Week 2, net result. $13.73 over.
I wanted to do this challenge to push me out of my “comfort zone.” Even if I plan meals, I tend to just buy what I want. Typically, I spend around $50-$75 on groceries for us weekly. I tend to ignore the long-term storage items: dry beans, single items in the freezer, etc.
The reason I picked such a low number was to force myself to run out of things, push my menu planning, and use up some of the pantry goods I ignore too much, like dry beans, canned milk, etc.
It HAS done that, but I expected it to do that about the middle the 3rd week, not the beginning of the 2nd!
Right now, I have an agenda item to look at the cost of the frozen juice concentrate vs a 1/2 gallon of cider. I think the concentrate is a lower cost, but it makes less as well? Dunno, more research req’d. Last time I figured it out, cider was cheaper.
Week 3 Menu Plan
Sa (hadn’t said what we ate) zucch-potato soup, apple/bean casserole, sweet/sour cabbage saute. (The soup was made last month, we ate on it for a couple of days. The apples were part of the PYO apples a few weeks ago. The cabbage came from the garden, the peach pulp was from the peaches given to me by the farm neighbor.) DH bought himself ice cream. I have no idea how much he spent, and I don’t want to know. He bought 2 different types of vanilla from the chi-chi store that had been our town store… my guess is that he spent nearly $20 for < 2 pints of ice cream. I do NOT want to know!
Su 1 egg pancakes for breakfast. (DH usually uses 2, but we only had 2 eggs in the house!) Need to bake bread as we’re on the last of the prefab loaf.
Prefab ? I have 1 burrito, tamales, and enchiladas. Not sure if I have any refries. I DO have cooked pinto beans in the freezer to use up. We’ll have some of the cooked pintos with cheese along with whatever prefab Mexican.
M Spaghetti ________ cook 2x as much pasta as needed for tonight’s dinner.
Tu Squash (only have 1 acorn squash) and hamburger patties, thaw 1 lb and also make meatballs.
W LO pasta. fried pasta with breadcrumbs, butter, parsley.
Th Meatball soup and cheese tortillas
F Egg salad sandwiches? If we have bread…
Sa Bean ______
Groceries needed: eggs, coffee, milk, juice, corn tortillas and that will take all of the remaining $12 left after my overspend last week! I used 1 of 2 of my cans of condensed milk the past few days in my coffee.
[✓] i will pull 2 packages (1/2 lb each) of ground beef and a pint of cooked pintos out of the freezer today.[✓] I also need to make up a batch of Mexican bulgar for the freezer, for future use.
I forgot! We’re OUT of onions and potatoes… sigh. I sense another week of overspending in my future. I can get a small package of tortillas. I was already planning on buying 6 eggs instead of a dozen, if the price works. (If not, I’ll buy 6 from my neighbor at a few cents more.) I don’t need onions until Friday with the soup, so I can manage with the partial onion I have and buy 1 large one. I don’t have potato anything in the menu this week, so I can maybe pass on buyng those until next week.
I’m going to do the grocery shopping on Monday, because if I have any $ left, I’ll use it to get cheap produce at the farm Tues. If I blew the budget, I’ll pass on the farm and just use whatever I’ve got.
Spent $12.44, had $11.27 available, so I"m $1.17 OVER budget, even without buying coffee! (Added $2 to that, so $3.17 over.)
1/2 gallon of milk
1 sweet onion
street taco tortillas No corn tortillas anywhere in the market?
6 eggs *Now $1.99, instead of the previous $1.58, but less than the $2.08 I saw at another branch of this market
frozen OJ.
I added $2 to the overage: tomatoes, peppers, and an eggplant. Veggies are 1/2 off at the farm store Tu - W and there’s a freebie table. the peppers and eggplant came from the freebie table, the $2 was 5 large roma tomatoes, for next week’s Italian potato-cheese casserole.
So I now have $10 of other Savings Challenges money for any spending over and above what’s in any of the envelopes. 
wave my budget wand:sparkles: and exempt from the grocery budget. Tis the season for pumpkins and apples, after all, and I don’t want to miss the chance to stock up when they’re in season!
I don’t usually add too much to it, but now I know I can raise my contributions a bit next year. I guess I could’ve realized that I’d go through it quicker since all my copays went up when the new financial year started in August.
. Other items in this category pale in comparison: decaf for the office stash, a soda, ice cream, an audiobook I purchased rather than using a credit because it was on sale by a lot and that made more sense.