Quick update for you so that you can get on with the weekend. Not much to report, so I guess that’s a good thing this is gonna be short and sweet.
Breakfast
Everyone had some variation of Avocado Toast/Toast and Eggs.
Lunch
The kids had leftover soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and Tuna Melt Sandwiches. Apparently the soup was not a hit as we still have quite a bit left. Oops.
I skipped since I had a late breakfast.
Dinner
Tonight is pizza night, so we’ve got six pizzas ready to go on the grill: pepperoni, pepperoni/sausage/mushroom, and a jalapeño supreme.
Grocery Shopping
Fridays are my regular day to go to Ralphs for their clearance and digital deals. I got a late start on the day which meant a late trip to the store. Never bodes well for the clearance.
We ended up getting coleslaw mix, baby lettuce, buttermilk, blueberries, and avocado, frozen stir-fry vegetables, panko breadcrumbs on major clearance (79 cents because the box had been cut, and 9 bags of chips for 99 cents.
I ended up spending $28 which brings our monthly total to $289. I’m hoping to keep our monthly average spending to $1000/month, so this fits very nicely under my 1/2 our regular budget goal.
If you’re wondering how I set my budget, I use the USDA Food Cost reports on the thrifty plan. You can find their latest report here.
Happy Friday, folks!
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Day 20, Pantry Challenge 2020
Preparing for a Pantry Challenge
Day 10, Pantry Challenge 2020
Friday, January 24, 2020
B – Vanilla Greek yogurt
L – Last of the tuna salad on whole wheat
D – Tomato and mushroom omelet and whole wheat toast
Friday January 24th
B – the usual fruit etc
L – salad for me , hubby was out
S – l/o soup from the freezer, l/o apple pie
I did shop on Friday. One store in particular had both butter and lean ground beef on sale for $2.99 lb ( both half price or less).
We had no ground beef at all so I bought 10lbs. When i got home, made 2 lb into meatballs and repackaged the rest into suitable sizes for 2 oldies!. Another store had our decaf coffee on sale at almost half price.and, as always when it is on sale, I stocked up. I knew I would buy these things on sale, PC or not, because they are staples! So the monthly totals will not be low like some of you but we have what we use and need.
Wonderful bargains. I’d have bought them too. They will save you a great deal in the days ahead. I don’t use much butter but back when I did, I always stocked up on sale and stashed it in the freezer. We don’t drink coffee, but the herbal tea I use for iced tea was on sale and I just bought 8 boxes. They won’t last that long, but I try to only buy it on sale as much as possible.
Tasty and Alice i agree with you both on buying when the deals are great! $36 of my total was for marked down chicken. We were also down to 1 chicken breast. I got 14 bags of chicken for meals plus a crock pot full of broth. That worked out to $2.57 a meal.
One of those nights where I ran home from work, fed the kids and took one kid back to a work event, while the other kid had hockey. I made the kids English muffin pizzas. I threw black beans and cauliflower rice together with left over rice pilaf and baked it with some cheese. My husband ate the leftover pasta bake from Thursday on the fly. Both of them needed a little something after hockey and got a little fast food, but not too much. We have done really well this month.
B – I had a Berry protein shake
L – grandson and I shared the last of the lentil soup, sourdough toast. Hubs had chicken noodle soup and crackers
D – I had scrambled eggs and waffles using the last of one big box of mix (I still have one more), hubs had cereal, and waffles
B – Oats, eggs, hot tea
L – he took pb sandwich and cookies, I ate some l/o spaghetti from the freezer
D – cooked up a big pot of Jacobs cattle beans added some aromatics and cooked ground turkey. Then cooked up a batch of fat-free biscuits to go with it. The leftovers will probably be turned into chili.
Also baked a cinnamon pumpkin cake with a box of yellow cake mix, a can of pumpkin, half a cup of water and a couple eggs. sprinkled the top with a bit of brown sugar, baked it and then dribbled a powdered sugar and water glaze on the top.
So I used up a few things. It was a good day for cooking a big pot of something. Snow last night and very cold all day. It looks like a winter wonderland and I was very glad to stay in.
Well, Friday I finally broke down and went to the store. I had hoped to wait until next week but decided I was going to do some baking saturday and make a big batch of food in the slow cooker to take to our friends’ house saturday night. We spend a lot of time with them and they are always feeding us. It is really our turn. Will report on all that Day 22 post. I only spent $14 at the store, buying necessary items to bake and cook: lemons, butter(we’re almost out!), sour cream, bell peppers, green onions, yellow onions (out too!), and I grabbed broccoli since it’s half off and we could use some other fresh veggie in our diet this coming week. I’ll probably buy a bit more next week, before the month is over. But I am WAY under my usual grocery spending. It will be fun to total it all!
Day 21, Friday, January 24:
B: both skipped
L: L took ham/salami/lettuce on whole wheat, an apple, and pretzels; I had crackers and cheese and an apple
D: we went to a dinner party. Super fun. It was good to get out, even if it was work-related for my husband. We had a great time with great people.
Friday, 1/24/20
B: Hubs had cereal, toast, OJ, and coffee. Son and I had oatmeal w/ cinnamon and brown sugar, toast (Son), OJ, (Son), and coffee.
L: The guys had their usual packed lunches. I also included yogurt w/ strawberry jam and HM granola in their lunches. I had PB toast, string cheese, energy bar, celery and carrot sticks, and a mandarin. I also snacked on some chocolate chips that I have stashed in the freezer for baking. For some reason, I was really hungry on Friday.
D: The last of the pulled pork and HM buns, salad, cantaloupe.
I also ran to Sam’s and picked up 5 lbs. of carrots and 6 lbs. of bananas. Spent $5.22, bringing our total up to $118.84 for the month. One more week to go. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can . . . . “
A couple of days of just not feeling well. I haven’t even been out of my night gown. I didn’t cook much yesterday? Mostly it was catch as catch can.
Today is about the same. I had tea for breakfast and some prune juice. I made some Thai cabbage salad, added some sprouted lentils to that. I also had a bagel. I made a big pot of French onion soup. I also cooked the rest of the sprouted lentils. I plan to make lentil tacos this weekend. I’m soaking chickpeas. Some I will sprout, some I will cook for hummus and some will go into the freezer after cooking.
The plan for day 21 was supposed to be homemade pizza but someone forgot they had to watch the littles. The dough went in the fridge and the guys had leftover stew and salads. I ate with the littles.
Friday meals…
B-egg sandwich
L-freezer vegetable soup
D-freezer ziti and marinara
I was happy to use up some freezer items today. For a treat I made Nutella cinnamon rolls. I put eight in the freezer to prevent us from eating too many!
Nutella cinnamon rolls! Wow!!
B- usual. Fruit for hubs. I made myself a smoothie, stuck it in the freezer to keep cold before work, and left it there. I ended up with hot tea and nuts at work.
L- hubs had two hard boiled eggs; I had chicken soup.
D- leftover night! Jambalaya, or peas & rice, and cornbread. Finished up the last of the brownies for the week as well.
Hi. New here. How do you make the jalapeno supreme pizza?
Hi Danielle! It’s something my husband actually calls The Kitchen Sink: red sauce, pepperoni, mushroom, spicy sausage, jalapeño, onion, and bell pepper. If we have olives, we’ll add those, too.
Pretty calm day here.
B: usual yogurt and coffee for me, usual bagel and yogurt for hubs. Boys ate cereal or toast
L: I snacked on random fruit and cheese to use things up. Hubs had frozen dinner and fruit. 1 boy had school lunch, 1 had packed lunch from pantry stuff and another scrounged for himself.
D: pizza night. Planned to do homemade but allergies really have me down.
Because I haven’t felt great i have spent more than I should at store but still well under half of our usual budget.
L: left over tamales w/jalapeno slaw
D: My 4pm appointment ran an hour and half late, so I didn’t make it home until after 6pm, so we had oven-baked pre-made chicken strips from the freezer for dinner w/salad on the side. My 15yr boy was delighted. I rarely make such items (it was a deep sale purchase) and he’s still telling me we should buy them again. Lol!