Week 2 - Eating from the Pantry Challenge

Last Sunday as I went through the ads I knew I would spend more than $30 and that I would shop more than one store. I feel no remorse though, ha ha. I did only shop one day, I figured I should stick to some part of my goals.
Here is what I did:
At Walgreen's I bought cleaning supplies that were BOGO, lotions on the J&J rebate deal, and Loreal makeup. When all was said and done I spent $77.08 with $52.87 in savings and I have $15.49 coming to me in rebates. This still is still sounding like a lot of money to me until I look at the amount of product I bought. I am set in cleansers, make-up, facial cleansers, and lotions for months.
I then stopped at Smith's and bought the 5lb bag of shredded Tillamook cheese for $8.99 with my $1 coupon from coupons.com.
I had to pick up pictures from Sam's Club and also picked up 3 gallons of milk, 4 pack of butter, tortillas, 5dz eggs, & a 2pk of chips for $64.37.

I blew the budget!

With that out there I have a renewed commitment this week. I know that I will be needing milk, brick of cheese, & lunch meat from Sam's Club. I will be keeping to my $30 budget. I decided on this amount knowing that I get so much produce for free by being a site coordinator for Bountiful Baskets. By the way, they are looking for people willing to be site coordinators and opening new sites. Leave me a message or email me at survivingrecession101@gmail.com for mor information.

Here are the meals we enjoyed this past week:

Meat Loaf w/mashed potatoes & gravy, brussel sprouts, and fruit salad

Pigs in a blanket w/ potato wedges & fruit

* I have used the Betty Crocker Pizza Dough recipe for decades for not only my pizza dough but for my scones and pigs in a blanket.

Shepard's Pie, everyone has their favorite recipe.

Baked Spaghetti- I do not add the onions or the green pepper, by family request, and I had cream of chicken instead of cream of mushroom soup. I also add more cheese.

Chicken & Rice casserole from my freezer :)

Sloppy Joes with the peppers left in strips, so those picky people could pull them out. I also made homemade buns, baked potatoes(one was a sweet potato for me, yum!), and sliced mangoes.

Cream of Broccoli Soup w/scones

Here is what we will be having this week:

Taco salad

Meatball Soup, I made & froze the meatballs when I made last weeks meatloaf.


Beef & Broccoli, I'm going to try out Utah Deal Diva's recipe

Traditional Roast Dinner

Chicken Noodle Soup, homemade of course. I will post that recipe with pictures on making noodles later this week.

Spaghetti w/ salad & fresh French Bread

Leftovers will be happening one night:)

This is a hard challenge when you don't want to miss out on the stock up items your family needs. I like knowing that it can be done and all the meals that can be made form our pantry and freezer. I am going to make a list of our families top five favorite meals and make sure I have everything to make them twelve times. It is a good place to start to insure a well rounded three month food supply of dinners.

I have also had some success with making sandwich bread, I have struggled in the past with it. We had delicious french toast with it.