Week Four The Finish!

Amy:  At the end of week four, I have an extra $35.03 in my food budget.  After four weeks I was pleasantly surprised that I could feed three of us healthy meals for a month on $526 or less.  

B: Ploys/Pancakes L: BLT’s, pretzels, mandarin oranges D: Pot roast, potatoes, peas, cran sauce, stuffing or roll

B: scrambled eggs, hashbrowns L: Tuna sandwiches on ww bread, pretzels, cucumbers with ranch D: beef fajitas

B: French toast L: taco salads D: Beef stew, homemade biscuits

B: Breakfast sandwich, banana L: beef stew, biscuit D: : Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, roll

B: Bagel with LF cream cheese or PB, banana L: Spaghetti with meat sauce, cucumber with ranch D: BBQ chicken drumsticks/wings, rice carrots

B: Dropped eggs on toast, banana L:Chicken sandwiches, carrots, pretzels Dinner:  Homemade pizza

B: eggs, turkey bacon, English muffin, banana/pineapple L: Cobb salads, garlic bread D: Chicken quesadillas, rice

 
This week I used the pot roast I made Sunday afternoon to make beef fajitas the next night.  I also made beef stew, which is a family favorite.  I only use half of the seasoning packet to save on the sodium content of the stew.  I also use only one pound of stew meat and extra vegetables keep the fat content in check.

One change I made, and I do this occasionally, is instead of a meat sauce for the spaghetti on Wednesday, we just did marinara sauce.  I like to do vegetarian meals sometimes to save on the food budget and we also had a lot of red meat this week so I didn't want to overdo it. 

We will be talking more later about "lessons learned" but I did want to say that this experience has made me realize that we can spend a lot less than we usually do on food.  I used to budget a lot more than $526 every month for food, and now I think we can stick to that amount.


Jo-Ellen: Whew! I made it. It's exactly how I feel. This last week has been the hardest for me to follow and not because of the recipes but because I am bored eating the same few recipes over and over. I ate vegetable lasagna on Tuesday for lunch - for the 13th time within a month. I loved it the first week and really liked it the second, but this last week when I had to take out the frozen square of lasagna for my lunch....I was counting down the days.
The turkey bolognese was another tasty recipe that was easy to make. 

With the last of my funds I bought ground turkey, boneless skinless chicken breast for the garlic chicken recipe, fresh basil, and a couple of other items not included in the recipe; including eggs, bananas, a cucumber, leaf lettuce, tomato, swiss cheese, a lemon and sundried tomato wraps.  I spent $25.44 for a total of $198.12. I am left with $1.88 and this is my last day. I have had breakfast and my lunch and dinner are already prepared.
Yes, you can eat three, healthy meals on $6.66 a day. Watch for the last blog titled "Lessons Learned" from 30 days on $200.