Chili Cornbread Bake

.4 pounds extra lean (96/4) ground beef: at 3.99 a pound: $1.60
1 package of chili seasoning mix: $1.25 (Far too expensive, but I'm lazy. Next time I'll use my own spices)
Chili Beans: $.63
Corn muffin mix: $.48
1 can of tomato sauce that I bought in bulk from Sams a long time ago: $.50 ? Who knows.
4 oz shredded cheddar cheese (1/2 a package at 3/$5) $.83
1/3 cup of 1% milk: $.10
1 egg: $.12 (?)

Total: $6.01 after taxes.

Basically, prepare the chili according to package instructions, reserving some of the tomato sauce because it'll be too thin otherwise. Then put it in a corningware dish, put some cheese on top. Prepare the cornbread according to package instructions, and pour over the chili. Then sprinkle on some more cheese. Then bake at 375 until done. It's quite good. To make it healthier: (1) reduce or cut out the cheese entirely, (2) make it meatless, (3) use egg beaters, (4) and/or use skim milk. Read More......

Budget FAIL

Well, I'd post a reckoning of how much our dinner cost last night, except that I didn't cook last night. I had a final exam yesterday afternoon in Constitutional Rights Litigation, and decided I'd earned a "treat."


...We went to buffalo wild wings and actually got off cheaper than we normally do. Upon discussion, we both decided that the reasonable way to go from now on seems to be getting an appetizer and one entree and splitting it. There's always too much food anyway.



Tonight is Barbeque Beef Casserole, which consists of
1/2 pound of extra lean ground beef: $2.02
one package of cheap cornbread mix: $1 maybe? Again, I don't have my receipts.
two slices of 2% cheddar cheese: $.60? Maybe less. I don't remember how much we paid for the package.
milk and eggs for the cornbread: another .50. I don't remember.
4 T barbecue sauce: $.25

Along with salad greens, fresh spinach, olive oil, and red wine vinaigrette for a salad. I don't remember how much I paid for these things, but I think the salad greens were $1.50. We might use half, so $.75.

So, total is maybe $5.50. I promise, next week I'll keep the receipts. Read More......

Well

So I abandoned Mint.com and switched to Quicken Online

for the simple reason that Mint wouldn't upload my bank account. So... I'm using Quicken, and absolutely shocked at where our money is being wasted spent. If you don't have a finance managing website, or software, or something, you should get one. It will make you realize just how lazy and/or reckless you just may be in your spending habits.

I had been reading a blog by a guy on CNN who was living a month on "food stamps". (AKA assigning himself the maximum monetary allowance for one person). So, basically he was living on $176 a month for one person. At first I thought, "wow, that's crazy, he's making REAL sacrifices to show how less priviledged people live." And then, today I saw just how much my husband and I spend in a month on groceries. I'm too embarrassed to tell you the actual number, but it was high. Way high. And I've been thinking to myself, Hey-- you can probably do better. A whole lot better. So I've been looking up cheaper recipes and searching for way to improve our food budget without hurting-- and hopefully helping-- the health quotient of what we've been buying. As a result, I've decided to analyze the things we cook for dinner at night to see what it cost and how we could improve-- both health-wise and budget-wise.

So, here goes. I apologize in advance because I threw away my receipts from the store this week. So I'm just estimating from what I can remember.

Tuesday March 3: One-half pound extra-lean ground beef: $4.08 for a one-pound package, so $2.02 for a half-pound; one box of Kraft Macaroni thick 'n creamy: $1.75ish? (Here, I probably could have bought store brand but I couldnt' find the thick 'n creamy style and I like that better.); one-half cup of milk: maybe $.15? I don't know how much milk is a gallon, but we buy it in quarts or half-gallons which are more expensive by volume. If we don't, though, the milk goes bad before we drink it; Two tablespoons of margarine-- Again, a quarter? maybe? No clue, honestly; half of a cantaloupe at 2/$3.00, so $.75.

Today's Dinner Total: $4.92. I don't think that's so bad, really, for two people. We didn't have any vegetables, though, so in theory I could have thrown in another buck or two for broccoli or salad.

Read More......