My One Hundred Dollar A Month Grocery Budget – Week 3

Hey there!

Welcome to my one hundred dollar a month grocery budget week #3 show and tell. 

Before I show you the groceries I bought and the meals I ate this past week, I wanted to remind you of the ground rules I set for myself for this challenge.

The Ground Rules

• Start with absolutely nothing in the pantry.
• All my meals {and beverages too!} will be at the studio this month.
• No cheat days, free meals etc. If it’s going in my mouth, I’ll report it.

What’s In My Kitchen

• Hot plate, frying pan, saucepan & basic utensils {no oven!} 
• Toaster
• Crockpot
• Rice cooker
• Microwave

The Plan Is Simple

• Start with $100
• Buy food
• Show you what meals I made/ate

Week 1 Shopping Trip

On my first shopping trip I spent $38.89. {What you see above.} I wrote about the meals I made HERE.

Week 2 Shopping Trip

On my second shopping trip I spent $38.58. I wrote about the meals I made in week #2 HERE.

Week 3 Shopping Trip 

On my third shopping trip I spent $20.41 {leaving me with only $2.12 for the rest of the month!}

If you’ve been reading this blog for a really long time then you probably remember all those free boxes of produce I used to get from Mr. Produce Guy. 

Long story short – We had chickens at the time and I’d stop by once a week and pick up a big box {sometimes more} of produce a local market had pulled before setting out the new stuff. 

I’d go through the boxes, “reclaim” what was still good and then feed the rest of the produce to the chickens. 

It was a clever way to save a lot of money on fruits and vegetables {for my family}, keep food out of the landfill and our chickens all at the same time. I did this for a period of 1 year, 9 months.

It was sort of crazy and time consuming but really eye opening to see how much an average grocery store threw away on a daily basis.

So needless to say, bruised fruit doesn’t bother me. Yes, I’d rather buy beautiful, unblemished fruit. And I think most people would too.

But when you can score bananas for $0.19 a pound, and apples and pears for $0.69 a pound {more than half off what they’d normally cost and you’re on a strict budget} you compromise and pick through the scratch and dent stuff to see if there’s anything worth while.

Sometimes there is and sometimes there isn’t. 

And when it comes to finding a deal on ripe fruit, you can always make smoothies! And who doesn’t love a smoothie?

So I bought the discounted fruit and tossed the super ripe stuff in the blender and then poured the chunky puree into freezer containers. 

The rest of the fruit I bought {which was more blemished than ripe} went in a big bowl on top of the refrigerator to eat just as I normally would throughout the week.  

Another thing I did to save was to buy a gallon of milk {which is cheaper per ounce than buying a half gallon}. I divided the milk into two containers.

The plan was to use a half gallon for week #3 and freeze the second container and use it for week #4.

This is what my cupboard looked like for week #3 after my trip to the grocery store. 

And this was was my fridge looked like. {I also had 4 eggs that I had just hardboiled that were sitting in the sink when this photo was taken plus ham and 2 servings of split pea soup in the freezer.}

Below Are The Meals I Ate This Past Week 

 

Day 15 

Breakfast – English muffin with peanut butter

Lunch – Split pea soup 

Dinner – Split pea soup

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

Day 16 

Breakfast – Fried eggs and ham on an english muffin

Linner – Ham and potatoes with plain yogurt on top 

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

Day 17 

Breakfast – steel cut oats, ½ chopped apple, yogurt

Lunch – Peanut butter english muffin

Dinner – Ham, potatoes, carrots, onions, red pepper friend in lard

Beverages – Tea with sugar, water {out of milk} 🙁

Day 18  {Grocery shopping day}

Breakfast – English muffin with peanut butter

Lunch – Split pea soup with a english muffin {I made a fresh batch of split pea soup}

Dinner – Peppers, carrots, hummus, hard boiled egg, cheese

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

Day 19

Breakfast – Steel cut oats with 2 bananas

Snack – Ham fried rice

Dinner – Chicken breast, cheesy potatoes

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

Day 20 

Breakfast – Steel cut oats with chopped apple

Linner – Cheesy potatoes with chicken, plain yogurt, cheese

Snack- Red pepper, hummus and a hard boiled egg

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

 

Day 21

Breakfast – Steel cut oats with bananas and milk

Lunch – I made myself a darn quesaDILLa! 

Dinner – Ham fried rice, a juicy pear

Beverages – Tea with milk and sugar, water

This is what the cupboard looked like at the end of the third week.

This is what the fridge looked like at the end of the third week. 

And this is what my “freezer” section looked like. 😉 

Tidbits

I only have $2.12 left to spend for the rest of the month on groceries. Clearly, I am going to run out of tea in a couple of days. I LOVE tea and I’ve re-used all my tea bags to the max. So do I buy a box of el cheapo tea, go over budget and buy the stuff I like, or just go without? 

I’ve said from the beginning that I would like to finish the month with a little money in my pocket. And while $2.12 isn’t much, it would be nice not to spend it. 

Penny Pinching Tips 

Rotisserie chickens really are one of the best deals at the grocery store!

Potatoes are FILLING! 

Also, I don’t know how long an opened container of plain yogurt is supposed to last but I’ve still got some left. It doesn’t taste like yogurt anymore, but more like sour cream so I’ve been using it on top of my potatoes. 🙂

All in all it was another great week in the meals department. 

I bought basic things, stretched my one hundred dollar a month grocery budget pretty far and took advantage of the cold weather here in Maine to make some freezer meals {more split pea soup, smoothie cubes, ham fried rice}.

I know I have plenty of food to make it to the end of the month {and even longer}. All I really need to do is stay away from the grocery store.

It’s amazing to me how much less sugar I’ve consumed this month. Do I miss pastries and cookies? YES. But I also don’t crave them as much as I used to either. 

How wild is that? 

~Mavis