Week 1

Last week was when I decided to have our family start a very strict budget for food. My thoughts are, I'd rather start too strict and adjust than be too lenient to begin with. This includes a number of other areas of our budgetting system we are setting up.

Last Saturday (2/28/09), we did our first grocery trip with these limitations. $50 for the week, to feed 2 adults and one baby.

Our total was $41.86.

This is what we bought:
1 (16 oz) bag frozen broccoli
2 (16 oz each) bags frozen mixed vegetables
2 bottles soy sauce
huge container ground coffee
2 small cans of tomato paste
2 large cans of whole tomatoes
a small amount of raw squid
1 large bag raw shrimp
2.5 lbs bananas
2 korean green peppers
4 lb bag oranges
10 lb bag potatoes
3 bunches scallions
2 hefty heads of cabbage

The main dishes we plan to make with these items are:
*Spicy shrimp bokkeum (stir fry) with a little squid for flavoring. (This is based off the Korean dish Ojinga Bokkeum)
*Shepherds Pie
*Tomato Soup
*Chili

Considering each of these makes quite a bit of food, and we have no problem eating leftovers, we should be set for the week. If not, we still have $8.14 dollars left for last minute supplies. Also, we have food in the freezer and cabinets that we can use from previous purchases. I don't consider this cheating since we all have to start somewhere and I'm not about to let those items go to waste. Also, since this isn't a short term 'experiment' (as in 1 month or so long), I don't see any reason to view anything of this sort as "cheating."

So far, we've made the Spicy Bokkeum (on Saturday night, still enough left for two meals) and the Shepherds Pie (last night, enough left for quite a few meals). We'll see how the rest of the week goes. It's very possible some of the entrees can be saved for next week.