$25 Grocery Challenge: Week Two Plan

2018 Holiday Sale on herbal courses!

This month I am issuing a $25 grocery challenge to myself. If you’d like to know more or care to join me, you can read about the original challenge here.

It’s week two! So far, so good- we are on track and feeling more like this is a feasible goal. Let me give you a few updates from my week one plan:

  • I did buy sprouting seeds from a local health food store. They cost me $7.95 for half a pound (on par with what Amazon offered), but I figured I could try a particular mix without buying a whole pound first. This brought my grand total for week one up to $13.23. Under budget!
  • I felt like I was (figuratively) dying for fresh spinach and apples this past week. I made do with adding frozen greens to everything and eating canned applesauce. On the upside, I forgot how much I love good applesauce and I am now looking forward to eating the last jars of it from the pantry.
  • I changed my meal plan a bit. My bean and cheese burritos turned into black-bean and veggie burritos. Close enough. I ate tuna for lunch instead of dinner and replaced dinner with soup. And I (apparently) was out of chicken, so a beef-veggie skillet thinger replaced the roasted chicken and veggies. And I maybe added oatmeal to the breakfast plan. I imagine this won’t be the first time I change my plans this month. Hope you don’t mind too much.

That being said, here’s the plan for week two:


The grocery bill:

  • One gallon of milk (half for yogurt, half for drinking)- $3.55
  • Oatmeal- $2.48
  • Organic spinach, 10 oz- $4.98
  • 1 lb unbleached flour- $2.98
  • Bananas, 2.5 lbs- $1.38
  • Organic apples, 2 lbs- $3.97
  • Frozen corn, 12 oz- $0.88
  • Natural peanut butter, 26 oz- $4.27

Total: $24.49!

I just squeaked in under budget this week. I originally had a larger bag of corn in my hand, but then the apples were calling to me from their bin. I turned to my husband and asked him searchingly, “Apples or corn? Which is more important?”

“It’s up to you,” he replied. “Twenty-five dollars.”

After much hemming and hawing, I realized if I bought a small bag of corn, I could get the corn AND the apples and still come in under budget. Phew! Here’s what we’re planning on eating this week:

Meal plan:

  • MondayEasy Pea Soup from Cheap Healthy Good. I’m not really into pea soup but I love this recipe. Simple pea soup with a balsamic vinegar twist!
  • Tuesday– Pork, veggies (probably broccoli?), rice. (Do you like how specific that is?)
  • Wednesday– Eggplant Parmesan, using frozen & prepped eggplant from last summer’s garden, home-canned tomato sauce, and cheese that I happen to have already.
  • Thursday- Mexican casserole, inspired by this Mexican stuffed peppers recipe.
  • Friday- Pasta with home-canned tomatoes or tomato sauce. I’ve got a lot of that leftover!
  • Saturday- Leftover night.
  • SundayComforting Carrot Onion Soup from Syncopated Mama.

Breakfast: Oatmeal. Sourdough & eggs. Yogurt. Etc.

Lunch- Leftovers! The heroes of the real food kitchen, as Trina Holden says.

Snacks: Fruit & peanut butter, applesauce, smoothies, cheese, and whatever else I happen to have ready to be eaten.

Prep: I made sourdough and yogurt again this weekend. That’s pretty typical for us! I wasn’t able to make any new chicken stock last week (since I didn’t actually have chicken in the freezer), but thankfully I have a jar or two left in the pantry that I can use for this week’s soups.

If you’re joining in, drop me a line here or on my Facebook page, so we can encourage each other! I’d love to know how you’re doing.

25 Grocery Challenge

 

 

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2 thoughts on “$25 Grocery Challenge: Week Two Plan

    1. Abi Post author

      Lisa- I was supposed to make it tonight, but we ended up having dinner with my in-laws! It will have to be bumped to next week- I am excited to try it!!

      Reply

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