The End of Week 1

Well, I knew our hardest part of this challenge would be eating out. I did really good this week not going out to lunch (while my husband didn't do so well on that end), but this weekend hit and life got crazy, and I gave into that urge. Last night's dinner was super cheap and not a big deal to splurge for, but today we went out to lunch during errands and spent $20 including tip. YIKES! We are still under budget, but if we could just stop eating out, we would be WAY under budget. So, as we head into week #2 I am hoping to get better about eating out. This challenge will be good for us. If only I could convince my husband to stop drinking soda!! (And not that this blog is about my dropping bad habits, but I didn't drink any caffeine two days in a row now!!)

So here was our menu today:

Breakfast- Homemade Blueberry Wheat Pancakes with blueberries on the side
Lunch- Mexican restaurant (dh- steak burrito, me-chicken burrito/rice, dd chicken fingers/rice)
Dinner- Spaghetti and Salad (lettuce, onion, cucumber, tomatoe)


$20.27 for lunch Spending Today
TOTAL FOR WEEK 1= $74.01

Yikes! We were JUST under budget. Our budget had to be $75 or less. Talk about a close call! What is sad about this is almost all of it was beverages and eating out! We spent less than $20 on actual food from the store!

Day 6 All You Challenge

We're getting closer to a new week with a new budget!!! I love getting to really see what we are spending money on since I normally don't really keep a budget at all. I already knew we spent the most on beverages and eating out, but boy is this really confirming it!

Today was a lazy day. So lazy, I didn't have the energy or want to put an effort into cooking and cleaning up after dinner since I was trying to get the house in order anyway so we ordered pizza- BUT we did the $5.55 hot and ready pizza! So, menu today was:

BREAKFAST: Oatmeal for dd and I; Egg sandwich for dh
LUNCH: Tuna and cheese sandwiches (tuna free from super doubles; cheese under .50 during a BOGO deal)
DINNER: Little Ceasar's pepperoni pizza and breadsticks (the breadsticks were free given to us because they didn't have our pizza ready when dh went to pick it up.)

Total Spending Today: 6.02
Total for the Week: $53.94

Day 5 All You Challenge

BREAKFAST- Oatmeal
LUNCH- We used the left-over shredded pork from the other night and made it into quesidillas with tortillas I had gotten for free at a past triples, BBQ sauce (Hasn't EVERYONE gotten free Kraft BBQ in the past few months :) ), and shredded cheese (free at past HT super doubles). We also had some Grande Tortilla chips that I had paid 1.00 for a few weeks ago and salsa and sour cream on the side (again, stockpile free items).
DINNER- We attended a 3-year old's birthday bash and were served dinner and cake there so FREE DINNER for us!

My husband went out and got beer tonight. That was our only spending.

Total Spent Today: 6.96
Total for Week: $47.92

*** I have added an additional $2 to my weekly total as my husband informed me today that his lunch bills were $1 more after tip was added each day. I will try to remember to go back and edit those days, but I have at least included that in the count from here forward. ***

Day 4 All You Challenge

Have I mentioned how much I love this challenge? It's so much fun just to be able to think about how much or how little we are saving each day with my crazy couponing habits. What's even better about this challenge is that it's forcing me to think before I suggest eating out lately, and it is so much better for us to NOT eat out! The temptation is so much less when I'm trying to keep my budget low. I need this challenge to be a year long! Ha,ha.

So, today's meals included:

Breakfast: Pancakes again (My daughter can't get enough of them these past few days) and banana.
Lunch: Egg Salad Sandwiches and chips (We bought the eggs and chips today for a total of 5.58. My husband got them on his way home from work so no coupons were involved, but I made sure if he HAD to have chips that he bought the ones on sale.)
Dinner: Taco Salad- lettuce, ground beef w/ taco seasoning, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream, salsa. (The beef was my purchase earlier this week, all veggies were from produce co-op, salsa/sour cream/seasoning were all stockpile from freebies at a triple shop)
Snack: Yogurt (was free at HT's super doubles last month)

I have seen a lot of others participating in the challenge posting what they are drinking each day. My daughter is 2.5 years old and only drinks water and milk. As a treat, she sometimes is given juice, which is diluted A LOT (probably 70/30). The juice is a stockpile from the past super doubles were it was free. My husband and I drink milk at dinner, water and soda during the day. I don't think there's much hope in getting my husband to reduce his soda intact for my budget, but I decided I was going to try and do better. Currently, I am drinking one per day, and I'm hoping by the end of this challenge to only be drinking one on a rare occassion. Wish me luck!

Total Spending Today: $5.58
Total for the Week: $38.69

Day 3 All You Challenge

Today we had the following to eat:
BREAKFAST- Eggo Blueberry Pancakes- plain (we have syrup in the house but dd and I don't use it for our pancakes) (free from a triple shopping trip) and banana (from produce co-op).
LUNCH- Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
DINNER- BBQ Shredded pork sandwiches and mac and cheese (.14 mac and cheese from a sale a while back and the pork butt was .88/lb a week ago at our Harris Teeter)

We didn't snack much today- dd had some kix for a snack and some raisins. DH and I splurged and had some ice cream (Breyers .25 at a previous triples) after the kids went to bed.

I ran to the store today to get 2 loafs of bread and also picked up 4 packs of ground beef. It is on sale at our Harris Teeter for 1.47/lb. I may go get more of this. Next week I have to make dinner for two other families besides mine (two playgroup moms had babies and we all cook dinners for them) so I may get some of that and make them mostaccoli (sp?) since I already have a big stockpile of noodles, cheese, and sauce. That would make for a cheap dinner for three families with that meat sale!

Total Spending today: $9.77
Total for the Week: $33.11

Here's a breakdown of my Harris Teeter shopping trip today:
Nature Pride Wheat Bread- 1.99x 2 (-0.55 MQ doubled x 2) = 1.78 for 2 loaves of bread!
Ground Beef- 1.47/lb- purchased 5.29 pounds

Day 2 All You Challenge

Total Spending today: 6.77 (DH ate out for lunch again today :( )
Total for week= $23.34

What did we eat today? (I decided it's too much to recount all my savings deals for our food but everything from today was stockpile and/or produce co-op that I picked up last week.)

BREAKFAST- Bananas and Eggo Blueberry pancakes
LUNCH- PB&J and apples again.
DINNER- Chicken, corn, and potatoes over a golden mushroom sauce w/ fresh mushrooms

Many weeks my husband works from home and will then eat lunch with us. I am pretty sad that this week, he seems to be going out to eat each day. It is just making me get a high budget when we could have spent next to nothing this week! I already have the meat for a lot of our dinners.

Day 1 All You Challenge

So, I'm going to go into far greater detail than All You has requested for this challenge? Why? Because I love adding up in my head how much I spent on all the items we eat and use each day. It's fun to realize how little you can pay for so much stuff! Maybe reading everything we eat for the next month and how much I paid for it will get you even more interested to read about my deals that I'll post as this blog gets moving. So, All You just wants me to keep track of what I spend each day and if I use items that we already had in the house than it doesn't count towards my savings, but I'm going to chat about my stockpiles anyway for fun.

Total spent today= 16.57( DH ate lunch out today (6.77), 9.44 for pop (4- 12 packs), and .36 for 10 Sobe Waters)

Our biggest problem with this challenge (and with our budget in general) is eating out and soda (we call it pop.. it's that yankee part of me). That's what's going to be the majority of our spending most weeks. I am going to let this challenge try and help me not drink as much soda, however, I don't think my husband is willing to participate in that same challenge, and he drinks A LOT of soda!

What did we eat today?
I'll start by saying that my husband and I are not breakfast eaters so we tend to not eat much of anything at breakfast. I try to eat a little so that my daughter will eat but some days I don't.
BREAKFAST- Kix cereal (free from triples) and a banana (from my produce co-op)
LUNCH- PB&J (J-free from triples; PB- less than $1 from CVS sale; bread was .89 after coupon at HT last week) and apples (from produce co-op)
DINNER- Split Chicken Breast (on sale last week for .88/lb- total 2.36), green bean casserole (green beans from produce-co-op; .59 for can of cream of mushroom at previous Target sale; French's free at triples)
SNACK- Strawberries (produce co-op), Special K snack bars (old WAG sale that were free or cheap)

Now, on to day 2!