getting cultured

I did great last week with my budget and even came in under my 1/2 previous budget budget-wow! This week I'm worried, I had to get gas. It has usually cost about $70 to fill up my car (it is huge and has a taste for premium gas--gulp) I decided that I wasn't going on any road trips and since my budget is by the week, I wasn't going to fill up, so I put in $40 and it got me about 10 gallons (argh). Next on the list was groceries for the week.
I had to forage in the freezer, but I found some seitan (wheat meat sub), shrimps, "meat"balls and fish sticks. I decided to plan around these items to save money, so here are the menus I came up with for the week: Fish stick tacos, seitan lo mein (this is so tasty!), lemony lentil spinach stew, sneaky broccoli soup, veggie pancakes, stir fried shrimp with cabbage, red peppers and black beans, and the standbys of spaghetti (how have I been neglecting this family fave for so long??) and chili fries (or tots). I also wanted veggie dogs for mom's day, so that was on the list too. I decided that Wal-mart was too far away to drive to actually save me any money, so I opted for Fred Meyer (which is my new favorite place because they have FREE playland for the kiddos-woohoo!). I was a little nervous because Freddy's prices are quite a bit higher than Wal-Mart, but lower than Wild-Oats, which, along with Trader Joes are the usual places I get my groceries. I get a little frustrated sometimes because we have a special diet and I can't find all of the foods we eat at one place, so I have to go to 3 different places (and order from the co-op, this also got cut this month-boo) to get everything we need. Today at Fred Meyers, they actually had most of the specialty items that we frequently use, so I felt renewed hope. I had a few items on the list that were budget breakers--these are the things that make me uneasy, I could totally do this budget thing if it weren't for the incidentals: medicine, laundry stuff, car maintenance, hygene items etc...you know, stuff you need, but it costs a bundle, and I was fearing it would do me in--I want to win every week, I'm a little freakish about losing (don't tell). Long story short--I ROCK!! My total today for food and stuff was $66.65, and this included organic produce, eco friendly fabric softener, soy ice cream and cough medicine for the baby-I even impressed myself. One new thing we're trying is making our own soy yougurt--the kids love it and it's a healthy snack--although kind of a deal breaker at $1 a pop. I found a recipe on a website I just found (last week) http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/ I got vanilla ingredients and we're going to try home made vanilla soy yogurt--I'll let you know if it turns out. I have tried yogurt making in the past with less than stellar results, although it was dairy yogurt and the gal says this usually turns out better. (just a note, I poured my un-successful yogurt down the drain last time and when we had the septic pumped they were really impressed with our healthy amount of bacteria, I'm pretty sure it survived the trip and took over our septic system). All in all it was a successful trip, I was less than impressed with the produce section though, the prices were high and the quality was not. This is my favorite part of the store, so I was disappointed, but I got over it since I got to browse by myself--the kid care thing has me hooked. They also have a pretty good health food section that includes bulk bins-you can hardly find bulk bins anymore-and I love them. If a store stocks vital wheat gluten and nutritional yeast-I am all over it, so Fred, you passed, and you even set the curve--Wal-Mart, not sure I'll be back........until next time