I didn’t do so great on the challenge this week. In fact, I failed at my personal goals!
Here’s where I shopped and what I spent:
Sunflower Market $18.53
Asian Pacific Market $20.91
Rancho Liborio $21.74
King Soopers $10.44
King Soopers $41.36
Total spent this week: $112.98
Total spent for January 2010: $159.67 (a little under $80/week)
What was bad: I stopped at the grocery store five times. Um, yeah – my goal was one store per week. I also feel like I didn’t really use up much of what was in my pantry, but I also know that I started the month with a not-terribly-full pantry (and diaper stockpile!), so I’m OK with this.
The King Soopers trip for $10.44 was a “meal of desparation” – I bought an 8-piece dark meat fried chicken, a box of Rice a Roni, and a loaf of sourdough bread (plus a couple of other things) because I was too tired to cook. Hey, at least I didn’t go by Taco Bell!
What was good: we ate some really good food this week, with a good amount and big variety of fruits and veggies. I’ve tried several new recipes, and we’ve eaten broccoli, romaine lettuce, zucchini, bok choy, bean sprouts, snow peas, pears, apples, scallions, bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, plus some homemade salsa. I feel like we’ve done really well at a healthy diet this week, but I probably could have cut the cost by planning a little better.
OK. Let’s keep it real. It was healthy except for the hotdogs and macaroni and cheese we had for a couple of lunches. I can’t cook a gourmet Asian or Mexican dinner for two meals a day!
Looking ahead: I have a roast, whole chicken, and some chicken breasts in the frig, plus more meat in the freezer. I have zucchini, apples, pears, bok choy, jalapenos, and homemade salsa, plus frozen veggies. We’ll see how long that will last. I’m not sure I’ll be able to hit my $40 per week (average) goal, but we’ll see!
Head on over to Money Saving Mom and Life As Mom to see how everyone else is doing!
$1.25 for Lucerne (half gallon) at Safeway, Fri-Sun Only
You need to get on this map! http://thefrugalmap.bargainbriana.com/
Thanks, Lauren! I submitted this site just as SOON as I heard about it this AM! Thanks for thinking of me!
Awesome! I keep on talking to my family in IL about springsbargains.com, but it’s pretty irrelevant to them for the most part. I’m so glad to be able to give them a couple of blogs to look at. Who knows, maybe they’ll start couponing too!
I did not have a great week either budget wise; I stocked up on paper towels and toilet paper and realised we were out of dishwaher detergent only when we were completely out. We ate out of the pantry/freezer for the most part and (even more importantly) my husband and I continued to try to limit ourselves to smaller portion sizes so the food is going much farther.
Breakfasts:
Oatmeal
Total
English muffins
Lunches:
Tortilla Pizzas (for the 6 year old)
Ham sandwiches
Pears, baby carrots, strawberries
Dinners:
Hamburgers, homemade buns, sweet potato fries & salad
Vegetable Beef soup & homemade cheesy bread (2 meals)
Roast Turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberries, corn
We also ate out 3 times to celebrate 3 birthdays in our extended family this week. The turkey should last for 2 more meals this week.
I am starting to have doubts about my ability to average out to $40 a week too. I am now completely out of frozen vegetables and dried pasta. This week I am going to try to limit my purchases to veggies, milk and juice (and maybe one box of pasta :).
I went a bit over this week as well….which seems pretty common. :) You can check out my update at:
http://mybrazilianlife-michele.blogspot.com/2010/01/eat-from-pantry-challenge-week-3.html
You’re doing great…..just one more week to go!
I’ve spent a little over $45 for the month so far, but we have a lot on hand because we garden and can/freeze a lot of stuff. I posted my menu for the upcoming week here:
http://tenthingsfarm.blogspot.com/2010/01/menu-plan-monday-mama-has-cold-edition.html
We each have to work with our own situation, and no one should feel like they can’t or shouldn’t do what they need to do! :)
Thanks for sharing even your “weaker” moments! It helps us all to relax and realize it’s okay if we’re just too tired or overwhelmed to do it all perfectly! Life happens! I never want couponing and budgeting to get in the way of relationships (esp. with family!) and when I’m tired and grumpy, no one’s happy!
Here’s a soup that you may already have all the ingredients for in your pantry/freezer. It’s Fast and Hearty Hamburger soup. I didn’t have itallian style tomatoes so I just added some italian herbs. It was good.
http://recipes.delmonte.com/dlm/Recipe.aspx?id=256