Every so often I find something that totally helps me stay in budget...and something that totally doesn't. A recurring series on this blog will be a highlight of a "budget maker" and a "budget breaker".
This week's budget breaker is a 4 lb. bag of oranges I bought at Safeway when they were on sale for $1.88. What a deal! I thought. Trying to buy fruit that's in season (and usually the least expensive) I snapped up the 4 lb. bag and brought it home, thinking it would fill in the holes in our fresh fruit basket as summer is turning into fall. I quickly realized the problem with buying a large bag of oranges: it is very hard to tell what kind of quality you are getting. Because you can't hand-pick each orange, you are stuck with the luck of the draw...and some rather untasty fruit.
Since they really aren't good enough to eat, I've been using recipes that call for orange juice (which is pretty good) or orange zest. Yesterday I made this chicken recipe (which was so good!).
(Grilled Chicken Legs with Orange and Rosemary from Real Simple)
On the other hand, this week's budget maker was a surprise to me. Safeway had boneless pork loin chops on sale a little while ago for $1.99/lb. The package was 3lbs. and had 6 chops in it. (This is not the package with the thinly sliced chops. These were pretty meaty.) I put three chops in a freezer bag for later and cooked three chops using this recipe. (Again, so good!)
Sunday night's dinner was the pork chops. I cut each one in half, so we had six good sized chops. Husband and I each had one. Monday night we had leftovers, again, each eating about one chop each. Tuesday night I made what we call "sanchos" in our family, but are basically soft tacos, cutting up a chop for the meat. Husband took a sancho to work for lunch the next day. Later in the week, I made a breakfast hash with one of the chops, potatoes, and eggs with a side of roasted cherry tomatoes. Friday night I made pork fried rice with the rest.
I was amazed that those three large pork chops were able to last as long as they did! It was so great! They definitely made our budget!
It's time for you to share: What are some of your budget makers/breakers?
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