My daughter finished our grocery week off the right way. She packed her lunchbox with half of a ham sandwich. Why only half? She wanted to also bring a container of the leftover veggie crumble taco "meat". Wow. My son decided to buy school lunch today. I got to meet up with a few friends for lunch. I had a few questions for the waiter and it was my first time explaining that I wanted to keep it vegetarian. I felt kinda weird. Is that going to go away? Anyway, I ended up having sauteed pea pods, their biscuits, and the salad bar. Where else can you load up on spinach, romaine, carrots, peas, cheese, sunflower seeds, craisins, and cucumbers? Yum! My hubby was on his own at home for lunch. He texted me a picture of his ooey gooey muenster cheese sandwich. Looked good!
My pre-challenge weekly average at restaurants was $80. We actually ate out quite a bit this week. We went to Subway as a family, TGIF on a date, and Ruby Tuesday today with the ladies. I spent $70.18 which is a savings of $9.82. The kids packed lunches enough times to save us $14. My pre-challenge grocery shopping weekly average was $175. Today I spent $12 on cleaners/toiletries. I spent $3.29 on impulse items. I decided to try black eyes peas (no clue what I will do with them) and a greek yogurt for my hubby and one for me to try. I spent $99.34 on food. I spent $5.08 on gossip magazines. Good thing most of the racks were empty and they only had two of the four that I like. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $122.97 out of pocket. That is a savings of $52.03. This brings our weekly savings to $75.85 for the week. Our grand total savings is $3,268.87 in 196 days! So I didn't hit my $100 mark this week. This challenge is about saving what I can when I can. I'm not going to quit meeting up with friends every once in awhile or going out for lunch with my family. I'm happy with my savings this week. It also made me think of something else. My pre-challenge spending is an AVERAGE. There were weeks when we spent over $200 on groceries. I don't think I have ever gone over our average since starting this challenge. It would be interesting to see what I spent over the entire year last year and compare it to a complete year of challenge totals. Hmmmmmm.
I really didn't feel like cooking dinner after being gone all day. My hubby had to work through dinner so I decided to do it quick and easy. There was a partial bag of five cheese tortellini in the freezer. I grabbed a jar of my home canned spaghetti sauce. A jar of home canned green beans, an apple, and some yogurt were our sides. I love having home canned items because not only is it fast but I don't have to feel like I'm feeding my family unhealthy food just because I'm too tired to cook. Love my garden! How did the chobani go? The kids really liked it. I thought it was ok. I like yogurt a little sweeter but this stuff has double the protein as regular yogurt so I'll make an exception. Ha!
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