30 Day Challenge-Day 2 End

We've survived another day!

We got everything but the bagels and sewing done. I managed to sew a button back onto one of Alice's dresses and fold and trim the fraying seam on 2 yards of fabric that need to be pinned and sewed into a curtain to cover a bookcase used for storage.

Decluttering! A bag full of stuff went to Value Village and a bunch of baby stuff went to Little Earth . Once everything sells the credit will be used for Alice's fall and winter clothes since we're set for summer stuff.

Laundry also got done early this morning. Bagels can wait until tomorrow.

Picked up a couple more grocery items, the butcher shop still had 3lb hams for $7 each. The one I bought last week made 3 meals and probably could have lasted for 4 if we hadn't devoured so much the first night. I also got a tray of ground chicken for just $1, it went right into the freezer since the sell by date was today.

Also bought the following:

• 1 L Homo milk-$2.39
• Ground chicken-$1
• 1.81 lb Russet Potatoes @$0.69/lb-$1.25
• 2 packets instant chicken noodles @$0.45 each-$0.90
• Frozen Ham $7

Total $12.54

Adding to the previous total of $25.45 we've already spent $37.99. I think that's it for the week unless we need more fruit. We're still about $10 below our weekly allowance, it would be nice to have the extra cash next week

We'll leave you with a picture of tonight's dinner, please ignore that the meatloaf is a bit overdone, the baby needed to be fed so it sat in the oven for a bit longer than it needed.

Our kitchen staples

We started thinking about what the bare-minimum requirements of the things we cook at home. It turns out our list of essentials was longer than we thought. We try to keep these items stocked up so we're prepared for almost any meal. In any event, you may find this list helpful if you don't know what you should be buying or how much you should have in stock.

• Cans (2 or 3 of each)
• Diced Tomatoes (most versatile format)
• Beans (kidney, black, chickpeas, mixed)
• Gravy (Turkey, brown)
• Plain Tomato sauce
• tomato paste
• pizza sauce
• cream of mushroom soup
• tuna, chicken or turkey
• Dry Pasta (2 large bags of each)
• Spaghetti
• Elbow
• Rigatoni/fusilli
• Meat (if you're a carnivore)
• Ground Beef - buy in 3lb trays and divide into 12 small bags and freeze
• Fast fry steak (2)
• Bone-in Chicken thighs (2-3lb)
• Bone-in Chicken breasts (2)
• Pork tenderloin or roast
• Ham (about 1kg)
• Frozen vegetables (1 bag each)
• green beans
• corn
• peas
• Pizza dough
• Rice - Buy the biggest cheapest bag you can find.
• Flour
• 10kg bag of white
• 2.5kg bag of whole wheat
• Sugar
• 10kg bag of white
• 1kg bag of brown
• Oatmeal - 2.5lb bag of quick oats
• Cooking oil - vegetable/canola - buy large bottles for best value
• Olive oil - nothing too fancy
• Shortening - 1 box
• Corn starch - 1 box
• Baking powder and baking soda
• Bouillon or broth- chicken, and beef
• Soy Sauce
• Salt (table and sea), black pepper
• Dry Spices (from dollar store)
• Italian seasoning
• Oregano
• Thyme
• Basil
• Cinnamon
• Lemon Pepper Salt
• Red Pepper flakes
• Fruit
• 4 apples
• 2 oranges
• 2 lemons
• Vegetables
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 crown of broccoli
• 1 green pepper
• 1 red/yellow/orange pepper
• 2 baking potatoes
• 4 medium new/yellow/red potatoes (your preference)
• 1 cooking onion or 3 shallots
• 1-3 bulb of garlic
• 3 vine tomatoes or 5 roma or 2 hothouse
• 1 yam or sweet potato
• Cheese
• 1 block of Pizza Mozzerella
• 1 block of cheddar (mild or medium)
• Parmesan or Romano
• Margarine- 3lb
• Milk - 1L
• Coffee Cream or Half & Half - 1L
• Eggs (for baking only)
• Coffee - 1kg whole bean whatever is on sale
• Tea - Tetley 144 or 216 bags

Beyond that we have: cereals, bread, deli meat, pasta and rice side-dish, inexpensive soups.crackers, bread crumbs, snacks and of course condiments: mustard, ketchup, bbq sauce, and hot sauce.

It looks like a lot but really it isn't. It wouldn't last us more than a week in the event of a zombie outbreak, something to consider.

"That one last piece of fruit" streusel loaf

[post by Holly]
I'm sure we've all had this happen, you end up with one old lonely abused piece of fruit that someone has forgotten about. That last over-ripe banana, bruised apple or squished peach. You probably just end up tossing it into the garbage or compost. It goes to waste and you vow to buy one less piece of fruit next time. Here is a great easy recipe that will take care of that last piece of fruit.


Most loafs call for a set amount of fruit, like a cup or cup and a half or 3-4 bananas. You can use whatever you want in this loaf since the idea is to use up anything you have, you can even combine fruits. You can add some chopped nuts or raisins to this if you like. Great for breakfast or as a snack with tea.

30 Day Challenge-Day 2 Morning

[posted by Holly]

We weren't up quite as early as yesterday, 7:30 instead of 6:30 due to late night baby shenanigans and it being a dreary, chilly day out today. Earlier than usual though. We've already had our morning beverages and breakfast.

The To-Do list isn't quite as long as it was yesterday either.

On the agenda today (in no particular order):

• Home made Bagels (instead of buying bread)
• Laundry
• Sewing (several projects)
• Walk to Post Office to mail rental assistance application
• Call consignment shops to see if they will take some baby stuff
• Fold and put away laundry
• Pita chips (we have some pitas leftover from chicken wraps that need to be used up)
• Repost auctions
• Copy Craigslist ads to Kijiji
• Buy pet food
• Organize the freezer and cupboards

I'm sure we will find a few more things as the day goes by so we had better get started!

30 Day Challenge: Day 1 end

So we've survived our first day on a tight budget though we're quite tired from getting up so early and all the running around. Everything on our to-do list was completed by 5pm with most items done before noon. It's 7:30pm and feels like 11pm. For the first time in a long time we've done everything on our list.

So far we've spent $25.45 on groceries. We may have to go out to pick up milk and maybe some deli meat in a couple days so we'll keep a running total as we pick up items throughout the week.

Groceries for Day 1

1 small jar Hellmans Mayonnaise $2.99
1 can Organic Black Beans $1.99
1 L 18% Table Cream $3.89
2.85 lb @ 0.69/lb Red Potatoes $1.97
1.76 lb @ 0.79/lb Jumbo carrots $1.39
1 block Mild Cheddar Cheese $6.99
0.37 lb @ 0.99/lb Vine Tomatoes $0.37
250 mL Sour Cream $1.69
0.30 lb @ 1.69/lb HH Orange Peppers $0.51
0.52 lb @ 1.49/lb Crown Broccoli $0.77
1 box Crisco Shortening $2.89
Total = $25.45

Remember, we're not starting with nothing in the fridge or cupboards but we didn't cheat and stock up before the challenge either. What we have in the cupboards is about what we usually have. We spent $393.54 on groceries last month, not including cleaning supplies or diapers. That's become our average and it's way too much.


Deviations from list
We had fresh green beans on our shopping list but they weren't a reasonable price so dinner tomorrow will have frozen peas instead. The store was out of ground turkey we'll need to get some on the weekend.

Dinner tonight was pancakes and fried leftover ham (a $7 ham from last week made 3 meals). Hashbrowns were on the meal plan but decided to go with a lighter meal.


The next couple weeks it should be fairly easy to stick to the budget or even be below while we go through our freezer and pantry stash. When supplies start to get low is when it's going to get tricky! Some weeks the grocery bill may be higher if we need a giant bag of rice or go to the butcher for a meat order since there is a discount for buying a certain number of pounds but it should even out when we don't have to buy meat the following week.

So far so good.

30 Day Challenge: Day 1

The 30 Day Challenge aggressive budget starts today!

Alice made sure we were up by 6:30 according to our original plan. We'll be taking out $200 cash and that's all we're allowed to spend on groceries all month. Thinking about this as $6.67/day for 3 meals is depressing, but if we consider it $46.69 for a week we will be able to plan better meals.

We are going grocery shopping later this morning. We will only be buying what's on the list unless an item can't be found for a decent price and then a meal plan change will be made.

Here's the meal plan for the week.

We still have a good deal of freezer and pantry items as well as leftovers to go through so the grocery list won't be so bad for this week. It's good to start out ahead, but as the month goes on some large items will need to be replaced.

Grocery list is as follows:

• Potatoes(enough for 3 meals)
• Bag of green beans
• 3 carrots
• 1 broccoli
• 1 tomato
• 1 small red pepper
• Crisco or other vegetable shortening
• Cheddar cheese
• Sour cream
• Cream
• Can of black beans
• Mayo
• Ground turkey

We will update later today with how the things are going.