Food Budget, Take Two

February has arrived, and as promised, I am revisiting the food budget experiment from August. I cannot believe the amount of feedback I have received from this. So many people are interested in saving money while still feeding their families fresh, organic, healthy food.

I have increased my food budget to $20 per person/ per week. Food prices have gone up due to fuel costs and the farmers market is not open yet. I am also eating a bit more these days due to my current pregnancy status - growing a baby makes me RAVENOUS!!!!!! Getting back to the point, I will construct a menu that will allow our family to eat for only $80 ($20 x 4) week. This includes all the food for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I have started this plan as of Sunday, February 1st, and it will run for 4 weeks. I will attempt to post everyday about this. February works perfect since it has 28 days.

February 1st was of course SUPER BOWL SUNDAY - not a normal food day. Lamar did go the the grocery store and picked up a few food items for me to get us through the majority of the week. He spent about $50 on food for us as a family. For breakfast I made biscuits and gravy - something Lamar has been wanting for several weeks now. My stomach finally allows me to smell meat cooking. For the party, I made a big pot of chili. I soaked my own beans - a huge savings and made enough for the crowd and leftovers for us. The party was potluck style, so that really saved on the budget for us.

Monday was a lazy cooking day for us. Girls ate cereal, Lamar had some leftover biscuits and gravy and I made myself a smoothie. Lamar took leftovers from the party for lunch and I made Shianne a veggie tray for lunch. Nora Beth and I shared an apple, cheese and toast for lunch. For dinner I used up the leftover chili and made some chili-mac. I just combined the chili with some whole wheat pasta, covered in cheese, baked until bubbly then added some tortilla chips to the top for some crunch and served it with some corn. I was surprised by how well the family liked this slacker meal I came up with. I do not like to see food go to waste - bad for the environment and the checkbook.

As for today. The girls had french toast sticks (the healthy homemade kind I make) from the freezer and I had some oatmeal. Shi took an apple and peanut butter for lunch (PB that is not on the recall list) with graham crackers. Nora Beth insisted on scrambled eggs and toast. Dinner will be grilled ham and cheese sandwiches and a green salad. Tonight is a busy night for us. Lamar has bowling league, Nora Beth has ballet class and I have my environmental class to go to.

Tomorrow will be much more on track with real cooked food.