Yesterday was a busy day for us. My son had an all day out of town field trip to a zoo. He packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I asked him to find some fruit to bring. He opened the fridge and said "I want spinach". What?! Ha. How awesome. He packed some farmer's market fresh spinach and some grapes. My daughter packed some soup and strawberries. I just had some leftover spinach pasta before I went grocery shopping.
My pre-challenge weekly average was $175. I spent $15.72 on toiletries and cleaners. I spent $92.13 on food. I spent $7.26 on impulse items. I found two new flavored almonds to try. One for me (raspberry) and one for my hubby (habanero bbq). I also got a pack of vegetarian bacon. My daughter had been asking for it and I hadn't noticed it at the store before. I spent $10.53 on gossip magazines. After adding in their surcharge and taking out my coupons, I spent $128.39 out of pocket. This is a savings of $46.61. Our pre-challenge weekly restaurant average was $80. This week we went to Subway and Buffalo Wild Wings. We spent $45.03 which is a savings of $34.97. The kids packed enough lunches to save $14. It will certainly be an adjustment when they get out of school for the summer and I won't get to "claim" their lunch savings. This brings our savings for the week to $95.58! Not bad for going to restaurants twice! Our grand total savings is $3,810.01 in 238 days!!
I had a friend mention to me today that she is going to try to use up what she has in the cupboards and try to save some money. I highly suggest giving this little challenge a try. When we started this challenge in October, I really didn't think I would last a month. Ok, I didn't think I would last a week. I thought it was going to be really hard and we would feel deprived of our favorite snacks, etc. It is an adjustment. However, it can't be all that bad if we stuck with it for 238 days, right?! It's all about finding a balance. Maybe I should change the title of my blog. I really don't feel like this is a challenge anymore. It is more of a lifestyle change and I feel fully confident we will stick with it for the long haul.
Ok, on to last night's dinner. My hubby got home after being away for 9 days! Yay! We decided to do a fun dinner (and keep it simple because we had to hurry up and get to Karate) and made our new favorite dip: salsa corn queso. We started out with black beans and homemade salsa in the food processor. That was spread on a layer of cream cheese (half a block). I had leftover green/red/yellow peppers, onion, and mushrooms that had been cooked for tacos. I put those in the food processor and then spread it on top of the beans. I added corn (from farmer's market). Topped it with cilantro and mexican and cheddar cheese. We baked it at 400 for a few minutes and then stuck it under the broiler. Yum! We used broccoli, carrots, green/red/yellow peppers, and pea pods as veggie dippers. We also had some tortilla chips.
The kiddos packed peanut butter (and jelly) sandwiches today. My son also brought apple sauce and my daughter brought strawberries. I went to the dentist for a filling today so feeling sorry for myself I decided that I needed some comfort food for lunch. Ha. Comfort food for me of course involves pasta of some sort. My friend had posted about her lunch yesterday and it looked amazing (think orzo, tomatoes, broccoli, cheese). I decided to do my take on that today. I cooked some orzo. While that was cooking, I sauteed up some farmer's market spinach with red onion (in white wine of course) and seasoned it with garlic wine seasoning. I looked in the fridge and saw some leftover cauliflower and corn. Oh! I also had leftover processed black beans with homemade salsa. Hmmmm. What else? I found some cilantro and half an avocado. Almost done...Cheese. I had feta. Perfect! I started out with some black beans, topped it with orzo, added some of the leftover veggies (warmed up), and topped it with the cilantro, avocado, and feta. A little sprinkle of salt and it was set. Oh. My. Gosh. Yum!! This could be changed up with what ever pasta you like. Any veggies you like. Any cheese you like. Options are limitless. Oh yes, I will be making this again. Maybe tomorrow?!
My daughter asked for pancakes for dinner. Breakfast it is. My son had french toast. They both had a side of strawberries. And by side, I mean there is only about 4 berries left in the box! I was undecided between a veggie omelet or crepes. I love crepes (because it's like you are eating dessert) but they are a lot of work. Hubby to the rescue. He made us all our favorites. He made a filling out of sour cream, cream cheese, and powdered sugar. He made a fruit sauce out of strawberries, lemon juice, sugar, and water. I ate until I couldn't eat anymore. There is a little bit of the filling and sauce leftover. Mmmmmm. Can't wait to have more breakfast!
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