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Friday, June 21, 2013

12 Day Challenge

On Tuesday, I decided to try and challenge myself to spend less on groceries than usual. My inner Jewess loves to save money on anything I can, but I rarely limit myself when it comes to food because I love cooking and experimenting so much. My enjoyment of cooking usually leads to at least one dinner party, several nights of company for dinner, and then a ton of wasted food every week because Cody and I are pretty awful at eating our leftovers (why eat something old when I'm cranking out something new?).

What I am currently attempting to do is cut our two week grocery bill from $200-$250 to $100. When I told Cody what I was doing, he said, "That's easy. Give me Ramen every night and we will spend way less than that!"
I politely reminded him that I am on the Paleo diet- but I thanked him for his willingness to live like a college kid for a few weeks. Even though I'm sure he wouldn't last two weeks eating Ramen anyway; he is too spoiled by good food ;)
So. I would love to make my life easy with Ramen, spaghetti, rice, and beans, but I am going to attempt to stay true to Paleo for the next twelve days as well. This means using up some of what we already have in the house, cooking bulk recipes that will last us at least two days, and making meals using cheaper meats.

Here's how its going so far:


  • Wednesday- Leftover Mac&Cheese and Stuffed Rolls for Cody (I made this meal on Monday and even though its one of Cody's favorites, he would probably never finish it off if I kept making new food), and I made a Tuna&Egg Salad for me (Recipe for a great salad!). Everything I ate on Wednesday was already in the house, so this day cost us $0 of my budget.
  • Thursday- I had fruit, a hard-boiled egg, and almonds in the morning, and leftover Tuna&Egg Salad for lunch. We had Pulled Pork for dinner, but I chose a recipe that uses a dry-rub so I wouldn't have to buy ingredients for a sauce. (Recipe for Pulled Pork) Cody had his pork as a sandwich with extra BBQ sauce, and I had mine plain with a sprinkle of cheese and a side of carrots that I had cooked with the meat in the crock-pot. I ended up using schweinehals (pork neck) for the recipe which cost 8 euros for 2 pounds ($10.50), and I ended up with a moister pulled pork than usual. This was Cody's absolute favorite pulled pork that we have ever had! Cody also went to the grocery to pick up everything we will need until Sunday, and spent $25.
  • Friday- I had two scrambled eggs, a banana, and half of a broiled grapefruit for breakfast. (Funny Story: I asked Cody to get me 3 oranges at the grocery so I could make fresh squeezed OJ in the morning, and when I cut open the orange this morning, it was pink on the inside! Broiled or not, grapefruit is just too tart for me! Blech!) For lunch, I have enough Tuna&Egg Salad leftover, and we still have Stuffed Rolls, which I can eat the inside of. Cody has some leftover TunaMac for lunch today. For dinner, we are both excited to have more of the Pulled Pork from yesterday!
I am still going strong with Paleo and I feel like I am on track with spending- I was hoping to keep the first grocery trip under $20, but I think we will make up some ground with our next trip because I want to buy in-season vegetables from the Farmer's Market in Ansbach. I have the next 8 days planned already, but will wait to update until I see if things go as planned! Wish me luck ;)

2 comments:

  1. Too bad there isn t a Trader Joes their....I always seem to get out of there without spending a fortune and good foods in hand!!!

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  2. Trader Joes would be pretty clutch right now! Although, our commissary and local grocery are keeping me pretty true to a strict(ish) Paleo-ish diet since I haven't been able to find too many ways around the system -- with a whole grocery of organic goodness, I would probably find a way to incorporate stuff in my diet that I shouldn't! [ That doesn't mean I don't appreciate your packages of good stuff I can't get here.... :) Next package, I wouldn't mind some almond butter and almond flour pretty pretty please :) ]

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