After last weekend being so stressful with the furnace and plumbing problems it was nice to have an easy one for a change. I had a wedding on Saturday night which was a total blast and today was spent running some errands with a rare lunch date with my husband. Now my husband's cousin is visiting and we'll have a fun low key night of board games and frozen pizzas. So, what did we eat this week?
Sunday : Frozen pizza, cake and ice cream. We had no running water this day so we splurged at the grocery store on a real fancy Valentine's day dinner. ;)
Monday : I made a big salad (water still wasn't right, pressure was very low) and cooked a New York Strip steak for my husband. He was supposed to have it for Valentine's Day but with no water I really didn't feel like making any dishes.
Tuesday : Leftover salad with a frittata made with our own eggs, gardein sausage patties from the freezer, discount broccoli, onions and a sprinkle of cheese. Plus, our water got fixed and was finally back to normal, hooray!
Wednesday : Pasta with marinara sauce and gardein meatless meatballs from the freezer.
Thursday : Chickpeas, diced potatoes, and green beans in a store bought pineapple coconut curry sauce.
Friday : Leftover Minestrone soup from last week with a take and bake loaf of bread from the discount bin. I've never made that before and it was pretty good. It tasted a lot like the bread you get as an appetizer at some restaurants.
Saturday : I had dinner at the wedding and I threw beef stew together in the slow cooker for my husband. It made a huge amount so he'll be able to take it for lunch a few days this week.
I spent $8.75 at Wal-Mart, $4.17 at Big Lots, $8.98 at BJs Wholesale Club, and $50.98 at the grocery store. So my total spending was TOTALLY over budget at $72.88!!! The whole water fiasco had a lot to do with it because I bought some convenience foods so we wouldn't have to make dishes. I've also been hitting up the clearance rack for way too many baked goods lately. It's time to reign in it because it's getting ridiculous and we don't need any more junk in the house.
About the whole water issue; we had super cold temps last Saturday into Sunday which froze our filter solid. Even after thawing and putting a brand new filter in we didn't have running water. We have a friend of my husband's we usually call for plumbing issues but he was quite busy with the weather. We called another nearby plumber and he screwed us, BIG TIME. Didn't fix our problem, charged us an obscene amount at $930 dollars (still our water wasn't right). He showed up unannounced the next morning asking how it was going and saying it was likely he would have to replace our well pump (he had already checked it when here the day before and told us it was fine). We've had well pump issues in the past but I was skeptical. My husband got a hold of his friend, told him our issues, and he said he was almost positive what the problem was and came over the next morning and was here 5 minutes and it was fixed. There was a ball of teflon tape stuck in our filter housing...which to me was a bit suspicious. I ended up putting a stop payment on our check to the plumber and my husband called the plumber and said no way no how are we paying you. At first he seemed reluctant but after my husband mentioned the actual problem being the ball of tape he seemed quite okay since "they didn't fix our problem we shouldn't have to pay". The whole situation was fishy to all we talked to about it and we learned the lesson that you should always deal with who you know, even if you'll have to wait a few days. Our bill went from a whopping $930 to a $20 stop payment fee and $40 to my husband's friend (he asked for $20 but I gave him $40 for just being so great). We dodged a bullet there, thankfully, and we are so very glad. I just can't believe there are such dishonest people out there!
Anywho, with our water being fine again I hope that this week our grocery shopping will be much lower without having to buy convenience foods. I'm also planning to stay away from stores as much as possible because you can't buy if you're not in a store!! What causes your grocery spending to inflate?
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