Budgets | Grocery Shopping

Since Boyfriend and I make food every night, you'd think that we were super savvy budgeters, shopping for deals, running to the cheapest places, doing lots of research, and then doing it all in one big grocery shopping trip.

Nope.
Far from it.

There are weeks when we try to hit the grocery store on the weekend, but with Boyfriend working six days a week, this is not always feasible. To get everything we need, every time, well, this is generally just a little more that your MatchGirl can carry on her own (though, believe me, I've tried!).

Menu Plan: Week Thirty-Nine

Gentle readers, February is a busy month for Boyfriend and your MatchGirl. There are birthdays, events and the regular amount of excitement that comes from living in a vibrant place like Brooklyn.

But, with my change in employment, I'm not adding a lot of money to the coffers. So it's even more important that we stick to the menu plan and make things work while money is tight.

Photo (left): Amazing green curry chicken (a little spicy), at Tuk Tuk in Long Island City.

Dream A Little Dream

Sometimes, your MatchGirl muses about having loads of money and not worrying, not one little bit, about what she can and can't buy. About what trips she can and can't take. About which pennies to pinch while at the grocer's.

Menu Plan: Week Thirty-Eight

One would think, gentle readers, that freelancing from home and searching for a new job would lend your MatchGirl a little time to chill out and be domestic.

Not so much.

The next couple of weeks are filled with work and meetings and friends. So the menu plan may be a little skimpy. That said, we're also on a tighter budget, so we need to eat at home as much as possible and keep things on the cheap.

Sharing Chairs

As much as I love showcasing chairs - as much as we still need a new chair for our living room and as much as I have always been real turned on by chair porn ... I think the time has come to end that practice here.

If you want to check out the items that I'd love to have in my dream house, head on over to Pinterest and check 'em out. There are only a few chairs right now, but I'm sure there will be more soon ...

Menu Plan: Week Twenty-Eight

Gentle readers, Boyfriend and your MatchGirl keep pushing forward with the menu planning. Last week did better than the week before and we hope to keep it up!

This week is a little less hectic than some, but we'll keep it simple and hope to stay on track with the menu. And, very importantly, the budget.

Seating Arrangements: CB2 Parlour Chair

Boyfriend and your MatchGirl have been on the hunt for a comfy chair for our living room for a while now. With circumstances as they are - Boyfriend being laid off for a while (don't worry, he's working now!), so many weddings to attend (flights to book, presents to buy), and the general cost of living in New York City, we can't just buy any chair that strikes our fancy. And while getting a couch was imperative, getting a chair is something we can hold off, for a bit.

That said, how cute is this Parlour Chair from CB2? I think the tangerine color would look amazing with our brown couch and our brown and white walls!

Menu Plan: Week Twenty-Three

Boyfriend and your MatchGirl did a great job of sticking to the menu plan last week. Monday we went out to dinner with a visiting friend, but, for the most part, we stuck to it. I also had enough leftovers to take lunch to work nearly every day.

As we're feeling a big budget pinch right now, I want to use this week's menu plan (and the upcoming weeks) to not only plan our dinners, but at least my lunches (Boyfriend can eat at work). I think this will save us some dough in the long run. This week we did all our shopping (save the fish for the end of the week, which we'll get at the fish market day of) ahead of time - at the greenmarket, the meat shop on Graham and the Key Foods on McGuinness.

Seating Arrangements: Tulip Chair

Every now and then I like to wander over to the Hive Modern website and dream a little dream ...

The Tulip chair is one of those mod dreams. Sigh.

Menu Plan: Week Eighteen

Gentle readers, can you believe it? We're up to week eighteen of our menu planning. I wasn't sure we'd keep it going so long.

A quick recap - Week Seventeen saw us thrown off track by a bit. I had the flu, our Tuesday evening plans both got cancelled (good for me, since I was sick) and there was not quite enough pork left for three meals (though Boyfriend did have some for lunch one day). Beach day was cancelled due to clouds and rain, though we spent the day at the Met instead, there were no leftovers to come home to really. But Boyfriend whipped up some yummy nachos with chicken from the freezer, some beans and a quick sauce.

Budget: Money Saving Tips

Gentle readers, your MatchGirl spent most of the weekend curled up in a feverish ball. I just didn't have the energy to go through the receipts and scan them.

So here's what we're doing to save money this week - what we try to do every week, but what we're committed to making happen this week.

Menu Plan: Week Seventeen

Last week, gentle readers, we stuck pretty well to Menu Plan: Week Sixteen, though we switched some days up.

As we're still on a ridiculously tight budget, we thought long and hard about what we would be eating this week, about what we could take for lunches and how we could save some dough.

Budgeting: Receipts, Week Two

A week's worth of food receipts for Boyfriend and your MatchGirl.

We tried to keep it in check, buying on special at Associated and making use of our pantry items. Missing from the receipts: iced coffee ($3), Friday and two ($6) for Saturday. Also food on the road - egg and cheese for me and breakfast burrito and coffee for Boyfriend ($11) on Saturday.

Budgeting: Receipts

For any of you who are regular readers of Unemployed Brooklyn, you know your MatchGirl and Boyfriend have fallen upon some tough times. So yesterday's menu plan, meal planning in general, is going to be even more important. And instead of a matter of convenience and organization, it will really be a way to make sure we stay on track when it comes to our budget.

Before Boyfriend lost his job, it's not like either of us was pulling in a lot of money, so we were still budget conscious, of course, but now that it's my salary and him dealing with some bureaucracy at the Department of Labor Unemployment Office we need to be even more cognizant of where our pennies go.