Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Sticking to the budget

I haven't had to make any purchases since a couple days ago. So I still have $58.10 in our food budget remaining for the month. Although technically I think we need to deduct $15.20 from our budget for the soda. So we actually have $42.90 remaining.

For supper last night we had 'Cheesy Potato Broccoli' soup. It was amazingly easy. Here is the recipe:

1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped celery
1 qt chicken broth
3 cups milk, divided
2/3 cup flour
8 oz frozen broccoli
8 oz frozen hashbrowns
2 cups cheddar cheese
salt & pepper to taste
oil

Saute onion, celery, and carrots in oil on medium-high heat. When onion becomes translucent add chicken broth, frozen broccoli, and frozen hashbrowns. Mix half of the milk with the flour. Add to soup mixture. When soup starts to thicken add remaining milk and cheese. Add salt and pepper to soup till it is to your liking.

This recipe honestly took all of about 20 minutes to cook. It was a great way to use up the remaining 1/2 bags of broccoli and hashbrowns. I think we actually used closer to 16 oz each of the broccoli and hash browns. The consistency was closer to a chowder. But the soup was really pretty good and it reheated for supper tonight quite well. I think next time I would maybe do the 8oz of broccoli and potatoes and another 8 oz of mixed veggies or something. Oh - and I would add a crusty bread for dipping!

Today's tip: Most houses have an extra binder or two laying around. Use one of these to make an organizer for your home. Mine consists of several sections. 1. Phone numbers and addresses of friends and family. 2. frequently used recipes. 3. cleaning checklists (these are in plastic and I have a dry-erase marker to mark off things as I do them) 4. frugal tips 5. other household helper information 6. an envelope where I store receipts from purchases so I always know where the receipt is in case something needs to be returned!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an interesting thing to blog about. I try every month to stick to a grocery budget but it never works. I love seeing how other people make it work. Excuse my spelling, I am feeding my 4 week old son a bottle while typing. lol. I look forward to the next entry! Good luck with the budget.

Anonymous said...

Love your tip! As I lose my mind to old age, this could be very helpful indeed. =)

I'm sending the recipe to my DH (the cook) to try out.

Liz said...

I have never really tried to do a budget before. So we'll see how it goes. I think the main thing with budgets is that they need to be realistic and do-able. I think that with a budget of $30 a week we can still eat decent meals, although some of them may be the "cheap" stand-bys. You know - ramen, pot pies, etc.