Eating through my food stocks!

I have a food budget of about $40 per week in my spreadsheet. I have spent about $28 in the last two weeks.....that's total for the two weeks, and about $10.00 of that was to buy a 15 pound bag of rice! (so that will be lasting a lot longer for sure)

How can this be....and I starving?

Hardly...I have been eating like a horse. I simply decided that with one person in the house, there was no need for all the food we had squirreled away in the house.

So I have taken to making different soups, or other concoctions from the various canned and frozen foods. I haven't even dipped into the real basic things yet...and I actually have quite a few pickled things I have not even moved upstairs.

Ok...so the variety will soon begin to go away, and I'm about out of meat....so I know I'm going to be hitting the store sooner than later....but still, even so, I should be able to get away with just buying the things I need to "augment" the various staples I still have lining the shelves.

I guess I'm just a cheap guy at heart....but I'm still a cheap guy who likes to eat!

Hmmm....this guy got me thinking.....

I was looking at the finance bloggers for a bit this afternoon and I came across this guys post and it seemed pretty interesting to me.

It seemed interesting for several reasons. First, I am a cheapskate, and I actually enjoy saving money. I like being cleaver about things and cutting corners.

I also liked his thinking because I too have been trying to cut expenses....so I have been creating spreadsheet budgets and cuting back on things like cable TV and cell phones. (and food purchases and other things)

I also took to cooking more myself in an attempt to save money. I found that buying certain things that do not spoil in larger bulk and then using them as the center of a larger dish makes things cheaper. I just have to make sure I freeze or otherwise aportion out the resuting food properly or the spoilage costs will quickly outweigh the savings.

I have purchased things like dried beans in sizable bulk, as well as rice, nuts and even squash. (Which keeps well in the basement)

I have been making soups and all kinds of squash concoctions....it is surprising what a few onions, butter, a bit of olice oil, some garlic a bit if cheese and spices will do for just those basic ingredience.

Oh, and the other thing is that I am quite lucky to love eating about anything....so I'm easy to please.

Oh, and here are some sites that I might check out further to get myself started:

• Hillbilly Housewife
• Frugal Kitchen Site
• Here is a Frugal Cookbook from NewfoundlandLow-cost cooking with Sardines! (I love sardines, and have a few cans at home!)
• Retro Randy's Journal of Joy (low Cost Cooking Page)
• Miserly Mom Recipe Page #1 and Page #2

There may be some BLOG posts coming this way from me on this sort of thing.....we will see.