The Big Bad Budget - Part II

Well the budgeting seems like it's going well. Since I wrote that post I've been trying to cut corners in groceries every way I can think of. We're buying bulk meat, beans and I'm making everything from scratch, in bulk. Aside from dinners, I've made, so far: cornbread (twice), chocolate chip tea loaf, banana bread, rice pudding (thanks for the recipe Andrea!) and one other thing I can't recall at the moment. Snack foods are pricy. I've attempted to make bread a number of times but have repeatedly failed. We have now concluded that this is likely due to using all-purpose instead of bread flour. I mean, the bread is edible, but certainly far from the dream puff loaves I was making before. Anyway, the running tally is approximately 57 dollars, and it looks like we'll make it until friday on what we've bought with that. Yay! We're not eating badly, either. Breakfast is usually a bagel with egg, or Japanese rice and egg (very good). Lunch is our dinner, since Mike works nights, and we've eaten Colcannon (an irish boiled dinner with cabbage and potatoes), pasta with veggies, risotto with salad, etc. At the moment I'm thawing a turkey which I think I should be able to stretch for at least three more days.

One of my inspirations is the hillbilly housewife, who makes everything from scratch. Her recipes are for the most part, healthy, budget friendly and foundational. I especially like her article on home made convenience foods and so-called apron evangelism For some reason all of this budget friendliness has lead me to a number of baptist wife websites. I'm not quite sure what it is about Christian wives that makes them so handy in the kitchen. I respect what they do, but I'm also kind of proud to be in the minority of secular housewives, who are still trying to eke out a way to stay at home with their babies through drinking reconstituted milk. Yep, we've switched to powdered milk. It's actually not that bad, though it tastes a little different, it's a lot less expensive and almost identical when you bake with it. And I've been baking 'round the clock. 

Hmm, well I'm tired of this blog entry for some reason. So I'm going to end it here.