Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

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alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I am somewhat miffed with my aide. I gave her a list for groceries.. She was to pick up a package of chicken thighs at Save-a-Lot and 3 packages of ground beef that was on sale.. She came home with 4 packages. Excuse me there were only two items on her list and she could not get it right! I had to give her the last of my grocery money to pay for the extra ground beef.. Almost 5 dollars leaving $1.00 left to roll over in to my grocery budget for Sept. I know it is not a lot of money and the food will eventually be eaten but cannot believe how she messed the order up. I actually prefer chicken over beef so it will take me a while to work my way through the beef.. Good thing my fridge freezer had just enough space to allow for the extra meat.

I made chicken and dumplings for dinner. It hardly cost anything to make them. The broth was made from the carcass of a chicken bought last week. I added two big meaty thighs to the basic broth.. A big package of thighs was only 2.96 plus tax. Made butter dumplings with two eggs ( 08 cents each) some butter and gf flour. A really low cost meal and will have enough for a couple of meals.. Lunch was Italian sausage with some sauerkraut from my pantry and some of my free cooked apples. Also had free apples with dinner..brunch was a keto English muffin with egg, cheese, and Canadian bacon.. It only takes 2 teaspoons of coconut flour to make the English muffin and I have about 2.5 bags of coconut flour left. So easy on the budget.

I did get a nice surprise from Walgreen's. They said there had been an internal audit and they over charged me on something so I received a refund of $6.79. I will put it in a special area to save for something to be determined later on. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
Dgflorida
Posts: 4381
Joined: Wed Oct 07, 2015 8:10 pm

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by Dgflorida »

What a great inspiration to be extra frugal. Thanks. What an extraordinary meal planner, you are.
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Dgflorida wrote: Fri Aug 31, 2018 6:11 am What a great inspiration to be extra frugal. Thanks. What an extraordinary meal planner, you are.
Thanks Dg. Sometime, when time is not as important, I am going to try to break down what food actually cost per meal or something along that line. To me it fun to see how low I can go and still have decent food. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

I ate the last of my wind fallen apples for breakfast and dinner. I made tuna salad with free tuna and one egg .08 cents.. with a tiny bit of mayo from Dollar Tree and some onion. Hardly cost anything to make. Had it for lunch and dinner with enough leftover for a snack or lunch tomorrow. I also made coleslaw with some cabbage and baby carrots from the fridge. Teddi is on strike in regards to his baby carrots so they made a nice addition to my coleslaw. They were .99 cents for a lb bag and I only used 3..So hard to factor the cost. It made enough for 3 meals and here again hardly cost anything to make. Still have two servings left. I am going to freeze the chicken soup for another time. The weather is hot for the foreseeable future. I will pull it out when the weather is cooler. Teddi is still eating free pupperoni from Amazon.

Hard to believe tomorrow will be Sept 1st. Before you know it Fall will be here and then winter.. From early Fall until after the holidays things seem to go really quickly. Then after New Years we have the long cold months of doing not much of anything. I do have a lot of yarn to work with and some unfinished afghans.. Maybe this winter I will get them done. Then again pigs may have to learn to fly before that happens...lol. Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by SandiSAHM »

alliesmama4 wrote: Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:35 pmIt only takes 2 teaspoons of coconut flour to make the English muffin and I have about 2.5 bags of coconut flour left. So easy on the budget.
Hello, wait... what? Would you please share the recipe for GF english muffins?
alliesmama4
Posts: 8591
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 10:10 pm
Location: Southern IL

Re: Starting our 2018 No Spend Challenge

Post by alliesmama4 »

Yesterday I began my austere month of no buying. I have drastically cut my food budget to $22.00 this month.. I do have food in the house so it is not as dire as it seems. Primarily I will use the food money to fill in where things are needed. In the past I allowed myself to go over budget when I saw a good sale on food but finally realized it is not saving if you are still spending over your budget. Nothing exciting or over the top in the way of saving or spending at this point. I am going to make a meatloaf with the ground beef which was bought recently on sale. I have a head of cauliflower in the fridge and I am going to roast some of it with olive oil in the oven until it caramelizes. Not sure about doing the whole head just for me so will keep some back and steam it to make faux potato salad for the coming week. The rest of my menu is up in the air right now.. I usually have a keto English muffin with an egg and cheese for breakfast.. I have used the last of the Canadian bacon. Will not be buying any for a while. Lunch is usually a salad with homemade dressing or tuna fish salad. I need to cut back on the tuna fish so often. A Dr friend of mine said it is not a good idea to eat too much tuna due to the mercury content.. In fact until I started to get it for free on Amazon I rarely bought tuna. Teddi is still eating free pupperoni from Amazon. I think we will be able to get through the month of Sept for him.. Hopefully will earn enough points to buy more when he runs out..Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
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