Eat From Your Pantry Challenge

One of the blogs I check almost everyday is called ACouponChick. She posts deals, coupons, freebies, her shopping trips, etc.  Since I did not start couponing until this past summer, I was not aware of her site. Every January she does an "Eat From Your Pantry Challenge" for her family. She also challenges her readers to join her and it lasts for one month. Since we went home for a week in January, I did not see her post about it until we got back and I decided to give it a try.
The goal is to use through some of the stockpile in your pantry that you have accumulated through couponing. It is also a good way to save money and challenge yourself as a cook. Basically, you pick recipes, either old favs or new ones you have been wanting to try, based on what you already have in your pantry and/or freezer. Your goal is to only have to pick up one or two items for each recipe when you do your weekly shopping. I decided to go ahead and make our menu plan for the entire month of February. This may sound like a lot of work, but since I know most of what we have on hand, it was pretty easy to do. We have a dry erase monthly calendar that we put our work schedules on, so we just moved it into the kitchen and I wrote out our month's worth of meals on it as well. Every Friday I will check the next week's menu, check the recipes, and make my list of the few ingredients I need for each meal. I have cut our grocery bill down to $20 a week or less for the next month. This is including our weekly purchases of milk, OJ, eggs, etc. Here is an example of how this will work. For next week, I will go to the store this Friday.
Here is my list for four dinners and weekly uses:
-1 mango
-1 bunch of cilantro
-1 avocado
-1 cont. greek yogurt (which is free this week at Wal-mart)
-1 can black beans
-1 cont. ricotta cheese
-1 gal. whole milk
-1 gal. 1% milk
-1 gal OJ
-5lb. bag of flour

Every thing else I need we already have. For one of my meals this week I didn't have to buy anything.

Here is our menu for this week:
Monday-leftovers from wepod on Sunday night
Tuesday-Bacon, linguine, and tomato toss
Wednesday-homemade pizza
Thursday-Cheesy, chicken, and broccoli bake
Friday-leftovers
Saturday-Stir fry (this is the meal I didn't have to buy for)
Sunday-Superbowl party with our wepod and snack food to go with it!!

I'm really excited about taking on this challenge and I'm thinking about doing it again in March.

Connor-19 months

 Not a whole lot has changed between 18 and 19 months. He is only taking one nap in the afternoons from 1pm-3pm. Here are a few new things.

-first haircut

-first time to have nuts

-first time eating sushi (california roll)

A few new words and phrases:

touchdown

I touch
yes sir
cheek
chip
Starbucks (of course!!)
Jeopardy! (he still loves to watch it)
Price is Right (he can kind of say it)

outside

Pepaw (Cary's dad)

Gran gran (Cary's dad's fiance')

Grammie (my mom)

Buppy (Cary's brother's MIL to be)

-working on Gramps ( my step-dad)

He is testing his limits a lot more these days. He has started hitting when we tell him no or he doesn't get his way. Discipline has definitely been a challenge. It doesn't seem right to spank my boy when I tell him not to hit me! So finding the right balance and effective method to get him not to hit us has and is still being worked on. Any suggestions moms?? Is this just a boy thing?

Some favs are being outside, helping with everything, opening and closing doors, playing with his CD player, and his kitchen.
I didn't mean to wait so long to post this, but I was waiting on some pictures.

Kroger Mega Event and HT Super Doubles

These trips are from about two weeks ago. I'm really late on posting them because we went on vacation last week and other than these grocery trips, I spent the week before we left cleaning and packing.

Kroger Mega Event
 
Total before savings $87.94
Total spent $10.60
Total saved $77.34

Here's what I got:
-4 boxes Kashi Go Lean Crisp cereal
-1 fresh pineapple (this was $0.99!)
-8 bottles Old Spice body wash
-10 Old Spice deoderants
-4 bottles Softsoap liquid hand soap
-2 bags Powerbar energy gels


HT Super Doubles
 
Total before savings $120.23
Total spent $26.11
Total saved $94.12

Here's what I got:
-1 box Orville Redenbacher's popcorn
-4 (10ct.) boxes Ortega taco shells
-2 (4ct.) boxes Success brown rice
-2 boxes Quaker Hearty Medley oatmeal
-2 boxes 2000 Flushes toilet cleaner
-3 (20ct.) boxes Finish dishwasher gel packs
-2 (16oz.) bottles Coffee Mate creamer
-2 bottles Biltmore salad dressing
-2 bottles Regina red wine vinegar
-2 jars Planters peanuts
-1 bottle Land O Lakes seasoning
-6 (1.5lb) pkgs. HT boneless, skinless chicken breasts (this counted for about $15 of my total)

CVS Trip

This was my best trip yet!

Total before savings $116.98
Total spent $15.80
Total saved $101.18

Here's what I got:
-5 (32 load) bottles Wisk detergent
-1 (1 liter) bottle Listerine Viberant Whitening
-1 (1 liter) bottle Listerine Restoring Whitening
-1 (1 liter) bottle Listerine Zero
-1 (36 ct.) box Playtex Sport tampons
-2 Reach toothbrushes
-1 (100 ct.) bottle Excedrine PM
-1 (24 ct.) bottle Excedrine Extra Strength
-1 (24 ct.) bottle Excedrine Migraine

Weighing it all out- update

Here is a quick update about my weight loss.

On my last post, I was down to 162lbs. from 168lbs. I am now down to 159lbs. I know that is not much and I wish it was more, but ever since it got cold, it has been harder to work out. Part of that is my own fault for not being more motivated. Another reason is that I have not been able to go walk at the park for over a month now. It's just been too cold to take Connor out and some days it was just cold! I have been doing my pilates, just not on a regular basis. So overall, I'm happy that I have made some progress. Something is always better than nothing, but it could be a lot better. I know I am making good progress though, because since my first post about this I have moved my belt down two notches and my size 14 dress pants and jeans I bought last spring, before I really got serious about this, are now to big! I am also very proud to say that I just bought a new pair of dress pants and a new skirt that were both a size 12, not to mention I got both of them for $27 at Macy's! Yay for end of the year clearance sales!!

I'm on my way and I am hoping not to have to buy anymore clothes. The dress pants and jeans I currently own are a size 10 and I have some that are a size 8. I have about three and half months til my friend's wedding and I am more motivated than ever to lose this weight! Bring on the new year and less of me to go along with it!