Here we are: grocery shopping day. The kids only had a half day of school so they had to come with me. It didn't go too bad. My pre-challenge weekly spending was $175 on groceries/cleaners/toiletries. Today I spent $90.14 on food, $13.32 on toiletries/cleaners, and $7.26 on gossip magazines. I spent $6.37 on impulse items. Impulse items were: microwave instant rice (my daughter loves that for after school), babybell little circle cheese, 4 feet of sub rolls (for 98 cents!), and cookies. They had Thanksgiving cookies on sale for 50 cents a box. I had a coupon to save $1.10 on two boxes of cookies. Yep, they paid me 10 cents to take two boxes of cookies home!! I also got a container of cooking creme for free because I bought two packages of cream cheese. I got a 48 ounce box of ice cream for free (love those loyalty cards!). Also, after shopping I stopped at a local pizza restaurant. We received a coupon for a free small cheese pizza for my hubby's birthday. Once again, gotta love those loyalty programs. Anyway back to groceries, after adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons I spent $116.51 out of pocket today. It is a little more than I would have liked, but my cart was really full. I saved $58.49. With me being sick with the flu, yet another week has gone by that we weren't able to go out to a restaurant for dinner or our usual couple of lunch dates out. That saved us $80. This brings my weekly savings to $138.49 My grand total since starting this challenge is $1,010.45 in 50 days!!
I would love to hear how you have altered your shopping habits. Do you cut back on impulse items? Do you only allow yourself a certain dollar amount each week? Some people may be intimidated and think that this is too big of a challenge to take on. If I can do it, anyone can! Think about your shopping habits. What do you think your biggest problem areas are? I altered this challenge to fit my family's needs. I knew my weaknesses were impulse items and not using leftovers. Take it one small change at a time. You won't believe the big results you can see.
For dinner I wanted to try out a new coconut chicken recipe that I found. I marinated the chicken in some coconut milk, ginger, and black pepper. I browned the chicken and then added more coconut milk to the pan. I found a small container of leftover pineapple (from when we made pizza) so I added that to the pan (juice too) then stuck it in the oven. The recipe called for a glaze made out of rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. I didn't have rice vinegar. I used up the rest of the bottle of red wine vinegar. It turned out delicious! I made one of our favorite side dishes. Saute onion, garlic, mushrooms, yellow squash, zucchini, and tomatoes. This dish used up the little bit of onion that was left, the rest of the old pack of mushrooms, and the end of a tomato that we had used earlier this week. Add some white wine, salt, pepper, basil, and freshly shaved parmesan cheese. There was a container of leftover jasmine rice in the fridge. Perfect.
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