Tonight we are staying in sans child (he's gone to Grandma and Grandpas for a sleepover), watching Bones Season 2 and eating Spinach & Artichoke Dip with Taco chips. Yum-o!

Our income was not as much as expected this week so we are slightly poor. this is our version of saving money.

I went to Safeway after work tonight and somehow walked out spending 46.10! 46.10?!? How the heck is that saving money? I'm flabbergasted. What did I buy you ask? Not much...

Beef Jerky - 9.98 (total impulse buy and this is where I went wrong)
Tortilla Chips - 3.09
Pineapple Bits - 4/5.00 (another not-so-wise purchase. i wanted to get 1 can of pineapple chunks so i could make sweet & sour chicken another day...and got sucked into the 4/5 deal...which is not as great as I initially thought)
Artichoke Hearts - 3.52
Cream cheese - 7.38 (I got 2 packages...and I don't think I need to for the recipe, but I didn't want to run short...)
Frozen Spinach - 1.79
Mozzarella - 6.49 (again, this is more cheese then needed for the recipe but the little blocks of cheese were the same price as this big one so I went with the big one)
Parmesan - 4.49 (holy jeebers expensive!)
Frozen Potstickers - 3.99 (these were on clearance...regular 11.99)

For the total of 46.10. I want to divide this up and figure out how much this meal at home is costing...When I add up all the ingredients that will be used in this dish (not factoring in the leftover component of cream cheese and mozzarella) we get 26.76. Divide that by 2 and we get 13.38! Add in the the 3.99 potstickers which I am also going to cook tonight and we get a meal that is 16 dollars each for me and Steve (30.75 total). Steve will probably pick up some beers (but he would have done that regardless) and I might have a rye and coke (which I already have on hand). So even if we add in say 10 bucks for Beer then it is 40 bucks and we're still coming out ahead! Even more ahead because we have the beautiful LEFTOVERS. I love leftovers.

This is WAY cheaper then our usual Friday night fare. Generally when we go out to eat on a Friday or Saturday night we drop 60 bucks minimum. Minimum. Often it is closer to 100 bucks.

I'm feeling better about staying in tonight already now.

Now on to the 15.99 chicken wings. Steve really likes chicken wings so I was going to pick up a box of frozen wings to go along with the artichoke dip but holy crap they were 15.99!!!!! 15.99. So I ditched the idea of the wings and bought the 3.99 potstickers. When did frozen chicken wings become so expensive? I definitely noticed that the price of food seems higher then it used to. I'm also hoping that items were more expensive at Safeway because it's Safeway and more upscale then Superstore where we do 995 of our shopping at.

Now I'm off to make the dip. I hope it tastes marvelous...