Sunday, August 03, 2008

$125/week Grocery Challenge: Week 1 Wrap Up

Yesterday, I posted the shopping list and total spent during the first week (Mon-Sun) of my 5-person version of Can a family of four eat for $100 a week? (My totaled receipts = $103.97) Today, I'm posting the basic weekly menu, along with my thoughts so far.

Breakfasts: homemade oatmeal muffins, or cereal and fruit.

Lunch: Grilled cheese or peanut butter & honey (or jelly) sandwiches, served with grapes, apples or carrots.

Snacks: Nuts, cheese crackers, grapes at home - granola bars or peanut butter pretzels on the trail

Dinners: (Where two separate meals were fixed, I've specified the kid/adult version)

Creamy/Cheese Pasta, Broccoli (Brown Rice Fusilli)

Turkey Burgers, Veggie Baked Beans, Sliced Apples (Kid)
Mango, Avacado & Celery Salad w/Cashews and Ginger Dressing (Adult)

Oven Roasted Chicken, Potatoes, Green Beans & Cornbread (Kid)
Vidalia French Onion Soup & Cheesy Cornbread (Adult)

Black Bean Salad w/Mango & Salsa, Cornbread

Chicken Fried Rice (w/leftover chicken), Broccoli

Chicken, Green Beans, Cheese Whole Wheat Biscuits (Kid)
Shakshuka and Cheese Biscuits (Adult)
(The recipe used when I started making Shakshuka is here. I've modified it over the last two years, of course. More garlic, and sweet onions)

Cheese Pizza and Vidalia French Onion Soup (Leftover)
Today was supposed to be burgers (black bean for me, beef for everyone else), with corn and salad. We ended up switching to cheese pizza, which worked out very well. Was able to finish off the leftover French Onion Soup on the side. And, I have a quick dinner already planned for the first day of Week 2. (Bonus!)

I talked with everyone over lunch today. Nobody really noticed any difference. The kids thought I was just asking which dinners they wanted me to repeat this week. It's been a pretty good reminder for me as to why planning meals a few days in advance is a good idea. We didn't have to sacrifice much. Still had ice cream after dinner a few nights, and the beloved peanut butter filled pretzels to snack on during our weekend bike rides.

This week might be a little tougher. I noticed while working on dough earlier, I'm running low on a few baking supplies. I've also had a request for BBQ salmon, and for organic pink lady apples (from New Zealand - my kids think pink ladies from this part of the globe are not as good - yes, my kids are special), which I think I can work in with a bit more planning.

2 comments:

Rebecca Mielke said...

I love that you are doing this!

There are four of us eating here and I have been trying to stay right around $105/week, although I don't always do a good job tracking it.

I noticed that you are using separate dollars to buy your non-food items. That's been what I've been ruminating on the last week or two, since I started getting the produce deliveries. Can I really feed my family healthy food AND buy shampoo for $105/week? I'm beginning to think not.

Anyway, it's always so encouraging to see the details of someone else making a stab at it. =D

mappchik said...

This challenge is an eyeopener about how much I spend on non-grocery items. With the decongestants and allergy meds we needed this past week, along with laundry detergent, and shampoo, the non-food total was not much less than the food.

I'm beginning to think pulling those items out of the grocery trips entirely will make me focus on the cost. I'll do much better purchasing bath/home items all at once on a specialized trip to Target than in the as-needed item pickups during grocery trips.

Let me know if you figure the secret to fitting the shampoo into the grocery budget. :-)