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July 22nd, 2009
Here’s yesterday’s menu:
Breakfast: Oatmeal. Remember all the boxes of oatmeal I got for .07 cents back in November? We are still enjoying that stockpile.
Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches and mandarin orange pieces. I didn’t have time to start the breadmaker, so I decided to serve it on hamburger buns instead.
Jai and I both have hectic work schedules, so we don’t always eat at the same time. If you just see one plate in the photo, then that means that Jai had the same thing later, unless I note otherwise.
Dinner: Yesterday afternoon, Jai fixed a computer for a good friend of ours. To thank him, she had made him some of her special lo mein noodles. So I guess this would go under the “bartering” category!
 I went to the store last night to pick up some half-and-half for $2.29. This brings our running total to $8.14.
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July 21st, 2009
Here’s our menu for Day 8 –
Breakfast: Yogurt and oatmeal. We also got a bag of coffee for $5.85, our first purchase of the week.
Lunch:
I made egg salad sandwiches on homemade bread. Jai took his to go:
 I had mine with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of Crystal Lite iced tea.
 Dinner:
Leftover garlic chicken and roast potatoes:
We have tons of chicken left, but my plate looks pretty sad because I didn’t have much of an appetite. Jai got home from work pretty late so there’s no picture of his plate.
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July 21st, 2009
I hope everyone had a nice weekend! Here’s our menus for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday:
Friday –
Breakfast: I had yogurt, while Jai opted for leftover casserole.
Lunch: I had a piece of pizza leftover from the night before, along with an organic fruit pouch and a glass of coke.
 Jai had more casserole. He could have eaten something else, but he really liked the casserole!
Dinner: I opted for my favorite quick-and-easy stockpile meal for hectic nights – Pasta Roni. I used a box of Nature’s Way Mushrooms in Cream Sauce, and added two cans of tuna and some green olives. I served this with some salad that needed to be used up.
 (The second plate is empty because Jai hadn’t gotten back from work yet!)
Saturday –
Breakfast: I wasn’t feeling so hot, so I skipped breakfast. Jai ate the rest of that casserole!
Lunch: Since I was still feeling a bit off, I just wanted something simple and plain for lunch – so we had fresh, warm homemade bread served with a choice of butter, jam or peanut butter and applesauce.
 Dinner: That afternoon, I went to the store and bought chicken, pork, and a gallon of milk for $7.86. This was my last shopping trip for the week, bringing my final grocery total for the week to $16.90 – far below our $50 allotment. Since I’d had a pretty rotten week, we decided to take the leftover money in our budget and have some fun. We went out for dinner to a restaurant we like:
 We spent $21.55 for two hamburgers and fries, a beer, and tip. After dinner, we also got two ice cream cones for $3.08. Our final total for the week was $41.53. It was a fun night out – sticking to a budget doesn’t necessarily have to mean sacrificing things you enjoy.
Sunday –
We had a nice brunch of pancakes:
 When I’m making pancakes for just the two of us, I find it easier to make one big pancake and cut it in half. (When I have company over, I make smaller ones and keep them on a warm plate in the oven until they’re all finished.) I had a lot of batter left, and there were several more pancakes made after I snapped this picture!
Dinner:
I used the chicken I had bought on Saturday to make a big pan of Garlic Chicken and Roast Potatoes:
 This chicken is slow-cooked, and so good, especially with fresh-pulled garlic from my garden.
 This is an example of one way to save on meat. This package of drumsticks only cost $4.01, and makes a big meal – especially when combined with potatoes, a frugal staple. You could make this meal for about $5, and you get a lot of food for your money. Since there’s only two of us, we’ll get a few meals out of leftovers from this dish, but it could easily serve a larger family.
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July 19th, 2009
 Click here to access a “Try-Me-Free” rebate form for Tyson Skillet Creations. They also have printable coupons available on that page for $1 off – this would lower your initial out-of-pocket investment, and who knows, it could possibly turn it into a money-maker, although I’m not sure.
Thanks to Coupon Cravings and everyone else who posted about this deal!
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July 18th, 2009
 Click here to sign up to receive a free copy of Get Married magazine when it debuts in October.
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July 17th, 2009
Thursday marked day 4 of the Grocery Challenge! Here’s our menu:
Breakfast: Jai and I both had a pot of yogurt, a bartered item.
Lunch:
 We had leftovers – Jai was out at a job, so I packed some casserole as a lunch that he took with him. I had half a pasty and casserole, served with this bartered fruit juice. (In case you missed my earlier posts, these bartered items are samples which I have been sent to review on Contest Corner.)
Dinner:
Remember the .99 cent pizza I ordered from Schwan’s in back June? Well, I thought this would be a good time to make it:
 I had one big ear of corn left that I had purchased on Tuesday, so I cut that in half and served it with the pizza.
 Yesterday, I purchased three 2-liters of soda, for a total of $2.28. This brings my running total for the week to $9.04. I also spent an additional $1.69 on sponges, but household items do not count towards the challenge total.
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July 16th, 2009
Wednesday marked day 3 of the Grocery Challenge! Here’s our menu:
Breakfast: I skipped breakfast, yet again. (Now I see the value in food journaling!) I think Jai had something from the stockpile, but I’m not sure.
Lunch:
 Leftovers from last night’s casserole, served with a fruit drink – a bartered item which I am writing a review of for Contest Corner. Jai wasn’t home for most of the day, so I packed some casserole for him to take along as his lunch.
Dinner:
I cooked up a few more recipes for the “Pace recipe challenge” that I mentioned yesterday. The salsa was bartered, and all the other ingredients came from my pantry and freezer stockpile. I made meat & potato pasties and a meat & potato pie, which will give us leftovers for a few days!
I served this with a bag of salad from my fridge. If you like, you can click here to get the full details on the recipes.
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July 15th, 2009
I’d like to start this by thanking all my readers for the kind words of condolence; it is truly appreciated. Keeping some semblance of normality during this time is very helpful to me, so let’s shift the focus a little bit and talk about the grocery challenge for a while.
Monday – Day 1 of the challenge
Breakfast: I skipped breakfast – a habit which I have gotten into lately and am working to break. Jai ate leftovers for his breakfast.
Lunch:
 Gardenburgers & freeze-dried fruit. The patties & buns came from my freezer, while the fruit samples were sent to me so that I can review them on Contest Corner – so those would fall under the “Barter” category.
Dinner:
 We had a lot of Chinese food leftover from the weekend, so I reheated it for dinner. The flavored fortune cookies are also samples for a review, so those are bartered items as well.
Tuesday – Day 2
Yesterday morning, I went to the store and purchased a gallon of milk, a quart of half-and-half, and three ears of corn, for a total of $6.76.
Breakfast: Jai skipped breakfast, while I had a SoyJoy bar from my stockpile. (I know these have kind of a bad reputation, but I actually enjoy them!)
Lunch: 
I had packed a lunch for Jai the night before, since he was going to be at work during the afternoon. After we got the news about Grandma, he cancelled his work appointment and ended up just eating the sack lunch at home.
 There was one Veggieburger left in the freezer, so I ate that along with some freeze-dried fruit, yogurt, and a protein drink. The yogurt and protein drink are also bartered items which I will be reviewing. Jai’s lunch also contained one of the freeze-dried fruit pouches and protein drinks, along with a Zone bar and peanuts, both from the stockpile.
Dinner:
I am also participating in a recipe challenge on my other blog. Pace Salsa sent me two jars of salsa for review, and asked me if I wanted to create some recipes using them. So for dinner last night, I modified my favorite Bean and Cheese Pie recipe to make this casserole – click here if you’d like the recipe.
Remember how I planted garlic back in October? Well, here it is now:
 I pulled one fresh head of garlic, which I chopped up and used in the casserole. Yum!
 The salsa was another bartered item, while the rest of the ingredients came from my stockpile.
I served it with the corn that I had bought that morning, and some wine that has been in my fridge for a while. As you can see, the recipe made a lot, so we had plenty for second helpings and lunch today.
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July 14th, 2009
 This morning I got the news that my Grandma has passed away. So this is dedicated to her memory – the photo you see above is a snapshot of her holding me as a baby. We love you, Grandma.
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July 14th, 2009
I have entered the All You Magazine Grocery Challenge contest, and today is the first official day of the competition. All You is challenging entrants to spend no more than $25 per person per week on groceries for one month, and the frugal champion will win some awesome prizes.
The rule for this contest is that any food you buy – be it groceries or eating out – will count towards your weekly total. 10 finalists will be chosen and asked to submit recipts for all of their food purchases during the contest period. You can also utilize stockpiled food, barter, and utilize home-grown foods. Household supplies such as cleaning items, toiletries, etc, do not count towards the weekly total.
I’m excited to begin the challenge, and it couldn’t have come at a better time! I’m sure you’ve probably noticed that I haven’t done much shopping lately. Life has been especially hectic recently, so I have been eating from my stockpile and also eating out a lot. I have a habit of turning to fast food when I’m stressed out – I’m sure many of you can relate. When you’ve had a crazy day, cruising through the drive-thru for a Big Mac sounds a lot better than cooking! This doesn’t help my budget or my waistline, so this contest is a perfect motivator to cut out the fast food.
Since I will be using stockpiled ingredients in some of our meals, I went through the house today and snapped photos of all my stockpiled food, to give you an idea of what I already have on hand:
Beans & soup
Bottled water
Lots of frosting!
Canned Goods
Baking supplies, Capri Sun, chocolate, tons of granola & protein bars, fruit snacks, lots of meat marinade, plenty of salad dressing, Crystal Lite, peanuts
More peanuts
Lots of rice and popcorn
Tons of pasta & pasta sauce, noodles, Rice-a-Roni, salsa, cooking oils, peanut butter, maple syrup, corn muffin mixes, etc.
Oatmeal, cereal, potatoes, Hamburger Helper, applesauce, tea, baking soda
Inside my freezer – a few pre-made frozen meals, berries, some meat, etc.
I’m going to be documenting what we eat every day, so that I can chart our progress in the challenge and also share my frugal meal ideas. Are any of my readers participating in the All You contest? Or are you doing your own personal budget challenge? I would love to hear from you!
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