I blew the Penny Pinching Pantry Raid budget!

It was such a laudable goal.

One hundred dollars for food for a month. At first, I said "there's no way." Then I decided it wouldn't be too hard, considering all that I had in my freezer and pantry. Problem was, (and maybe if I'd been more open-minded on what is considered a meal...) I didn't have stuff that I could combine and make a meal with.

All in all, I think it was still a success. I cleaned out my pantry and freezer. I made one trip to the grocery store, and I think that'll do me for the month. And most of all, from now on out, I'm going to employ a keen sense of frugality when it comes to planning meals. I'm going to use what I have, stock up when I have the opportunity, and not eat out so much.

I went to the grocery store last night because I desperately needed dishwashing liquid and cat litter. I was trying to avoid going, it had reached critical level. Well, $66.84 later and I'm over my budget in food for the month. But really, is spending $200 a month on food terrible? In May, I spent $387.82 on groceries and $341.67 eating out. For 2 people!!! Despite my failure at the challenge, I'm counting it as a success in every sense.

Last night, I bought mostly stuff I would have been hard-pressed to do without in the next few weeks. Stuff I use everyday. String cheese, yougart, cottage cheese, breakfast and lunch food for Jeremy. Stuff like that. Okay, I also did buy an extra half-gallon of Turkey Hill ice cream, but with my coupon, I got it for $1.29. Not too shabby.

I also bought two filets to grill for me and Jeremy on our actual anniversary on Wednesday. $4.49 ea. And I needed a yellow cake mix to make the Weight Watcher's blackberry cobbler recipie for dessert after the steak. BTW, Jeremy got me a gallon of blackberries this week. In the woods. For free.

I bought some tomato sauce to make sauce to finish off the jumbo shells and lasagna that I have in the pantry. For the life of me, I had in my pantry everything I needed to make either stuffed shells or lasagna but something for the sauce. Now that I think about it, I suppose I should have made a white sauce. Butter, flour, milk. I had all those already... Anyway, there's two more meals done after I spent $1.32 on five cans of tomato sauce.

So here's where I stand: Over budget $34.88.

Occassionally, this guy I work with makes the MOST FABULOUS WAFFLES EVER for the entire staff. That's what I had for breakfast. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S. And free. Jeremy didn't eat.

Lunch was cold cucumber soup and a turkey sandwich. Jeremy had a turkey sandwich.

I had yougart and a hard-boiled egg for a snack.

For dinner, I'm making swiss chard and linguine with grated peccorino cheese. Okay, so the cheese was one of my splurges at the store. Bad, me!

Yesterday, I had Kashi and cottage cheese (again) for breakfast. Jeremy had waffles.

I had yougart, egg, string cheese and a granola bar for a snack.

It was our monthly employee potluck at lunch time. I contributed zucchini bread. I think Jeremy had lunch at the new Sheetz in Milton. He was excited, a new Sheetz just doesn't open everyday. I don't know what the damage was yet, but I doubt it was more than $7.

For dinner, I made grilled salmon with cucumber yougart topping for dinner and we had a salad.

I bought the salmon (1 lb.) at the Fish Market on Wednesday for $10.87.

On Wednesday, nothing fancy for any meals, but we had Subway for dinner. I had a coupon for a BOGO footlong sub. $7.42 for dinner for both of us isn't too bad, and it was one of those evenings that just wasn't exactly conducive to making dinner at home. I had a hair appointment right after work, then we had a co-ed softball game. This qualified as a time when eating out is okay, in my book.