About That Budget

Those who suggested I leave Vince at home while grocery shopping . . you’re so right. Here’s a funny story . . we were in Abilene Saturday and we went by HEB. They had Butterball turkeys on sale so we were looking at them. Vince wanted a giant turkey and I wanted a small turkey.

1. We don’t have room in the freezer for a huge turkey.
2. When it’s time to brine it and cook it, I’m the one struggling with a 40 pound bird.
3. I don’t want to eat turkey from Thanksgiving til Easter!

We stood there in the store “discussing” what size turkey to get. Vince thought the small turkeys looked “squashed” and I stood my ground about the big turkey so we walked away with no turkey.

Yesterday we were in the grocery store and an older man and lady were looking at turkeys. He picked up a smaller one and she said “NO! I don’t want a small turkey!” He said . . we don’t have room for a big turkey and I don’t want to live on turkey leftovers til they’re gone!

I looked at Vince and I said . . I wonder if he would go home with me and you can go home with her? It was so funny that it was our exact same conversation from the day before. I don’t know what size they got but we ended up with an above average sized bird . . and I re-arranged things in the freezer so we got it in there, and I’m sure we’ll eat way more turkey than I want to eat.

Back to the budget .. I think there’s Budget 101 and Budget 201. Budget 101 is when you have $25 to spend for groceries and you know if you spend $26, you’re in big trouble. There’s not an extra dollar in the budget. I’ve been there and I definitely appreciate those kinds of budgets and understand what it’s like to live that lifestyle. While I will never forget those days, and that makes me appreciate where we are now, I hope to never go back to those days . . though if ever it happens, I’ll make the best of it and I know I’ll be fine.

Budget 201 is when you really want to stick with a budget but sometimes, the prudent thing is to go over the budgeted amount.

Yesterday as we were walking into United, I stopped Vince in the parking lot and I said “You remember that starting January 1, our grocery budget is $25/week! I’d like to start that now, ok?” He looked at me like he had never heard anything about it and said “No way!” Yes, way! We’re going to do it.

Even though we went way over our $25 budget yesterday, I’m ok with it.

We spent $65.91 but we saved $81.92. How can you NOT do that?

They had some of the prettiest chuck shoulder roasts for $1.47 per pound. There were two roasts per package and there was a limit of 2 packages per customer. Chuck roasts are my favorite and I can not only make roasts but I can cut it up into soup/stew meat or grind it into hamburger meat.

I got two packages, or 4 roasts and cut them each in half, vacuum sealed and froze them. Two pounds of roast is enough for us to have it for dinner, and have leftovers for a roast beef sandwich the next day for lunch. For about $24, I got enough meat for 8 dinners and 8 lunches. Not bad.

My best find of the day was this  . . and I almost feel guilty writing about it but dang it, if I didn’t buy it, someone else would have.

It’s regular $11.50 and it’s marked down to $4.42. On the mark down tag, it says “Windthorst Hot Links”. It surely didn’t look like hot links to me! It looked a heck of a lot like Delmonico Steak . . which I like a lot. I showed Vince. I said . . I think this is Delmonico Steak. He said “How many packages do they have?” I said . . 4. He said “Get them all!” so I did.

I got home and peeled back the wrapper and sure enough, the tag is covering “Delmonico Steak”. I paid $4.42 for almost 2 pounds. Yes, I will go over my grocery budget when I can get something like that.

We ended up getting enough meat for about 20 meals for less than $40. It’s all vacuum sealed and in the freezer except for the roast that we’re having for dinner tonight. I seasoned it yesterday and stuck it in the fridge.

Roast beef, rice, gravy, corn and biscuits . . that’s what’s for dinner tonight!