soccer game and I didn't have time to make anything. We also made a pit stop at Trader Joes and Ralph's for ice cream, mushroom appetizers, soy protein and some Indian dinners for the gf. We probably went $20 over budget last week.

We plan on using the remaining $27 for organic bread, Lactaid and coffee. We'll probably end up in the black this week, which will help offset landing in the red the week before.

Culver City Farmer's Market - Score!

I didn't want to wait until Wednesday before getting enough food to last the gf and I the rest of the week. So I decided to check out the Culver City Farmer's Market, which on Main Street Tuesdays from 2-7pm. It's a small and narrow farmer's market, but it did have plenty of produce stands, something seriously lacking in the farmer's market we went to this past Sunday.

I think in the future the gf and I will make the Sunday Santa Monica farmer's market. I prefer going to the market with the gf, instead of by myself.

Switching to organic and eating on budget is a work in progress. And I went a little over budget this week.

Culver City farmer's market haul:
1. 6 Roma tomatoes, a stalk of celery, bundle of red radishes, a bag of brocoli and a 3-pack of strawberries - $11
2. 2lbs of potatoes - $4
3. basket of mushrooms - $3
4. bundle of carrots, cauliflower ball - $3
Total - $21

I also stopped at Trader Joes:
1. A can of Organic tomato sauce - $1.39
2. 2 Trader Joe's brand organic chocolate bars - $1.38
Total - $2.77

Went over budget for the week by about $14. But since we'll be going to the Santa Monica farmer's market on Sunday we probably won't have time to eat everything I picked up in Culver City. So I'm hoping since we'll have less to buy we'll spend less and offset my overture.

One thing I noticed that might help you save some money. Going towards the end of the farmer's market will have vendors offering you more food for less money. They don't want the left-over food to go in the trash, so if they can even a little money for it, they'll usually take it. They're much more amiable to negotiating the prices.

Bread = Failure

My homemade bread did not turn out well. Actually, it didn't rise and is rock hard. So I spent $4.29 on a whole wheat loaf at the grocery store. They didn't have an organic alternative. I may have to either buy bread from the farmer's market or whole foods/trader joes.

As a consolation to my failed bread attempt I bought myself some organic chips and salsa for $4.09.

My farmer's budget for the week is now $10.28. I hope that's enough to get enough vegetables to last us the rest of the week.

Week Two

The gf and I went to a local farmer's market today with the intent to get the vegetables and fruit we'd eat throughout the week. Maybe it's due to the holiday, but this was a pretty sad small farmer's market compared to the Santa Monica farmer's market on Wednesdays and the Hollywood farmer's market I used to frequent until I moved. There were very few produce booths with some sad looking produce. And nothing of what we wanted. I did buy some sunflower seeds, pistachios and dried mixed fruit from one vendor for $10. I wanted the sunflower seeds for my bread I planned to make. And the gf wanted the mixed fruit and pistachios for snacks.

Target was closed, so we stopped at Ralphs on the way home with the intention of getting some tuperware. I realized that I needed some quality tuperware to help keep my produce throughout the week, so I wasn't wasting any money.

Ralphs bill:
Lactaid Milk - $4.69
Velveeta Cheese (not organic, but we're making the transition slowly. Can't just go cold turkey and this makes AWESOME grilled cheese) - $4.99
Ralph's brand cheese (for salads and until I can find a good alternative) - $3
Newman's Own Balsamic Light dressing (not orgranic, but a portion of the proceeds go to charity) - $3.69
Margarine (not organic, but we're only going 99% organic. This is one of my splurge items. It's heart healthy :D) - $2.29
Bananas (not organic, but hopefully we can make the switch soon) - $1.18
All Natural Quick Oaks - $1.49
Total = $21.33

I have still have $18.67 to spend at the Santa Monica farmer's market on Wednesday.

The Salon article's author I listed in my first post began her experiment with nothing in the cupboards. I'm not willing to throw away all the food in our cupboards to begin this experiment. To me that's extremely wasteful and goes against my efforts to be environmentally conscious. So we will continue to use what's in the cupboards until we run out and can buy an organic or ethically produced alternative.

Tip Of The Week: (If I find a great cooking tool or idea or great alternative to non-organic foods, etc. I'll leave a "Tip Of The Week")

If you don't have a lot of seasonings, but want to flavor your steamed vegetables in a tasty healthy way try this: Take a piece of bread, crumble it into small pieces in a bowl. Use Olive Oil to coat, add a pinch of sea salt and a pinch of pepper and if you have it Herbs de Provance. Mix and then drizzle over your steamed vegetables.

Now I'm off to make my first loaf of no knead bread. I'll let you know how it turns out.