Pantry Challenge- Dollars a Day

It’s the pantry challenge once again..living and learning on dollars a day!

Monday
7:45am- breakfast is a bagel w coconut oil (like butter) and yogurt from Home. I had also made coffee, but the lid still smelled strongly of detergent even tho it was washed and rinsed so I didn’t finish it. $0

11am- suddenly starving so had a couple walnuts from my drawer stash and a curious Keurig Campbell’s chicken noodle soup mix. It was very good and filled with up with noodle flavor. $0

12:45- made salsa yesterday and added thawed cooked shrimp, thinking the lime would ‘cure up’ the shrimp a bit, but I opened to eat it and took it bite, it smelled and tasted fine but the texture was a bit mushy. Going to take it back home tonight and cook it up. Went downstairs to the deli and got a quesadilla, and only ate half. The rest I’ll eat tomorrow.  $7.37

2:15- an apple from home and Crown of Success tea from Blackthorn Hoodoo Blends. $0

7:15pm- husband is away so I made dinner from all kinds of goodies from the PANTRY! Go me! Got some pool time in before it stormed and watched #OITNB on Netflix with dinner.  I made my own version of pad Thai satay with brown rice noodles, frozen mushroom medley from trader joe’s, organic frozen shrimp, and onions, plus fish sauce, chili paste and peanut butter.
The verdict- it was ok. The shrimp tasted a bit freezer burned and the meal didn’t have enough spice and heat. I did however, discover not one but four jars of mostly empty peanut butter we were hoping to get the last bits out of, so I used up what I could and now we are down to a jar of all natural PB. And, it’s all part of the pantry challenge! Using it up!

I am discovering though…far too much in the pantry lets things go unnoticed and overlooked, and that can lead to waste.  $0.

Plus, I thawed meat cubes for a crock pot stew I’ll make tonight for lunch and dinner on Wednesday.  Once I get my organic food delivery order. I usually order over $80 just to get free shipping, but we don’t need $80 worth of food, ordered $35 and paid the $5 shipping cost, plus I left my shipping boxes out- they take them and reuse them, so zero waste on my part!

Tuesday
6:00am. Up and moving, had a slice of toast (from bread I won at an event, artesian bread weekly until January 2017) with Nocciolata Organic Hazelnut Spread. At work I made some coffee w a pod I had and the coconut milk I brought. $0.

10:30am- snacked on the leftover slice of quesadilla I had from yesterday with ACV water. $0.

12:22pm. Ordered a 64 count box of Vue Hazelnut pods from ebay for Green Mountain Coffee – last week I ordered this from Bed Bath and Beyond and was sent (wrongly) the Gloria Jean ones- too sweet. I enjoy the light roast and I rarely stop at Starbucks and Wawa (even tho I have apps on my phone w gift cards loaded on them). My Vue at home is the first place I go after I’ve woken up- and that’s 64 cups at coffe at $53. That is a an expenditure of around 82 cents a cup of coffee a day in a reusable travel mug. $53.

1:00pm. Lunch. ACV water and a burrito I brought from home in our organic food order. I made my own Taco Tuesday! $0.

5:00pm. Target for a few things then dinner. Which was popcorn (and a half glass of wine) from Target. $38.47.

7:00pm. Got our food delivery order and assembled the stew for tomorrow with carrots, meat, potatoes, and beans, then met a friend for ice cream at DQ. $4.24.

11:50pm Bed. Exhausted! 

Wednesday

6:00am. Gingerspice, the trusty alarm cat, wakes me up. Finally get moving.

8:00am. Bagel, coffee, and Annie’s Homegrown Cheddar Bunnies (single pack) from my stash. $0.

1:00pm. Lunch. Homemade stew and Annie’s organic summer strawberry bunnies. Pretty proud of my crockpot stew. It cooked while I was out last night, then lunches for us today!

5:00. Popcorn for snack when I got home, a little #OITNB before book club, altho I should have been at the gym, but it’s 88 I was just too hot to be out.

7:30pm. Book club night! I had gotten the book from the library ($0!) and our host made fish, Ceasar salad with chicken, pasta salad, basil, mozz and tomato mini skewers and for dessert, amazing little mason jar key lime pie cups! We had a great night laughing and joking and telling stories, and eventually chatting about the book!

Overall: $0.

Thursday (dear God will this week ever end)

5:45am- up and at end, dropped off books to the library, made cinnamon oatmeal w half a banana and walnuts from my work stash, plus coffee from my Keurig here at work. $0.

12:00pm. Lunch. Homemade stew and Annie’s organic cheddar bunnies. We both took the stew for lunches again today. YUM. ACV water. $0.

5:00pm- ahhh pool and some popcorn. Finally!

6:00pm. Still hungry…had a little plate of tortilla chips and salsa w a bit of cheese from Trader Joe’s

7:00pm. Dinner with honeypie. He’d been away, so this was this first night since Friday we were just relaxing. We got Thai food (he paid) and it was fabulous. We watched Orange is the New Black (#OITNB) and just relaxed.

Note: Having Thai food with my husband totally made up for the week of being mindfully frugal. If I had given in to my urges earlier in the week and gotten a sandwich for dinner, or a huge latte, it made spending money on dinner extremely satisfying (and I didn’t even to pay!!- even better).

Friday! Happy July 1! 4^th of July weekend! We made it!

5:00am. Up and cleaning, coffee in hand, then off to work. Ate a mouthful of yogurt that was in the fridge. Whoops expired three days ago. Toss.

9:00am. Hungry. ACV water, ½ cheese stick (it was meh) and ½ a banana (I’m sensing a trend; it was from yesterday) $0.

11:00am. Strawberry cottage cheese double. $0.

1:00. Time to clean out the freezer for the long weekend. Hey a burrito and lasagna! Which to choose…Lasagna! Plus, strawberries and ACV water.

Friday Night went out with one of my bestest friends Kristi- we had cocktails, dinner and ice cream. Spent around $60 after buying a round for each other plus apps. Then coffee later at Steel City. It was a glorious night to kick off the 4^th of July weekend! $65.

I think I’m doing better so far- what do you think?