The past few weeks have been very busy and stressful at work, so I am glad it’s the weekend. My company’s holiday party was this evening. I met up with two friends and their husbands. We had a nice time and the buffet dinner and beer/wine bar were delicious (and free!). I came home with some yummy desserts to enjoy later.

Like CCF, I’ve been avoiding stores recently! In my case, food stores are my downfall. I find it very easy to buy food – it’s comforting, familiar and fun for me. But I end up wasting a lot of food and money. So, I’ve been staying out of my favorite food stores and eating what I have on hand. But, I was running out of fresh veggies, so I went shopping last night after work at the local health food store.

I bought salad ingredients for this week’s lunches. My small department will go out for a holiday lunch on Thursday, so I will only need four salads total. I was out of dressing and my favorite was on sale, so I got a bottle. I will probably buy a few more before the sale ends. I also bought some cumin, chili powder and thyme in the bulk spice area.

A few weeks ago, I bought some organic red grapes at my local health food store and they were terrible – very strange tasting and bitter. I finally remembered to talk one of the produce people last evening and she suggested that I take two bags for free to make up for the inconvenience. I knew that I couldn’t use that many grapes, so I asked if I could take one bag of grapes and something else. I ended up with four organic red pears and two organic kiwis. That’s a lot of free fruit! Well, a lot of fruit for $4.79 which is what the original grapes cost. I also took two free clementines from a plate of fruit that was left in the lobby area of my office yesterday.

I also finally remembered to return some shampoo and conditioner that I bought on sale a few months ago. I didn’t like them at all! Thankfully, I had the receipt and was credited $10.68 toward my grocery bill. Yay!

I had a rain check from September for organic olive oil for $9.99, so I got two bottles since I’m almost out of olive oil. I checked to make sure there wasn’t a better sale before using it. I learned that the rainchecks for this store never expire. Unfortunately, I recycled a small pile that I found in my office recently because I figured that they were too old to use.

I purchased four cans of food – kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas and corn, all organic, for a food drive at tonight’s party. There were a lot of donations which will help the local food shelf.

There was a local brewer serving samples of his beer, so I tasted four different varieties.

After I finished shopping at the small health food store, I went to the larger grocery store to get local butter, which I thought would be on sale. It wasn’t, so I returned to the first store and bought one stick of organic butter for an apple crisp that I want to make. I found two dollars on the floor in front of the register – yay! Then I found a penny as I was leaving the store. This morning I scrounged up .49 to add to the found $2.01 to pay for my $2.50 trash disposal fee.

Grocery purchases (all produce and olive oil is organic):

2.99 lettuce
2.47 half a head of local red cabbage
0.64 baby bok choy
1.50 local spinach
0.48 one local carrot
2.00 broccoli

free red grapes
free two kiwis
free four red pears

3.75 raisins
0.62 bulk spices

19.98 two bottles olive oil
2.69 salad dressing

6.16 four cans for food drive

2.99 favorite Belgian butter (only available once a year and was told they were sold out last time I was there. Saw one package last evening, so I snagged it – so delicious!)
1.50 stick of butter

(10.68) returns

37.09 TOTAL

After shopping, I went home, heated up some free frozen flatbread-style pizza from a work event last week and steamed the last of my cauliflower and broccoli from the last time I went shopping. I also had some leftover popcorn and a chocolate cookie that I saved from a holiday stroll the night before. The town where I work hosted a holiday evening on Thursday. Stores were open until 8 and many offered special deals and served snacks and drinks. I, of course, wandered around for the snacks and drinks. 

This morning I prepared a crispy fried egg served over oats with steamed broccoli and carrots for brunch, had some popcorn for an afternoon snack and then enjoyed a big dinner at the holiday party.



I’ve been eating homemade applesauce that I got from a friend last week and free cider left over from a recent work event. I think I’ve figured out how to keep cider from fermenting so quickly – keep the lid off in the fridge – seems to have worked this time.

I have been successful at packing lunches for work most of this year! This really helps me to save money and maintain my weight. I hope to continue this trend. It helps if I prep food in advance each week, but that doesn’t always happen.

Tomorrow, I’ll make the salads for work and perhaps a small pot of pea soup with ingredients I already have on hand. I’ll cook a grain (maybe sorghum?) and maybe make an apple crisp with some of local apples that I have in my fridge (free from a few work events and a friend’s tree). I did just have to get rid of about six spoiled apples that I never got around to using. I’ll also hard boil some eggs and wash and chop broccoli and carrots so that they are ready to go when I need them. That should take care of food for the week.