JUNE Food Stamp Challenge....Days Twenty & Twenty One

This post is part of the June Food Stamp Challenge located over HERE.

As we head into the last third of the month for the June Food Stamp Challenge I have an update to my Budget to make.

Since Daughter didn't return from her training for her summer employment, due to the fact that she was offered 2 additional weeks of work, I need to adjust our Food Stamp Challenge Budget to reflect 1 less person to feed for the last 11 days of the challenge.

At $101 a person, the daily budget per person is $3.36, so when I subtract her food budget for those 11 days, that amount comes to $37.02.
Our $410.72 food budget is now $373.70.
At this point we have spent $167.33 and have $206.37 remaining.

**Actually, we have spent More than $167.33 in food costs for items used/eaten that were bought before June started.  I am keeping a tally of food eaten at other meals as well as drinks and snacks that include foods bought before June started, and will add all of those costs in at the end of the month.  It's the simplest way I can figure to keep track of it all.**

On Day 20-Sunday-DH was out of town depositing #2 son to camp.  I ate leftover Sesame Chicken from the night before for lunch and DH had his plate of leftovers when he returned that evening for dinner.  I munched on leftover cantaloupe and made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for supper.  Yes, I use every opportunity I can find to use that badass industrial cheese slicer I blogged about HERE.  Cost of meals on Sunday for food bought before June....cheese .41¢, mayo .05¢=$.45.
Cost of fast food lunch & 2 coffee purchases for DH=$5.49.(1 coffee was free as a Father's Day Promotion where he stopped.)
Sunday total=$5.94

On Day 21-Monday-I took the last 3 slices of ham out of the freezer from one of the free hams I had gotten in April of 2009 (talked about HERE).  It is at the tail end of it's usable 'life', even with my mad wrapping skillz.  I thawed them and just pan grilled 2 of them, made potato salad from scratch(heavy on the mustard!) and broke out a package of frozen brussel sprouts.  The larger third slice will go into a casserole I have planned for Wednesday's dinner.

Photo courtesy of my camera which is still wheezing & gasping....lol.....

Day 21 food costs for items bought before June......ham Free, condiments .20¢, brussel sprouts .80¢.
Monday total=$1.00

Both Days combined costs....$6.94

We haven't been to the grocery store since last Thursday(our trip for bread products).  We've been out of milk since Friday but as the kids aren't here, we could go another couple of days without buying more, if we had to, unless I wanted to cook something requiring fresh milk.  There is always the powdered milk or the evaporated milk in the stockpile in a pinch.   
 I have enough food in the house to finish the month off without shopping again if I had to.  The grocery sales aren't very good this week so if I do food shop, it won't be a very large shop.
On Sunday, I had the opportunity to do a Catalina Deal 3 times and score $74.89 worth of food for just over $30(plus have a $7 catalina coupon giving me $7 of free food next week).

But being on this Food Stamp Challenge made me stop and think before I picked up the keys and headed out the door to the store.  Yes, it would have been a 'deal' and yes, I would have had that 'high' from getting the deal and spending that money.  But seriously, none of the food products were things that we needed.  I have plenty of spaghetti sauce, tea bags and salad dressing already.  Very few people who are actually on food stamps probably have the stockpile of food items I do presently.  It just felt wrong to go buy more of the same.....we have enough already. ;-)


June Food Stamp Challenge Update
Spent to Date....$174.27
June Food Budget Left....$199.43
Days of Challenge Left....09



Sluggy