July Snap Challenge - Week 2

The second week of the challenge went remarkably well.  In fact, I came in way under budget for consumption!  Though, there are a couple of reasons for that: I am very fortunate that my job provides free snacks (so whenever you see $0 as the cost, it’s because that item was provided by my company).  I realize not everyone else has access to free food, but like I said before, this exercise is not about pretending I’m poor.  It’s about setting a budget and sticking to it, while still allowing myself to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.  I still miss going out to eat and stopping at Starbucks, but I was able to resist for yet another week.

My total consumption for the week was $19.73

Here’s what I ate:

Monday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner		Total for the day*
Cereal & tea	0.46	Alphabet soup	0.5	Ramen w/ Green Beans	0.25	$2.21
Tuesday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Cereal & tea	0.46	Mac & Cheese	0.56	Polenta Gnocchi	2	$4.02
Wednesday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Cereal & tea	0.46	Sandwich	0	Polenta Gnocchi	2	$2.46
Thursday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Cereal & tea	0.46	Leftover Pot Roast	2.22	Mac & Cheese	0.56	$3.24
Friday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Cereal & tea	0.46	PB&J - bread	0.76	Crock pot sausages	$1.50	$2.72
Saturday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Greek yogurt & coffee	1.1	leftover sausage	1	Wedding	0	$2.78
Sunday
Breakfast		Lunch		Dinner
Tea & Toast	0.46	Ramen w/green beans	0.25	Sheperds Pie	$1.09	$2.30
					weekly total	$19.73

*Blogger was being weird with the formatting for this table, so I deleted all of the "snack" columns (especially since I ate so many free snacks), so if the math doesn't add up in the "total" column, it's because there were some snacks that were deleted.

I didn’t take pictures every day this week, but I took some. 

Here are some highlights:

This was polenta gnocchi from Whole Foods.  I purchased it awhile ago and it has been sitting in our freezer forever.  Each bag contains two servings - though, between Guinevere and me, we got a little more than that.  It was just "ok" - next time, I'll stick with regular gnocchi instead of polenta gnocchi.

I had a coupon for a free sandwich from Ralphs deli, so I decided to cash it in and take my free sandwich to the beach.  The sandwich was just "ok," but the setting was fantastic!

I made Shepherds Pie for dinner tonight.  It was delicious!  Guinevere ate almost an entire adult size (well, Brenda-size) portion.

And I went grocery shopping today.  Check out all the fun stuff I have to work with for the next two weeks:

I spent $117.09, which means I still have $80 left towards my budget of $300 . . . maybe I can afford a trip to Starbucks after all.