A Detour on the way to Posting Food Challenge: January, Week 3

I was all ready to write and post this update, but then life happened.  My appendix perforated last Saturday.  Sunday I was operated on.  I came home last night after dinner.

Below is a summary of what we bought and ate during the third week of January.


Monday, January 16th at Aldi

Spent $32.43

Purchased:  cheese (feta, blue, parmesan); ground turkey (2lbs.); mushrooms; green peppers (2); romaine hearts (3); yellow onions (3 lb.); cucumbers (3); tomatoes (4); cream (2); garlic powder; cheese stuffed red peppers; soy sauce; SF jam; blueberries (2); dry ranch dressing mix; dry Italian dressing mix; flax seed;

Money remaining:  $97.99

What we have eaten:  tuna patties, salad, fried cabbage;  stuffed pork chops, broccoli with hollandaise, salad, SF frosting peanut butter/ chocolate fudge;  quiche and blueberries; meat, bean and cheese burritos;  ham and cheese sandwiches; Buffalo chicken meatballs, yogurt, green beans with almonds and brown butter;

Total  Grocery money spent $ 220.43.  Total Restaurant money spent:  $63.18
Total to date spent:  $293.61.   Money remaining:  $87.99

Food Challenge January: Week Two

This week there were no restaurant meals.  That saved a huge amount of money.

Our purchases at the grocery store were also kept to a minimum.  We shopped only a couple of loss leaders that we could also pair up with coupons.  So, we spent an additional $9.70 to buy natural peanut butter, several cans of chunk white tuna (current and stockpile) and a bag each of frozen green beans and broccoli.  Otherwise we were eating from our pantry.

But I did do my monthly salvage grocery shopping.  That ate into the remaining monthly budget to the tune of $ 28.98.
For that I managed to purchase:  SF pudding mix (2); small bag walnuts and pecans; can of kidney beans; can of white kidney beans; Smuckers Natural peanut butter(3 for stockpile); Swanson beef broth; fresh chopped garlic (2); can of red salmon; white Albacore tuna (5 for stockpile); bags of Starbucks(2) and Folgers coffee (3 partial stockpile); tubs of SF frosting (2); Hershey cocoa powder; mayo; hot sauce;Atkins shakes (8).

As noted, some of these goodies will go into my stockpile and last into February or even March, but they are part of this month's budget expenditures.  So, subtract the amount I did.

So, what did we eat this week:  soybean and ham soup; pepper steak with cauliflower rice and chocolate pie; mashed cauliflower, Greek yogurt, and shredded zucchini fritters ( I had a tooth out so soft was the name of the game); creamy Italian chicken, winter squash and cream of asparagus soup; hamburgers with sauteed onion, mushrooms and peppers with winter squash; Swiss steak with blackberries and the odds and ends of leftover vegetables.  Definitely not fancy, but tasty.

So, of our $381.60  allotted to food this month, we have spent $63.18 on restaurant food and $188.00  on groceries.  Our total at about halfway through the month is     $251.18 ($17.94/day).

  For the next seventeen days I have $ 130.43 ($7.67/day) to feed us.  It looks fine if we just stay out of restaurants.

But, I'll get it done because I have a stockpile in my cupboards and freezer.  As the year goes on you will see how it gets used and replenished.  I would be broke without it.

Food Challenge January: Week 1

We are one week into my 2017 cut the cost of eating challenge.  And I am already in trouble, I think.

The government, specifically the Department of Agriculture, keeps track of the cost of eating a nutritious diet.  There are three different levels but I decided to see if I could feed Mike and I at what the government labels the thrifty level.  This is the level upon which SNAP benefits are based.

According to the government, it should cost me $86.20 per week or $12.31 per day to feed us.  That means in January I have $381.61 to cover food eaten at home or away from home.

I think deciding to start a food cost challenge the same time I decided to start a high protein/ low carb diet may not have been my brightest move.

Protein costs money, as we all know.  And we are eating a lot of protein.

And, when we traveled home from D.C. we paid a lot of money to buy that protein.
This diet had better work, or I have really wasted a lot financially.

So, what have I bought:
butter, cheese, eggs, nuts, summer sausage, low carb wraps and bread, almond meal flour, sugar freechocolate and hard candy, flax tortilla chips, vanilla protein powder, psyllium, sweet peppers, blackberries, pickles, soda, heavy cream and dry soy beans.

And what have we eaten:
Wraps, meatza and spinach patties, almond flour chocolate chunks cookies, sugar free pistachio pudding, chef salad, eggs and bacon, omelet, chicken, turkey sandwich on lettuce, ham with asparagus and broccoli, mushu pork with fried green beans and blackberries, soybean and ham soup with grilled cheese.

What have we spent:
Restaurant.    $63.18. ( The D.C. trip and Mike's barstool sailing )
Groceries.       $140.22
TOTAL Week One:     $203.40

Money remaining for the month:  $178.21.

I still have salvage grocery shopping to do next weekend.  But, if I can keep us out of restaurants, we MIGHT just do this.

Fingers crossed.