I wrote about the Pantry Challenge in an earlier post. This upcoming week is the next Pantry Challenge I have scheduled. I thought I would break down what my grocery list was and how much I ended up spending for the meals that I came up.
Below are the dinner meals and the ingredients that I had to buy and the costs.
Meal #1: Crockpot Cream Cheese Chicken w/Rice and Cole Slaw
Cole Slaw Mix $2.00
Meal #2: Popover Pizza, Salad
Romaine Lettuce $3.29
Tomatoes BOGO $2.99
Meal #3: Tortilla Bowl Taco Salad, Rice, Beans
Will use the extra lettuce and tomatoes from Meal #2 and I had some extra pintos from last week that had I put in the freezer also.
Avocado $1.00
Sour Cream $1.75
Meal #4: Boston Baked Beans, Mac n Cheese, Fried Cabbage
Cabbage $2.05
Meal #5: Cheesy Chicken and Potatoes Casserole, Salad
Will use the extra lettuce and tomatoes from Meal #2 & 3.
Meal #6: Free Day (I will probably make some Chicken Stir Fry, Chicken Fried Rice, and maybe some fried ramen noodles. (These are links to other recipes as I can’t locate mine at the moment.)
**UPDATE: I found my recipes 🙂 Chinese Fried Rice with Veggies, Easy Fried Noodles, Japanese White Sauce. I had everything in the pantry and freezer to make all of these.
I had some stir fry veggies and chicken in the freezer. I also had some ramen noodles and rice in the pantry. I won’t be adding as many veggies to the noodles as this recipe shows either.
Sweet and Sour Sauce $1.99
Meal #7: Breakfast for Dinner
Krusteaz Pancake & Waffle Mix BOGO $2.79
(This is my favorite brand and I grab it when it is on sale.)
Aunt Jemima Syrup BOGO $3.89
So altogether I spent less than $25.00 to complete the meals from the pantry.
I also had to buy some staples that we buy every week like:
Milk x 4 $14.76
Bread x $4.00
Sliced Cheese $2.00
Margarine $1.00
Apples $3.49
Bananas $4.72
Creamer $3.00
Eggs $2.00
These came to about $35.00.
We had a few miscellaneous toiletries to buy for less than $20.00. I also found a BOGO meat sale and stocked up on some things that we will need later on in the month. I did spend around $50.00 0n the meat! Eeek… well I don’t feel too bad because I know that I am saving money in the long run and I won’t need to buy much more meat for the rest of the month.
You can see my totals below and the savings from the store card, sales, and coupons. Plus at Winn -Dixie you can also earn Fuelperks. Right now I am at $0.55/gallon which is about $11.00 off my next 20 gallons of fuel. I also did the survey at the bottom of the receipt to save $5.00 on the next trip.
If I had been tight on money or if I had decided not to spend any extra I could’ve left the store spending a little under $80.00. I could have also cut back on a few other things and stayed under $50.0. I do try my best to catch certain things, like peanut butter, on sale and grab them whenever I can.
By using what I have in the pantry and freezer I was able to save money and use it towards the sales I found for the meat. It also helps to prevent waste and helps me to set a good example for the kids about being frugal. This can be a very useful tool in any household.
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