Real Food on a Budget–An Update
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Catch up on my challenge for July–Real Food on a Budget
So as promised, I am here to update you on how I spent our grocery money this week and to give you totals on where we stand. I did my shopping on Friday morning at H-E-B and Walmart. I really wasn’t in the mood to venture into the city to Sprouts, Trader Joe’s or Target. My husband and I had a few friends over on Saturday for a cookout, so I went a little bit over my $50/week budget this week getting what we needed. I had to skimp on getting a lot of things I would normally stock up on, and didn’t buy ANY meat. Luckily, two weeks ago I stocked up on a lot of marked down cruelty free meats, so we have plenty to eat off of this week, and probably next week too. I did my meal planning around what we already have in the house so I didn’t have to purchase as much. I knew we were going to need extra things for the cookout and wanted to make sure we had enough money.
Cookout Menu
- Turkey burgers with crumbled bacon and cheese mixed in
- Jalapeno deer burgers
- Crockpot baked Beans (I saved some cooked beans to use in a meal this week)
- Mashed dill potatoes
- Corn on the cob
- Fruit salad
- Double layer poke cake (homemade cake, whipped cream and jello!)
This weekend I will be visiting a friend so I won’t be home to cook. That’s OK though, my hubby is king at throwing whatever looks good into a pot, adding rice and hot sauce, and calling it a meal. I’m not worried he will be going to the store without me knowing and buying unnecessary things.
I’ve mentioned before that I have been learning how to stretch our ground beef by adding in shredded veggies–like carrots, onion, peppers and zucchini. This way we can get 2 meals out of 1 pound of beef, where as before we would use the whole pound in one dish.
Since the challenge started on the 1st, here is what we had for dinner up until this point–keep in mind ALL of the meat is from what we already had in our deep freeze.
- Tuesday–Indonesian noodles with peanut sauce
- Wednesday– Southwest wraps with ground beef, black beans, corn, cilantro and sour cream
- Thursday– leftovers
- Friday– Italian beef in the Crockpot
- Saturday– Cookout
- Sunday (today)–Leftovers from the cookout
And here is what we are eating THIS week
- Monday–Baked chicken and veggies
- Tuesday–Yellow curry and Naan
- Wednesday–Chilli, with 1/2lb ground beef and veggies,–using already cooked beans from the baked beans
- Thursday–Spaghetti with 1/2lb ground beef and veggies, marinara, and a salad
- Friday and Saturday– my hubby will be scrounging for himself
- Sunday–if I’m back early–Steaks on the grill, baked potatoes and salad
- For breakfast we are sticking to the yogurt, fruit, and granola, as well as smoothies.
- For lunch we are eating wraps, leftovers, and PB and J
- For snacks we have fruits and veggies, hard boiled eggs, popcorn, and homemade fruit popsicles
So the Real Food on a Budget challenge wouldn’t be complete unless I told you exactly how much I spent. Forgive me for the lack of a picture, I was in such a hurry to get cleaning my house on Friday that I just put everything away without thinking of all of you!
Total Spent this week: $64.33
H-E-B–$52.21
- includes yogurt, milk, tomato sauce, fruits and veggies, whole wheat pasta, dried beans, lunch meat, tortillas and other pantry staples
Walmart–$12.12
- includes celery, cat food, whipping cream, cheese–basically the stuff I forgot at HEB oops 😉
Food total–$59.65
Other total–$4.68
Coupons used–NONE!
I have a little less than $50 to spend each week until the end of July. With that being said, I still think we can do it.
Next week, since I’ll be gone through the weekend, I don’t know when I will be doing my grocery shopping, but I will be sure to update you when I do!
