Starting a September Grocery Challenge Early

     While it was not yet September, I'm counting my Friday and yesterday shop as the start to my September Household and Grocery  budget. I am going to track with a vengeance this month, plugging holes wherever I can, while trying to not just settle for PB and J sandwiches for lunch and my meals alone. I stopped at Aldi on Friday, planning through the store specific items need for full meals or to top off with food already at home. Both DD1 and I were careful at the farmers market to not overbuy, though everything looked gorgeous, and a coworker gave her more peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes which she shared with me. With just two of us, the risk of food waste is amplified, so I'll try to aggressively store and freeze items to pull out for either lunches or meals for one of us, which should result in both less waste and less spent on either lunches out, or specialty lunch items. 

Spending to date on H&G:
Aldi                                         $49
Farmers Market                      $  7
Free veg (DD1 coworker)       $  0
Dollar Tree                              $  2
Total Spent 9/1/2019              $58

     We'll probably need 1/2 gallon of milk, but I can't see that we need anything else, H or G, and going into next week, the shop should be light. A $300 target would give me an average of $75 per week. I'd like to do better than that, but will start there. Meal options from my shop are below and each will easily yield leftovers for lunch. This gets us well past the week, so hopefully next weekend I am buying less. 

• Roasted chicken, green beans and rice pilaf
• Chili cheese burrito bake with rice on the side
• Cheese ravioli in mushroom cream sauce with steamed vegetables
• Spaghetti with garden vegetable tomato sauce, garlic cheese bread
• Tuna hotdish with steamed peas
• Rice crust quiche with tomato, cucumber salad
• Turkey burgers with potato salad, and coleslaw
• Chicken salad sandwiches with roasted potato wedges
• Chicken strip wraps with fresh vegetables, baked potato
• Chicken, cheese, and vegetable noodle hotdish

     It's a very chicken and pasta heavy list I realize, but I have so much of both. However, pairing with so many of the fresh produce items should lighten the pasta a bit and add variety to the chicken dishes. I'd like to keep eating out to a minimum-just the weekend we go and visit DD2 for family weekend, and plan to eat at least one meal on campus using her guest passes. DH will be pleased. He loved the meal choices when we were the schools guests last November. She has a total of eight with her plan, and quite frankly, we are not sure how they will be used. DD1 has talked about visiting her, and maybe a friend or two might be up, though if they are there for tours, they'll be given meal vouchers anyway. They'll be monitored and used up before the end of the semester though-even if she invites a professor to dine with her! 

     I haven't even touched on soup making yet, though I feel a cool weekend will pop up and I'll feel inspired. I have a large spiral cut 1/2 ham in my freezer bought a the beginning of the summer. It is taking up so much room, but I need a very cool day before I'm willing to turn the oven on for several hours. But when I do, it will yield a lot of meal options, including the bone for hearty corn chowder or bean soup. Until then, I'll keep enjoying as much of the fresh produce, particularly when gifted, as I can.