Today we spent a total of $49.27 on food. I thought it sounded pretty good until I did the math. If I have $174 to feed us for the week, I should only be spending$24.85/day. I was wayyyyyy over budget. Sheesh that was easy.
Here’s how it broke down…
Breakfast – $6.45
CJ & Kylie went through 1/2 box of Cinnamon French Toast Stix from ALDI- the box costs $1.99 so their breakfast was $1.00. They each drank water.
Jack had mini pancakes – he probably ate 1/2 of the box by himself. It’s amazing how skinny he is considering the way he eats, but I digress. The pancakes are also from ALDI. The whole box was on special for $1.69. He added pancake Syrup which we had on hand but I’ll add $.50 for that…making his breakfast total $1.35.
Quinn and I had Smoothies- Milk ($2.19/gallon – you have to go to ALDI for milk, no hormones and the cheapest anywhere), ice, banana ($.15) and frozen strawberries ($2.69 for the bag, we used 1/4 of the bag) in a blender. $1.50/each
Jeff had cottage cheese which I got with a coupon deal for $.45 for the container, apple sauce ($.99/jar) and a banana ($.15). $1.10 total
Snack – $1.50
Jeff and I snacked on corn bread which I made from a Jiffy box .$45/box plus eggs and milk. I’ll say the cornbread cost $1.50/total.
Lunch: $4.20
I am not counting the kids lunch in my calculations because if we were truly SNAP recipients, they would be getting free.reduced lunch. However, I am homeschooling my oldest so I will count his lunch which was frozen chicken nuggets ($3.99 for the bag) – he had a lot so I’ll count it as $2.00
I had salad from a bag- $2.99/bag & salad dressing and more corn bread. $2.oo
Jeff had chili and corn bread. (remember the $.2o cans of chili I snagged?) $.20
Afterschool snack – $13.32
Quinn was making cookies for a party and we all had quite a few of those cookies which were not only off my diet but clearly out of budget. I don’t have the energy to figure out what the individual ingredients totaled (and I have not even yet finished day 1, try to imagine how I’d cope if I had to be this diligent all the time). I will go with $10.
I spent $2 on snacks for CJ & Kylie at our after school activity and I bought myself a diet coke for $1 – $3.
I also drank crystal light iced tea all day which cost $4.99/container but I got it for a B1G1 – each package has 8 powder mixes – $.32 for the pitcher.
Dinner – $25
Jack made pancakes. We were at Walmart and spent $25 on groceries which included the ingredients for the breakfast ingredients Jack was making for dinner as well as $10 worth of snacks that I had to buy for Kylie’s softball team. I will have to account for Kylie’s snack somewhere so it might as well be with today’s dinner.
I’d like to reiterate I really thought this would be easy and that I would come in under budget. OOOPS! I now have only $124.73 left for the rest of the week. OH SNAP!