Pantry Challenge January Round Up

Let me count the ways that I bombed this past month in the Pantry Challenge.....lol. But I had fun and hope you did too.

For starters DO NOT EVER shop for groceries after being under anesthetic..lol. I felt so well after my upper and lower scopes that we decided to shop at Meijers (remember I love that place!), I wandered through and blew a cool $50 some odd dollars, can't find the receipt now. Got some wonderful produce (did I ever tell you how I just love Meijers produce? I think it's the lighting!).
My dear husband pushed the cart dutifully up and down the isles for me as I plucked things off the shelf (who knows what!) and dropped them into the cart. What on earth was I thinking? That is right I was not in my right mind and what did that paper say that I signed before surgery? "I will not make any financial decisions for 24 hours." I wonder now, does grocery shopping fall under that category? I think so! That brings me up to $122.09 for the month.

Then another $49.56 at the local grocery store this was sort of a woe is me shopping trip, I had to do the prep for my upper/lower scopes (drink the nasty stuff to clean your insides out) and I wanted to treat myself, so I bought my favorite soda Canada Dry, my favorite kool-aid drink TANG, the good ice pops (not those nasty cheap watered down ice pops......lol). Since I knew once the tests were done I would be back on a gluten free diet, I got some Lenders Bagels and Thomason English Muffins, no generics for me on those! I also bought the good juices to drink during my prep time, nothing like Welches White Grape Juice $4.50 a bottle and Mango Peach Juice. Those items added up very quickly. $171.65 for the month.

Then on 1/30/12 I ran to the store real quick like for milk & chicken (remember I did not want to butcher our laying hens so I had to buy chicken)........that cost me $23.76.
They had milk on sale for $1.50 so bought a few of those,
Cannelli Beans on sale for $1.00 a can, I stocked up on those since I can sneak them into a lot of things..lol
Tyson Chicken was on sale for $1.99 lb.

January 2012 cost us $195.41 for three people, doing homeschool math that comes to an average of $65.14 per person for a month or an average of $48.85 per week. I was hoping for less, but I know that I could have done without the $50 bucks spent on surgery day, I am still kicking myself for that one! I am thankful for what I saved and did not spend with being gluten and dairy free, I could have spent a lot more $$ on fancy products.

How is your February going on the pantry challenge? I am going to just keep on going with it and see where it leads me. Remember if you are not gluten free or dairy free you can still use my recipes (comment if you have questions about them), just use whole wheat or white flour and regular dairy and butter in the recipes.

If you are new around here we are having a Pantry Challenge, here is how it works.........It's easy, before you head to the grocery store, shop your freezer, refrigerator and cabinets to see what you can use up. For the first 3 weeks I try to only buy milk, butter and bread, since I usually have an abundance of canned fruits and veggies on hand. If you don't have chickens you may need to buy eggs :-p Make a family game out of this, let the kids pick some can goodies from the cabinet, find some meat in the freezer and go from there.
Moe

Food Cravings ~ Challenge Day 14

I sent hubby out to the grocery store, he is a real winner in the area of shopping!! Give him a list and that is ALL that he will buy. Give me a list and I come out with a cart full.

2% milk $2.15 1/2 gallon (YIKES!! I remember when a gallon of milk was just $1.99 at Aldi!!)
high fiber wheat bread $4.19 on sale for $3.49
2# bag of rice crisp cereal $3.59
golden rasins $3.29 flour
$2.19 Mrs. Dash $2.99 (could have done without this, but the doctor wants me on a low-sodium diet as of last week.....I'm falling apart and I caved in and bought something for ME!!).

So this week I spent a grand total of $17.78 + $33.31 from last week = $51.09 for the month.
I do know that I am going to spend some $$ this coming week since boneless pork loins are on sale for $1.99 lb (whole or sliced for free) and I plan on getting a few of those for the freezer otherwise I think we are good to go shopping from the pantry and the freezer some more.

Come on and share what you have bought for you this week during the pantry challenge.

Have a wonderful week!
Moe

Pantry Challenge Day 7

Had to do a bit of grocery shopping. Went to Mejiers (Chorus of Angels music.......lol) shopped the produce, I think it's the lighting in that place! I could go broke shopping the produce section in that store. It's like the Garden of Eden in there! lol. They had those huge deli trays of cut of veggies & dip on clearance for $3.50, I bought one and my guys have gobbled it up. I got a few carrots, 1 piece of cauliflower and a few pieces of broccoli. I normally don't buy those trays, but the regular price was $7.99 so I snatched one up. I also bought some apples, mushrooms, eggs (we like store bought hard boiled eggs, better than our fresh eggs from our ranch, they are very hard to peel since they are so fresh) fresh green beans, cantaloupe (threw it away, it was very sour and cost me $2.99), bananas, almond milk and regular milk, kiwis, cherries ($2.99 lbs could not pass those up!), carrots and a case of Pepsi (cheaper for me to buy it, than for Dh to get it out of a machine at work. So this week I spent $33.31 on groceries this week for 3 people. I don't think that was too bad at all.
How did you do?
Moe