rant...

[rachelMcK]

Sometimes I wish DH could be more like me. Especially when it comes to food. I'm the type of person who can eat the same thing everyday. If there isn't leftovers from dinner, I usually eat PB sandwiches and apples for lunch...everyday. Dh needs a variety. But I get frustrated with it because this "variety" is usually what costs us. He wants different types of snacks for his lunch and when he gets home (I usually work in til the wee hours of the morning so he is on his own). Because if it were up to me, I'd have spaghetti (sauce of tomatoes, beef, green peppers, onions, mushrooms) and whole wheat toast everyday for dinner, pb and apples for lunch and yogurt and an orange for breakfast, thats it. He usually wants chicken one day, steak the next, fish the next etc. I've cut back so much already. We dont have cable, we're thinking about cutting back our internet, (dh wont give up his gym membership, which is ok because he goes to the college and gets my alumni discount so its cheap), we owe so much of our paycheck towards minimum payments and now we owe almost $1000 for dental visits (thats with the 80% coverage from his insurance). I'm just so frustrated that we try so hard and it keeps going down hill....sorry about the rant.

Is anyone else like me? Are some of you able to eat the same thing everyday?

[mommy4ever]

Yes I totally get what you're saying.

Dh doesn't get a choice. He gets what I cook, or he makes himself a sandwich. But he spends like crazy. Since Friday he's had $180 cash, he's down to $15.

THEN he wonders why things aren't being paid off as fast as he'd like.

I do like variety, but for money sense, i'm content with the same things rotated every 2or 3 days. Changes it up.

[Dancing Lotus]

I eat the same thing for breakfast everyday for about two weeks and then I switch to something else.

For two weeks I have eaten oatmeal everyday. That ran out today so now I will eat yogurt with grapenuts mixed in it. I will do that untill I run out of grapenuts. It doesnt bother me at all and it really helps control both my calories and my money. Dh is the same way. It's my kids that want something different all the time.

[ironmaiden]

Use your freezer. Bake multiple kinds of cookies and brownies and cupcakes. Then throw them in the freezer in separate baggies. Then bring them into the fridge one or two at a time. This way you "rotate" what he's eating.

Same for leftovers. Freeze them into dinners and then they reappear next week. Do an internet search on OAMC (Once a month cooking). You spend one very long day cooking and portion everything into servings. You can do mini-sessions.

[mom2matty]

I know exactly what you mean!! The dks and I are pretty simple and easy going with meals........dh loves variety!!

[StaceyS]

ironmaiden - that's a great idea! I'm afraid, though, that if I fill the freezer with treats, he'll eat only that when I'm not there to cook dinner!
My DBF is the same. He won't eat leftovers of homemade things (except my enchiladas), but he'll eat left over hamburger helper. I just don't understand men sometimes! I've even made homemade hamburger helper (that tasted better to me) and he wouldn't eat the left overs. Sometimes I feel like just giving up! That's why we don't live together. We're just not on the same page about certain things that are important to me.

[JustMegan79]

I have to say...I cant eat the same thing everyday. I like to have a ariety also, but in order to be able to swing that monetarily, we shop sales and stock up when we can.

My soon to be husband is a meat eater though, and thats getting costly.(thankfully when we meet up with family we should get some deer meat from the buck he got this Nov.) He has to eat meat with everything and I could truly live without it, so often times he will eat some kind of beef or something and I will just eat the sides. ( I refuse to eat steak, veal, deer, any kind of "hunk" of meat or anything with a bone in it).

I know, I know, Im an oddball. )

[forHISglory]

I'm the one who likes variety, while Hubby would be content with the same thing everyday. When I was working, I used Saturdays to cook a variety of items that we ate during the week. Now that I am retired, I cook about 3 times a week or so, and we just rotate it or re-disguise it! We usually have the same breakfast all the time, tho.

[peanut]

Actually, I side with your husband. Rotating food is good for your health...especially for people prone to developing food allergies and sensitivities. It has to do with your immune system and how histamines are produced in the body.

When I started to rotate my diet, I went through the major protein groups and found the cheapest cuts in each group. That way I could prepare healthy food for a fraction of the normal cost. I also looked at how the food was prepared, to see if I could make it healthier. Like making beef crumbles from regular ground beef, virtually eliminating the fat and yet giving me browned beef for chili, spaghetti, tacos, etc.

I also learned to rotate vegetables, fruits and starches, so I wasn't eating the same family of foods all the time.

I don't know. I guess we could eat a lot cheaper if I only had hot dogs and liver, but my doctor sure wouldn't thank me! Instead I settle for cutting costs by cooking everything from scratch. I don't have the energy for OAMC anymore, so I simply cook double or triple batches and freeze leftovers for DH's lunches.

Our grocery bill, with organic produce, is sitting at $400/mth. for 3 adults. I could get it down to $300 I suppose...we're in western Canada, but that would mean giving up the organic produce for sure.

Jean

[rachelMcK]

I generally don't have enough time to devote a whole day to cooking, and my freezer isn't very large. I think eventually when we got another freezer I may start doing oamc but for now it just wouldn't work. That being said, I am grateful that DH will eat leftovers. He has no problems with that, in fact, he'd rather have leftovers than a sandwich, so that is one good thing about the situation.

[Samigirl]

My husband doesn't like leftovers too much, but he's good about eating them. Sometimes, he'll suggest leftovers if he knows I've had a busy day. One thing I wish he'd eat is soup. I love it, especially in the winter. It's also a cheap meal; a great way to stretch meat. He doesn't like it at all. I guess he wants something more filling. When he's out of town on business, the kids and I will make a big batch of broccoli cheese, or split pea soup and eat it for several days.

[KJayEsq]

I can pretty much eat the same thing day after day too and I NEVER get tired of PB&J or pizza!!

[HisDaisy]

I need variety. I can eat the same things for breakfast and lunch everyday, but I need variety when it comes to dinner. My DH could eat the same dinner everyday and not care as long as it has meat in it. It has to have meat, I could careless. To keep the grocery bill down, I cook with less meat, cheaper cuts of meat, and shop sales. Often, if a recipe calls for 1 pound of ground beef, I use 1/2 pound and had more potatoes, rice, or veggies. He doesn't seem to complain too much, because he knows that the budget is tight.
He also loves leftovers, which is good because I do not. I know too much about food safety and I am scared of them. But I usually have a sandwich or yogurt for lunch.
I do not know what I would do if my DH demanded different food; He eats what I cook. Since I am home fulltime, I do all the cooking.

[redhead68]

I'd eat the same thing everyday...provided it was chocolate!

[karone]

i could eat the same thing with the exception of ramen noodles. b/c of zack only eating that everyday (me cooking it most of the time) i dont really want to even see a package.