It was another good week in the food department here at Camp Butterfield.
We ate well, only bought what we needed, got some canning {salsa}, dehydrating {zucchini} and freezing {green beans} done for our winter food storage and kept busy with our garden chores.
What more could you ask for really?
I did make 2 stops for groceries. Here’s what I bought:
Scammaford $9.90
$4.69 for a gallon of milk, $0.99 each for a head of garlic and $2.24 for onions {to make salsa}. Crazy. I think it was the price on the garlic that I thought was the most out of whack. Didn’t it used to be 3/$1?
The Duck Lady $5.00 for 4 pounds of homegrown potatoes.
And I was happy to pay that. We have a bunch {or what I hope will be a bunch} of potatoes growing in our garden, but I want to keep them in the ground as long as possible so they’ll get nice and big. So I bought some from her instead.
So far this year we’ve spent $1032.11 on groceries.
That leaves us with only $167.89 left in our grocery budget for 2022 if we’re going to stay on track and only spend an average of $100 a month on groceries for the year. That’s about $8.83 a week for the next 19 weeks. Yikes!
While I was checking out at Scammaford, I noticed they had a stack of canning jars for sale and I had to do a double take when I saw the prices. $21.19 for a dozen quart jars. OH MY WORD!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? What planet am I on? Seriously.
I did a quick check online and Tractor Supply {which I still think is a bit high, and they are selling quart jars for $14.99 a dozen, and Walmart was $13.99}.
Scammaford was selling a dozen pint jars for $16.25. I couldn’t believe it.
I guess more people are canning this year and stores feel they can jack up the prices because people will pay it. I think it’s nuts. Who knows, maybe canning jars are worth hoarding if you have them.
Yada yada yada.
Here’s a look at some of the meals we ate last week:
Mrs. C’s Pot Roast, with garden fresh carrots and potatoes.
Pasta with leftover pot roast added in. {Do you do this too?}
Grilled cheese on Dave’s Killer Bread.
Pro Tip: We typically keep all our bread in the freezer so it doesn’t go to waste. When we need a few slices, we just take them out and put the bag back in the freezer. For toast or grilled cheese sandwiches we don’t even bother thawing the bread first. It comes out perfect every time. 🙂
Purple Cherrokee tomatoes with sliced mozzarella and basil. 
Purple Cherokee tomatoes with sliced mozzarella and basil.
Pickety bits. Sometimes a few bits is all you need for dinner.
And other times you need to fill up on beans. 🙂
And then there was last night. I don’t even remember what we ended up eating.
The HH fired up his smoker around noon and “dinner” wasn’t done until about 8pm because the piece of meat was so huge {he stocked up on pork butt earlier this year when it was $0.99 a pound} so he ended up putting it away in the fridge after it had time to cool down and long after I had gone to bed.
I suppose that means we’ll be having pork themed meals all this week. Oh joy.
I think Lucy was more disappointed than the HH that it took so long to cook. She was camped out at the back door practically all day waiting for it and didn’t even get a bite.
Oh that Lucy. She’s the sweetest.
So how did YOU do last week in the food department? Did you find any deals, or just primarily ate out of your pantry? Curious minds want to know.
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $14.90
- Total Spent in July on Groceries $335.47
Total Spent in June for Groceries $124.45 - Total Spent in May for Groceries $172.47 {$47 of it was spent at Farmers Markets}
- Total Spent in April on Groceries $94.48
- Total Spent in March on Groceries $114.12
- Total Spent in February on Groceries $94.64
- Total Spent in January on Groceries $96.58
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2022 $1032.11
Marcia says
That pasta with the leftover roast added looks delicious, I never thought of adding my leftover roast to pasta but you can bet I will now. Thanks for a great tip. Makes me want to make a roast just to use with the pasta!
Rosemary Calhoun says
Costco had their chicken wings on sale ($5.00 off each package). There are 6 packs of chicken wings in each package. I bought 2 packages (12 packs) and cooked 4 packs on Friday night. I made them 5 different ways – 1. Sale & pepper only, 2. BBQ sauce, 3. Teriyaki sauce, 4. Sweet & sour sauce and 5. Hot sauce. We all have different tastes in my house! We ate chicken wing meals Friday, Saturday and Sunday – I love cooking once for 3 days of meals!
Publix had ground beef on sale for $3.49/lb so I bought 2 packages. I split them up into 1 lb packs (for tacos, meatballs, etc) and formed some hamburger patties and put them all in the freezer for the future. I wrap the hamburger patties individually so I can take out just one if that is all that’s needed.
Now, I just need to find a good sale on steaks!
Beth says
Mavis that pasta looks delicious and I never thought of adding leftover roast beef to pasta so…genius! We ate last week but I don’t remember much except I did cook Rancho Gordo scarlet runner beans and followed a salad from their website that had radishes (I used a daikon radish), spinach, jicama, pomegranate arils and homemade dressing…it was fantastic!
I pulled a pork butt out of the freezer and I’m turning it into pulled pork tomorrow so we too will have lots of pulled pork this week so I’ll make a pot of beans, coleslaw, and potato salad to go with it…should cover several meals, Albertsons has Aidell dinner sausages on sale for $2.99 a package this week so I’m going to stock up for future beans and weenies nights. They also have Tillamook ice cream for $2.99 a carton so I’m sure a couple of cartons of that will “fall” into my shopping cart.
Hope everyone has a great week and stay cool…we will have 100 degrees several days…blech! I’m going to Seattle for a few days next week and I’m looking forward to the cooler weather there…
Elle says
We ate from the pantry and our CSA share. Saturday I cooked up 2 roasts from the freezer. We’ll eat a 3rd meal from them and the rest will be shredded and tossed in the freezer. We’re eating beets, sauted beet greens and chard with spring onions, sauted/caramelized zucchini with garlic, potatoes w/sour cream, potato salad, egg salad, pita chips w/hummus, mixed nuts……that’s all I can think of.
This week will be more of the same. Plus, I think I’ll finally pick a few tomatoes (the heat in the NW has not been kind as my plants keep dropping their flowers 🙁 Anyway, those tomatoes will be diced along with cucumbers, feta cheese and some EVOO and Balsamic vinegar! YUMMO-I love Greek Salad!
Mona McGinnis says
I prepared four 8x4x2″ foil pans of lazy beet leaf holupchi last week for the freezer. The price tag at the farmers’ market was $20/tray! I’m in the wrong business. One of the bloggers I read calls her garden produce grow-ceries. Garden produce at the back door sure reduces costs at the grocery store.
Lynn Y says
I chuckled when I saw ‘Scammaford’s’ tagline: ‘Real Savings Every Day.’ Playing devil’s advocate, though, maybe the other stores still had stock of jars from an older price point before gas prices went through the roof? Maybe that is one of the drawbacks of living in Maine as I saw your milk price is twice mine. I can purchase milk for 2 gal/$5 here in northern Illinois, and I’m guessing my lower price is due to the fact that I live closer to Dairyland USA (Wisconsin). One of my boxes of Ball jars says Indiana as a distribution center.
Stacie says
That caprese salad is gorgeous with your purple Cherokee tomatoes! We’re doing a combination of fresh eats (things we’ve bought during the current week at the grocery) and freezer stash. I’m trying to empty the freezer of some things before they freezer burn.
Jules says
I’ve gone from having to cook for 7 to cooking for 2 or 3, sometimes 4. So we often have leftovers now. The roast I made one night then became beef fajitas, beef soup, and beef with pasta. I’ll probably start Packet Nights, which is where I put leftovers into packets, freeze them unmarked and pull them out on Sunday nights to eat whatever is inside, no need to cook.
LindaT says
I’ve been trying to lose my “went to Florida and ate every fried seafood every day” weight, so I’ve been on Atkins. Weekends I make a couple dishes like chili that will last and the HH alternates and eats those, filling in with pizza, while I eat protein, protein protein. It’s getting old, but I’ve lost 15 lbs. I’m going to visit daughter in FL again in a few weeks. I guess I’ll have to ask for broiled seafood!
Oh to be naturally slim and trim.
Deborah says
Mavis, why don’t you grow your own garlic? It’s not hard.
Mavis Butterfield says
I am. 🙂 It didn’t do so well in the spot that I planted it though. I am going to try again this fall once the HH ammends the soil down in the religious family garden,
wendy j says
Hubby picked up some rotisserie chickens so that’s what we are eating this week. You can buy 2 for $18 but raw in the meat section they are $28 for one. i made a big pot of quinoa and will pick whatever veg is ready in the garden.
Pj Truman says
Smoked pork enchiladas are delicious and add a different meal instead of BBQ. I make up my own filling, which is always different, but always includes some cheese and veg with the pork.
Lynda says
I’m confused.. I guess you don’t include your purchases at the bakeries, etc that you stop at, as part of ghat $100 a month???
Cecile says
I use to love it when Hubs would smoke a pork shoulder. We would start with pulled pork the first night, then usually left overs the next night. Then I’d dice up a pound or two and put it in the freezer to go into Chili Verde in the fall. With what was left I’d package up sandwich size zip bags of smaller chunks to go into Tuscan White Bean Soup (instead of the sausage), Homemade Baked Beans and whatever else needed a pork substance. If you don’t like the flavour of the smoked meat why not dry a different type of wood chip to give it a different flavour? We use to use Alder and Apple the most. Now that we’ve moved our back yard is less than two metres deep by 3 metres wide so I don’t think the neighbours would enjoy all that smoke going into their houses at any time of the year!
Linda Sand says
The best leftover beef recipe: 1 can cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup sour cream, leftover beef. Stir together, heat, and serve over egg noodles.
Rachelle says
Any extra pork can be cubed or shredded and added to spaghetti sauce. Cook in the crockpot on low for a few hours, and serve over spaghetti, rice or noodles. We love pork with tomato sauce.