The HH came back from the grocery with a twin pack of Stove Top stuffing and when I asked how much it was I couldn’t believe my ears. $5.09!!!
Wowza. I think the last time I bought a box of Stove Top it was like $0.99. But then again probably the only time I’ve ever bought Stove Top was when it was on sale around Thanksgiving time and that’s why the price was so low.
Thanksgiving deals. Do you think there will be any this year?
More and more when it comes to shopping for groceries, you might as well just head to the airport and shop there. The prices are about the same in my book.
It will be fun when the Scarborough, Maine Costco opens though… I’m hoping the prices {and quality of produce} will be much, much better than what we’ve been seeing here the last few years.
On to the meals we ate last week…
I made a Shepherd’s pie last Sunday with the leftover roast chicken. And that fed us for 3 days straight. I love that. You know, when you make a meal and then you don’t need to cook for a few days.
As we’re getting older we seem to eat less, so meals seem to stretch a lot longer. Which is nice if you ask me.
At this rate, I figure when I’m 70 a pot of soup and a sleeve of crackers will last us a week. 🙂
I also tried a new meatloaf recipe {It was so good, I’ll share it soon}.
And that was a meal that just kept going and going and going. First I served the meatloaf with butternut squash, then beans, then on the last day I made meatloaf sandwiches.
Dessert this week was a pear tart.
Kiln Guy and the Chef made us a delicious leek soup and beet salad with the garden goodness we gave them the last time they were here.
And there was also a date day meal, that pretty much left us disappointed. And it had nothing to do with the fly in our water or {completely} lackluster waitstaff.
Most of the time going out these days is a big disappointment, but sometimes it’s worth it. This time around though, all we could do was laugh… And continue to talk about it for 3 days after the fact.
Somedays I think it would be just easier to live off of oatmeal and cake. Those two things never seem to disappoint.
So how about YOU? Did you make anything good this past week? Do you find yoourself eating smaller portions these days? And the oatmeal and cake diet. Who’s with me on that?
Have a good one,
~Mavis
Total Spent This Past Week on Groceries $11.58
- Total Spent in October on Groceries $13.57
- Total Spent in September on Groceries $109.49
- Total Spent in August for Groceries $13.04
- Total Spent on Groceries for July $376.89
- Total Spent on Groceries in June $41.56
- Total Spent on Groceries in May $288.51
- Total Spent on Groceries in April $35.36
- Total Spent on Groceries in March $82.28
- Total Spent on Groceries in February $101.14
- Total Spent on Groceries in January $167.33 {this includes buying groceries on Fair Isle}
- Total Spent on Groceries in 2023 $1,226.12 for our $100 a month grocery budget for 2
Shari Harniss says
The only restaurant I want to frequent is one that offers food I don’t cook. Korean, Thai, Indian, etc.
I’m almost always disappointed with other restaurants. Mainly because the amount of money does not equal the quality of food served. Sub par is not what I want to splurge on.
Brianna says
We are the same. Authentic International food restaurants is worth it for us. I hate all of the modern long named special dishes places serve with bizarre ingredients to make it sound sophisticated and special. I do not want smashed rosemary and sea salt baby potato medley or lemongrass Thai basil grapeseed marinated wagyu flat iron with truffle horseradish aioli. It is absurd.
Laura Z says
Yes, we do the same thing, We eat out very occasionally and it’s usually at a relatively inexpensive mom and pop immigrant restaurants that make something that I can’t or won’t make at home, and I’m even slowly learning to make a lot of those dishes from scratch. International grocery stores are the place to go for inexpensive specialty veg and ingredients! When we travel we try to local specialties if they fit with our diets. Most restaurants just seem to open freezer bags under questionable hygiene practices. I can do that at home for a fifth of the price.
Laura Z says
…. the opening the freezer bag part, not the questionable hygiene practices! 🙂
Julie says
$5.09, your stuffing box price just shocked me.. dried bread cubes, dehydrated veggies, and seasoning, hmmmm. Maybe its time to look at homemade or a “make-a-mix” version. More restaurants seem lackluster lately but, with higher prices. When you find a gem of a restaurant, it’s definitely more appreciated these days. Definitely post the pear tart recipe, it looks so good.
Susan says
Yes! Save all those end bread pieces, dried bread slices, rolls, buns etc in the
freezer until you have enough to make a cheap batch of stuffing. So easy and
ingredient controlled
Laura Z says
Yep. I do that. Here in the south we often make cornbread stuffing anyway. Make a pan of cornbread a few days in advance, chop it into cubes, and let it dry out. Super cheap.
Jennifer says
If it helps, the twin pack of Stove Top is $4.42 at my WM. Funny story, and please don’t take offense, but in our family, dressing, again this is the South, can only be homemade. One of my cousins married a girl from “up North”, which ranges from VA to Canada to the old timers and she better to make the stuffing for Thanksgiving. My grandmama finally relented so she would feel like a true part of the family. My cousin’s wife proceeded to bring a pot full of Stove Top and was relegated to cranberry sauce for years!! I felt so bad for her until I found out Grandma gave her the family recipe and she said she didn’t have time or know how to make cornbread. Most of the family took a little bit, but a few were ” what is THIS?”.
Donna says
My WM was also $4.42 for a twinpack. The funny thing though is that a single box is $1.98 so two would be $3.96 – go figure. And both packages were 6 oz.
Emily S. says
This made me laugh, as ours was “only” $5 for a 2 pack of Stove Top at our local Kroger. My wife had to listen to me rant about how much they used to be – but it’s true. Homemade this year for sure!
Lana says
We bake all our bread and never throw any part of it out. Ends get frozen in a bag for croutons, a thicker part of stale bread gets sliced and frozen for French toast and less than great loaves get cubed and frozen to use in a number of dishes. Cubes make great stuffing with some onions, celery, sage, s&p, butter and milk. I lightly pack it into a casserole and bake it slowly and it is delicious. Stove Top isn’t on our list of appreciated foods.
Eating out is purely a high priced joke these days. We also come away realizing how many good groceries we could have had instead. Honestly the most consistent decent food from out is fast food these days in our area. We can always find a coupon and get a decent deal, too.
Diane Maxson says
We are also realizing that our portion sizes are getting smaller as we get older.
I made a crockpot of chili and fed 7 adults and had 3 quarts left over for lunches.
Also cauliflower soup hubs & I had for 2 nites and put a quart in the freezer .
We like to batch cook on weekends and then have leftovers for meals during the week.
Cindy R says
If you are able to order from Walmart and get free delivery, they have the Stove Top stuffing for $1.98 a single box, $4.48 for a twin pack or a 12 oz canister for $3.88. Perhaps the time to stock on a few boxes for the pantry will be in November when the stores run their holiday specials.
Our last few meals out at restaurants have been really disappointing and with the higher prices and poor service it doesn’t make sense to eat out. It seems like part of the problem is a shortage of staff at the restaurants either preparing or serving the food.
Maureen says
Cindy R, this makes me crazy though. Buy two single boxes for $$3.96 or pay more ($4.48) for a twin pack. What? It used to be a special on twin packs would save you money but now it costs more. Drives me nuts! So the lesson is that you really can’t assume a “deal” is a deal anymore.
Rosemary says
Speaking of oatmeal . . . I had that for dinner last night! I haven’t checked the price of Stove Top stuffing lately but that sure is a lot of money. Might have to go back to the “old” way of making stuffing. Hopefully there will be some good Thanksgiving sales this year on food.
We don’t eat out much anymore these days. I have gift cards to a couple of restaurants that we can use but for some reason we don’t usually “feel” like going out. We do visit the Costco food court on Thursday when we do our shopping, and the ice cream never disappoints!
Marie says
I tried your Cauliflower, Broccoli and Squash Casserole yesterday and it was delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Mary Ann says
Stove Top has always been expensive, unless it’s on sale. The regular price at my local Vons store (Safeway/Albertsons) is $3.99 for a single box (currently on sale for $3.50)! I would never pay that price. I’ve always been a sale/coupon/reward shopper. Unless I find it on sale for .99 I now buy the Aldi brand. It’s always under a dollar and tastes just as good as Stove Top, in our opinion.
I had some short ribs in the freezer I needed to use, so I made braised short ribs with mashed potatoes and the gravy from the braising, with broccoli on the side. It’s been a long time since I’ve cooked anything with red wine.
I spent the weekend making marinara sauce and tomato juice with my garden tomatoes and canning it up. I had to fight the wildlife for my tomatoes this year, so only ended up with 16 quarts of sauce and 7 pints of juice. Less than half of last years yield. 🙁 The marinara has red wine in it, too, so I used a full 2 bottles of wine this week without ever getting a sip for myself! lol
Amanda says
I agree about the Aldi brand stuffing. My family doesn’t even know I switched brands. 😉
Linda Sand says
Yes, to smaller meals. At age 76 and sedentary I simply don’t need as much food. One ham sandwich, 1/2 a banana, and three gingersnaps and I am stuffed to the point of being uncomfortably full.
Cheryl says
We went to a diner last week that had good reviews. It was good and not crazy busy but my food was barely lukewarm. I’m finding this happens a lot.
Ashley Bananas says
We eat out less and less. Usually when we eat out it’s dictated by busy scheduling with my son’s sports and school. We usually do pizza one night a week. If we don’t do pizza I’m willing to eat out another night of the week in lieu of skipping pizza night. For instance we had Chinese food Friday and spent $25 on a four piece order of teriyaki chicken, and a sweet and sour chicken combo.
The prices for food including take out really have gone up a lot. To balance this when we do eat out I usually do take out and bring it home to avoid buying drinks and tipping. I will also use coupons. So if we go to Subway we bring a bogo coupon from a flyer that comes out once a month. This allows us to splurge every now and again but at a lower price point.
Or, I will often buy an oven pizza on sale at the grocery store and we do that instead. I also have started to eat cauliflower pizza only, and have started making it at home. I haven’t found a restaurant that makes their own cauliflower crusts. They all seem to order them premade and frozen, which I can buy from the store and then make myself just as well. My cost will be under $5. At the pizza places $15-20 typically. It works for me.
Of course, we all have different budgets and you have to decide what works best for yours. I will say going to some of the sit down chains their meals are usually a meat and starch only with no vegetables. Eating at home really is a better value for the most part.
Janice says
Not often things are less expensive in Canada but here on Vancouver Island Stove Top Stuffing is 94 cents (Canadian) for a single box. I don’t think we have double boxes. Sorry your date day/lunch wasn’t great but glad you set a day aside for yourselves and definitely have a story to tell about it.
Mimi says
Restaurant meals just don’t give me a thrill anymore. I met up with a friend for lunch last week and my soup, fruit and cheese board, dessert + gratuity (which the restaurant includes on the bill) totaled $30.00. I should have skipped dessert but we’d both been craving creme brulee for more than a year so…I had to! But $30.00? For one lunch? Nope. We’re going back to our favoite Thai restaurant next time. $12.00 plus tip and plenty left over for another meal.
Melinda says
Looked up stuffing prices in my area (Northern Virginia) out of curriosity. At Walmart, the twin pack is 4.42 and a single is 1.98. At the local grocery store, Food Lion, the twin pack is 3.99 and single is 2.29. Wegmans, an “upscale” grocery store is 4.99 for the 2 pack and 2.99 for the single. Sams has a 6pack for 8.82.
We rarely eat out, mostly due to one of my sons having a food allergy. But the times that we do, I find it disappointing. The last few times we had chick-fil-a for example, I’ve noticed that the prices have gone up, and the food has gotten smaller.
Debra A OBryan says
I am with you all, we rarely go out to eat anymore….we never get out with less than $45-50. It is not fancy places either and those are lunch prices (I am in Florida).
My neighbor gave us 3 green peppers, an onion and 2 tomatoes…oh yeah, stuffed peppers it was….I cut them in half and there was dinner for 3 nights….cost me a can of tomato sauce and 1 lb Hamburg…
Claudia says
Oatmeal and cake…..or a pastry. Tea. Yeah, I’m in!
TC says
We eat out for date night once a month at a nice restaurant for a wine dinner with special food pairings, service is excellent, food is amazing and beautifully presented. We usually take at least a third to half of the dinner home which we eat the next night. We don’t go out to regular restaurants as we are always disappointed. I cook a lot and I save a ton of money by growing food and getting it for free because of my extensive volunteer work so I don’t feel bad about splurging once a month. We spend less than $50 a month at the grocery store except at Christmas when we host 8 people and have exotic meats, like Bison, Elk, Pheasant etc, Yes, as we have gotten older we eat less.
Linda Practical Parsimony says
Oatmeal and brownie, not cake. I love brownies.
We have not eaten out since 2019. Rather than bemoan the fact, I look at it like I won’t catch covid and live longer, maybe. We go out and pick up something–Dreamland BBQ, Whopper, Chicken Salad Chick chicken salad and potato soup, or Publix tenders. We have not gotten around to picking up Chinese as it slips our mind.
We eat well cooking at home. I cook in order to have leftovers. Sometimes, we have four nights of the same thing or freeze portions of the protein. It seems there is always salad or cole slaw here to add to a frozen protein.
When I was ill last week, Tommy found a roast to thaw for dinner with leftover vegetables in the refrigerator. Well, it turned out it was frozen turkey breast, so that was okay for a meal. I ate that with Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce and coleslaw. Yummy.
I have back trouble and cannot stand at the stove, so yummy, homemade dressing for us. So, for a long time we have had Stovetop Stuffing. I never buy it for more than $1 and on sale after the New Year. It is still good the next Thanksgiving. SS is good, but not like homemade. I prefer dressing homemade from cornbread, onions, celery, ground sage, and broth in it and over it, baked.
JulieP says
Yes we definitely eat less too both mid 60s the problem is trying to cook less. Also, Mavis, I agree with what you’ve said in the past ‘keep it simple’ I really don’t need anything too tricky these days. My palate is satisfied with simple pasta meals, beans, rice, potatoes and vegetables. My pocket is happier too.
We have cut back on going out, usually disappointing or scarily expensive. But in U.K. eating out has always been quite expensive. Pub meals used to be the best bet but even they are getting beyond a joke now! We do, however, have Wetherspoons! If you have a good one (which we do) they do a speciality menu week nights so one night curry night, steak night, fish and chip night etc and the food at ours has never disappointed. Around £10 each for a steak, jacket potato, salad and a drink. We go once a month it doesn’t break the bank, I don’t have to cook but it’s 13 miles away so we have to drive. We live very rural so we have to drive everywhere. We don’t have stove top in U.K. if you want to buy it online I have seen a single box for as much as £9 for one box lol!
Terry McA says
I have been trying meal delivery kits lately, as groceries in my small town are really expensive. I have to travel to do any decent shopping. This last week we ate Bistro Steak sandwiches with sweet potato wedges, chicken tacos with guacamole, baked salmon with asparagus, and pork loin medallions with potatoes and green beans. Total cost for feeding 3 of us and having lunch the next day…. $55. A bit expensive, but much less than what it would have cost me going to the store here.