What Happened December? (& The Rest of the Year)

Well I was only in Abq. for a few weeks and tried to not shop much during that time.  I did by some root beer milk one day and ate dinner out another day, and have a note that I spent money on something another day (but I have no clue on what).  I did buy a few things at Walmart using a gift card for my Christmas Party soup.  Another day I bought a drink at Starbucks but I justified it by using some of the $16 I had found on the sidewalk.  Once I left for break, Dec 13th, the semester was over as was tracking my spending

December Total: $16.80

Since I started tracking in January of 2012 here is my total for the 2012 school year. 

drum roll....

$782.54 or $65.21/month or $15.05/week or $2.14/day

So if you are one of the people who fed me this year, thanks!

End of Novemeber

I'm totally cheating and writing this two weeks after the fact, but I saved my receipts (this is my personal expense report.

Now I will think back on what I ate on the 29th and 30th two weeks ago.

Thursday's dinner I had a meatball sandwich (meatballs, bbq sauce and bread on its way out from thanksgiving) I was very proud of myself for coming up with that one.  Friday night was family pizza night with my adopted family.  Breakfast and lunch were probably remnents of thanksgiving. ($0)

But alas, I did have to go grocery shopping, in anticipation of hosting a Christmas party I figured people probably wanted more than water to drink.  $24.73 on mostly tea.

 Monthly Total:$79.86

day 6 of cranberry sauce

Breakfast: Pancakes, using flaxseed instead of egg, and cranberry sauce (have you seen a trend). ($0)
Lunch: Thanksgiving. ($0)
Snack: I met some ladies from work and bought a hot chocolate, it wasn't very good. ($3)
Dinner: Cheese and crackers, again, and some veggies, i did consider eating cranberry sauce with my crackers. ($0)

packed lunch

Breakfast: French toast with cranberry sauce. ($0)
Lunch: I worked from Starbucks (on a gift card) but packed a lunch. I made a sandwich: old bread, turkey, cranberry sauce and pumpkin cream cheese.  I also had my 2nd coconut milk yogurt. ($0)
Dinner: Cheese from tailgating and crackers from when my dad was here and got a stomach virus. ($0)

exhaustion

Breakfast: Rice ($0)
Lunch: For some reason I was really tired so took a nap for most of the afternoon instead of eating lunch. ($0)
Dinner: Thanksgiving in a bowl aka stuffing, cranberry sauce and butternut squash. ($0)

ginger cookies and inner struggles

Breakfast: Oatmeal ($0)
Brunch: I made cookies as a back up dessert for the day after Thanksgiving and they weren't needed so I brought them today instead.  Once again everyone was amazed by the chewy ginger cookie.  ($0)
Lunch: Pizza with one of the families from church. ($0)
Dinner: Potato bar at youth group, I volunteered to bring green onions. ($.59)

Weekly Total: $35.23

I realize this is more than all of the month of October, I am becoming more and more like my parents with an aversion to eating out.

bonus money

Breakfast: French toast with cranberry sauce. ($0)
Dinner: I went with Heather to Village Inn, it is ABQ's version of Baker's Square or something.  I got a grilled cheese and paid!  This blog really doesn't reflect that this money was spent out of bonus house sitting money ($22)

day after

Breakfast: Stuffing, cranberry sauce, hard boiled egg and m&m's. ($0)
Lunch: Really with a breakfast like that lunch isn't really a necessity. ($0)
Dinner:  We had a Thanksgiving dinner at church, I brought cranberry orange relish, the easiest recipe ever (whole cranberries, whole oranges, and sugar in a food processor)!  And I brought ginger cookies because there were already 10+ pies.  ($0)

thanksgiving!

Breakfast: My friends host a Thanksgiving breakfast.  The steak and eggs were quite delicious and I made a really good pumpkin coffee cake. ($0)
Dinner: I'm dog sitting again and turned down the neighbor's offer for dinner and instead ate with my roommate and her parents. Did you know that if you eat dinner with only 4 people you can make mashed potatoes with 2 potatoes.  I was anticipating one of the more awkward meals of my life but it really wasn't that bad.  I made stuffing. ($0)

rice

Breakfast: The rest of my brown rice with cinnamon and sugar. ($0)
Lunch: I met with a lady for work and she bought be a breakfast burrito, I was was willing to pull out my own wallet to pay but she writes my pay check so understands my situation. ($0)
Dinner: I made white rice (from scratch!) and had it with more of those veggies and some shrimp.  I then threw away the rest of my veggies. ($0)

the depths of our freezer

Breakfast: Same as yesterday...scone, pumpkin cream cheese, egg sandwich. ($0)
Lunch: Veggie quesadilla. ($0)
Dinner:  TJ's brown rice (probably been in my freezer since May), some more of those vegetables sauteed with shrimp also from the freezer not purchased by any of my current roommates.  I think it created a pretty classy meal. ($0)
Dessert: More of the brown rice with milk, cinnamon and sugar. ($0)

shopping for thanksgiving

Breakfast: Scones and pumpkin cream cheese left over from the baby shower turned into an egg sandwich. AMAZING. ($0)
Lunch:  In August I brought home and froze a lot of leftover food from a taco bar, I finally got around to defrosting the veggie portion and put some of them in a quesadilla with homemade tortillas. ($0)
Dinner: Ladies Bible study, I brought the veggie tray again. ($0)

And I went shopping for Thanksgiving.  I was a little bothered by the amount I spent but realized I was shopping for 3 Thanksgiving events, drum roll...$12.64.  I think my mom spends a little more than that.

church food

Breakfast: Scones left from yesterday. ($0)
Lunch: The same family from last week invited me to lunch again after church.  They made amazing lamb gyros and ratatouille ($0)
Dinner: We had a toy wrapping party at church with pizza, I brought a veggie tray that I took home from the baby shower. ($0)

Weekly Total: $5.34

weekend fun

Breakfast: Coconut milk yogurt from TJ's and then random snacks at a meeting for school ($0)
Lunch: Quesadilla ($0)
Linner: Baby shower food, I brought scones -made from a mix.  ($5.34)

lots of carbs followed by grease

Breakfast: The guy who promised me a breakfast burrito fell though so I went to the meeting then had to run home and grab the rest of my baked oatmeal before my next meeting. ($0)
Lunch: At meeting #2 I was seated in front of a bowl of cuties and a loaf of chocolate chip bread. It was lovely. ($0)
Snack: If that wasn't lunch enough I stopped by a new thrift store and they had amazing homemade cinnamon rolls for free! ($0)
Dinner: Grease.  It was another happy hour for the business club but at a not very good bar.  My stomach did not respond well. ($0)

Night off

Breakfast: Eggs on an english muffin ($0)
Lunch: Leftovers from last night's dinner ($0)
Dinner: Sometimes you go to TJ's and splurge!  I think I bought 6 things, all on a gift card.  One of those things was a garlic mushroom pizza for dinner. ($0)

On a side note we got a new fridge!  I suggested to my landlord that it would be appreciated and he gave me the OK to buy one.  No more frozen food in the fridge!  And as a bonus, a freezer that opens!

Real meat from 9 months ago

Breakfast: Baked Oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: On the go with the rest of my veggies from last week's potluck. ($0)
Dinner: A REAL ONE.  In March I bought some hamburgers from Target's clearance section, they've been in the freezer ever since. I made one and half an acorn squash. ($0)

repurposing

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: Grilled cheese sandwich. Bread=hamburger bun. Cheese=from tailgating's cheese platter. ($0)
Dinner: Ditto ($0)

standards

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: Lamb gyro at a work lunch ($0)
Dinner: Soup and sandwiches at ladies Bible Study. ($0)

Side note: At class the guy who sits next to me said he went to a potluck and there were a bunch of nasty leftovers and he thought of saving them for me.  I thanked him for the thought but let him know I already had 2 free meals that day. Friday morning we have a group meeting and he said he'd bring breakfast burritos. I think I'm a little pathetic.

veteran's day

Breakfast: String cheese and things from the snack table at church. ($0)
Lunch: Sometimes Sunday's are frustrating becasue too many people offer to feed me, people need to learn to spread the love throughout the week.  Anyways I went to a different house than normal and the food was delicious...I don't know what it was but wow. ($0)
Dinner: Veggies from buffet night and a quesadilla - I'm still making them fresh as I go and rolling them out with a jar of spaghetti sauce becasue I don't have a rolling pin, the cheese is leftover from tailgating yesterday - we shopped at Costco so I'll have cheese for a while. ($0)

Weekly Total: $11.56

tailgating

Breakfast: More biscuits and gravy. ($0)
Lunch: We planned a tailgating party before a UNM football game, fortunately a guy that knew how to grill showed up before it was time to eat. ($0)
Dinner: The rest of my beet mac and cheese and a grapefruit. ($0)

comfort food

Breakfast: Halloween candy. ($0)
Lunch: Tomato, basil soup at my boss's house.  I think this is the first time I've ever eaten tomato basil soup and it was delicious. ($0)
Dinner: It was a really long day so I made myself chocolate gravy to eat with canned biscuits.  Nowhere near as good as my grandma's but still quite good. ($0)

buffet?

Breakfast: Grapefruit, fried egg on a fresh tortilla. ($0)
Lunch: Some more of that mac and cheese. ($0)
Snack:  I made another tortilla then found string cheese (thank you Julie!) in the crisper drawer. ($0)
Dinner:  The dinner theme was buffet food.  I brought broccoli and carrot and celery sticks (I looked for those strange baby corn on the cob but couldn't find them). I also bought grapefruit and acorn squash for myself. ($7.61)

one of a kind

Breakfast: I finished off my yogurt with Cheerios and energy bites. ($0)
Lunch:  I had a beet in the fridge and decided to chop it up in some mac and cheese.  It was very pretty and didn't taste bad. ($0)
Dinner:  Quesadilla. ($0)
Dessert:  I decided to make cookies for Bible study and have a lot of peanut butter so I made peanut butter cookies and they were a big hit. ($0)

scrounging

Breakfast: Cheerios, yogurt, honey - but I did pull milk from the freezer. ($0)
Lunch: I have this recipe for these no-bake energy bites, I made some they were quite delicious but not really a legitimate lunch. ($0)
Dinner: I made tortillas.  Then turned 2 of them into quesadillas with some kind of sketchy beans defrosted from the freezer. ($0)

Back from Pittsburgh

Breakfast: Cheerios, plain yogurt and honey. ($0)
Snack: I was at a terrible meeting at school with a pack of not good peanut butter sandwich cookies in front of me, I ate too many. ($0, sitting in the meeting: $100K)
Lunch: After the meeting I realized I should have a real meal but knew I didn't have much at home so I splurged and got a breakfast burrito. ($3.95)
Dinner:  Ladies Bible Study...they feed me. ($0)

Happy Halloween

I've been really slacking on writing, but don't worry I haven't spent money.  Meals this week consisted of such lovely things as quinoa beet salad enchiladas and beans from my boss's housekeeper and I found some plain yogurt that went well with cheerios and honey.

Today I went to Pittsburgh.  My really classy airline snack was bell peppers and a painfully large apple (also from my boss's housekeeper).  ($0)
I had a non-existent layover but my second flight was a little delayed so I was able to run to Starbucks and use a gift card to get a chai and pastry, if only I knew I had a layover and maybe my seatmate who was on his way back from a "spiritual retreat" would have bought me something.  ($0)
Now Nancy will feed me for the rest of the week real food.

Monthly Total: $21.08! And mostly on potlucks.  This is great for my averages but is really becasue my family was here and bought me food.

 

church x 3

Breakfast: I just held out for snack time at church, I brought these little sausage mini-muffins, finally something everyone eats! ($4.70)
Lunch: Another pot-luck but I "lucked" out of having to bring anything. ($0)
Dinner:  Youth group. ($0)

Weekly total: $10.56, which isn't bad considering I brought things to 3 potlucks.

milk!

Breakfast: I dog sat last night and they have milk so I got cold cereal! ($0)
Lunch: Soup buffet at church, I was skeptical but evidently I've matured to the point of being able to eat soup. I brought a huge bag of rolls for ($1.99)!
Dinner: Another church event, just an open house but there was quite a bit of food. ($0)

bad free food

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal with candied walnuts. (I'm going out of town so I'm trying to hold off on defrosting my gallon of frozen milk) ($0)
Lunch: Meatballs and veggies at my boss's house. ($0)
Dinner 1: I went to this awards thing at Embassy Suites, appetizers were served but they weren't very good, and the event in general was really awkward...have you ever played 2 lies and a truth with 100+ people?  ($0)
Dinner 2: We're having a church conference this weekend and tonight was the kick off spaghetti dinner. ($0)

too long of a day

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal at 6:30AM. ($0)
Lunch: Cafeteria food. ($0)
Dinner: Community group, I made a redo of Friday night's quinoa salad. ($0)

food to go

Breakfast: eggs and english muffin ($0)
Lunch: I was on homeschool at Chick-fil-a duty and bought myself chicken nuggets with the rest of my gift card from Kelly Bishop and ($3)
Dinner: My boss's housekeeper sent me home with a bunch of food, including fresh beans to eat with cheese and tortilla (and an apple and pear that I'm saving for later). ($0)

gracious God

Breakfast: Do you ever reflect on how gracious our God is?  I'm easy to please so this morning what set off my genuine praise was having just enough milk for a whole bowl of cereal. ($0)
Lunch:  Turkey meatballs and bbq sauce. ($0)
Dinner: Apple. ($0)

back on track

Breakfast:  Eggs on an english muffin. ($0)
Snack: Pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks...it was really a wondeful fall day.  ($.87...the rest was finishing off a groupon from Julie)
Lunch:  Quesadilla with some apple inside and the rest of the apple on he outside. ($0)
Dinner: I go to a ladies Bible Study that provides dinner, last night was some extremely hot chili and cookies to numb the pain. ($0)

What happened?

I didn't blog regularly this week and frankly now I can't remember what I ate. 
I did bring corn bread to something once ($1), then the next morning I ate some stale cornbread with milk and honey ($0).
I also bought apples and beets for a salad I made one night to take to Morgan's. ($3.35)
Friday night we had this happy hour for my department/club at school there was all sorts of delicious food including this amazing bread pudding that was to share but I think I ate 80%, it was much better than my sad cornbread breakfast.  School events are free. ($0)
Other meals consisted of a lot of quesadillas.  One day to mix things up my quesadilla was regular cheese and honey almond cream cheese. ($0)

So my weekly total was $4.35

The little things in life

Breakfast: I had some instant oatmeal from my sister and it's not normal Quaker or TJ's but some fancier brand that she bought on clearance on Target. It tastes fine but the most awesome thing about it is the packaging has a measuring line on it! So you empty out the oats and then fill the pouch with water instead of needing a measuring cup. I mean really that is the most ingenious thing I've ever heard of. ($0)
Lunch: Bean and cheese quesadilla. ($0)
Dinner: I was on campus and brought some of these little sausage mini muffins I made for a girls night this weekend and the remaining half of the orange bell pepper Morgan brought for the salad last night. ($0)

Welcome back!

I stopped writing becasue my family came to visit and I ate regular food. Who really wants to read about that? Not me. Plus when I have family around I have better things to do than write this blog.  When they left I dog sat for the weekend and ate all their food. So since I've written last I spent $4.50 on a bagel and hot chocolate I bought on the train back from Arizona and $1.67 on some buscuits I needed to make these mini muffin things for a game night last weekend.  ($6.17)

Now I have tons of leftovers from my family's visit and I've been too busy to put it all away so I have a box of groceries in my bedroom.

Breakfast: Aussie Bites. ($0)
Lunch: Eggs with mushrooms and bell pepper. ($0)
Dinner: Not only am I back but so is Morgan! This is great news, not just for food reasons but becasue she is great.  She came over for dinner and we fell back into our experimental routine (for better or for worse).  The Menu:
1) A really great salad, I had fancy lettuce and tomatoes, she brought an orange bell pepper and feta.
2) Guacamole and chips.  She had some avocados on the way out and I had lime and chips. We had way more guac then chips (what a problem to have!) so we could eat as much as we wanted.
3) Butternut squash. I had some my mom had cooked last week.
4) Now Morgan got a new food donation that she wanted to try out as the main dish. Trader Joe's Chicken-less Cutlets.  We had no idea what it was but we opened the package and found this:

Yes, it looks like a brain so we added the sauce pack.

 So much more appetizing, right?

So what is chickenless chicken?  A very odd man-made concoction of powders that you've never heard of died off-grey and turned into the consistency of chicken.  There is no way it is better for you than just eating chicken. And, as Morgan said, it's not like people eat chicken for the consistency.  Case in point...BOYCOTT CHICKENLESS CHICKEN!!!  The inside was beans and corn but neither of us finished this portion of the meal, mostly becasue mentally we weren't really OK with it. ($0)

Starving

Breakfast: I've been going to water aerobics and this morning they left me particularly starving.  I finished up some granola (like 1/4 cup bought in May) with milk, then made 2 eggs. The eggs would have been much more exciting if I had bread to sop up the yolk but I don't.  Hum...at the time this seemed like a huge breakfast. ($0)
Lunch: There have been some corn tortillas in the fridge for a while. I used them to make quesadillas with some gallo pinto I had in the freezer. ($0)
Snack: I'm out of Ovaltine so I wanted to see if cold milk and hot coco mix is a good substitute. It isn't. ($0)
Dinner: Apple and peanut butter. ($0)

Pasta

Breakfast: Scrambled egg with mushrooms and tomatoes. ($0)
Lunch:  I always forget about pasta which is odd, becasue it's easy and cheap and not terrible.  With a stroke of genius I made a "pasta dish" that frankly, I think anyone would eat.  I had some leftover calzone filler (spinach, mushroom and tomato sauce), to beef it up I added fresh tomatoes and basil, I mixed this up with some bow tie pasta then put it all in a pie dish with some cheese on top and baked it.  Really it was good, I ate it all. ($0)
Dinner: Granola bar. ($0)

finishing up

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal, now it's gone. ($0)
Lunch: 1/2 calzone, also now gone. ($0)
Dinner: We started a women's Bible study at church, I can't actually say for the study but am able to make it to the eating portion. ($0)

end of september

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: 1/2 calzone ($0)
Dinner: Youth group...I brought root beer that someone sent me home with a few weeks ago. ($0)

monthly total: $76.33

saturday morning meetings

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Brunch: I had to go to a lame-o meeting at 9am but there were some fruit trays involved. ($0)
Lunch: After the meeting I went to lunch and got a very delicious smoothie. ($5.62)
Dinner: Heather's house. ($0)

BYOCBAK

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Brunch/Lunch: I got to go to a super fascinating class put on by the IRS on Exempt Organizations. They had a very diverse fruit platters and mini cupcakes.  I figured we would go out to lunch but my coworker brought us apples, a huge hunk of cheese, a cutting board and a knife. ($0)
Dinner: My friends had Avenger movie night and food...I have to admit I was still a little full from the mini cupcakes. ($0)

new favorite

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: Calzone ($0)
Dinner: My friends' son turned 4 so we had a party at NM's version of Chuck e Cheese, It'z. The food was not delicious and the ice cream machine was broken but I got to play Ski Ball...and fail miserably at DDR. ($0)

smoke alarm

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal ($0)
Lunch: My friend Chelsea came over for lunch and I made calzones, when she showed up the smoke alarm went off, I didn't know what to do. She said to turn on the fan and viola!  I am still confused because it wasn't actually smoky. ($0)
Coffee: As soon as Chelsea left my friend Sara called to see if we were still on for coffee, my other option was working so YES coffee (or chai) was on. ($8.24)
Dinner: Evidently lunch was sufficient but I did have some Ovaltine before bed. ($0)

down-hill

Breakfast: Baked oatmeal. ($0)
Lunch: Some more chicken from Saturday's wedding thing, and a tortilla I found in the fridge from the back to school taco bar. ($0)
Dinner: Hard-boiled egg and apple. ($0)

and the week begins again

Breakfast: Some Greek yogurt from July and granola. ($0)
Lunch: Leftover salad selection from the wedding. ($0)
Dinner: Quesadilla with my 2 remaining homemade tortillas and some fried chicken from Saturday and tomatoes. ($0)
My $2 wedding gift was definitely a good investment.

christian hospitatlity

Breakfast: left over dutch babies. ($0)
Lunch: Baked potatoes with chili at the Lennox house ($0)
Dinner: Breakfast burritos at youth group, I made the rest of my tortillas, they turned out a lot better than Thursday, so were quite amazing. ($0)

Slow day

Breakfast: For the first time in a long time I didn't set my alarm, then I had horchata and ducth babies. ($0)
Linner: I went a wedding reception/party thing. There was food. And I got leftovers. ($0)

Friday Happy Hour

Breakfast: I finished the rest of that mystery meal...and then threw away the meat I hadn't used, just because I shouldn't be scared of my food. ($0)
Lunch: I went with Michael and Ellen to the grilled cheese truck. They bought my sandwich so I bought us rootbeer. ($10)
Dinner: We had this happy hour for school, people kept coming so we got to keep ordering food. Technically it was "appetizers" but if you eat enough quesadillas it counts as a real meal. ($0)

re-repurposing

Breakfast: I made pancakes, they weren't very good.  I didn't have egg so I used water, while making them my sister told me I could have added flax, that would have been better. Then she told me that flax doesn't substitute for eggs in every situation (ie. scrambled eggs). Have a little faith Julie. ($0)
Lunch: So you may remember the mystery meal I had on Monday, I still had more but was really dreading eating it, so I figured out how to repurpose it.  I added Bisquick, an egg (I shopped), milk and cheese and baked it all together.  It was much better than the first time which is fortunate becasue it multiplied so I'll have get to eat it at least one more time. So here's the recipe, you'll definitely want to file it away somewhere: mystery meat (boiled and chopped), frozen veggies, gallo pinto, Bisquick, 1 egg, milk, cheese.
Dinner: It was fiesta night, I made tortillas and horchata.  I used to make tortillas then I moved to America where you just go out and buy whatever you want.  I did have to buy lard, flour and rice.  Then on a personal splurge I bought eggs and milk. ($7.54)

networking

Breakfast: 9 grain ($0)
Lunch: Mac and cheese ($0)
Dinner: I went to this networking event, did quite a bit of schmoozing and discovered the table with really amazing coconut shrimp. They were amazing. Free but I did spend quite bit of mental energy trying to figure out what to wear. ($0)

year old rice cakes

Breakfast: 9 grain and an apple. ($0)
Lunch: I went to a meeting at 12:30, there was food but it wasn't really supposed to be a "meal."  I made it into one. Pita chips, hummus, fruits and veggies. Really if they expect me to sit through meetings taking about verbiage of bylaws that no one is ever going to read I should get a meal out of it. ($0)
Dinner: I was on campus from 12:30-9:30 so I had to pack wisely.  I found my last 2 rice cakes (bought last August) and some slightly newer peanut butter and a pear. Sadly this was less scary than last night's dinner.  ($0)

why i should grocery shop

Breakfast: Well I was going to heat up some 9grain with milk, but then I noticed the jug of horchata in the fridge so I used that as a substitute and chopped up some apple in it too. It was good, I'm excited to try out another variation tomorrow. ($0)
Lunch: Mac & cheese, bell pepper from my garden and tomatoes. ($0)
Dinner: This was a little scary.  Remember my mystery meat from the chicken salad fiasco? This now boiled mystery meat is still in my fridge I chopped it up with some strange mix of frozen veggies (that were purchased when my parents were visiting), then I decided I should add rice.  I had some rice (the TJ's cooked brown rice) but then I found another bag of rice, but it wasn't just rice, it was gallo pinto.  These 3 items went in a skillet together with worcestershire sauce and olive oil (becasue those were the first things I saw), once thawed I ate it.  Um it wasn't delicious and I made enough for tomorrow too, maybe I'll melt some cheese on top...that usually helps. ($0)

Sunday!

Breakfast: 9grain. ($0)
Lunch: Mac and cheese. ($0)
Snack: Pear. ($0)
Dinner: Raquel made a Mexican feast that was ready at like 9pm but worth the wait. ($0)

Weekly Total: $22.11, that would be fine but most of it was spent eating out so this upcoming week is looking pretty sad in the grocery department.

frozen-hard-boiled eggs

Breakfast: I started to make 9grain but then my schedule got muddled and decided I didn't have time to eat it. So instead I pulled a hard-boiled egg out of the fridge (left from my deviled eggs earlier this week). It was frozen.  Anyways it was shell, ice, then wrinkly egg.  It tasted fine, just maybe more dense than usual. A hard-boiled egg isn't an independent breakfast so I had some leftover cookies. ($0)
Lunch: Quesadilla and tomatoes. ($0)
Dinner: I went to dinner with Heather, I wasn't very hungry so I had a roasted beet salad. It was decent but really just made me want some of that amazing beet salad I made when I was home.  ($10)

apples again

Breakfast: The last of my peanut butter Puffins. ($0)
Lunch: Tortellini from Wednesday with some basil and tomatoes. ($0)
Dinner: Hot dogs and hamburgers with my adopted family. I volunteered to bring dessert and wanted something apple based so I made apple oatmeal cookies. They were great, like oatmeal raisins without the raisins (becasue who likes those anyways). I did have to buy butter and walnuts. ($7.66)

apples

Breakfast: 9-grain with apple sauce. ($0)
Lunch: Whatever my boss fed me, I think it was chicken based.  Whatever it was it had a lot of garlic. ($0)
Dinner: It was All American night at community group, I think this is synonymous with kindergarten favorites.  I don't complain...I happen to love hot dogs, grilled cheese, mac and cheese and root beer floats. I've been trying to get rid of all these apples I've been given so I made apple sauce in the crock pot, it was great. ($0)

sometimes when i'm home i actually cook legitimate meals, and eat them at the proper time

Breakfast: 9 grain cereal, it's like cream of wheat but more sand-like. delicious. ($0)
Lunch: eggs on an english muffin with some pesto mayo and cheese. delicious. ($0)
Dinner: tortellini with fresh basil and tomatoes and a little marinara, i always forget about pasta. delicious. ($0)  

high-class

Breakfast: Peanut butter Puffins ($0)
Lunch: I was going to make egg salad but that needs bread or crackers so instead I made deviled eggs, becasue, let's face it, they're the same.  I used the pesto mayo that I made for Bible Study last week, I was still hungry (and wasn't sure what a serving size of deviled eggs is) so I had another Piadina. Good timing, I think I may have spotted a little mold on the flat bread. ($0)
Dinner: Nectarine in class and peanut butter Puffins when I got home...what will I do when they run out? ($0)

fail

Breakfast: Egg with bell pepper and tomato. ($0)
Lunch: I went to a coffee shop, but I timed it poorly so I had to by a sandwich, I had a $5 voucher so I was just a little over but then a few hours later I wanted hot chocolate. ($4.45)
Dinner: Granola bar in class, peanut butter Puffins when I got home. ($0)

guilt-free

Breakfast: Sleep ($0)
Lunch: Church potluck, I didn't bring anything but decided to not feel guilty, there was plenty of food ($0)
Dinner: Pizza, I couldn't just go cold turkey. ($0)

Weekly Total: $22.82

pizza, pizza, grilled cheese

Breakfast: I was lazy, so a piece of pizza from last night. ($0)
Lunch: I met with a friend for lunch for...PIZZA.  I think I need to diversify. ($13.91)
Dinner: For dinner I really branched out.  Heather came over to watch a movie and brought smoothies.  Then when the movie was over I mentioned a food truck I had seen The Melting Table, that specializes in grilled cheese sandwiches. So we went, and it was amazing. Especially the s'mores one. But I think I made myself sick.  Maybe I shouldn't eat like a 5-year-old on their birthday. ($4)

pizza

Breakfast: Puffins, now I'll have to pull my second 1/2 gallon of milk out of the freezer. ($0)
Lunch: A granola bar from my purse. ($0)
Lunch 2: The rest of that chicken salad, it was pretty good. ($0)
Dinner: Pizza for a class meeting ($0)
Dinner 2: Pizza at my adopted family's pizza night...they let me take mine to go. ($0)

tastes like chicken

Breakfast: I was running really late so I had a granola bar (stolen from camp last weekend) and a pear (from Heather but currently in the process of going bad). ($0)
Lunch: At Dr. Graham's again. He made soup but gave the spicy disclaimer so I was able to excuse myself and have the leftover pinwheel things from yesterday. ($0)
Dinner: Oh. my. i. am. my. mother.  Bible study was deli theme so I said I would bring pesto mayo (to use up some of my basil plant) and chicken salad because I thought I had all the ingredients I wanted to use.  Last night, in an act of organization, I actually defrosted a ziplock baggie of chicken so today I'd be ready to go.  Unfortunately when I pulled it out of the bag it didn't look like any piece of chicken I'd ever seen.  Maybe pork? The other white meat.  I still boiled it to see if it cooked like chicken, it didn't. Then I Googled "pork salad sandwiches." After some internal debate I realized I shouldn't bring mystery meat to a social function. I mean what if anyone asked what it was and my only answer was that I don't know.  Fortunately I did have some cooked chicken in the freezer that was easy to defrost and turn into salad. I was going to use Crasins, I don't have any, and used apples instead. I was going to use peanut, I don't have any, and used sunflower seeds instead.  I was going to use celery, I don't have any, and used bell pepper instead.  Then, for good measure, I added some "seasoning."  End result...rave reviews on my delicious chicken salad.  Next time...meat salad. ($0) 

just like the restaurants

Breakfast: Peanut butter Puffins ($0)
Lunch: I had a work meeting so Dr. Graham fed me over a lovely conversation on mer-people getting beached with whales becasue of sonar. ($0)
Dinner: I decided to be classy like Della Fattoria and call this creation Piadina.  In reality I found some flat bread in the fridge from a few months back, melted some cheese on it (in the microwave), chopped up some tomatoes on it, and folded it in half. ($0)

off the mountain top

Breakfast: Peanut Butter Puffins! I legitimized opening this box because I need to finish the non-frozen portion of my milk before it goes bad. ($0)
Lunch: Yesterday was the last day of camp and I got a few meals out of it, some I still had parts of in my fridge so I finished up a Chick-fil-a wrap, some veggies, and some veggie straws. ($0)
Dinner: I met with this girl for frozen yogurt dinner.  The fro yo place I like is having specials all week so today it was extra cheap. ($4.91) for both of us.

cold oatmeal and school events

Breakfast: I have reverted back to the days when 8am is way to early to function.  But I had to be up Skypeing with my boss so I made myself some oatmeal with an apple chopped up in it.  It had some potential but I was impatient and didn't wait for the kettle to whistle. Yeah, it wasn't done. ($0)
Snacks: I was working at a booth for club days from 10-2, the booth next to ours had goldfish so I may have snagged some of those. They also had pizza for workers and I got to it just in time. ($0)
Lunch:  It was free chicken nugget day at Chick-fil-a, you still had to buy a drink and side but the lovely Kelly Bishop mailed me a gift card a while back.  They offer fruit cups as a side so it wasn't terrible. Evidently tomorrow is free fry with no purchase but it's like 20 minutes from my house so not really worth it. ($0)
Dinner: We had this big happy hour kick off, and by big I mean a lot of publicity not a lot of people.  But I'm OK with that.  There were like 25 and that is perfect number for me to schmooze.  Our club bought food and I got drunk off of an open bar of club soda.  ($0)

Tomorrow I'm going to camp with my church, they'll feed me. 

mexican

Breakfast: Goodbye pancakes. ($0)
Lunch: Lani took me to Garcia's for some brisket tacos, it was the most Mexican food I've had here in New Mexico. ($0)
Dinner: Watermelon and my quiche substitute. ($0)

Tuesday

Breakfast: Pancakes, I figured I should finish up that batter before it ferments. ($0)
Lunch: Some more of my quiche-ish stuff and tomatoes. ($0)
Dinner: At class, granola bar and nectarine. ($0)
Dinner: At home, bowl of granola. ($0)

Quiche?

Breakfast: I, as always, have plenty of leftovers from yesterday's church potluck. I brought a Bisquick thing and I'm going to pretend it's quiche becasue then I can eat it for breakfast with watermelon. ($0)
Lunch: Orzo salad and grilled cheese sandwich. ($0)
Dinner: At like 10pm after my late class, a bowl of granola, welcome back milk. ($0)

another perk of christianinty

Breakfast:  Last night Heather gave me a to go container of baked oatmeal. ($0)
Lunch: Church potluck, I made a Bisquick recipe with chicken and cheese from the taco bar and the milk I bought. ($0)
Dinner: Youth group. I usually bring something but got permission to slack. ($0)

Week's total: $15.88

meeting food

Breakfast: Pancakes ($0)
Brunch: I had this meeting from 9-12 and there were quesadillas and bruschetta which was little weird for the timeframe. ($0)
Dinner: Orzo salad and watermelon. ($0)
Snacks: I went to Heather's, she always have exciting food.

shoppping

Breakfast: More pancakes ($0)
Lunch: Orzo salad ($0)
Walmart: I needed some milk and a popsicle and sugar.  I thought I saved the receipt but now I can't find it. ($8.50)
Dinner: Grilled cheese sandwich with the bread from last night. ($0)

stigma

Breakfast: I had some pancake mix someone gave me a few months back and then, in honor of my dad, I added some apple that I was given yesterday (I cut out the worm).  One batch of batter is a ton so I'll be eating pancakes for awhile. ($0)
Snack: My friend Sara just started college so I wanted to take her to coffee. You know how King David says he won't offer anything that didn't cost him? I have to remind myself that sometimes. ($7.38)
Lunch: I made up some baked burritos utilizing only ingredients from last week's taco bar surplus. ($0)
Dinner: Community group dinner.  It was Italian theme and I made an apple crisp, becasue I had apples and everything else needded and they probably eat apples in Italy, right?  I brought home a loaf of bread, a bunch of pasta, and a good amount of watermelon.  So yes, I think I'm stigmatized as that person.  You know who I'm talking about. Usually it's someone homeless, or at least a guy.  ($0)

dig in deep

Breakfast: I was looking for a surprise in the fridge this morning and I found one!  Some plain Greek yogurt from a ways back.  Yippee, I haven't bought milk for awhile so my cereal has been neglected but today I got to pull out the granola.  ($0)
Lunch: Ritz crackers and a few mouthfuls of orzo salad. ($0)
Snack: A grossly sweet coffee drink.  There was some buy 3 get one free summer promotion going on at one of the local coffee shops, I bought my 3 so today I got my free one.  I had to wait for the ice to melt to make it drinkable. ($0)
Dinner: Orzo salad ($0)

raquel surprise

Breakfast: Egg, beans and cheese with a sopapilla. ($0)
Lunch: Orzo salad and cherries. ($0)
Dinner: I was on campus from 3:30-9:30 and had a granola bar, I was almost dead by the end so I need to reevaluate. ($0)
Dinner 2: When I got home Raquel had made another one of her mystery casseroles.  She would get along well with my mother.  There was nothing close to a recipe followed but it was still pretty good. Especially the cheese melted on top. ($0)

Thank you Jenn

Breakfast: Egg and tomato with a sopapilla (leftover from yesterday's lunch) ($0)
Lunch: My lovely friend Chelsea works really close to my house so we finally met for lunch yesterday.  She suggested Subway and I was quite excited that I had a gift card from there--thank you Jenn! I ate half a veggie sandwich. ($0)
Dinner: The rest of that veggie sandwich, warning: Subway's bread doesn't hold up well being stored in in a purse. ($0)

Summer Splurge

Breakfast: Whenever I go home my mom loads my luggage with whatever granola bar type products they have expiring in their pantry.  I had something from that stash, I don't know really what it was. ($0)
Lunch: My New Mexican grandparents took me to their favorite New Mexican restaurant  - Fiesta. I actually think is the most Mexican New Mexican food I've had here.  Like they serve genuine refried beans. ($0)
Dinner: Lunch was huge so Heather and I walked to get fro yo. I wonder what % of my spending is on frozen yogurt.  ($3.26)

And since it's the end of summer I decided I should tally up my spending, maybe I shouldn't have it was $256. For 2.5 months so $100 a month and some of that was free vacation time.  So then I start to over think this spending thing and have to remind myself that much of this was spent on "memory making" and I have 5 jobs so I don't actually have to live like I'm homeless.  Do you like how much time I've spent justifying this?

Until May I had spent $316.59, so I'm at $572.59 for the year.

Slow Saturday

Breakfast: I keep hearing about this Rebel Donut place in town so Heather and I tried it out. Really I think donuts should be preceded by a pre-breakfast (preferably with protein) but I was too lazy.  It was quite delish and Heather paid. ($0)
Snack: I ran errands and ended up buying a Snapple at the Dollar Tree. ($.50)
Linner: I had a 4 o'clock meal of leftover taco bar. ($0)

asian infusion

Breakfast: Instant oatmeal ($0)
Snack: Ginger snap crumbs ($0)
Lunch: Fried rice, except it wasn't rice or really fried.  I decided to "spice up" my orzo pasta salad by putting it in a skillet with an egg. It wasn't bad, or particularly good, next time I'll probably save a dish and just use the microwave if I want warm orzo salad. ($0)
Dinner: With a lunch like that who really needs dinner. ($0)

success

Breakfast: I made this beautiful omelet for breakfast this morning, I don't know how to make an omelet close so it was "open-faced."  Eggs, cheese, my first homegrown bell-pepper, and a tomato.  A colorful meal is a healthy meal! I really just wanted peanut butter Puffins, but I don't have milk. ($0)

Lunch: Breakfast was pretty late so I had cherries and some snacks I stashed in my purse on Monday's flight. Thank you Southwest! ($0)
Dinner:  As VP of the Association of Graduate Business Students I got to co-host new student orientation. We were hoping everyone would come to the after dinner so we ordered food for 80.  That didn't happen.  What did happen was a lot of leftovers. So I brought home these tinfoil packs of taco fixings. Tortillas, 2lbs of chicken, fajita veggies, cheese, beans and rice.  I almost brought tupperware but didn't and was kicking myself.  ($0)