The fridge is full.
The Frugal Living Challenge started Monday with a visit from Shelley Bailey-Shah and cameraman Kevin from KATU. (We are still waiting to hear when the story will be shown).
After visiting with them, we took the Subaru to the gas station for one last fill up, and then we stopped at Freddy’s for a few more groceries.
It will be interesting to see what we forego purchasing during this month off the economy. We usually spend around $500 per month for groceries, fill the gas tank 3 times, and eat out once or twice a week. Every week we seem to need something at Home Depot or Staples or Target. And then there are the “wow, that’s a good price” shopping opportunities for things we want more than we need.
To get ready for the challenge, we were grocery shoppers on steroids with a trip to Costco a week ago, a stop at Garners, Safeway this Sunday and Fred Meyer yesterday. The grocery shopping came to about $550 (not bad, about what we usually spend). With the freezer stuffed to overflowing, the refrigerator full and additional produce staying in the fridge at the neighbors, I think we have enough food to get us through the month. We may not like what we have left to eat by week 4, but we won’t starve.
We started our frugal life with steak, salad and asparagus for dinner. Paul does a terrific job on the barbecue and for this dinner he was in top form. The steak had languished in the freezer for a while, so it was time to put it to a good use. We did have a moment of panic when he went to fire up the barbecue. The briquette bucket was virtually empty. This time of year I don’t think about barbecuing so hadn’t checked our supply when I was stocking up. Fortunately there was a brand new bag up in the garage. Crisis averted. Wonder what else I forgot when I was stocking the pantry?
Lots of good eating in the freezer too.
Off site storage at the neighbors. The x'd items are theirs. We took over the rest of the fridge.
