Budget Week: Days 4 and 5

We did it! We made it through our week with only $50 worth of groceries for two adults to last breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The other $25 was spent on feeding our 5 month old....which makes $75 total for a family of 3. Not too shabby!

I switched up our menu schedule and on night 4 of this challenge, I made Sweet Corn Pasta. You remember this one, it's a 9 minute meal for about $5! It was still delicious, but I would wait until this summer to make it, when the corn is extra sweet and juicy :)

Last night, our final night of the challenge, I went off track....kind of. I had a half eaten package of ham leftover from our weekend breakfast sandwiches that I used. I didn't buy it, but it wasn't exactly in our weekly budget.

However, I still think it's pretty fair, consdering that everyone usually has leftovers from the week before. Regardless, this $3 worth of ham made a delicious dinner. Ham, broccoli, and cheese pasta bake!

And no, I didn't buy breadcrumbs. I made them instead! Why spend $3 on breadcrumbs when you can make them from one slice of wheat bread?

All in all, dinner was yummy and healthy (I used half homemade chicken stock and half reduced fat milk for the cheesy sauce). We ended our week under budget, if you count our leftovers. If not, I guess we were over by $2.75 for a 1/2 package of ham. I'll take it.

Will I try to do this every week? No. Heck no. It was definitely a challenge to make a new meal every night and not live off leftovers for under $50 (not including the baby). We could have easily eaten leftovers a couple nights, and cans of soup or frozen meals for lunches, but my mission was a new, fresh meal each night, and I did that. Barely.

Will I attempt to save more money at the store? Absolutely! Weekly specials are huge! I never looked at them before, I just bought things on sale when/if I came across them in the store. I need to plan our meals around the sales, instead of buying for the weekly menu I have come up with.

What tips did I learn? Soo many. Just a few are:

1. Buy a whole chicken. It can be used for two meals, and then the bones can make THE most delicious and rich sotck that you've ever tasted. Even if you don't use it that week, you can freeze it for another one.

2. Buy dried beans. I used maybe 1/2 the bag, and I still didn't even use all of those in one recipe. I spent $2 on a bag of beans, but I spend $2.19 on one can.  I get more than 6 cans worth out of that bag. You do the math.

3. Buy what's in season. Corn was 6 for $2, and it's not even the height of corn season! Build your meals around what's in season and you'll save a ton!

4. Saving money takes a little more time and effort. Snipping coupons, printing weekly ads, and researching menus that encompass these foods took some time, but it was worth it. Also, making your own stock and breadcrumbs is definitely not a time saver. Convenience has its price, because time is money! Time also leads to more delicious food though.

As a reward the week of budget friendly meals - we deserve a splurge tonight. I see a couple of steaks in our future :) Still MUCH cheaper than eating out though, right?

Enjoy your weekend! 

Budget Week: Day 1

We've started the 5 days and 5 nights of our week on a budget. I gave us a limit of $75, to last us the work week (since we have plans this weekend that involve company and dining out). It's MUCH harder than you would think. Mind you, we are not eating any processed/prepared meals or junk food, which are a lot easier on the wallet.

*According to this website, the average family of three (our fur babies were not included in this budget), can receive up to $463/month on their Georgia Compass EBT Card to be used for food. That breaks down to $115/week. Some think it's impossible to eat healthy on that kind of budget.  After our first trip to the grocery store I can tell you that it's difficult, but not impossible.

I will mention that I am using the olive oil, butter, salt and pepper, and spices that I have on hand. We also did not have to buy diapers, because we use cloth diapers. It’s an investment in the beginning that really pays off once the baby arrives. We did, however, have to buy formula and baby food. I make her baby food, so it costs less than $1/week. Kenley’s food total was almost 1/3 of our budget for the week, but since she's 1/3 of our family, I guess it makes sense :)

 She likes peas - horray!

Going into the week, I knew I'd have to do some research at my local grocery store before I came up with a menu. Kenley's food was $25 of our budget, so I had $50 for two adults' breakfast, lunch, and dinner all week. Woah.

I started by checking my local grocery store (in my case, Publix), for their weekly specials. I rarely do this, but it saved me $22 off my bill! So many items were buy 1, get 1 free. This is HUGE, because we didn't need two of many things, except for cereal. One for him, one for her :)

I was able to get bread, pre-cut fresh broccoli, two kinds of cheese, cereal, pasta, etc, all for half off. I also got some ground beef that was on sale, corn (6 ears for $2!), and red skinned potatoes that were really cheap. I made my menu around these cheaper items. In addition I bought a whole chicken that would make two meals. Here is the menu I divised:

Day 1 - Roast Chicken, Carrots, and Red Potatoes with Spicy Parmesan Green Beans

Day 2 - White Chicken Chili

Day 3 - Sweet Corn and Basil Pasta

Day 4 - Patty Melts with Sweet Potato Fries

Day 5 - Carmelized Onion, Sweet Pea, and Roasted Broccoli Pasta with Cheesy Garlic Bread

Not bad, right? I will have Raisin Bran (two for 1) for breakfast, bananas for snacks, leftovers for lunches, and a big meal each night. The baby has her bottles, and peas or sweet potatoes that I made last night, so we'll switch off days for her. The grand total for our entire bill was $74.76!

Last night I made the Roasted Chicken Dinner. It was delicious! By buying an entire chicken (All natural and $7.11), I am able to use the leftovers for chicken chili, and the bones for stock.

I never buy whole chickens because they freak me out, but it was so nice to know that we were using every last piece of this guy in some way. It's probably the only way people used to cook back in that day.

I stuffed the chicken with garlic and lemon, and seasoned the outside with salt and pepper (and a couple tablespoons of butter). Bake for an hour and a half at 425 degrees and you've got a great meal! I even removed the chicken so the potatoes could continue to get some color.

Once we had eaten, I removed the rest of the meat and placed the carcass (yucky word) into a stock pot with carrots, celery, and onion, then filled it to the top with water. As we speak, it is simmering on the stove to make a stock for our chili tonight! Two for one, baby.

I also started soaking my beans last night, because dried beans are MUCH cheaper than canned!

I'll let you know how we do. So far, we don't feel the least bit deprived. Let's just hope this budget can keep up with our appetite!

*Head over to the Baby tab for some Kenley photo overload. I detailed our Weekly Photo Project today :)

PERFECT ROAST CHICKEN

Adapted from Ina Garten

• 1 (5 to 6 pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon, halved
• a few cloves garlic, cut in half crosswise
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 carrots cut into 2-inch chunks
• 1-2lbs red skinned potatoes, quartered 
• Olive oil for tossing

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pin feathers and pat the outside dry. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the bunch of thyme, both halves of lemon, and all the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Place the potatoes and carrots in a roasting pan. Toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Spread around the bottom of the roasting pan and place the chicken on top.

Roast the chicken for 1 1/2 hours, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove the chicken and vegetables to a platter and cover with aluminum foil for about 20 minutes. Slice the chicken onto a platter and serve it with the vegetables.

TGIF!

Sorry about the lack of posts this week! I have been doing some home improvement projects (painting - ugh) at night after the baby goes to bed, so there has been no cooking in my house this week. Jeff has been out of town, so it's been easy to whip up a sandwich or roasted veggies for myself and call it dinner :)

I promise I will be back on Monday with some good eats and a little challenge. I want to try feed our family healthy meals for $75 next week. This includes the baby (diapers, formula, homemade baby food) and breakfast, lunch, and dinner for Jeff and I from Mon- Fri. And this includes HEALTHY meals, full of veggies and protein, not Tostinos pizzas, soda and chips, and Ramen Noodles. I'll share all the details with you next week.

My inspiration for the challenge came from Brittany, who blogged last week about how people claim they can't eat healthy meals on government assistance ($102/week for a family of three). We have plans next weekend, so I reduced the amount to see if we could stick with it for the weekdays. She gives some great tips on how to save some money while still eating whole foods.

My sister works in public health, so food policy is near and dear to her. We were just talking last weekend about how the obesity epidemic in America tends to stem from poverty. I'm convinced that if we are resourceful, we can stick to the budget that these families are given, and still eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Living on a budget should not be an excuse to feed your family junk. Hopefully we can prove that!

Because real food tastes sooo much better. Even Kenley knows that :)

Have a great weekend!