Layers of flavor : part 1 (the intro... or appetizer, if you will)

#21 on my list IN A PERFECT WORLD---->
"budget our groceries down to $4k a year"

As I mentioned back in early July, one of my main goals is to budget our groceries down to 4k a year or less. So far, so good. Since then, through some serious planning, I've gotten us down to about 5k a year (about $95 a week) from 6k a year (about $115 a week). I honestly don't know if we'll make it to our original goal in our current circumstance. It would require growing much of our own food, which right now, I can't see myself doing freely and successfully.

We rent an apartment where we have a small concrete porch area in a shared yard with the 6 other tenants on the property. For some, this would be a totally viable place to garden and grow their own food, for us... it's not something we can really do comfortably until we own property. I guess if I really wanted to, I could pot some herbs, hang up one of those tomato windsock looking planters, and have a fine time with it, but it's just not me. Also, I don't spend ridiculous amounts of money on herbs or tomatoes anyway. When I finally have a garden, I want it to be laid out well, plants co-existing with each-other, spurring one another on... plenty of room to work. And I want chickens, which is not an option here. I want all or nothing, and until I can do all, I'm more comfortable with nothing. Call me crazy.

So I'm figuring out ways to spend less money with our current resources. It's been complicated, probably less so than I'm making it, but I'm a planner by nature: I like to organize and chart and make lists. I was quite inspired by Tara over at The Organic Sister and her approach to meal-planning. Her goal was to make only one trip to the regular grocery store each month. My goal is a little different, but I decided to go about it fairly similarly. I've decided to make this a series of posts (instead of just one giant entry) simply because there were so many steps to this process for me.

In the next week or so I'll go into more detail about:

• the components and structure of our meals
• keeping well stocked non-perishables
• bento essentials for Seth
• snack essentials for Silas
  
• catering to three very different palates
• our favorite meals
  
• the 5-week rotating menu
• how this saves us money
• my penchant for short-cut side dishes
  

Layers of Flavor:

Part 2 - (breakfast, snacks and lunches)
Part 3 - (dinner construction zone)
Part 4 - (sometimes easy is... easier)
Part 5 - (the run-down)