Eat From The Pantry Challenge: week three update

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!