The 50 Cent Meal Challenge week three and what we ate last week

      The 50 Cent Meal Challenge is a joint effort between two sisters in different regions and with different challenges.  Tina lives in Ohio with her husband and son, and is learning to stretch her shrunken budget while trying to develop an old fashioned, basic approach to cooking.  Jen lives in New Mexico with her husband and they are Foster Parents who are learning the art of flexibility. They live on a single income and are joining this challenge for the sake of the challenge.  Tina and Jen are planning their family groceries on a 250.00 budget for 6 weeks.

         

                  August 29-September 4

• Monday
• breakfast burritos (egg, potato and green chile and cheese)/cereal(shredded wheat)
• Leftovers from the weekend
• Leftover chicken from the weekend
• Tuesday
• breakfast burritos/cheerios
• Carl's jr. with the little girls(15.00). Sam had leftovers
• Sandwiches and chips and salsa
• Wednesday
• shredded wheat cereal
• Pb&j
• velveeta skillet dinner (bbq chicken)..not a fan    
• Thursday
• shredded wheat cereal
• leftover skillet dinner
• chicken pot pie
• Friday
• fried eggs sandwich
• Denny's (20.00) (just Sam and I)
• roasted chicken, mac n cheese and a veg
• Saturday
• scrambled eggs/granola bars
• fend for yourself and random leftovers
• snacked
• Sunday
• Breakfast burritos or scrambled eggs
• ham and beans with cornbread
• dump cake.. What? we had a late lunch..It has fruit in it...

This was a before shot of the dump cake, I would have took an after shot but it didn't last long enough!

Ok so I need to justify and rationalize all the eating out we did this week. Ok first Carl's Jr. We went there because we had an out of town appointment for one of our foster girls. So really that was not a fun thing it was necessity, right? Yes. With 2 hungry little girls, I'd say so. It was also a learning experience, only order 1 chicken strip meal for the girls to share and bring extra clothes for ALL kids even though they have been potty trained for years...cause you just never know and you might have to go to Sam's Club with a little smelly girl. Lesson learned! Ok Denny's. It was our date night only during the day. The kids had appointments and Sam had the day off. Perfect time for a date right. Well we couldn't see a movie so we went to Denny's. So technically that could come out of a different budget, say entertainment, but we'll count it. 

Oh at Sam's Club (smelly little girl in tow), I got some granola bars and apple juice and Milk. That was 16.05. I had to pick up a few odds and ends at Wal Mart for 11.68 for a total of 27.73, going over my allotted 25.63 by 2.10. Not bad. But then we had to go and eat out and that was 35.00. 

Weekly budget 41.66--this week 25.63
Amount spent                  -62.73
                              -37.10


Amount left in budget 105.74   3 weeks to go


         The 50 Cent Meal Challenge 
                  Track Tina's progress here