The Power of Excel

I must say, my garlic cheese pull bread that I made as an appetizer for my Super Bowl party was a hit! Not only was it delicious, but it also only took 10 minutes to prepare and only cost me $10.70. This brings me to the challenge I encountered when making this dish – calculating the actual cost versus the total cost of all ingredients.

As I started to explain in my last post, I initial added up the price of all the ingredients used, until I realized I didn't use all of those and was able to incorporate them into other meals. Thus, in order to record what I am spending on each meal more accurately, I decided to document all the information in an excel spreadsheet.

Screenshot, February 10/17

This consisted of entering in the food item, its cost at whole, the amount I used for that specific meal, and the estimated price of that portion. Of course, these are estimates, so they are not as accurate as I’d like them to be especially for spices and sauces (which I use so often, and such a little amount). But at least it will allow me to gain a rough insight into what I am spending on each meal, so I will be better equip to compare them to others. Afterwards, I was able to add up the total amount spent on that meal, based on these averages/portions. As you can see, this is more accurate than the total price of the items, which was significantly more expensive (approx. $19.00).

Photographed February 7/17

For this week’s gluten-free meal, I wanted to create a stir-fry with some sort of noodle base. Up until this point, I had only cooked stir-fry with rice and vegetables, but I miss the good, authentic, stir-fry I used to make with udon noodles. After some research, I was able to gluten-free vermicelli rice noodles, which were surprisingly very cheap ($1.40 for the package). Another essential ingredient I needed was gluten-free soya sauce. I was shocked to find out that HP’s soya sauce is gluten-free, since it’s such a popular brand. The teriyaki sauce in this collection is also gluten-free! Other than these ingredients, the rest of the materials were originally gluten-free, and varied based on what I had around the house (i.e., what fresh vegetables I had available).

Screenshot, February 10/17

To keep track of these ingredients and expenses, I used the excel spreadsheet I discussed earlier. I also discovered another way to save MONEY and TIME – I went to Costco and purchased a whole, rotisserie chicken, which only cost $5.00. Since this 3-pound chicken comes fully cooked, all you need to do is cut it up and add it to meals as needed. In this case, I added it to my stir-fry, and then had it for lunch (on a sandwich) and dinner the next day (with salad and potato). I got 3 whole meals out of this ONE chicken that only cost $5.00. It also saved me time, because I didn't have to cook it. I was also able to make two meals out of this (one for leftovers the next day) which allowed me to more time and have lunch on the go!