$10/week Grocery Challenge -- for a limited time

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Bag of mixed veggies will work in a casserole, adding to the veg count in there!

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Totally blew this challenge at the local grocery store (a decidedly NOT fancy spot) getting food to prep to leave DH for a week. 2 items (a bag of King Arthur flour and a jar of Rao's sauce - and yes, I consciously spend the money on those because I really do think they're better quality by a mile) set me back $18. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS.

Sheesh.

He better eat pasta while I'm gone is all I can say. Lol. Flour was used immediately to make a loaf of bread, 4 ciabatta rolls, and 3 baguettes. There's some left too.

[Serendip]

@centwise—glad it’s still feeling like a fun challenge. It is for me as well. Even though I did a little shop, I am still considering how to use up items and my partner in on board to try to keep costs low for a bit and move through what we have.

Opened up a bag of masa harina and finally made homemade corn tortillas last night. So easy, so very tasty and our black bean tacos were delicious with quick pickled cabbage, avocado, pico de gallo and lime. Yum. Can’t wait to make more tortillas and bake up some veggie enchiladas.

[Serendip]

Totally blew this challenge at the local grocery store (a decidedly NOT fancy spot) getting food to prep to leave DH for a week. 2 items (a bag of King Arthur flour and a jar of Rao's sauce - and yes, I consciously spend the money on those because I really do think they're better quality by a mile) set me back $18. EIGHTEEN DOLLARS.

Sheesh.

Ha, I’m sure the good quality items will be appreciated @SailingOnASmallSailboat  :)

[MaybeBabyMustache]

Our goal is to be around $100/week (I realize that's....just a smidge beyond the original challenge ;-)). I'm feeding four people, two of whom are very active teens. $100/week would be a huge win for us.

The first week, we restocked as we were out of town. The second week, we were picking up things for an out of town ski trip, and had more convenience items than normal. But, this week... we did it! Yeah! We didn't need much protein, which helps with the budget. I also went to the local produce stand, which requires more effort & is generally way more crowded than my standard shop. But, I needed quite a few veggies, and they are a fraction of the price of anywhere else.

I also used a gift card for the grocery store, which has the double win of helping me use down my gift cards, and saving us money.

[oneday]

@MaybeBabyMustache you did it, hooray!



Check in time. Recap: joined 1/9 just after a Costco stock-up. $15 spent Jan 9-15.

Jan 16-22: $8.08 spent! Woo! Not only is this a win for the week, but my month so far is at an average of $29/week...far lower than last year's $41/week average. Sweet! And my pantry is still pretty full. I think I'll be able to keep this up for another week for sure. Will re-assess after that.

[centwise]

Excellent, @oneday!

I previously mentioned that I still have cabbage, carrots, onion left; also found a couple of wrinkled serrano peppers. Following Serendip's example, I peered around the pantry for food items that need to be used up, and a package of bean thread noodles caught my eye. They had been languishing in the cupboard for a long time.

So I leafed through my old Thai cookbook and was just ecstatic to find a recipe that calls for: cabbage, carrots, onion, green chiles and bean thread noodles! I had to make a few subsitutions: chicken and tofu for pork; lime leaves for lime juice; sauteed yellow onions for green onions; and topped it all with crushed peanuts. It also used up my last eggs. The whole thing is somewhat reminiscent of pad thai, just with a different type of noodle. It was quite a delicious meal and I have a lot left over for today.

Over the weekend I also dragged the last bags of bones and veggie scraps from the freezer, and made a big batch of chicken stock. Now I'm ready to make a soup using the butternut squash, in the next day or two.

Tomorrow I will shop.

[Raenia]

Opened up a bag of masa harina and finally made homemade corn tortillas last night. So easy, so very tasty and our black bean tacos were delicious with quick pickled cabbage, avocado, pico de gallo and lime. Yum. Can’t wait to make more tortillas and bake up some veggie enchiladas.

Could you share your tortilla method/recipe?  I have a bag of masa harina and have made corn tortillas before, but I found it prohibitively difficult.  Very messy and labor intensive, and they didn't even taste that good.  Would love to figure out what I did wrong and try again.

[Dicey]

Opened up a bag of masa harina and finally made homemade corn tortillas last night. So easy, so very tasty and our black bean tacos were delicious with quick pickled cabbage, avocado, pico de gallo and lime. Yum. Can’t wait to make more tortillas and bake up some veggie enchiladas.

Could you share your tortilla method/recipe?  I have a bag of masa harina and have made corn tortillas before, but I found it prohibitively difficult.  Very messy and labor intensive, and they didn't even taste that good.  Would love to figure out what I did wrong and try again.

That's been my experience every damn time.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Tortillas:
1) If you've had the masa harina for a while, the flour itself might be off. It's cornmeal treated with lime (not the green fruit), basically, and can go rancid or stale.
2) 2 keys I've found when making them include using warm water (not cold or hot) and to let it sit for at least 30 minutes before pressing them with a tortilla press; 2 pie pans that nest together work as a substitute but if they're not non-stick line them with parchment paper or a ziploc bag you've separated.

Also the salt is important.

Dinner tonight here will be using leftover pizza veggies and making a frittata of sorts (I say sorts because I'm housesitting and don't have a good pan for frittatta-ing so it will be baked in a 9x11 pan). Trying to see if I can make it through this week here without going to the grocery store.

[Serendip]

Perhaps we had beginners luck with our tortillas?!

I used the recipe off the bag (Bob’s Red Mill variety)
2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp sea salt,  1.5-2 cups hot water (we boiled it)

I used the full 2 cups of water and it still seemed like it might be dry but I resisted adding more (I wonder if elevation affects the dough too? We live in the mountains).

I let the dough sit in the bowl for an hour, covered under a tea cloth then split it into 12 balls and pressed them flat with wax paper and a tortilla press (a Xmas gift). We cooked them as we made them.
We used a hot cast iron skillet for about a minute then a quick flip to the other side for 30 seconds or so.. No sticking or anything, I suppose because they are dry and thin.
Anyhow—sorry to hear you haven’t had them work out @Raenia and @Dicey
. Like I said, we might have had beginners luck but it did make me excited about the possibilities (my partner now  wants to make simple dumpling wrappers with the press))

[Naomi]

Week 1: $30.82
Week 2: $28.12

0 so far for week 3, but my week started today on Monday so I think by Wednesday, I might need a few things.

[LadyMaWhiskers]

Week 1: $8.46 for fresh produce for one

[Raenia]

Thanks @Serendip and @SailingOnASmallSailboat , maybe it is that I don't have a tortilla press.  Rolling them out by hand between two sheets of parchment paper did not work well.  I'll try the pie plate method next time, I have a set of round cake pans that nest.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Rolling them out by hand is a pain. Hard to get the thickness right and it just takes FOREVER.

[Cassie]

My son left for 3 months so I went grocery shopping yesterday and spent 30. I am going to eat what I have in the freezer.

[Serendip]

Welcome @Cassie !

I baked a tasty loaf of buckwheat, millet and oat bread. I can eat normal bread but my extended family are all wheat and gluten sensitive so I thought this was an interesting experiment. The only thing I needed to buy was psyllium husks and I had the other ingredients so now I know what I can take when I go visit them.

Tonight will be a lime & double ginger soba noodles (with tofu and broccoli). The double ginger in the recipe is both fresh ginger and pickled ginger (both gingers and the tofu need to be used so win-win!)

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

I love the combination of this thread, the "eat down your pantry" one, and the "what's for dinner" one. Awesome overlap!

Tonight I'll make gnocchi (an experiment with DH that we decided we don't need to repeat, but I didn't want to pitch it and I'm away from home) that I'll top with ham, tomato sauce leftover from pizza night, and some frozen peas from the freezer. Oh, I think there are a few artichokes in a jar that need to be eaten.

It's interesting being in someone else's house (I'm house sitting) with their fridge/pantry contents and trying NOT to go grocery shopping while I'm here.

I'm very very far from the $$ value of this challenge, but am pleased with our grocery spend so far this month as it's about 20% of our normal and I should be able to just get fresh veg and fish on the way home this weekend.

[SunnyDays]

Well, I lasted 10 days.  I decided that I was getting low on things other than basic meat and potatoes, so went to Walmart and bought about $100 worth of food, plus pet food.  Lots of shelves had huge bare spots, more than I've seen in the last 2 years.  I found most of what I wanted, but not everything.  So now I'm thinking of staying stocked up again.

[centwise]

@Serendip: I'm so impressed by your tortilla success! You're a star. I'm happy to have tortillas in the fridge and wouldn't even attempt to make them.

@SailingOnASmallSailboat: Thanks for the positive note about the thread! I'm enjoying it too. Let us know how the gnocchi experiment works out.

Well done all for the frugal shopping, especially @LadyMaWhiskers !

It has been 22 days since my last shop, so I headed out to the markets today and blew my budget! I had planned to spend $30 but spent $45. What pushed me over the edge was butter and olive oil that I don't yet desperately need, but the price was right (and I don't want to risk running out). AND I confess to spending $4 on a box of chocolates that were on clearance! I suppose I could declare olive oil to be in the "necessary household supplies" category (lol) but I think I'd prefer to keep it in the grocery category, for now at least.

So that averages out to $15/week for the challenge so far... but if I stay the course and don't shop for the next ten days or so, I can bring my average back down to $10/wk. So that is my new plan: No more groceries until approximately Feb 3.

My fruit bowl is full again (apples, bananas, tangerines and pears) and I now have fresh free-range eggs, cream for my coffee, sour cream for my soup, and plenty of fresh veggies (zucchini, lettuces, cauliflower, peppers, cabbage, carrots). And I'm working my way through the pantry and freezer items.

[centwise]

...as for the "what's for dinner" aspect that has arisen in this thread:

I cooked up a batch of black beans in the pressure cooker. Then I used one-third of them to make a pot of black-bean posole with butternut squash. Yum! (I had dried ancho and New Mexico peppers in the pantry, and white posole in the freezer). I portioned the remaining black beans into freezer bags and look forward to eating them soon.

Still have half a butternut squash left! And only about 200g of dried black beans remaining in the pantry.

[Dicey]

I freaked out a bit and decided now is not the time to eat down our stores. Today was Senior Morning at Grocery Outlet. 10% off everything. I hit two of them and the 99 Cent Only Store in between. I found great deals on Chicken Stock and Coconut Milk, both of which I was almost out of.

On one hand, it's a huge fail, on the other, I'm relieved not to have to worry about basics.

Our GO'S do a monthly drawing. If they draw your ticket, you win the amount you "saved". My "savings" were $216.00 today. I can just imagine them drawing my name, looking at the amount, then crumpling it up and drawing another.

[centwise]

It's not a fail, it's just a different kind of win! A stocking-up shop when everything is at a great price is sometimes just what's needed. (Just like a box of chocolates was "needed" for me today...)

[Serendip]

It's not a fail, it's just a different kind of win!

This is the kind of attitude I love to see here :)

 I opted for granola for dinner tonight b/c my SO wasn’t hungry and I was too tired to be bothered to make the dinner I had planned. We can eat that tomorrow and it felt like a success to just have a super easy night of cereal and fruit for dinner.

Aiming to go until the end of the week without visiting the store..

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

It's not a fail, it's just a different kind of win! A stocking-up shop when everything is at a great price is sometimes just what's needed. (Just like a box of chocolates was "needed" for me today...)

Love this.

Also, the comment about buying when the price is right is spot on. This does mean knowing what a good price is, something that's a little harder when you shop a) rarely and b) at different stores all the time. I've been checking prices on those 2 OMG items from earlier and found that, as suspected, that little grocery store was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out of line especially for the flour.

[oneday]

Everyone is checking in with their purchases (and doing great!), so I will check in, too. Especially since I shopped yesterday and don't plan to go again this month, if I can get away with it.

Another over-target week: $14.24 For this I stocked up on milk-substitute for 2-3 weeks, resupplied veggies and other staples & even splurged on an interesting-sounding broth. Hoping this takes me through the end of the month, but may need one more shop to fill holes in the pantry.

[Cassie]

This is a fun challenge!

[Serendip]

…  and isn’t that the point!
Well, one of the points anyhow @Cassie :)

Had some leftover enchiladas for lunch (we used the leftover tortillas for this purpose)…they were a little rich for me but can finesse it in the future..

Pulled some chili from the freezer and in general am trying to utilize some of the more obscure powders and spices that I have collected or inherited  ( maca and moringa powders in my granola).

I even tried to make preserved lemons since I had a bag of lemons and wanted to try this process. I’ll know in 3 weeks whether it was a success. Basically lemons, salt and time.

Mixed up a tea blend with dried rose hips and it was wonderfully summer-flavoured.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

Wanted to make a batch of mac and cheese to leave for my friends when they come home from their vacation, so hit the store today. I bought 1 lb elbow mac, 2 lbs of block cheese (store brand), and 2 containers of tomatoes. Total? $15.72. Nuts.

On the upside, there's a BIG pan for them in the fridge and I'm having a tomato salad for my dinner.

[Naomi]

Week 1: $30.82
Week 2: $28.12

0 so far for week 3, but my week started today on Monday so I think by Wednesday, I might need a few things.

Week 3: $24.53, but I may buy a few things today. I'm going to try and hold out though because they aren't really necessary.

[Cassie]

I switched my breakfast from a granola bar to waffles since I have a bunch in the freezer that my son bought and never ate.

[centwise]

I switched my breakfast from a granola bar to waffles since I have a bunch in the freezer that my son bought and never ate.

Good idea Cassie! I hope the frozen waffles are yummy.

Some things that I've cleared out of my freezer since this challenge began:
Lots of frozen chicken bones and veggie scraps (made chicken stock and soups)
Perogies and Ukrainian sausage
Roast chicken meat

Today I added the last bit of Ukrainian sausage to a big batch of pasta sauce (with canned tomato, frozen spinach, butternut squash, bell pepper, onion).

... but I still have a lot of stuff in the freezer that I should focus on using up. I have a couple of pie shells... perhaps I should make quiche or apple pie?

[Serendip]

We are making a tofu and veg stir fry with some of the straggling remnants from the fridge. Just need to add heaps of garlic, ginger and rice = one super tasty meal.

My SO didn’t feel like cooking yesterday so he bought pizza for dinner, felt extravagant :) also very tasty, so I might try to make a homemade pizza dough with some of the spelt flour that needs using and make a potato/bacon pie tomorrow or Monday..we shall see!

[oneday]

I switched my breakfast from a granola bar to waffles since I have a bunch in the freezer that my son bought and never ate.

You inspired me to make the tempura cauliflower that's ben languishing in my freezer! Threw in some edamame (also from the freezer) to add protein and had a tasty meal, with leftovers :)

[LadyMaWhiskers]

This was easier than I thought, and I should donor quarterly or so.

$8-9 week 1
$16.35

Infinite soup on hand? Priceless.

[Cassie]

Today I will be having coconut shrimp because there’s enough in the freezer for one person. My friends are coming for dinner Tuesday and I will make stuffed pork chops and French onion soup because I have all the ingredients. The only thing I need to buy is milk.

[Serendip]

Resisted swinging by the grocery store on the way home from work, it seems it's a bit of a habit :)

-I will make some homemade oat milk tonight since we're out.

-Dinner will be a sautéed fennel, spinach & lemon pasta dish since I have all the ingredients for that.

-Have bread dough prepping for tomorrow. It's a spelt & brown rice recipe but I'm going to use buckwheat since I have a bunch cooked in the fridge and see how it turns out.

-Also might make some naan tomorrow to go with the curried lentils that I pulled from the freezer.
**very satisfying to be working through all that spelt flour!!**

[oneday]

Resisted swinging by the grocery store on the way home from work, it seems it's a bit of a habit :)

I found the same thing! Sometimes I'm there not out of need but out of habit.

$17 this week including needed produce and $6 on little grab & go snack pack things, quite a splurge really. But I've been out and about a lot recently, and falling into the trap of just grabbing something quick/cheap while out...which is neither really cheap or healthy. These snacks should curb that, so I'm OK with this spending for now.

Jan total including today, and shopping in the first week before I joined the challenge: $116 or $26/week...far less than the $41 average last year. And I have quite a bit left in the pantry. Will play again next month!

Thanks @centwise this challenge was/is enlightening, creativity-stimulating and fun!

[centwise]

Jan total including today, and shopping in the first week before I joined the challenge: $116 or $26/week...far less than the $41 average last year. And I have quite a bit left in the pantry. Will play again next month!

Thanks @centwise this challenge was/is enlightening, creativity-stimulating and fun!

You're welcome, @oneday. :)  All of you have been inspiring me all month!

[centwise]

This was easier than I thought, and I should donor quarterly or so.

$8-9 week 1
$16.35

Infinite soup on hand? Priceless.

Congratulations again LadyMa, on frugal shopping success!

What is infinite soup? Is it the pot on the stove that keeps bubbling away, and you keep adding things to it? ...kind of like pease-porridge-in-the-pot-nine-days-old, of nursery rhyme fame?

[meadow lark]

Love reading all the neat food people are making!
I do an ‘eat down the freezer’ every December and am in more of a stockpiling mode right now. 
Completely craving homemade granola right now.

[Naomi]

Week 4: $12.61 today. The weather is supposed to be horrible for the next 3 days. I work tomorrow night so I have to be out, but other than that I don't plan on going anywhere so shouldn't spend any $.

We were supposed to leave Thurs to go on vacation for a week, but I went ahead and changed it to Fri because was already getting e-mails from the airline saying our flight would probably be affected.

If I don't spend any more this week, that will be $96.08 for 4 weeks.

[Dicey]

Love reading all the neat food people are making!
I do an ‘eat down the freezer’ every December and am in more of a stockpiling mode right now. 
Completely craving homemade granola right now.

This is a great granola recipe. I reduce the sugar and add ground flax, chia, etc, depending what I have on hand. It's a bit less clumpy, but worth the trade-off for added nutrients. I usually double it, because it goes fast.
https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/no-stir-clumpalicious-granola/

[centwise]

Love reading all the neat food people are making!
I do an ‘eat down the freezer’ every December and am in more of a stockpiling mode right now. 
Completely craving homemade granola right now.

This is a great granola recipe. I reduce the sugar and add ground flax, chia, etc, depending what I have on hand. It's a bit less clumpy, but worth the trade-off for added nutrients. I usually double it, because it goes fast.
https://www.thefrugalgirl.com/no-stir-clumpalicious-granola/

Hmmm I might try this! Looks delicious and I have all the stuff (including ground flax, hemp seeds and slivered almonds).

[Serendip]

Will be having leftovers tonight (coconut lentils, homemade naan, rice… and my partner made tandoori chicken).

Also used up some red cabbage and cucumber (on quinoa) for lunch.
And steamed a yam for that sweet-potato pudding. I made this earlier in the challenge  as well and this time I drank the water used for steaming..it was delicious.

Bought some snacks, dark chocolate and almonds (for homemade granola)  earlier this week which put me well over $10 (the almonds themselves cost $12) but we have a few days of dinner ready in the fridge/freezer so likely won’t shop until hopefully Sunday or Monday.

[oneday]

@Serendip that sounds delicious! Love that you & your partner collaborated.

Reporting in early, as I'll be out of town this weekend & not purchaing groceries. $4 spent, but paid BF back $20 from earlier in the month that I forgot to account for. Partial win? I say yes, because I also cleared out some old freezer items.

Next week I need to do the big Costco run again, so a high bill, but lowest unit cost on most of the staples.

[SailingOnASmallSailboat]

We were in a town with actual grocery stores yesterday, so I did a massive stock up. My goal for the month is to shop only twice except for fresh fish. Anything else will either be substituted or gone without until the next shop (I'm back in that town on February 24.)

[centwise]

In a previous post I listed a few things that I'd cleared out of the freezer. What I did NOT mention was that I realized (to my consternation) that more stuff had gone INTO the freezer than had come out! I've been inspired to do a lot of frugal cooking this month, and as a result, part of every batch went into the freezer. So my hoard of frozen leftovers has swelled: I still have posole, aloo gobi, palak paneer, chicken stock, pasta sauce with veggies, pizza dough, leftover pizza, bread, black beans and beets.

So.. instead of being "consternated" (I looked it up, it's actually a word lol) by the increase in freezer contents, I guess I'll take it as a win! ...because now I can eat down those leftovers and postpone grocery shopping just a little longer. But at this rate I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready to defrost that freezer...

Edited to add: I think I'll thaw some black beans. Today's meals will be built around corn tortillas, beans, salsa, cheese and eggs (along with a tiny bit of leftover chipotle beef). I'll also make a cabbage-carrot-apple slaw.

[Upstate NYer]

I've been doing this for awhile now...last two weeks I spent around $25 a week, this week I was up to $30. Doing a lot of meal planning, making things in advance for the week...not so hard when you get into the routine of it (I'm not big on cooking, lol). I have used up a lot of things in my pantry that had been sitting there for awhile, so that's good.

Anyone else find they are eating a lot of vegetarian meals?

[Cassie]

I didn’t have much in the freezer so did a shop for the next 3-4 weeks and only spent 138. I will have to pick up perishables in between.