My Wednesday Pantry- Blowing the Challenge Up

   

     You all knew this was going to happen with DH deciding to shop with me. Yes, the goal to cut our budget in half in February for household, groceries, health and beauty was blown to pieces on Sunday. The strategy was to not shop at all, or only the bar minimum, and eat down our pantry. To be fair, that actually happened prior to February 21st. Also on a good note, we're under budget overall all and restocked for well over a month, or to only shop in March for must haves and loss leaders. I still won't race store to store trying ot find the best deals, this will come by happenstance. All together, unless neither of us stays out of the store the rest of the week, my tally for all the categories was $420, give or take a few cents. I have to give credit to DH though who managed not to throw aimless things in the cart, so we actually have items that will be for meals, a few snacks, and  household/health items for a while. His vices, his 24 count of juices and a mega bag of tortilla chips at Sam's. This weekend was a lot though. $349 was  spent between Saturday and Monday. 

     The really pricey items though will last a while. DHs juice above, will be a good two weeks worth. We stocked up on his multi vitamin gummie and my generic  Clariton, an incredible price of  under $12 for 400 tablets, a years worth. Truth be told, other than those two items and the rotisserie chicken, I can't even remember what all we bought at Sam's that drove the receipt to $143. Cheese, deli meat, a massive pack of boneless, skinless chicken,  and enough Kleenex to blow our noses through summer is what I recall. It was not that many different items, but lots of them. The was broken down and rewrapped into seven bundles, then put in freezer bags to grab one or two bundles at a time. I've gotten three meals from the rotisserie chicken, plus am freezing two portions of  hearty chicken tortellini soup for DH. The whole chicken was right around 3 pounds.

     At Aldi, the damage was even more, stocking up to the tune of $167. Wo spends $167 at Aldi for two people? This is where I got baking, canned vegetables, dry and canned beans, and all kinds of other shelf items. There were the regulars items I was planning to buy as well-mainly fruit and vegetables and fresh items. I was happy to see they had the store crescent rolls in  stock, barely, as I had to pay twice that at Christmas for the various recipes I use them in. The big wins was picking up ground beef, and ground beef  taco and sloppy joes at Kwik Trip, at $1.99 a pound,  buying eight altogether. This truly was a stock up shop weekend. I had to laugh at DH playing Tetris in the pantry, insisting he was going to get it all to fit. I eventually took multiples out, put them in a box, and moved to my office to restock them as used. I do not want to take out half the pantry to find things to make dinner. 

     So of course I wasn't successful at the challenge as I laid it out, but it was a good strategy overall to manage our food budget. We ate down a lot of items from the freezer that very well might have gone to waste. I got more creative with some of our meal combinations in manage sure to use  food on hand. I still spent less than the USDA "thrifty" plan for groceries for a two adult household. My total includes all the non-food and canned food for pup too. I'll track in March and see if I can duplicate February. 

I have a quick recipe for you though, one I used the rotisserie chicken to make. 

Chicken and Biscuit Bake-  3-4 servings

Filling:

1 cup steamed carrots

3 medium potatoes, precooked (I used microwave then let them cool) then cut in smaller cubes/pieces

1 1/2 cups diced chicken

gravy made from about 4 ounces of the  chicken drippings, 3/4 cup water, 1 tsp Better than bullion, 2 TBSP Corn starch.

Biscuit (I made 1/2 recipe from box)

1 1/4 Cup Baking mix (like Bisquick) or make your own recipe

2/3rd cup milk

Mixed all together and poured in a greased  6 cup oblong (  guess 5 by 8 perhaps) baking dish

Drop biscuit dough  on top, 6 similar sized Biscuits.

Bake at 400 for 22-24 minutes. until biscuits are done, and filling is bubbly.