Dear readers, I was not joking when I said I would follow the All You Grocery Challenge with you. I spent some time yesterday going over my pantry and freezer and assessing what was there. With that on hand I built a menu for the first week and a shopping list for the staples I need. My goals in following this challenge are:
- Trim my grocery spending and trim my pantry. It is time to put to good use all of the food that’s sitting in my pantry and freezer.
- To provide those of you that are doing this challenge with encouragement and support. Hopefully we will be able to get through this successfully together.
I intend to provide you with an update at the beginning of the following week of my spending and how well I did sticking to my planned menu. Menu planning has always been a challenge for me so this will be a good exercise.
Breakfasts
Cereal, Oatmeal, Pancakes, Blueberry muffins and crepes (mix or match for the next seven days)
Lunches and Dinners
Monday – Lunch: Leftover grilled chicken
Dinner: Spanish Chorizo Fritatta (using chorizo and cheese from freezer and potatoes from pantry)
Tuesday – Lunch: Leftover fritatta and salad
Dinner: Tuna Caesar Salad (using tuna and salad dressing from stockpile)
Wednesday – Lunch: PB Sandwiches and salad
Dinner: Chicken pot pie (using mixed vegetables, cubed chicken and pie crust from freezer, canned soup from pantry)
Thursday – Lunch: Leftovers or hot dogs and salad
Dinner: Tyson Heat N Serve from freezer with broccoli from garden and Mac N Cheese from stockpile
Friday: – Lunch: Tortellini (from freezer) with pasta sauce (from pantry) and salad
Dinner: Homemade pizza with flour, cheese, tomato sauce and pepperoni from stockpile
Saturday: – Lunch: leftover pizza
Dinner: burgers from freezer, baked beans from pantry and fresh corn
Sunday: – Lunch: Boiled shrimp from freezer, steamed vegetables and corn fritters (using left over corn)
Dinner: Out?
Yesterday I hit Walmart for the staples we needed, mostly fruit and spent $29.02 on this:
A cantaloupe melon, two containers of OJ, buttermilk for the pancakes, grapes, apples, sliced turkey, bread and two pints of blueberries. Can you believe it? Because my husband couldn’t! Just the apples and the grapes were almost $10 and the OJ was $6 for both but it’s my husband’s favorite. It should all last us for the next ten days though. After this my next shopping trip is to the grocery store on Wednesday night for milk and whatever is cheap after doubled coupon.
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I’m happy to see your post about the challenge. I’m playing along too. You can see my weekly spending on my blog. I will be updating daily or as I spend money. Good Luck Mercedes and all CSWM readers!
http://www.thriftyfloridamama.net/2009/07/all-you-grocery-challenge-week-1.html
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Staying within the rules should be no problem for me. I already spend less than what’s allowed. But I too need to trim back the freezer and some on the pantry. So I’m looking forward to the challenge to seeing how low I can go with the grocery spending. Tonight we had left over roast chicken from last night, fetacinni (pantry) with pesto sauce (homemade with basil from my garden, walnuts from pantry and parmasean I buy in bulk and freeze) and salad also provided by the garden.
I’ve been getting fruit pretty cheap at Walmart lately with their price matching. We get a paper from a hispanic market that’s about 15 min away. I never shop there, but they have some great prices on at least 1 or 2 produce items each week. I just take the ad and the cashier matches the price. Last week I got cherries ($1.99 at W) for $.99 and red grapes ($1.49 at W) for $.99. A few weeks ago I got peaches ($1.79 at W) for $.29!
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Walmart out here has gotten ridiculous with their prices. I don’t even shop there anymore because their produce goes bad within a day or two and is more expensive than Albertson. Plus my Albertson’s has been having coupons for an additional $1.00 off $10 in produce. I might have to try the price matching, though…
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I agree. The Walmart here is getting pricey too.If it’s 97 cents at other walmart’s it’s 1.97 here. And they don’t have alot of the newer items like the other ones do. I’ve been having to go to several stores and hitting the sales to stock up when I used to only go to walmart.
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I see you are getting broccoli from your own garden. . is Broccoli an easy garden item to grow yourself? I LOVE broccoli but have never tried that one.
Karen
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Mercedes,
I can’t figure out how to do the grocery challenge on the All You site, do you know if you have to sign in or what exactly you do? I signed up with them when you first posted about it and never received an email from them like it stated and was just curious how I am suppose to go about doing it.
Thanks
Sarah
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Mercedes Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 8:27 AM
Hi Sarah,
You may need to re-register, since it seems you didn’t get comfirmation email. Did you check your spam folder. if you do re-register just enter your shopping and information for yesterday and continue with the challenge.
Mercedes
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I get produce at Walmart that I’m able to price match with ads from other stores that are farther than I want to drive for groceries…especiall just a couple items. Otherwise, I agree that Walmart’s meat and produce is too pricey. There have been times I haven’t gotten it anyway though because of the quality.
I’m going to give broccoli a try in my garden in the fall. It’s a cool season plant.
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Mercedes Reply:
July 14th, 2009 at 8:25 AM
Actually I wasn’t complaining about the price of the fruit. I paid very competitive prices for them when compared to what my local grocery stores had on sale. You have to keep things relative $2 for a pint of blueberries may be too much for many of you but they are otherwise $2.50 at my grocery stores. The huge cantaloupe for $2 was also a good value.
The most expensive items were the OJ and the deli meat but those are the ones my husband likes. We have made compromises and save on some areas so that we can get what we like in others. We tried tropicana juice and it just didn’t fly.
You know what I am talking about!
Mercedes
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Hi Karen,
Yes, growing broccoli is very easy. The problem I find with growing broccoli is that it takes some space AND you only get one head per plant and then you are done. So in my opinion is almost not worth it but I do it because I have the room and the crop takes like 30 -35 days. I am using the space to grow spinach now.
Mercedes
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I saw in the rules for All You that stuff cannot be published anywhere. I emailed them to ask if that means I can’t post my deals on my blog. No response. Do you know if it will disqualify participants?
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