An unplanned dinner -- I never quite recovered from a busy weekend.  We ate pasta with a jar of sauce and spruced up some leftover salad.

In terms of cheapness, I obviously do a lot to keep our costs down and have been pretty effective.  But things just keep on creeping up; in particular my monthly food budget is never in line with what I hope it will be, even though we've been eating out of our storage since February to try to use it up and make some space since my husband was feeling restless job-wise.  You'd think we'd be below budget, but we're still over a little.  Is it really that expensive nowadays?  I guess $600 for a family of six every month on the East Coast is way unrealistic.  Any comparisons?  It just seems a shame to be "eating" money instead of paying off more student loans and underwater mortgages if I can...