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Sunday, January 26, 2014

Eat from the Pantry Challenge


Well, life has been happening here at Grandma Loy's, and I just found out that this post has been sitting here since Wednesday.  As "they" say, better late than never!

I am at the end of Week 3 of my Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  I am still attempting to keep the food portion of my grocery bill at $35 over less.  This week it was a little harder to do as I had to redeem two rain checks that I had gotten in December.  Although some stores here give up to 90 days to redeem a rain check, the store that issued these only gives you 30 days.

I ended up shopping at three grocery stores plus Dollar Tree this week.  I usually don’t go to this many stores.  Rosauers is out of my way so I only go there if they have an extra good sale, but that is the store where I had gotten my rain checks.  There is a Dollar Tree in the same shopping area so I went there to check to see if they had corn chips.   I pass Wray’s every day when I am working, but don’t shop there much since they became an IGA store.  They don’t seem to have the sales that they used to
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Rosausers
2 lbs. walnuts @ $5.99 a lb.  (This was one of the rain checks.  Walnuts are running $8.99 a lb. here)
2 pkgs. almond bark at $2.19 each (This is a seasonal item that doesn’t go on sale except at holiday time.  Regular price $3.89 each.)
1 pkg. rotini @ $ .89 (The store was having a half-price sale.  I used my last package last week.  This is where I would have purchased more if I was not on this budget.)
12 oz. honey @ $1.99 (This was also part of the half-price sale.  The price was $ 2.99 at the sale price, but I found one with a $1.00 coupon attached.)

Wrays
1.31 lbs. broccoli @ $ .89 a lb for at total of $1.17
3.87 lbs. cauliflower @ $ .89 a lb. for a total of $3.44

Safeway
1 box Peanut Butter Captain Crunch @ $2.50
1 pkg. La Choy chow mien noodles @ $1.99
1 Marie Callender frozen dinner @ $2.00
1 I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter @ $1.99
1 gallon 1% milk @ $2.59
2 pkgs. Fresh Express Salad @ $1.29 (This was buy one, get one)

Dollar Tree
4 pkgs. corn chip,s like Fritos (do not usually purchase this many at one time, but the Dollar Trees that are closest to me have not had any of these for 6 weeks)

Total for Week Three 3-$40.21, so I did go over my $35 goal, but the average expenditure for the three week is still close to $35.

What We had for Week 3.

Jan. 14  Lunch-hubby had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches, I had chili.  He had a meeting and had pizza.  He paid for the pizza with his entertainment money.  I had leftovers for dinner.

Jan. 15  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-Cheeseburger Meatloaf, baked sweet potatoes, Bacon Brussels Sprouts Medley for me, bacon green beans for hubby.

Jan 16  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-leftover meatloaf, baked sweet potato and green beans for hubby, leftover meatloaf, homemade rice-a-roni, and Brussels sprouts for me.

Jan 17  Lunch-Sausage Noodle Bake.  Dinner-leftover again for both hubby and me.

Jan 18  Lunch-Chili Burgers with cheese.  Dinner-We had dinner out with the 4-Wheeling Club.  Hubby paid from his entertainment money.  The club chose a fancy burger place.  I had French fries left that I took home

Jan 19  Lunch-Cheeseburger with fries I brought home from dinner last night.  Dinner-Pork Chop Dressing Bake with gravy, baked sweet potato, and the last of the green beans.

Jan 20  Lunch-Dilled Beef and Veggie Stoup.  Dinner-Hubby had pork chops and dressing from last night.  I had leftover meatloaf and the last of the homemade rice-a-roni.

I forgot to mention last week that we also had peanut butter bars and brownies made from mixes that I had on hand.

I feel pretty good that, so far, I have stayed pretty close to my goal.  I am getting low on some staples so next week may be more of a challenge.  As I said last week, this challenge is really helping me to think about whether or not I really need something.  It really is not necessary for me to have things like six jars of mayo in the pantry.  I realize that I have not purchased much meat over these three weeks, but using as much meat and chicken from my freezer as I can is part of my goal.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like you are doing a fine job of bargain hunting. A woman after my heart for sure. My pantry is normally bulging, but since we're leaving for FL tomorrow, it's wonderful to get it cleaned out and actually see the wall behind and some bare shelving showing! Thanks for sharing this. Seems like it would take a lot of work and calculating, but it's inspiring and I'm so glad you shared. Happy Pantry Eating & Shopping too! =)

    ReplyDelete

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