Food bill

Our food yesterday came to $18.00 exactly. Which is perfect. We had leftovers from the weekend today, and tonight we are having the mother hubbard soup. When I get home around 4PM I will be making it and then heading off to class. By the time Nick and I are home it should be ready.

Its been an exhausting start to the week, both of us get up early for work or school, come home for 30 mins, and head back out the door for school. The only time we get a day off is when its a national holiday, and then we try to sleep in for a few extra hours.

Phew. I haven't updated with photos in a while, due to the fact I have been to busy. Nothing to eventful has happened. Apart from being burned by gravy on Saturday evening.

Hope to try and update again soon.

End of vacation mode

Nick here, Katie's cooking so I'll do today's update.
We got lucky with the first couple days of the month, since the 1st was on Saturday. We went out for our 1st anniversary on New Year's Eve and that pretty much culminated the end of the "Spend whatever we want on food" year. We accumulated a lot of leftovers and ran on those for the weekend, but it finally hit a point where we need to buy food and had to follow our new rules.

Tonight we made the Easy Italian Chicken Dinner from our little Slow Cooker Cookbook. We posted the recipe last week. The only thing we added to the recipe was some leftover raw carrots, and instead of pasta sauce we used tinned tomato. One can of stewed, diced and tomato sauce. It looks awesome.

As you can see, we started prepping later in the day so we did not slow cook. We are cooking it on high for around a hour, and baking the chicken separate.

We added the carrots we had in the fridge as extras.

We also did the shopping today and spent 20.73. The reason for that silly .73 is due to the fact that Katie was not sure of which kind of barley to get. I didn't even know there were more than one type of Barley. We also had to get 2 canned soups for emergency lunch situations.


Other than this, we are having some leftover bread, and then packing 4 servings of spaghetti (Old...In the pantry), sauce and chicken in to leftover containers for the rest of the week. Along with some leftover chocolate cookie bars. Yeah... We will be running later this week. Trust me!

MEAL PLANS+SHOPPING LISTS

This morning while drinking my coffee, I saw a program on extreme couponers....I have to say. I was slightly jealous. Spending $5,000 on groceries and getting them for $300 is a huge deal. But then again, I don't have that much pantry space in the new house.

We will be spending about $300 extra A WEEK outfitting our new house with items. Eeesh.
So here is the first meal plan for January. Also, the bulk buying shopping list for the first 6 months. Shouldn't cost more than $30 to set up.
I will also post the recipies below. As I have mentioned before, a slow cooker is essential! Or a large pot on a low heat, if you are home all day.

This is the bulk buying shopping list. I will be going to BJ's to get a majority of this. We are talking year long supplies. The bigger the better.

Leftover containers are key too...



Italian Chicken:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (About 1lbs)
8 ounces mushrooms (sliced)
1 medium green bell pepper (Chopped....Optional!)
1 medium zucchini (diced...Optional!)
1 medium onion (chopped)
1 jar of pasta sauce

Combine all ingredients in crock pot or slow cooker and cover. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or until chicken is tender.


Savory Mushroom and Barley Soup:
3 cups of water
1 can of diced tomatoes
3/4 cup of each: Onion, celery, carrots
1 teaspoon dried savory leaves
3/4  teaspoons crushed fennel seeds
2 cups white mushrooms
1/2 cup quick cook barley
Salt and pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients, except barley, salt and pepper in slow cooker; cook on high 4 to 6 hours, adding barley during last 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.


Garlic Vegetable soup
2 quarts water
1 can (15 ounces) navy or great northern beans, rinsed, drained
1 pound tomatoes, peeled, seeded coarsely chopped
1 cup each: diced new potatoes, coarsely chopped carrots, cut green beans (1/2 inch), chopped leeks (Some of these are optional. Its all about what you like)
1/2 cup chopped celery
6 large cloves garlic (Minced)
2 tablespoons each: Tomato paste, dried basil leaves
Salt and Pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients, except salt and pepper, in 6 quart slow cooker; cover and cook on low 6-8 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper.



Vegetable soup
1 quart vegetable broth
1/2 cup each: thinly sliced green cabbage, chopped celery, onion, broccoli florets, cut green beans, cubed zucchini, potato (Again, pick and choose!)
1/2 cup uncooked ditalini
Salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup basil (Pesto or dried)

Combine all ingredients, except ditalini, salt, pepper, in slow cooker. Dont add basil pesto yet if you are using it.
In a slow cooker, cover and cook on high for 4-5 hours, adding ditalini during 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in basil pesto at last second!

(Ditalini...http://www.barillaus.com/Products/4/ditalini.aspx.... I had some in my pantry!)



Please comment if you have questions!

$20 a week items

Well after doing the meal plans I believe we have a few issues to clear up:

#1. You are going to need a good spice rack! Such as


This is one that I have. Spices are the flavor of life. You will be using them EVERY day. I cant emphasis this enough. You can completely change up boring dishes.

#2. Get the basics down. Before the new year, get in some dry pasta, beans, canned tomatoes, frozen peas (The biggest bag you can find), frozen kernel corn, Bread mixes (You can make your own bread and save a fortune!), tuna, canned veggies, tomato sauce, pasta sauce, canned chicken. Etc... That's the main ones I can think of.

#3, Nick and I are so busy in the first few weeks of January, that we survive on slow cooking. The one we have is

It is amazing. :)

#4. get up and get peeling! Essential for surviving on $20 a week. Keep the peels and start a vegetable garden with fresh compost.
In the summer this will keep your costs down.

#5. Use what is in your pantry! Dont go over the $20 budget, if your missing a few ingredients in the meal, substitute. Use one type of bean instead of three.

#6. Clip some coupons.

#7. Go to your local Farmers market. Grab some fruits and veggies. Bargain prices :). If they are still more expensive than your local store, haggle with them. And bring proof. If you haggle loud enough, they will probably match the price you are asking.


Later today will be the first food plan. I will post the recipies underneath the scan of my plan.

Keep the recipies in a word document. This will be useful for reusing specific meal plans.

See you all later.

Please feel free to comment!

Happy Thanksgiving.

Getting ready to take the blog world by storm, coming up with a few more posting ideas. :)

A lot of people have expressed interest in this blog, and we seem to have a lot of non believers!

Today we are having a feast, and running it off later. Yesterday I (K) ran 4 miles and did 30 mins on the elliptical...As well as some free weights. 900kcal total, just to get ready for today. Hopefully tonight I can get in some Plyometrics and cross training.

The key to this $20 a week journey is planning. At the start of the week we will show you what we are buying, what our plan was, and our food shopping trip. We will do a blog, youtube video, and a podcast. So every week you can follow along. Its going to be fun, and a great way to save money.

People are wondering what exactly we are going to do with the money, firstly, we are going to put some in to a 401K. Secondly, we are going to be improving the house we are hopefully buying, and working on our goal to have it paid in 9 years.

Eventually, I would like to get health insurance too. As a sufferer from Crohn's disease, it would be great to eventually be insured.

We are very lucky to have family and friends supporting us through this journey, and people have to realize we cannot eat out anymore. We are going to be the most annoying people for the entire year! But hey! We got a point to prove in todays economy.

What else was there..... This is a very unplanned blog post!

Oh yes! We are kicking the soda habbit. Only teas and water for a year. :) I wonder how that will feel... Another thing is that we will be working on 3 books on eating cheap and cooking. There are so many cookbooks, but none address the cost factor.

So this weeks goal for my reader:
Get your spice cabinet organized. Spices are the key to "Spicing it up!" Haha! They are essential to making food interesting.

Ask for a slow cooker for Christmas, and also some food storage containers.

Think of 10 goals you would like to accomplish next year. Write them down, and stick to them. Put them on the mirror. Put them on the fridge, and put them on your door!

Find your local farmers marker too. This is essential to eating cheap.
We will also start planing vegetables once we are in the new house.

That's it for now!

Sunday Morning Coupon Clipping...

Money saving tip of the week:

Every Sunday morning I coupon clip.

From there I organize them in to categories.

1: What I need this week, what I can use this week to feed us
2: What is on sale at the store, and what coupon I can use this week to get more savings on top

From there I sort them by expiration date in categories:

Grocery- This week I had; soy milk, green giant veggies, mayo, butter, yogurt, green tea, coffee etc

Health+Beauty- This week I had; Body wash, Nauzene, Tylenol

Cleaning: This week I had; A huge amount of Lysol coupons, dishwasher tablets, resolve, hefty bags, detergent, paper towels, and so on..

Alcohol: This week I had; Vodka, Wine, Baileys….Mmmm

Meh, not good coupons this week. But it’s worth stocking up on some of these things before the New Year!

It may seem obvious, but this is essential to saving a LOT of money.