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.