Eat from the Pantry Challenge

I am at the end of Week 4 of my Eat from the Pantry Challenge.  I was again able to come in under $35 for the food portion of my grocery bill for the week.  I realize that I am only able to do this because I am filling in for the food I already on hand.  I could not keep to this budget if I was starting from scratch each week.  I look at my collection of spices, which contribute so much to the flavor of the food that I cook, and realize that to replace them would cost way more than $35.

My pantry and freezer are both still full, so I am going to try to continue this challenge through February, but I will not continue to bore you with the all the details
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This week I did purchase some ground beef and couldn’t resist a great buy on sugar which was at the lowest price it ever gets around here.

I shopped at three stores for my purchases as two of the stores had very low prices on what I purchased.  I drive by both stores twice on the days that I work, so I don’t need to go out of my way to shop there.

Wrays
2 dozen eggs @ $ .99 a dozen.  (This is less than half of what a dozen eggs are selling for right now.)
3 (8 oz.) cans tomato sauce @ $ .33 each.  (This is the best price I can get for tomato sauce.)

Fiesta Foods
2 bags sugar @ $1.50 each.  (This is best price I can ever get for a 4-lb. bag of sugar, and I had put the last bag of sugar in my sugar canister.)

Safeway
5 lb. bag Calrose rice @ $4.49.  (I had used the last of my rice in fried rice on Saturday.  It is difficult to find this rice in less than 5 lb. bags.  I was lucky to find it on sale.  Regular price is $6.79)
1 pkg. of 20 flour tortillas @ $2.49.  (I know I can make them cheaper than this, but I have not had much luck making tortillas myself.)
1 8-oz. pkg. Kraft Natural Cheddar Cheese @ $2.00  (I am almost out of sliced cheese.  This was supposed to be a BOGO, but they only had 1 package so sold it to me for half price.)
1 8-oz. pkg. Safeway Shredded Mozzarella Cheese @ $1.99 (I used the last in my 3-Meat Popover Pizza.)
1 8-oz. container Cook Whip @ $1.25 (I was almost out.)
1 red bell pepper @ $1.50 (I was almost out.  $1.50 each is the best price I can find for red peppers right now.  The store actually charged me for 2, so I will be getting an adjustment.  It pays to check out your receipts.)
1 container grape tomatoes @ $3.99.  (I thought these were on sale in my Safeway JustforU, but was wrong.)
2 pkgs. coleslaw @ $ .93.  (This was on sale, and I redeemed a rain check I had for the BOGO.)
4 lb. 80/20 ground beef @ $2.29 a lb.  (Although I have ground beef in the freezer, I am low on packages of browned up ground beef, and I needed a pound to make the Swedish Mini Meatloaves I was planning to make for dinner on Wed.  This would also use up a pound of ground pork that I found in the freezer.
1 l.5 qt. container Butterfinger Ice Cream (Because I wanted a treat, and we were out of ice cream.)

The total for the above is $36.62.  I returned 2 packages of disposable loaf pans to Safeway for $3.94 so the total is $32.68.  I did have to purchase a bag of cat food which came to $11.89.

What we ate in Week 4.

Jan. 21  We had Beef and Vegetable Stoup for lunch.  Hubby had leftover pork and dressing for dinner
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Jan. 22  We had Beef and Vegetable Stoup for lunch.  Hubby had leftover pork and dressing for dinner.

Jan 23  Forgot to write down what we had for lunch.  For dinner I made oven barbecued chicken wings and thighs, Rosemary Garlic Potato Stacks and green salad.

Jan 24  For lunch we had grilled cheese sandwiches.  For dinner both hubby and I had leftover chicken and potato stacks with salad.

Jan. 25  I made a cheese, macaroni and ham soup for lunch.  I had to work so I made some fried rice and picked up some take-out Chinese for dinner.  As I explained before, we put take-out and restaurant meals in our entertainment budget, so the take-out was not figured into the grocery expense.  The cost of the take-out was approximately $8.00.  We had dinner, and I will get at least two more dinners for me out of the take-out and the fried rice I made.

Jan 26  We had the cheese, macaroni and ham soup for lunch.  I made Barbecued Steak Strips with Noodle and baked Butternut squash for dinner. 

Jan 27  We had chili burgers for lunch.  Hubby had leftover chicken and potato stacks for dinner.  I had leftover Chinese.

It has been good for me to take more time to think about the amount of food I purchase.  As I said above I am going to continue to try to eat mostly from my pantry continuing into February.  To reward myself I am going to purchase an electric saucepan from Amazon with part of the money I saved.









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