$4 a Day January Challenge -- Week 1

The first week of my challenge turned out to be much easier than I had anticipated.  I carefully went through all of the grocery ads and my coupons and devised a menu.  I wrote down exactly what I would need from each store and the advertised price.  I ended up finding that I could often get the advertised goods for a lower cost at other stores if comparison shopped.  I spent $19.94 and got this: 

I did have some leftovers in the fridge that I ate, which helped.  


I still had over $9.00 left over.  And, at the end of the week, I had leftover food!   Wahhooo!


Here's a sample of what I ate for less than $20.00:

For breakfast I had yogurt and oatmeal.  Plus, we had some donuts and pastries at work that I took advantage of.  And coffee, of course. 

Almost every day at work I have a salad for lunch.  When I was planning my menu, I made sure to include everything that I would normally buy for my salads.  I also had some leftover homemade mac n cheese.

For dinners, I made burrito bowls using my cilantro lime rice.  I had soft tacos with cilantro lime rice as a side.  I had an egg and cheese omelet with peanut butter toast.  And, my man friend (I got in trouble for calling him a boy in a previous post) made me his delicious spicy chicken alfredo casserole, which I always LOVE.

For snacks I had fresh fruit and some random junk food and candy I have stashed at home and at work.


This week I got by kind of easy because I only needed to buy food, not supplies, but next week I know I'll need some supplies, which might be kind of challenging.  At least I have an extra $9.00 to apply to those things . . .