Week Three What's Been Happening?

Jo-Ellen: I have been following "30 days on $200" Sample 30-day Calendar for three weeks. Sunday, I start my fourth and final week. What's been happening? I lost 1lb on week one and 1lb on week two but on week three I made no bake cookies, and had no weight loss. It just reinforces the obvious, snacking on sugary treats, even with exercise and a goal to lose a few pounds can't happen if you consume more calories than you burn. 
This week the recipes were minestrone soup and tuna casserole. I enjoyed the soup but I did not really care for the chopped broccoli in the tuna casserole. I like tuna casserole but I add only peas for the vegetable and I would continue to do so in the future. 

I bought eggs, milk, bananas and apples at a cost of $11.96, my total spent is $176.44.  I am looking at my final week meal plan and I am to prepare turkey bolognese and garlic chicken. Looking over the recipe I need to purchase fresh basil, ground turkey and chicken this week. I have all the other ingredients. With $23.56 remaining, I can make these purchases and check my pantry to make sure I'm okay for my breakfast foods - I may need yogurt and another red pepper.  I am grateful for all the feedback and the graciousness that it has been given. I hope in the future to share some recipes that I prepare when I'm not on the "30 days on $200 meal plan that are healthy, affordable and tasty.
I would encourage you to share a recipe that has been a go-to meal in your family. 

Amy: As I mentioned in my last post I looked up how much a family of three would receive on SNAP benefits.  Initially when I started this project I wanted to see if I could challenge myself to keep to the monthly budget of $200 for the three meals a day for my family of three.  I think I was wearing my proverbial rose colored glasses!!  It wasn't long and I realized that it was just not going to be possible to feed all of us on $50 a week.  The benefit amount, or budget for food, for a family of three is $526 dollars.  So, this is my revised challenge - to feed us all for the month on $526.  I added up all of my food receipts for the last few weeks using my menu plan.   During week one I spent $81.09, week two was $116.10 and this week I spent the most so far; $181.13.  

I have finally started to run out of items I had stocked in my pantry, so I needed to buy a lot of things. It was also kind of a weird week because I had to go out of town for work, so I had to make sure to have some things ready for my family to make while I was gone.  They were able to make the spaghetti meal on their own for Wednesday night, and they decided to make the pizza for themselves on Thursday night, and I ate the pizza when I got home later that evening. Friday, we had the chicken parmesan meal for dinner.  My meals were covered by my work training while I was out of town so it wasn't an extra expense for me.

You will notice on Friday I put in for us to eat out for lunch.  Even though I could have made us sandwiches for a lot cheaper, I figured it was realistic for us to eat at LEAST one healthy lunch meal out for the month.

B: Ploys/Pancakes L: baked potatoes, broccoli salad D: Turkey Meatballs BBQ pork and rice, carrots

B: scrambled eggs, hash browns L: Meatballs BBQ Pork and broccoli salad D: Meatloaf, mashed potato, corn, roll

B: French toast L: baked potatoes D: Cheesy Rice casserole

B: Breakfast sandwich, banana L: egg salad sandwiches, cucumbers with ranch, pretzels D: Spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, roll

B: Bagel with LF cream cheese or PB, banana L: Cobb Salads D: Chicken Parmesan, green beans

B: Dropped eggs on toast, banana L: Subway* Dinner:  Homemade pizza

B: eggs, turkey bacon, English muffin, banana/pineapple L: Pizza, veggies and dip D: BBQ chicken drumsticks/wings, rice carrots

I did end up making one other change from my menu this week because the pork was on sale.  On Sunday, instead of making turkey meatballs (the turkey was $4.99 per pound and the pork was on sale for $2.49 per pound) I made BBQ pork in my crock pot. I had to trim off some of the extra fat, but it was SO good!!!

This is something to keep in mind when trying to shop on a budget.  Take a look at your menu and recipes and the sale fliers at the store.  If you can alternate one of your meals or recipes with other items that are on sale you can save yourself a lot of money!  I have spent $378.32 for three weeks for my family of three which leaves me with $147.68 for week 4.