A bit late to the game on this one, but when I realized how much f-ing money I spent on grabbing dinner out during tax season when I was too exhausted to cook for myself (and that's with lunch being bought for us every day at the office, so that part was free!), I'm feeling fat and stupid and poor and there is plenty of food in my freezer to eat. So I'm going to eat it.
I made spaghetti the other night with turkey sausage that I had bought, then froze, because I was too freaking lazy to even brown some meat and toss in a can of tomatoes. Ate that for a couple of meals, then froze the rest of the sauce. Yeah, not supposed to freeze meat twice - don't even care. I pulled a container of mystery soup (it appears to have okra and corn in it, so we'll see) out to thaw for tomorrow. I know there are a couple of freezer bag meals in there that are probably a lost cause - did one of those once-a-month cooking days at least a year ago and didn't take full advantage of it. Maybe I'll try that again sometime (probably not).
I cleaned out my fridge tonight and there were rotten peppers, leftover soup that was growing mold, and leftover chicken that was too far gone to even feed to the dog. There were a couple bags of lettuce that were about to go bad (it seems like ALL my lettuce goes bad before I motivate myself to make a salad) so I made a giant salad with the non-rotten peppers and carrots and I WILL finish eating it before it wilts, dammit! I waste a ton of food from being too lazy to cook it, and spend too much money on takeout that's not even that good. Must. Stop. Now.
I haven't set an official food budget yet, but that's the main drain on my funds that gives zero return to me. I'm going to Chicago next weekend for a quick vacation and I know that's not MMM when you're still paying off debt, but the trip is mostly paid for already and is something of a last hurrah before getting even more to the grindstone. I'd like to spend no money on food at all between now and then. Yeah, a whole week - lol - but hey, it's a start.