Penny Pinching Pantry Raid Week 1 Update

After a week of penny pinching and raiding my pantry, I am happy to say that I am on track and haven’t blown my budget (yet).  Because I started with a fairly well-stocked pantry, I have had a lot of options each night when it comes to making dinner.  It’s definitely been a shift in thinking, though, to go to the store and only buy a few items.  Before starting the challenge, I would load up my cart with groceries each week without considering what I already had in the house to cook with.  I really had to sit down and focus on what I was going to make in order to force myself to make dishes based on my pantry items instead of buying things at the store.  Now that I am in the right frame of mind, though, it is getting easier.

On Wednesday, the first day of the challenge, we got our first CSA share.  So, in addition to the food in my pantry, fridge, and freezer, I had a whole bunch of fresh veggies to use during the week:

• Bibb Lettuce
• Oak Leaf Lettuce
• Green Beans
• Cucumber
• Zucchini
• Kale
• Golden Cherry Tomatoes

What I cooked last week…

I decided that each week in my update post, I’ll list the items I prepared for dinner during the previous week (I won’t bore you with the details of breakfast and lunch, though – we mostly eat leftovers and odds and ends of stuff in the house).  It usually takes me a few days to write a blog post after preparing a dish, so many of these recipes haven’t been posted yet…  I will give you a sneak preview, though!

• Wednesday (July 1st) – Whole Wheat Rigatoni with Sauteed Kale
• Thursday (July 2nd) – Grilled Shrimp Salad (for me) and Grilled Chicken Salad (for the hubby), a great way to use all of those fresh veggies!
• Friday (July 3rd) – Chipotle Chicken Salad (recipe coming soon) to use up some of the bibb lettuce and leftover chicken.
• Saturday (July 4th) – Picnics, so no cooking for me!  I did a make Berry Rhubarb Cobbler with pantry items, though.
• Sunday (July 5th) – Grilled Pork Chops (from the freezer) with green beans (from the CSA) and my mom’s potato salad from the 4th of July.  You’ll be hearing more about these pork chops, too.
• Monday (July 6th) – Homemade Pizza – regular and veggie (to use up the rest of the kale and other CSA veggies).  I’ll post the veggie pizza details sometime soon.
• Tuesday (July 7th) – Tuna Melts, Green Bean Salad (recipe coming soon) and more leftover potato salad

The budget…

As I mentioned in my first challenge post, since we are spending $55 this month on our CSA, I only have $45 to spend on groceries.  This is what I bought this past week (most of which has not yet been used):

• 2 bags Snyders of Hanover pretzels – for snacks/lunches… I expect these to last a few weeks.  They were on sale for $2.50 each, Plus, I had a coupon for $1 off!
• 1 can kidney beans
• 2 yellow onions
• Half and Half – for the morning coffee… can’t skimp on that!  I did have a coupon, though.
• Skim milk
• Eggs – I bought 18 eggs, but I am only counting 12 of them for the challenge since I used the others for my 4th of July baking
• Mozzarella Cheese – for pizza night… didn’t have as much in the fridge as I thought.

And the total is… (drumroll please)… $10.95!  That means I have $34.05 left to spend before July 28th. Tune in next week to see how things are going!