Today is the day I both love and hate. The day I look forward to and dread all week long. The day that can either make or break my week and my budget. Today is meal planning and grocery shopping day. Let me just be upfront with you and tell you I hate grocery shopping. With a passion. It is one of those things that I hate to do whether it is a $5 order or a $500 order (and yes, I have had a few $500 orders in my lifetime!) Yep, it is grocery shopping day. The OCD side of myself loves it because I get to clean out all the stuff in the fridge that needs to be thrown out. I get to go through the pantry and freezer and try and clear out some of the stockpile I have, which believe it or not, I love to do. Then comes the part I don't like. If I was to be honest with you, and myself, I would say that it isn't the act of grocery shopping itself I hate. It is all the work before and after that has me in a fit of rage most times. I feel like a good part of my life is spent figuring out what to make, how to make it, getting stuff to make it and then making it only to have to start all over again the next day.
As Lindsey mentioned in an earlier post, part of the #challenge for this month was to try and use many of the groceries we already had in the house and limit what we bought at the grocery store. The second part of that #challenge was to try and keep our spending on budget and we both gave ourselves a budget for the month. My budget, if I remember correctly, was $150 for the month. Lets just say that I am pretty sure that is a challenge I am going to lose seeing as this was my receipt for this weeks groceries.
To be fair, I am feeding a family of 4 adults as well as running a daycare for 5 little people. And this week I have company coming on two of the days so the meals I make that day need to stretch a little further. I think that I really set an unrealistic goal for myself as far as what I would spend grocery wise for the month. If I could try and keep it to $400, $425 for the month for both my family and the daycare I would consider that a victory. Part of being able to accomplish that will be continuing to make sure to use up stuff I already have in the freezer and pantry and getting creative with what I have. I also need to start going to the Superstore later at night (I shop at Sobeys faithfully) and looking for their 50% off deals that they often have on things like meat, bread and even some produce.
I did well this week with meal planning and trying to make recipes that not only used a lot of stuff I already had but that were fairly easy to make and prep. I am feeling a bit down in the dumps (typical for this time of year for me) so spending an hour or two a day prepping and cooking isn't something I really want to do this week. We are trying to adapt a more vegetarian lifestyle so meat is only in one of the meals this week. This is a huge challenge for me as most of my go to recipes include meat but the cost of meat is so high right now that I just can't afford to continue to buy it like I use to.
How did I do Lindsey? Did I meet my #operationmealplanning challenge? Your challenge for this week might not be as much fun for you. Your challenge is the #deepfreezechallenge. That is right, your challenge will involve your deep freeze. I want you to try and empty it out and make a list of everything you have in it. Throw away what can't be used, bring up the stuff you can start using right away and planning meals around the rest of the items. Since I do have a bit of a heart I will give you a week to get this done seeing as you have a crazy full plate and, because I am an awesome friend, I am also happy to come out and help you with this challenge.
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