What-what? The September Challenge is over already? It’s so funny how quickly I went from completely dreading beginning the challenge to, “Hey! I’m going to keep doing this!” But I guess that’s why it’s important to challenge yourself once in a while. More often than not, you’ll be surprised at what you’re capable of.
So, week four was an interesting one. I started waking up at 4:30 AM (don’t ask) and I finally got back into the swing of my workouts. My appetite immediately doubled. Longer days + exercise = a LOT more calories burned. I went from averaging about $3.50/day to $6.50/day. This once again highlights just how much a person’s size, metabolism, and appetite can affect their food budget. Many of you have noticed how little I eat sometimes. Yes, I’ve trained myself to eat only when I’m actually hungry, but I’m also a relatively small person and unless exercising, I just don’t use up that many calories. So, if I had been able to maintain my workout schedule throughout the month, this whole challenge may very well have ended up veeeeerrrrrry differently!
I also fell off the wagon towards the end of the week. *sigh* I’m human. A pizza obsessed human. (read or scroll to the end to see my sins.)
Groceries
This week a chunk of my grocery budget went towards pantry staples, like brown sugar, Better Than Bouillon, peppercorns/grinder, and milk. I utilized the salad bar to get just a handful of mushrooms and olives for my pizza (but was accidentally charged the fancy olive bar price of $8.99/lb. ouch!), and picked up a few other produce items. I opted for bananas again because I was beginning to enjoy them more and I made the split second decision to get a papaya, which was $1.49 per pound.
When shopping for my weekly fruit I rely heavily on price per pound. A lot of produce at my local grocery store is in the $2-$4/lb. price range, so when I see something under $2 per pound I try to go with that. My other options were pears, which I am not really a fan of, or kiwi fruit, which wasn’t priced per pound but were 2/$1. I love kiwi, but couldn’t see myself eating one every day, and they weren’t very big. It would have been a struggle to make myself eat the pears, so I went with the papaya. It was extremely delicious, but unfortunately it was mostly seeds and didn’t hold up in the fridge as well as my melon the previous week. Sometimes you have to take chances! (For reference, frozen fruit was over $3 for a 12-16oz bag.)
I still had quite a few leftovers in my pantry and freezer that I was able to utilize this week. I found some frozen chicken thighs and I had some unused carrots and cilantro left over from last week. Those leftovers that carry from week to week really make a big difference in your weekly budget and the variety of things you’re able to make with it.
What I Made
Here’s what I cooked this week:
Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet: $6.04 recipe / $1.51 serving I’m OBSESSED with Yellow Jasmine Rice, so I cooked some chicken thighs and frozen peas right in the rice to make it a complete meal. It only made four servings, but that’s okay, because I was able to alternate between this and these pizzas…
Loaded French Bread Pizzas: $8.98 recipe / $1.50 each I thought I could make it through the challenge without pizza, but why should I when I can just make it affordable? Right?? These French Bread Pizzas were such a treat! Plus, I was able to freeze half to make sure they stayed edible through the final week and two days of the challenge.
And here is that beautiful papaya. I loved the flavor of the papaya, especially because it wasn’t overly sweet like a lot of fruit. Unfortunately, when I opened it up there were a lot more seeds and a lot less flesh than I expected, making the $1.49/lb. not as good of a deal as expected.
To prepare the papaya, I just scooped out the seeds with a spoon, then used a melon baller to get the flesh out of the skin. The papaya was fairly ripe to begin with, so it only lasted about four days, but I ate almost all of it. So, out of a $3.77 papaya, I only got about four (very delicious) servings at $0.94 each. *sigh*
To mix things up and add variety, I ate a couple servings of dishes from previous weeks that were stashed in the freezer. I ate the final portion of Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork (just slapped into a tortilla), another serving of Bowties and Broccoli, Mexican Lentil Stew, and one lonely serving of Garden Vegetable Lasagna Roll Ups from before the challenge started. Keeping your freezer stocked with leftovers saves the day! :D
What I Ate
9-22 Total $3.47
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 1 small tortilla $0.10
- 1 serving Chili Rubbed Pulled Pork $0.75
- 1 orange $0.88
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
- 1 Tbsp peanut butter $0.12
(I finally ate that last orange from week two. …and had an evening snack of a small spoonful of PB.)
9-23 Total $4.01
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/2 cup milk $0.16
- 1/2 cup oats $0.13
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter $0.24
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar $0.04
- 1 serving Papaya $0.94
(Yep, I ate the peanut noodle salad TWICE because I enjoyed it so much. Ha!)
9-24 Total $6.07
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
- 1 banana $0.26
- 1 serving Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet $1.51
- 1 serving papaya $0.94
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
- 1 Tbsp chocolate chips $0.12
(Yeah, so can you tell this is the day that I started working out again? I ate pizza for breakfast and was burning food so fast that I started rummaging through my cabinets for a “treat”. I found chocolate chips. Heh.)
9-25 Total $5.55
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 2 small tortillas $0.20
- 2 large eggs $0.64
- dash of sriracha $0.02
- 1 banana $0.26
- 1 serving papaya $0.94
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
- 1 serving Bowties and Broccoli $0.58
(Another workout day. #hongry)
9-26 Total $4.60
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/2 cup milk $0.16
- 1/2 cup oats $0.13
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter $0.24
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar $0.04
- 1 banana $0.26
- 1 serving papaya $0.94
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
- 1 chai (gifted from a friend) $0.00
9-27 Total $3.55
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 1/2 cup oats $0.13
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter $0.24
- 1 banana $0.26
- 1 serving Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet $1.51
(I tried my oatmeal without brown sugar today… Eh, not nearly as good. :P )
9-28 Total $6.40
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 2 small tortillas $0.20
- 2 large eggs $0.64
- dash of sriracha $0.02
- 1 serving Garden Lasagna Roll Ups $1.95
- 1 slice Costco pizza $2.18
Okay, so this is the day that I fell off the wagon. I went to Costco for the first time EVER. It was exciting. There were things. Many, many things. Between my workout that morning and walking miles and miles up and down the Costco aisles, I was pretty hungry by the end of the adventure. I had heard for ages about how awesome and cheap Costco’s pizza was, so I broke down and tried it. When would I get another chance to do so?? (Really lame excuse, I know) Well, I wasn’t that impressed, but I sure did sleep good that night. #cheeeeeese
9-29 Total $3.49
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 1/2 cup oats $0.13
- 2 Tbsp peanut butter $0.24
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar $0.04
- 1 serving Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet $1.51
- 1 serving Mexican Lentil Stew $1.33
(Despite this being a workout day, that HUGE piece of pizza late the night before kept me pretty full throughout the day.)
9-30 Total $3.93
- 1 cup coffee $0.16
- 1/4 cup milk $0.08
- 2 small tortillas $0.20
- 2 large eggs $0.64
- dash of sriracha $0.02
- 1 serving Mexican Lentil Stew $1.33
- 1 Loaded French Bread Pizza $1.50
Final day! Yay! I was REALLY craving fruit by this time, but I knew that the challenge was just a challenge and in the morning it would be over and I could go eat whatever I pleased (a fruit smoothie with frozen fruit that’s been in my freezer taunting me this whole time).
Weekly Intake Total (plus two days): $41.07 (average $4.56/day)
Weekly Grocery Total: $31.08
Leftovers
I had very little leftovers this week, thanks to the extra two days of the challenge. I did have one serving of the Yellow Rice Chicken Skillet that I had stashed that in the freezer mid week when it looked like I might not get to it on time. That’s what I usually do, wait a few days to see how fast I’m eating through stuff, then transfer some to the freezer based on how much I think I’ll eat in the next day or two.
Reflection
I’m glad it’s over, but I’m excited to keep going. Huh-what? Let me explain. I’m glad it’s over so that I can get back to my normal social activities without feeling like I need to decline or people trying to buy me food because they know I’m doing some weird challenge thing. I want to continue the challenge because I appreciate how organized it made me be and how much time and effort that organization saved me. I also realized that my diet was probably more balanced and had more variety during the challenge compared to when I just eat mindlessly. I was forced to plan when and where I’d get my fruit and vegetables and that resulted in me getting more of them.
So, I will continue planning out my weekly menus and trying to execute them on about $30 per week. I won’t be recording what I eat every single day because, well, that’s just a pain in the butt. Ha! But I will post weekly summaries showing my receipts and what I made with what I bought, how I used leftovers, etc. I think that information is helpful and I learned a lot too. :)
Overall this year’s challenge was fun and a lot less stressful than last year. I think the main difference was A) I wasn’t trying to pretend to live someone else’s life and B) I had time to calculate my consumption on a daily basis, which resulted on daily intake averages closer to $4. Last year I was too busy to calculate it daily, which resulted in daily intakes closer to $2.50/day. I was starving, but too afraid of going over $4.50 to eat more. It was just a bad situation and caused a lot of stress. It’s amazing what a difference $1.50/day can make.
Monthly Intake Total: 115.94
Monthly Grocery Total: $115.53
Can you believe how close they are?? This is an excellent demonstration of how pricing out exact quantities of ingredients is a fairly good representation of recipe costs, considering the fact that you usually use a mix of pantry items and purchased ingredients. If I had to purchase every single ingredient new, it would be quite different, but I’d also probably change my menus to require fewer new ingredients every week. It’s a slow build up to achieving a stocked pantry, but once you’re there it’s easy to maintain.
Conclusion
I am inspired and motivated by my experiences in September and I hope you were too. If you haven’t yet, set a challenge for yourself. It doesn’t have to be $4.50/day, but set a daily and monthly goal, and track your expenses. You’ll be surprised at what you discover and hopefully learn ways to reduce spending and waste in the process. Cheers!
I am not a fan of Costco pizza either, and especially the cheese pizza, its just a bunch of cheese melted on top of a thin and soggy crust with sauce…. I rarely buy pizza or anything else really, at the Costco “restaurant” but when I did buy the pizza, I found the combination version to be the better one. I love these challenges you’ve done, so fun and informative. I love to menu plan but fall off the wagon once in a while and really feel it. Our family is my husband and I plus 3 kids ages 8, 4, and 1 1/2. If I plan well, I can spend $80 per week for the whole fam. Love your site breaking down the costs, gives me lots of ideas I might have otherwise not thought of.
Wow, great job with your budget! I’m impressed! :D
I really loved following you through this challenge! Very inspiring :-) Good job and i’m glad to hear you’ve also inspired yourself to keep up the good work!
I was at that exact same Costco the exact same day as you!! I always hope that I’ll bump into you somewhere. My boyfriend and I are college students at Loyola and we cook Budget Bytes food almost exclusively. Your recipes are so manageable after a long day of work and classes. I have your breakfast burritos and black bean quesadillas in the freezer and I make your African Peanut Stew at least once a month, its one of our all time favorites! Regarding an earlier reply about the Costco membership, Costco gives you a certain percentage cash back on all your purchases in the store (including their gas station!) and most of the time you spend enough that the money you get back equals the money you spent on your membership. Thanks for all the hard work you put into this!
What did you think of Costco? Will you be shopping there in the future? I’ve been impressed lately- huge 4lb canister of Irish Oats for about $6.50, 3lbs of dates about $7, organic farro, 6 pack organic chicken stock for $12… Great prices on cheese too, some very good selections.
It was definitely fun and I think it would be useful for some canned goods and other staples that I know I use often, but I’m not sure how I would account for the cost of the membership in my recipe prices. That has me a bit stumped. I’ll probably stick to regular grocery stores so that my prices are more closely aligned with what most other people in the country experience.
I love your blog! You’ve inspired me to take a month or two and use up what we have in the house. It’s the time of year to empty the camper food back into the house, and my pantry is jam packed! I’m planning to use several of your recipes to help me clear things out.
Wow that’s amazing that you were able to keep your costs so low. Between my boyfriend and I, we spend about $350 – $400 a month on food. And we rarely eat out or buy meat. Just looking at your grocery receipt made me envious; food in Canada is much more expensive. Even when bargain hunting, sale prices aren’t even close! $1.50 for a pepper? I just bought one for $3.50 the other day.
Hi Laura! Where in Canada do you live? I’m in the greater Montreal area, and I’m able to get red & yellow peppers for around $2/pound depending on the season.
Hi Virginia,
Quebec has lower food costs than most of Canada. Alberta in my case is very close to Laura’s words.
Hi Key! Thanks for replying. I’ve only lived in Montreal, so I didn’t realize the big price differences between the cities / provinces. It’s pretty surprising!
Chocolate chips are one of my favorite little treats! I like the keep them in the freezer. Sometimes I will scoop out a spoonful of peanut butter and sprinkle chocolate chips on it and then just eat it straight off the spoon as a dessert!
My sister and I plan out our meals every week. I try to stock up on herbs and spices, chicken breasts, ground beef, rice, beans and frozen vegetables. Whatever ingredients we don’t have, there’s a trip to the grocery store. I absolutely LOVE your blog!!
A quick Costco tip – check for Better Than Bouillon! Some carry it year round, some seasonally in the fall/winter. Mine usually gets the low sodium chicken and beef varieties, and it ends up being about $6 for a jar double the size of the ones at the grocery store. I buy several to last all year.
I saw it and it was definitely a great price! Even though it was the organic version. :D
What?..you ate that slice of pizza one night and the next day you where still pretty full?!
I (BMI 19) can eat an entire pizza for dinner (35 cm) and I’m even hungrier the next day! (from stretching the stomac, I always think) generally, I eat way more than you in a day. I also have issues with wheat and dairy and oats, spend money in health stores, and my husband is a landscape gardener and super skinny and needs to eat all the time.I have to keep a REALLY close look at our groceries!!! But I quite like the planning. And your recipes ispire me a lot!
I’m a big eater as well. I do not really relate when people say they ate a big dinner or lunch and therefore weren’t hungry for the next meal. I’m always hungry! haha. :) But I do love meal planning and it makes it much easier to make sure I’m satisfied in a healthy way.
Hahaha, yep, but I ate that pizza super late in the evening. That happens to me if I eat really heavy food (and that pizza was HEAVY) and/or late at night. :)
Thanks for sharing! It was interesting reading this throughout the month, I enjoyed the SNAP challenge last year and appreciated a similar challenge this year as well. Nice job!
I’m single and give myself a reasonably generous budget of $50/week on groceries (including toiletries and cleaning supplies). However, I usually end up spending between $20-$30. I’m on a year challenge to try a new recipe every week, so I pick something new to make that goes along with whatever I’m feeling at the moment, and then I fill in the gaps in my diet with past recipes based on using a lot of stuff already in my fridge. This week I’m making chilled fruit soup for a work carry-in. Then I had a bunch of taco parts already and chicken breasts were on sale, so I got a few items to make tomatillo chicken tacos. Already had some sausage in the freezer and canned sauce, so got some dry pasta to make pasta and meatballs. A couple ingredients to make a bunch of crepes for breakfast, etc, etc. Since I’m always trying at least one new thing, I don’t get bored.
Great job! Sounds like you’ve got a great system down. :)
Have you ever tried any list making apps? I use my notepad app for my target list, but I LOVE using grocery IQ for my grocery store lists. It allows you to keep different lists for different stores (like Trader Joes and regular grocery store), and organizes them by category. That way you don’t forget something from one section and have to go back.
I love the GroceryIQ app, it’s so helpful & convenient.
I definitely need to start paying more attention to our food budget. It’s just my 28-year old daughter and me, but we seem to spend a lot on groceries. Granted, my totals include paper goods, some personal care products, etc., so that makes a difference. We also spend quite a bit on Greek yogurt; I eat it every day as part of my breakfast, so that’s a quick $7 right there. But we do most of our shopping at Aldi and PriceRite (similar prices), and the rest at WalMart, rather than at the higher priced stores in town. Enough with the excuses: unless I actually start keeping closer track as you have done, I’ll never know for sure where the money is going. Thanks for the encouragement.
Frugal Girl has a really approachable tutorial for making your own yogurt on her blog. It’s super duper easy and cheap. If you’re a big yogurt eater I definitely recommend making your own at least once. Serially, you won’t believe how easy it is until you’ve tried it!
One important part of shopping is keeping an eye on the receipt. We automatically assume that the correct price is being scanned, but that’s not always the case! And once you leave the grocery store, it’s too late to go back & ask for a refund. Don’t be afraid to assert yourself & ask for a price check on an item you know is cheaper than scanned. It’s your money, hold on to it!
Here in Australia we have a voluntary Code of Practice that the top 3 grocery stores adhere to. It basically means that if the register scans an item more expensive that the actual price, you get that item for free! I’m not sure about other countries but it’s worth checking! It’s not usually advertised, you just have to look for a little sign by the register.
This may take a bit more time, but every penny helps when you’re on a budget! :)
Here, the stores make up their minds about what to do if the price scanned incorrectly. Publix amd Albertson’s definitely give you the item for free, if it rings up more than the pricetag. Also, the same stores usually will let you show the receipt that it was rung up wrong and give you the difference – even if you left and it’s been a couple days. On the same note, if I find a coupon after I bought something, they will give me the value of thw coupon back.
I’d love for you to do a shepards pie! It’s freezes well in portions!
Next time you should make papaya seed salad dressing to stretch the value of your papaya. The seeds are somewhat peppery, so they add wonderful flavor to a light vinaigrette. You can google for recipes. The one I use is from “Vegetarian Nights” by Bonnie Mandoe. Usually you use an oil with light flavor, rice wine vinegar, mustard, honey and a couple other things to make a light-colored slightly sweet and tart dressing. I’m glad to see this September treated you better than last year. Thanks again for sharing your experience.
That sounds fantastic! I really wish I would have known that they were edible. LOL
I think those of us who take this challenge often do better following the guidelines than many who use food stamps. I have noticed recently when following food stamp users in grocery lines that most of them do separate out eligible and ineligible items, using cash to pay for things like sodas, chips, alcohol, cleaning items, etc. Some people are really frugal and purchase modest necessities with their cash while others load up with snack products and/or luxury items. This food allowance is meant to be a supplement, but some percentage of recipients, and those of us who participate in the challenges make it the whole deal. I’m glad to do so because it’s an opportunity to look at my personal spending and diet in order to make positive changes on both my budget and health. Thanks so much for another inspiring month!
I have never had papaya…someone told me once they taste like pine…is that true? One thing I do with extra fruit is take little one cup containers and chunk up the fruit and then freeze. Makes nice snacks…let them that just enough to eat but not enough so they get soggy. Very refreshing , especially in the summer. I do this with just about every fruit but watermelon and apples and pears…works best with bananas, stone fruit and grapes.
Colored peppers, other than green are always over 3.00/pound here. Green will be .99 and red will be 3.99 for example. That was a good price for your pepper!
I don’t think the papaya tasted like pine. :) It actually reminded me a little of tomato, but sweeter!
I find that mango tastes slightly piney to me, but I’ve never noticed it in papaya.
I’ve really enjoyed these posts!
My fiance and I plan out our meals for the MONTH. We only started doing this in May as I accepted a promotion. The pay increase is great, but there’s also a longer commute, so we can’t play “what do you want for dinner? I don’t know what do you want for dinner? Let’s have _____, but I need to pick up XYZ on the way home”. It’s helped tremendously with the grocery shopping! We try to do a bigger shopping every other week, with supplemental trips in between for things that go faster like milk, produce, etc. So far it’s been working pretty well. Our freezer is always stocked with beef/chicken etc, as well as a few random leftovers that I can pull out in a pinch, either for lunches during the week or for the “whoops forgot to take out something to defrost” days.
Have been trying to focus more on making our menu based on what we already have in the house and it’s helped a TON. Wanted to do this anyway but this gave me the kick in the butt I needed.
Great job! The other bonus you achieved was less food waste. You have inspired me to try to use up more stuff that I have stashed in the pantry and freezer. The biggest expense in our weekly food budget is fresh veggies. I don’t know how to reduce the cost of that one. Sigh.
Be careful about Costco pizza, it’s loaded with salt and calories. We gave it up due to the high sodium. My guy has to be careful due to heart surgery.
Yeah, I could definitely tell that it was not as healthy as what I had been eating the rest of the month! :P Trying it one time was definitely enough!
You can eat the papaya seeds!
OMG, I had no idea! They’re so pretty that I wanted to!
In new Orleans, the Costco has bountiful free samples of weekends around lunch time and early afternoon. Same for whole foods on vets around lunch time. I learned this when trying to occupy a cart full of hungry kids on the cheap.
It’s like that here in Baton Rouge too. Red Stick Market does cooking demos at 10:00 on Saturdays, passes out the food, usually 2 or 3 small courses, often extra. You should contact Chef Celeste about doing a demo, Beth. How fun – bring cookbooks!
Then we head to TJ’s, where the nice lady in the back gives you 3 samples and free coffee, and then you find the seasonal Pumpkin Pie Spice cookie butter and weep for joy. Much more civilized than having to feed yourself at WF, but we’re not THAT proud. :). My husband and I often are quite full.
Will be making the meatballs and sauce this weekend, Beth. Since our daughter went off to college this fall, we’ve vowed to eat down the freezer and pantry, and we’ve gotten a lot of great insight from your SNAP journey and how you’ve balanced new shopping and utilizing what you had. Thanks for your blog and all you do!
I loved getting to ready your experience with this challenge. It really motivates me to be more intentional with my grocery shopping and to make a little extra at a time to freeze. For some reason I never think about doing that!
Ah! “Intentional” is exactly the right word! That perfectly describes how my mindset changed while on the challenge. :)
Nice! I agree, working out can definitely increase your appetite. So I guess the best way to save money in the long run is: never exercise. Just kidding! :) That would probably backfire.
Now that I’ve been carefully tracking my spending for nine months, I really need to start actually setting goals for how much I spend each day/month on food. Tracking my spending makes a major difference, but I bet that thinking of it like a challenge or game would be even more effective.
Thanks so much for sharing this! It is so encouraging:) Cheers to being wise, healthy and frugal!
I have been loving these posts! My boyfriend and I recently moved and spent a lot of money on new things for our apartment. Reading about your September Challenge all month has inspired me as well to cut costs on grocery shopping to make up for everything else. I cook for 3 adults and have been setting my weekly budget at $50-60. I have been thinking of recipes I can make with what I already have in my pantry and freezer instead of just meal planning for whatever I want and buying all new things every week. It has been really great! Last week our shopping trip came out to $45!! It really is exciting and rewarding staying within/under budget and still having great meals planned :) I love your blog with all your tips/advice and wonderful recipes!