I did much better this week with cooking at home and taking snacks to work, but we did fall off the wagon this week and went for lunch on Saturday. I’ll talk about that little tidbit in a sec.
Here is what we ate (mostly):
Monday dinner: Tuna noodle
Tuesday – (golf night for hubs) leftover tuna noodle for me
Wednesday -French onion soup and French bread
Thursday – leftovers
Friday – I took an apple pie and squash to our friends house for turkey dinner
Saturday – I winged it and ate some leftover French bread an apple and some popcorn lol.
Here is what we spent on groceries this week.
$.37 for 2 bananas, $1.99 for 2 lbs carrots, $.99 for dozen eggs, $1.79 evaporated milk, $3.99 lactose free milk, $3.99 for carmel dip, $2.19 for 1/2 gallon milk, $3.99 butter, 2 bags apples and a huge 5 lb buttercup squash, $21.21, coffee, $12.99
Total for groceries this week $53.50 that makes us -$31.46 over my goal of only $300 this month. BUT I actually started this challenge with a shopping trip on 9/27, so I am going to end this challenge on 10/25. That will be 4 weeks. So if I don’t go over much more than $40, I will be super happy! I do know I need more coffee creamer, but I’ll buy the smallest one, lol!
Ok, now let’s address going out to eat on Saturday. Seriously, going out to eat is so automatic for us sometimes that I didn’t even give it much thought. I was extremely stressed out about a cake I had to do. I will share that cake later in another post. I just couldn’t function enough to say no to going out. God’s honest truth. I have come to a point in my life where I have been saying no in a very big way to certain orders, and after this cake, I will not be taking on another cake like this again. Believe me, you will know what I mean when you see it in my next post. We spent $35 for lunch on Saturday, and other than that, we didn’t go out. I still call that a win!
How have your meals been this month? Are you happy to have cooler weather?
Until next update!
-MM
I think you’ve given yourself a big challenge with the “no meals out” plus making sure you keep under $300 a month for groceries. You’re doing really well. And I think Saturday lunch was perfectly justified.
I tend to cook something that will feed me for several meals in a row, now tha I’m on my own. Made a nice cauliflower cheese for Sunday lunch (meal for 4 people) and there was enough left over for 4 more individual portions for me. Last night, I cooked up chicken livers, onion, bacon & mushrooms which I had with a bowl of rice. I’ve got enough of all that for another 2 meals.
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That cake sounds like a doozie! I think you have done very well. My only thought is that you might want to think more long term, if you have freezer space available. By that I mean, buying some things in quantity and when they are on sale. To do that you might need to make your budget for a 6 month period, and do some investment shopping. It would seem expensive at first, but by month 5 you would likely be able to shop the pantry for many things? It might not work for you, but shopping the sales has allowed us to eat very well. Last week we bought 5 containers of Tilamook ice cream (@ 3.99 😜) two pork roasts, bananas, 3 gallons of milk and 3 packages of Chile rojo for about $60. We are having a pork roast for dinner today, but the other one will be in the freezer for several months, as will the ice cream! It works for us anyway.
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Absolutely! I definitely try to stock up when I can. This month was a last minute challenge for me because September was a doozie with eating out. This month I plan on limiting the going out but I plan on giving us a better grocery allowance. I am going to do a combined “Not Impressed with our debt” and “week 4 no eating out” post to show how much we really saved. 🙂
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