Friday, July 30, 2010

Penny Pinching Pantry Raid: Days 18 and 19 and a look at what we've been drinking this month

Wednesday, July 21st
Breakfast: Jeremy and I both had cereal and coffee/cream. I had Special K Red Berries and he had Cheerios.
Lunch: Jeremy had leftover squash casserole, chips and a granola bar for lunch with 2 bottles of water and 2 packs of instant peach tea. I had leftover jambalaya, corn and tomatoes.
Dinner: I had leftover squash casserole and salad. Jeremy had leftover corn, stuffed jalepeno peppers and a salad.
Snacks: I had some yogart, almonds, plus some tomatoes and tortilla chips at work.

Thursday, July 22
Breakfast: We both had cereal with coffee/cream.
Lunch: I had leftover jambalaya (finally the last of it.. I feel like I've been eating on it forever, but it's still pretty good) and a cucumber. Jeremy had leftover squash casserole, chips, a granola bar and two bottles of water with a peach tea packet.
Dinner: Homemade frozen pasta with tomatoes, onions swiss chard, garlic olive oil and white wine. It's one of those meals that you just throw whatever you have on hand together.
Snacks: I had a peach, yogart, a hard boiled egg and some tortilla chips.

A word (or several ) on saving money on drinks:

Since I've been keeping track of what we're eating in doing the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid, I've been noticing more what we're drinking at our meals: coffee, water and occassionally a beer.

We stopped drinking pop a while back. I probably had bigger pop habbit than Jeremy did, but last year, I began trying hard to cut out artifical sweeteners. It's impossible to cut them out altogether, but at least I did loose the pop. If I still was drinking it, I'm seeing now how big of a chunk that would have taken of my budget. It's amazing.

We're not juice drinkers at breakfast at all. I drank juice for breakfast when I was a kid--orange and grape. But since I became an adult (and habitual dieter), I don't drink it because of the sugar in it. I don't know why Jeremy has never asked me to buy juice. He's only started drinking coffee more than occassionally in the last year or so. Before that for breakfast he preferred pop (horrifying, I know). And if there wasn't any pop, whatever was to drink in the fridge--besides water. I like a big glass of ice water when I wake up in the morning. I think I read a while back somewhere that it helped your metabolism. Like I said, habitual dieter. But who knows if that's true or not? Before he started drinking coffee regularly, I only made it at home on the weekends. But now, I generally make a half a pot at home to drink for breakfast.

Before the Raid, I bought Lipton (or generic brand) diet green tea to put in Jeremy's lunch. I bought a twelve-pack at the beginning of the month, but one thing I've been doing since we ran out is refilling plastic water bottles with water from our Brita pitcher for Jeremy's lunch.

I don't buy bottled water anymore, but sometimes Jeremy brings home some of what they provide him a work. Especially during fire seasons, when he works long hours on brush fires, his work provides them with a case of bottled water to leave in the truck or whatever so they always have water when they are out. There might be a few leftover at end of fire season, so he has just put them in the garage to grab if we need one.

I LOVE the stainless steel water bottle I got for Christmas, which I fill up from the Brita pitcher when I want a bottle of water to go. He has a stainless steel bottle, too, and last year I bought him a bigger reusable plastic water bottle. But, they don't fit in his lunch box, and he doesn't like to take them in the summer because they don't stay cold. The plastic bottles I've been refilling for him fit perfect in his lunch box. And, I've been freezing one of the bottles, which works double duty. It keeps the whole lunch box cold inside and melts enough so he has a cold bottle of water in the afternoon.

My office has a water cooler, and I ususally drink water from it throughout the day and at lunch. It's nice to have it provided for free, but if it weren't there, I'd probably just drink it out of the tap in the bathroom sink rather than buy bottled water from the vending machine. I'm more of a cheap-o than I am a water snob.

For dinner, we usually drink water. Sometimes a glass of wine or a beer. Occassionally, I make iced tea or make some Crystal Light lemonade. Jeremy doesn't drink milk at all, and I only do occassionally for dinner. I like milk a lot, but I don't drink it often mostly because it is more expensive than water.

Now that I think about it, I don't know what I would do if I didn't like water all that much. Some people don't. Feeding yourself is undoubtedly more expensive if you don't like tap water. I definitely think drinking water has helped the Raid at the Jones home.

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