Almost Free Dinner

 Thanks to friends I had a nearly free dinner!

A friend (Hi Sally) asked if I wanted brussel sprouts.  Yes please!  She gave me a little bag with those, some radishes and some rainbow carrots already sliced.  I fried them up in coconut oil (paid for that, given the price for the jar, about 5cents for this meal) on my woodstove (already using it for heat so no fuel cost for cooking).  I added a jar of duck meat which I got free for helping a friend butcher ducks.  I did buy the jar so that's about 1$ but is reused and reused so maybe 10cents of that goes to this meal because the lid has to be new each time. There was a lemon in the bag as well and I squeezed a bit of that over my bowl of stew and added a bit of pepper (less than a penny's worth)

For dessert I had a peach cobbler of sorts.  I had a can of peaches from a free food give away.  They were in pear juice so not overly sugary. In fact no added sugar.  I used some of the juice in the can to make a quick biscuit dough and poured that over the peached in a greased pan (more coconut oil...included in the 5cents above) with baking powder I bought years ago and just found (maybe 1cent worth based on current prices) and flour I got in exchange for helping butcher chickens at the community garden.   I also put in cinnamon and nutmeg which I found on a clearance shelf for 99 cents each in the BIG canisters.  Less than 1cent of spices but we'll round up to a penny by adding in the pepper from the stew.

Total for the meal: 

10cent jar lid and jar depreciation

5 cents coconut oil

1 penny in spices

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16cents.   Not bad.

Lunch was similarly cheap.

Pasta gotten free

Sauce gotten free

Beans gotten free

Diced pears in pear juice gotten free

Smoked salmon from a work colleague

Total:  Free  (and delicious really)

Breakfast was relatively spendy:
cinnamon and nutmeg, we'll call it a penny

banana...free

2 eggs (at 3$/dozen that is 25 cents per egg so 50 cents for organic free range eggs and it supports the community garden)  (my hens are not in a heated/lit coop and are laying about 2 eggs a week right now)

coffee 10$/2lbs on deep sale for good beans.  I get about 2 months of coffee from that.  so 10/60 is...17cents of coffee per day in my little french press.  (I use the grounds at least twice...the 3rd press is gross, the 2nd is not great)

water...out of the tap at work so free.

total for breakfast:

50cents eggs

1 cent spices

17 cents coffee

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total:  68cents.

For the day:

68 + free + 16 = 84cents.   Not bad!

My goal is 50$ for groceries this month.  Not every day will be free and it's not a grocery budget I expect to be sustainable.  Right now I have plenty of stock on hand so I'm working my way through that.  I don't need to store it forever.  Better to eat what I have.

Last month I spent 47$ on groceries and about 10 of that was on candy bars. I have a habit of buying one each shopping trip.  So really, 37$ in actual groceries.  I should be able to hit 50$ this week and keep eating like royalty.  I mean really, duck soup with brussel sprouts and rainbow carrots for dinner?  That's pretty fancy food.

I have more than enough protein on hand, probably a month's worth of fruit and veg if I sprout the seeds I bought for that purpose.  I do like sprouts in the winter.  Something green and fresh and not sad bag-o-salad.  I'm not against bag-o-salad, I'm just too cheap to buy it anywhere other than the 'reduced for quick sale' bin where it is sad indeed.

Sadly last month, I did spend 68$ in restaurants/takeout type food.  One friend likes to go to lunch.  Who doesn't?  But it's a good place to cut the budget and my sodium intake.   The latter may be more important.

Anyway, I need to finish up the pasta sauce so pretty sure lunch tomorrow will be more of that.  I finished the beans but have more cans I could open and kidney beans on on spaghetti with sauce are surprisingly good!   Of course, pasta sauce is also the start of a passable tomato veggie soup.  Not a good one, but a passable one.  

For the weekend I need to decide which free meat to eat:

deer, elk, duck, chicken, salmon   Votes?