Anyway, I have declared the month of January and perhaps February, Grandma Loy’s Eat from the Pantry Challenge. I normally spend about $50 to $60 each week on the food portion of my grocery bill. By eating from my pantry, I feel I can reduce that amount to about $35 per week for the food portion of my grocery bill. We have two cats so I do need to purchase food and cat litter for them. I do not count that nor paper products toward my food bill.
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To help keep me on the “straight and narrow” I am going to post my gains and losses here each week. Here is how I did for week one: My total grocery bill was $46.10. This included a Cook’s Country magazine for $5.95, non-fat spray for $ 1.93 and toilet tissue for $5.26. I paid .92 in sales tax on these items. This made the food portion $32.04.
It is interesting to know that according to the USDA, the November 2013 (the latest available) costs for a family of two people our age, following the thrifty food plan is $82.90. The low-cost food plan is $107.20, the moderate food plan is $133.30, and the liberal food plan is $160.40.
The food that I purchased was:
1 can kidney beans @ .89 (I am going to try roasting them)
1 loaf bread @ .94
4.10 lbs. beef loin steak @ 3.50 per lb. (this is enough for 3 meals, plus leftovers, will put 2 pkgs. in the freezer)
9.59 lbs. pork shoulder roast @ $ .99 per lb. (I will cut this in half to make 2 roasts for the freezer)
1.49 lbs. Brussels sprouts @ 1.99 per lb. (to serve as a side dish, probably some left over)
1 container grape tomatoes @ 1.99 (my “ode to salads” in the wintertime)
l pkg. egg roll wraps @ $2.00 (If I don’t make something from these, I will cut them into strips and make wonton crisps.)
These are the meals we had this last week. Neither hubby or I usually have breakfast, and I only cook three nights a week due to my work schedule so we eat leftovers the other nights)
Jan. 1: Hubby was 4-wheeling and I had a fried egg sandwich for lunch. We had Chinese take-out for dinner. The cost for the take-out was $9.20. I did not charge this against the food budget as we did not go out for New Year’s Eve. I made homemade fried rice stretch the take-out. There was enough for dinner and 3 left-over lunches. (Our granddaughter who is visiting from California had some of the leftovers lunches.)
Jan 2: I made Split Pea Soup to have for lunches for several days. We had leftovers for dinner
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Jan 3. Split Pea Soup for lunch and leftovers for dinner
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Jan 4. Spit Pea Soup for hubby for lunch. I had leftover Chinese. Made baked ham, orange glazed sweet potatoes, and corn casserole for dinner.
Jan 5. Split Pea Soup for lunch. Made Tomato Soup Barbecued Pork Shoulder Roast in the crockpot. Serves with mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli and cauliflower
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Jan 6. Spit Pea Soup for lunch. Hubby had a meeting and ate in town. I had the last of the leftover Chinese.
Jan 7. I made Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder for lunch. Hubby had leftover pork roast and orange glazed sweet potatoes. I had leftover pork roast, mashed potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower.
I also made a banana cream pie with bananas, vanilla pudding mix that I had on hand. I made a shortbread type-crust with flour, brown sugar, and butter, Very Fudgy Malted Milk Brownies which will be this week’s Saturday Sweet. For the Dessert Challenge posting tomorrow, I made Chocolate Magic Marshmallow Buns.
I will also be posting the recipes for the Orange Glazed Sweet Potatoes, the Tomato Soup Barbecued Pork Shoulder Roast in the Crockpot and the Bacon Cheeseburger Chowder.
I am looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish in week 2.
I didn't know there was another Pantry Challenge going on when I decided to do this, but there is and I am linking up at Good, Cheap Eats.
Best of luck with your challenge! I was just looking around the kitchen yesterday thinking the same thing:@)
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