Starting with a one hundred dollar a month grocery budget, I began January with absolutely nothing {not even salt and pepper} in the pantry.
To make things simple, I decided to only shop at one store this month; Market Basket.
On my first shopping trip I spent $38.89. {What you see above.}
This is what the cupboard looked like after my first shopping trip.
And this is what the fridge looked like. Plenty of food for 1 week, right?
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
- Toaster
- Crockpot
- Rice cooker
- Microwave
The Plan Is Simple
- Start with $100
- Buy food
- Show you what meals I made/ate
Day 1 – I slept in and didn’t eat breakfast until 10:30am {clubbing and removing glitter is so exhausting}.
- Breakfast – Steel cut oats with milk, sugar, 1 chopped apple
- Treat – 2 squares of cheap chocolate
- Linner – Chicken, rice, carrots
Beverages – 3 cups of tea with milk and sugar, water
Day 2 – I ate earlier in the day than I normally do so I was a little hungry when I went to bed.
- Breakfast – Steel cut oats with milk and sugar, 1 banana
- Treat – 2 squares of cheap chocolate
- Linner – Chicken, rice, sweet potato
Beverages – 3 cups of tea with milk and sugar, water
Day 3 – I went to make eggs and realized I didn’t have any butter for the pan. Whoops. So I made poached eggs instead.
- Breakfast – 2 poached eggs, plain yogurt with a little sugar, banana
- Snack – Hardboiled egg and half an apple
- Linner – 32 ounces of soup {chicken, rice, Rotel, beans}
Beverages – 2 cups of tea with milk and sugar, water
Day 4 – The avocados were finally ripe. Oh happy day!
- Breakfast – Steel cut oats with sugar, milk and 1 banana
- Lunch – 32 ounces of soup
- Dinner – Burrito bowl {beans, rice, chicken, Rotel and avocado}
Beverages – 2 cups of tea with milk and sugar, water
Day 5 – Fact: I miss cookies. 🙁 But any day with an avocado is a good one.
- Breakfast – Steel cut oats with milk and sugar
- Snack – 2 squares cheap chocolate
- Linner – Giant burrito bowl {beans, rice, chicken, Rotel and avocado}
Beverages – 2 cups of tea with milk and sugar, water
Day 6 – I’m getting better at poached eggs!
- Breakfast – 2 poached eggs, Rotel, avocado, yogurt with 1/2 an apple
- Snack – Banana and chocolate square
- Linner – 2 bowls of soup with extra beans and rice
Beverages – 3 cups of tea with sugar, NO MILK, water 🙁 Must make it to shopping day. Will not cave in!}
Day 7 – I’m looking forward to buying milk {and something sweet}.
- Breakfast – Steel cut oats, banana
- Snack – Sliced apple, hard boiled egg and avocado
- Linner – 2 bowls of soup with extra rice
Beverages – 2 cups of tea with sugar no milk, water
This is what the cupboard looked like at the end of the first week. Sugar, tea, rice, beans, oats and salt and pepper.
It’s about what I expected.
Starting with an EMPTY pantry and only having one hundred dollars a month for food is no joke. It’s hard. You really have to have the foresight to buy a few basic “investment” staple items that will last you more than the first 7 days.
This is what the fridge looked like at the end of the first week.
{2} 32 ounce servings of soup, half a tub of yogurt, 1 hard boiled egg, 2 fresh eggs and a wee bit of cheap chocolate.
Tidbits
The grocery ad last week was total rubbish. This week it’s pretty good though so I anticipate getting a better selection of items.
Although only $0.75, I regret buying the bar of cheap chocolate. I’d rate it a 3/10.
I was worried I’d miss having something sweet with my tea {I did} and thought if I could have a square of chocolate each day I would at least feel like I was getting some sort of treat. I plan on spending a little more on my “luxury” item this week.
In general, I am not a big snacker or crave junk food. I eat when I’m hungry. Some days I eat more than others.
99.5% of the time I drink tea or water. I drink a lot of water every day.
Penny Pinching Tips
As much as I would have loved to have had an entire avocado with my burrito bowls, by only using half an avocado and wrapping the other half to use the next day, I was able to enjoy avocados four times last week.
- Eat half now, save the other half for later.
- Hard boiled eggs are a CHEAP protein.
- Bananas are CHEAP, filling and good for you!
Rotisserie chickens {for $5 or less} are one of the biggest bargains in the grocery store.
I was able to make a Crockpot full of chicken soup, two chicken burrito bowls, plus an additional two chicken dinners with my rotisserie chicken.
Also, if you don’t have spices in the cupboard, you can toss the {seasoned} chicken skin in the rice cooker and you’ll end up with chicken flavored {and seasoned!} rice. Simply discard the chicken skin after the rice has cooked.
Why pay for a box of rice and seasonings when you can make your own?
Think Outside of the Box!
Not only do I not have an oven, but I only have a mini fridge with a teeny tiny freezer compartment to work with.
I wasn’t going to let a whole cooked chicken sit in my fridge for 7 days while I made meals from it. So on the third day I made soup. I put one bowl in the fridge for the next day, and poured the rest of the soup into freezer meal type containers.
The only problem was, I didn’t have room in the freezer for freezer meal soup portions AND the extra chopped chicken, rice and beans I was planning to use for burrito bowls later in the week.
So what did I do? I took advantage of the freezing temps outside {it was in the 20’s} and used Mother nature’s freezer section. HA HA HA.
The HH thought I was absolutely nuts. I thought it was pretty clever.
It was a great week! There was variety and I filled my belly.
I’m excited to see what I can put together for week #2 of my one hundred dollars a month grocery challenge.
~Mavis
Wendy C says
Awesome work and planning! Can’t wait to see what next week holds.
Connie Lewis says
Love this challenge!
Kari says
Great job! I surely hope you ran that chicken carcass through the crockpot for bone broth. People save theirs for me, and I make bone broth every Sunday for Monday soup day.
Mavis Butterfield says
I just used it for chicken stock. 🙂
Jeanine says
Question….did you weigh yourself at the beginning of the month? Wonder how much weight you will lose? Good Luck with your challenge!
Mavis Butterfield says
I did. 🙂
Melissa says
Wow. You did great in your first week! Just curious if this is the amount of food you usually eat per day, or did you cut back to be able to complete the challenge?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes, this is the normal amount of food I eat each day.
Cindy R says
At Walmart it is $3.97 for a 15 pack of Ramen noodles or they have them for $.67 an individual package. I have seen people use the noodles separately and mix them with tomato sauce or sliced up hot dogs and they use them seasoning packs from the ramen noodles separately in rice or soups. Also I’ve seen where people buy a bag or two of frozen mixed vegetables to use and mix them in with rice or Mac & cheese with some ground beef. When there is a will, there is a way.
Nancy Settel says
While I am absolutely certain you will obtain your $100. for the month I must admit this is hard for sure. I would have to use what I have in my cabinets also but you are doing oh so good. Can’t wait to see what is next.
Julie V says
You did great.
Carla says
I am loving this challenge!! Keep strong! It’s so good to choose to do something hard, even when you don’t “have” to so that when you do have to, you know you can.
Yma P says
I’m curious what you purchase next!
I keep envisioning the oats getting turned into oat flour. You have sugar, bananas, eggs, and yogurt to sub for oil. Maybe a skillet scone or some sort pancake?
Janie says
Awesome job!
Jennifer says
I would get flour, butter , more eggs and peanut butter next so you can bake. Especially if you get self rising flour. You would have what you need to make cookies and you can also do biscuits.
Mavis Butterfield says
I don’t have an oven at the studio. So no baking.
suzanne says
Great tip about the chicken skin. We don’t drink milk but I would have folded and bought/budgeted another carton. As another two meal a day eater and non snacker my beverages are very important. Happy shopping.
Mel says
I wonder if you could make rice pudding as your sweet treat.
Mavis Butterfield says
I’ve made rice pudding before, but it needed more than milk and rice. Maybe I could make it without the spices. https://www.onehundreddollarsamonth.com/slow-cooker-coconut-almond-rice-pudding/
Mel says
Yeah, I was thinking the spices or the amount of ingredients would be the budget breakers.
Sue says
The “Dollar” stores (Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, etc) would have cheap cinnamon, raisins, almonds, and imitation vanilla. You said Market Basket was your store to keep it simple, but perhaps you’d allow yourself to shop a discount store?
Lana says
You go Mavis! I don’t think it would be cheating to use the indoor freezer and oven.
Mavis Butterfield says
The ground rules have been set Lana. 🙂 Using an extra freezer or an oven would indeed be cheating.
Lindsey says
I live in northern Alaska and we use the outdoors as our freezer at least seven months a year. We do put the items in a cooler, just to keep the moose and dogs out of the foods. They will eat meat even when it is frozen.
Linda Sand says
You, obviously, bought the right ingredients for you but I’m guessing your next shopping list starts with butter, flour and cookies. Do you own a toaster oven? You can do a lot with it. I once baked a cake in an electric skillet. You can “bake” potatoes in a crock pot. Isn’t imagination a wonderful thing?
Lynda Rees Kling says
Do you count the meals and pastries you get when you go out?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. But I haven’t gone out or bought a pastry yet. 🙂
Gigi says
Here’s a sweet treat idea. Mash a banana, mix in sugar to taste and then add oatmeal on top.
Marcia says
Plenty of food if you are on a diet, maybe. LOL. Apparently I missed the ground rules…must go look back.
Laura says
How about No Bake chocolate cookies? Cook on stove top and drop by spoonfuls on wax paper. Peanut butter, quick cooking oats, milk, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla. I imagine you could omit the vanilla and if you make a half batch, you wouldn’t use too much of your oats.
Good luck!
Anne Fletcher says
How do you make this challenge work with your husband (and other members of the household)? Do you just eat separately for the month?
How would it be different if you were in charge of feeding more people? Would the budget go up to $200 per month ($100 per person)? Or do you think you would find efficiencies by cooking in larger quantities?
Finally, is Linner what you usually do, and like to do? Or is it a cost-saving strategy? Or both?
Mavis Butterfield says
I am eating separately for the month.
Normally I would eat something small for breakfast, Linner and have a tea and homemade cookie in the afternoon and that’s it.
Karin says
This is a fun challenge! To read about, I don’t think I’ll be trying it 😉 .I’m impressed that you even included spices. Can’t wait to see what you buy for week two!
Sue says
Rotisserie chickens are $12-50 in Australia at the moment
Mavis Butterfield says
WOW!!!
Elizabeth says
I love posts like this one!! Thanks for sharing your ideas!!
Mary says
I liked your idea to use the chicken skin to flavor your rice. When you first mentioned no fat for frying I thought of the chicken skin for that. There is usually some fat around the chicken cavity too.
Deb says
I love all these comments and ideas!! This might be one of your best goals yet!