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What I Spent and What We Ate- January 30

WHAT I SPENT AND WHAT WE ATE
I have been looking at my overflowing freezers and very full pantry over the holiday week and
wondering why am I still going grocery shopping?   I am planning on making January my
Pantry/Freezer Challenge month.

This is what I’m doing……
First I am taking an inventory of both my freezer and pantry to see exactly what I have.  Then I will
be menu planning around what I have and only purchasing what we need which will focus on
perishable items such as fruit, vegetable and milk which should be about $35.00 a week.  I am low
on a few key life items (AKA Coffee, cat food, cat litter, etc.), so I did keep an extra $10.00 in the
budget for rock bottom prices on these items. This makes for a total budget of $155.00.  
WHAT I SPENT
January Spending
Week 1
Krogers = $38.48

Week 2
CVS= $1.90
Walgreens= $0.00
Krogers= 38.48
Meijer= 3.24
Week 3
Kroger= $13.21 (Coffee Sale)
Meijers= $6.87
CVS= $0.00
Aldi= $22.34
Week 4 Total= $77.44
Kroger= $42.68
CVS=
Aldi= $34.76
This week’s grocery numbers are very high given our goal of $35.00 this week.   However, let’s look
at the bigger picture. In my area chicken breast hit their stock up price of $1.49 lb.  Wow this only
happens every 6-8 weeks. In addition, my son’s chicken nuggets also went on sale for $3.99 for a
2lb bag.  Finally, my husband really wanted some beer this week and since our budget was self
imposed and we already saved a great deal of money this money, I didn’t see a good reason to not
provide it for him.  We decided to add $40.00 to our budget for these items, but as you see, we still
went over by $7.44. The good news is that we cleaned out the refrigerator, pantry and freezer. In
addition, we decreased our kitchen waste and saved $198.04 when comparing our spending with
our usual grocery budget.  
The numbers come in at $201.96 for this month.  Our original budget was $155.00.  
WHAT WE ATE (January 20-26, 2019)
Sunday-  Swim Practice was cancelled because of the weather
Baked Ham
Buttered Noodles
Brussel Sprouts
Salad
Monday-
Pork Fried Rice
Salad
Tuesday - Swim
Pasta
Salad
Bread Sticks
Wednesday- Working, Swim
Ham and Cheese Sandwiches
Vegetable Sticks  
Thursday-  Working, Swim
Tacos
Salad
Friday-
Pizza
Salad
Vegetable Sticks

Saturday-
Grilled Shrimp
Rice
Green Beans

Salad

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