All You Challenge Week 4

This week was a busy one. I went to Utah for three days and the kids were at Grandma's house for most of the week. It was a little tricky to figure everything out, but I did the best I could.

Sunday:

• Breakfast: cereal, juice
• Lunch: BBQ beef sandwiches on rolls, jello salad, cheesecake, lemonade
• Dinner: lunch leftovers, water

Monday:

• Breakfast: cereal, juice
• Lunch: leftovers
• Dinner: BBQ beef sandwiches, jello salad

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: cereal, juice
• Lunch: BBQ beef sandwiches, salad
• Dinner: leftovers, milk
• Spent: $52.84 at Albertsons on produce, milk, oatmeal and grocery basics.

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: cereal, juice
• Lunch: green salad with chicken, milk
• Dinner: Chicken tacos, corn on the cob, lemonade

Thursday: (left on my trip)

• Breakfast: oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: kids with grandma, me: Taco Time
• Dinner: kids/hubby: soup, grilled cheese, me: out with family (paid for)
• Spent: $5.98 Taco Time

Friday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: kids with grandma, me: lunch out
• Dinner: kids/hubby: soup, me: dinner out
• Spent: $4.99 and $6.95 on lunch and dinner

Saturday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: kids/hubby: Red Robin, me: luncheon
• Dinner: kids/hubby: leftovers, me: leftovers
• Spent: $30.25

Total Spent: $101.01

All You Grocery Challenge, Week 3

I did much better this week and stayed within my budget. Here is the breakdown:

Sunday (4th of July):

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, milk
• Lunch: Vegetable Beef soup, Grilled Cheese, milk
• Dinner: BBQ with extended family, we brought the meat from our freezer!
• Spent: $9.25 for buns

Monday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, hot chocolate
• Lunch: PBJs, carrots, root beer
• Dinner: meatloaf, baked potatoes, corn, green beans, lemonade
• Spent: $15.76 at Fred Meyer for grocery basics

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: tuna fish sandwiches, watermelon, juice
• Dinner: Sheppard's pie, green salad, rice pudding, milk
• Spent: $30.56 at Albertsons for produce and basics

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: dinner leftovers, watermelon, juice
• Dinner: Pizza Hut and slushes, (too hot to cook and too busy cleaning for open house on my house)
• Spent: $25 at Pizza Hut

Thursday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: leftover Pizza, salad
• Dinner: chicken enchildas, and birthday cake at my nephew's party

Friday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: PBJs, watermelon, milk
• Dinner: kids, mac-n-cheese, me and hubby went to the buffet at the Casino
• Spent: $3.58 at Fred Meyer for almonds, $35 at buffet

Saturday:

• Breakfast: cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: mac-n-cheese, watermelon, milk
• Dinner: hamburgers, fries, lemonade

Total Spent: $119.15 (about $6 under budget)

Pretty good week, two things I have noticed. My husband spends more than I do and we spend a lot more than I realized on going out. That is why I like to do the challenge, it helps me realize where my spending needs to improve.

All You Grocery Challenge, Do As I Say, Not As I Do...

Remember how I told you this week would be tricky to stay on budget, because we had a birthday and a holiday...well, the budget went out the window after Chuck E. Cheese. I have failed with a capital F by the rules of the All You Challenge. However, one of the benefits of couponing for me and my family is to be able to splurge on special occasions, eat out more, and entertain guests...all of which we succeeded on this week. Here is the breakdown, brace yourself:

Sunday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, juice
• Lunch: hamburgers, lemonade
• Dinner: cold cereal, yogurt, juice

Monday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal, juice
• Lunch: tuna fish sandwiches, oranges, water
• Dinner: BBQ chicken, orange jello, lemonade

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal, milk
• Lunch: grilled cheese, chicken noodle soup, milk
• Dinner: cranberry chicken, green salad, lemonade
• Total Spent: $43.95 at Albertsons (basic groceries)

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: PBJ sanwiches, jello, green salad, water
• Dinner: Arby's (had to meet at the house during dinner)
• Total Spent: Arby's for family $22.95

Thursday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: mac-n-cheese, salad
• Dinner: Chuck E. Cheese Pizza and birthday cake
• Total Spent: around $80! (gasp), however I did use a coupon and this was for like 25 people, we ended up with more than we thought, so what are you going to do?

Friday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: leftover pizza ;)
• Dinner: salmon/tilapia, rice, corn, and coleslaw, lemonade

Saturday:

• Breakfast: cold cereal/oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: hamburgers, hot dogs, snow cones (at the Rodeo)
• Dinner: Subways
• *Rodeo: $17, Subway, around $20 Once again we were out to see a 4th of July parade and decided to stay for the rodeo and then we went to the lake. Kids (and grown-ups) are hungry. We roll with the punches. We did have a fabulous holiday and made some great memories with family and friends.

Total: $183.90, yep big fat F!! However, we don't usually have holidays and birthdays. Our family does eat out typically 1-2 times a week. The actual grocery amount is about right for a normal week. I typically spend between $35-75 for our family, so that area I consider a success. Wish me luck this week.

Eating out of my pantry/All You Challenge

I have been doing an annual pantry clean out for years! Even before I started couponing. It started one summer when my husband went from salary to corporation. That meant we had to go about 4-6 weeks without a steady income. I remember rolling change to get $100 and then using to buy only the things we absolutely needed (no coupons used) and buy them on sale! I then got creative and emptied out the cupboards/fridge/freezer for our meals. We actually ate very well and got to try a whole lot of new recipes. I decided to make it an annual thing, both to save money and get rid of the food before it goes bad! I usually do it sometime in the summer, it helps offset the cost of school clothes/supplies.

This year, I am doing it in conjunction with the All You Grocery Challenge! The challenge is to spend $25 of less per person in your family per week for four weeks. Week one just wrapped up and here it the breakdown.

Here is my pantry, it is quite spare right now, because we have supposed to have been moving in 4-6 weeks for 4-6 weeks and it still looks like 4-6 weeks, so I haven't been doing a lot of stockpile shopping. I want to move less and this is one way to cut easily.

Sunday: (Father's Day)

• Breakfast: oatmeal, juice
• Lunch: homemade lasagna, cheese bread, green beans, milk
• Dinner: leftover pizza (from night before), broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, peas with ranch dipping sauce, water

Monday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, juice
• Lunch: turkey/cheese sandwiches on honey wheat bread, yogurt, veggies, milk
• Dinner: Leftover lasagna, water

Tuesday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, pineapple juice
• Lunch: ravioli/leftovers, water
• Dinner: homemade chicken pot pie, milk
• Spent: $10.53 for milk, juice, and yogurt

Wednesday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, pineapple juice
• Lunch: leftover tacos my husband brought home, yogurt, water
• Dinner: homemade veggies lasagna, wheat bread & butter, milk
• Spent: $5.67 for tacos from Taco Bell

Thursday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cold cereal, orange juice
• Lunch: tuna fish sandwiches (my husband caught and canned the tuna!), oranges, water
• Dinner: chicken strip baskets and slushes from Dairy Queen, picnic at our new house!
• Spent: $22.07 at Dairy Queen

Friday:

• Breakfast: oatmeal/cereal, water
• Lunch: leftover tuna fish sandwiches, green beans, water
• Dinner: hamburgers, homemade bean dip with chips, milk
• Spent: $15.98 on milk, cheese, bread, and juice also spent $4.15 for cookie treat at the mall.

Saturday:

• Breakfast: pancakes, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns, bacon, orange juice (My husband made a fantastic breakfast for us and 6 guests!)
• Lunch: turkey/cheese sandwiches, yogurt, juice
• Dinner: Leftovers, milk
• Spent: $32 on groceries for breakfast

Total for the week: $90.40 for the week, well under our allotted $125!

This week is going to be harder as we have my daughter's 2nd birthday and the 4th of July! Have to get creative!!

All You Grocery Challenge

Today is the last day to enter the All You Grocery Challenge. Click here to get started. It is a great way to track your spending, get saving ideas from other contestants, and see how far you can stretch you grocery budget. I am going to enter and update my progress periodically, I would love to hear from any of you that enter! Good Luck!

All You Finds!

I love All You magazine, well I was browsing their website today and came across some great finds!

1. Daily Free Samples, every week day in May, All You has another free sample to request. The best part is you can pick and choose the ones you want (and will use) all the way back to May 1! Remember samples often come with high value coupons!


2. I found the Grocery Challenge Info for 2010! This is a fun challenge to do. The winner will receive $1000 to put towards groceries and appear in the magazine and on TV. Basically you get $25/person to spend on groceries each week for 4 weeks. You log into a blog and share you experiences and creativity. I participated last year and it was a lot of fun! Last year, I was moving in the middle of it, so that threw off my game plan. Looks like this year, I will probably be moving in the middle of it too. :( Anyway, I am still going to try. It is great motivation to try and be creative and eat healthy while on a budget. Let me know if you plan on entering.


3. Also, actually in the magazine, they have a new online coupon code page. Lots of exclusive coupon code for All You readers, my favorite is the blurb.com code, maybe I will finish my blog book now!