Another rock-bottom Shabbos due to the awkward, between-paycheques and bills-to-pay placement of Purim, which I like to think of as the Little Ouch next to its big brother, the Great Big Honking Painful Squeeze of Pesach. (Tuition month, in August / September, is probably somewhere in between on this Pain/Payin’ Scale)).
So what are we eating??? Ted’s been making the menus for a while now because I lost all interest in food planning (a terrible admission for somebody who is technically a full-time homemaker). Here’s what’s on the agenda, almost entirely “salvaged” out of the cupboards and freezer:
DINNER
- Challah (Ted made a grocery run last night and deemed flour an “essential” – smart man!)
- Chicken Soup (bones from freezer) with Kneidlach
- Pickled Brisket
- Pumpkin Kugel (still lots of cheap November 1st pumpkin in the freezer!)
- Corn (eek - do we have corn in the house?!?!!?)
- Roasted red potatoes
- Curried carrots (not sure what this is, but Ted has it written on the list, so it shall be done…)
- Desserts = whatever we want from the shalach manos, PLUS…
- Sugar cookies (sliced from frozen logs, which were crumbly and falling apart)
- Blueberry crumble (too-crumbly cookie dough from logs for a base, pie filling, crumble topping)
- 3-Layer Jello in Bundt-shaped silicone pan (didn’t spray first – I’m hoping it releases nicely)
LUNCH
- Cholent (pareve)
- Kishke (veggies, cornmeal, oil, salt, pepper)
- Tuna salad (left over; a guest brought it to the Purim seudah)
- Blueberry blintz loaf – blintzes from freezer, sour cream store-bought with the last of Ted’s pennies
- Desserts as aforementioned
Hmm… not exactly starving to death, especially compared to times past… and we are very lucky in that it’s only for a few days.
But it is somewhat depressing trying to do various Purim things and birthday things without very many nickels to rub together. Blah.
What do you-all do for Shabbos or Yom Tov… when there isn’t much money to go around?
I feel a bit ridiculous even answering that question, but sometimes there are cash-flow issues and even though we have plenty of money (somewhere, invested) we just don't have ready cash. We're there right now, actually - one more week til payday, which might happen on Friday but might not get deposited til a week Monday. This week's menu plan is all about using up what's in the house. My saving grace is that this weekend is redemption day at Shoppers, and the one up on Dufferin has lots of kosher grocery items, too. I have enough points to get $300 worth of free stuff, so... diapers and milk and kosher cheese, here I come.
ReplyDeleteForgot to say... that menu is pretty impressive for rock-bottom. Seriously, we don't have that many dishes on a normal Shabbat.
ReplyDeleteWow - I never thought of that! Not as impressive as yours, but I do have 9,078 Optimum points... that's $10 worth of lucky "emergency groceries" for us!!!
ReplyDelete(or kiddie bus tickets...)
... and if you have an Air Miles card (the blue one) you can redeem them for a $20 Metro gift certificate. Or you can try to use some Sobey's points.
ReplyDeleteOh, I am SO mad at Airmiles. Went around and around with this last night. They have split their program now - instant cash redemption at checkout or "dream" redemption. You can get the gift cards with "dream" points, which we have a ton of, but these say "usually sent in about 3 weeks." Meanwhile, you can't transfer your "dream" balance, however many groceries it would have bought you, to your "cash" balance. Sure, we could order gift cards... but I'm hungry now. Well, okay, not hungry as SUCH. But wanty, and isn't that the same thing??? :-P
ReplyDeleteYour Shabbat menu is way more impressive than our usual menu! Wow! Wish we had redemption points like that here!
ReplyDelete@Kathleen: Seriously, you don't have any kind of points? Here, every single card has its own bonus: the debit card earns me free movies; the PC Mastercard (if I could ever pay it down and get it working again) earns free groceries; Sobeys, Optimum, Airmiles... oh, I forgot my PetroPoints card - something to do with PetroCanada gas, but we shop at Esso because of the airmiles. That's just in Canada; I also have Kroger, Tops and Safeway cards, but I think those are just straight discount cards, not earning points. :-)))
ReplyDeleteSeriously, even when people have money, they stand and juggle cards in the checkout line trying to figure out either what they can redeem or the fastest way to earn whatever.
OTOH, we have never had food stamps or WIC cheese, which I understand are great things for genuinely low-income families in the US. :-)