Dinner on a Budget

Last April I mentioned that the area we have the biggest difficulty sticking to our budget is our grocery spending. We like buying quality ingredients and we like cooking nice meals, but we also don't want to break the bank in order to allow ourselves those luxuries. So, we allotted a grocery amount that was probably a little lower than we would have liked, and forced ourselves to stick to priorities in the kitchen. We've gotten more comfortable with our budget, though, and have even found ourselves having extra at the end of some months, which we use to stock up on wine and spirits. Other months, however, we're stuck scraping by during the final days and are stuck raiding our pantry (which, all in all, is not a terrible thing) to minimize expenses so we can stay under budget.

This month? Definitely the latter. Here's our dinner from last night:

A half-used box of pasta (tossed with olive oil and some Italian seasoning), a piece of chicken from the freezer (breaded and baked), cauliflower left in the fridge from last week, and a sweet potato. Certainly not extravagant, certainly not gourmet, but you know what? It kept us under budget for the month, and it even ended up being pretty tasty. Don't get me wrong, I'll still always pick Steak au Poivre or Cajun Chicken Pasta over a meal like this, but every once in awhile a hodge-podge meal like this works. Just as long as it's only every once in a while  :-)