Hello, and welcome to Friday. Have you joined the challenge, yet? Each week I spend 21 dollars per person, per week, on groceries. There are 3 in my home at this time, so that is 63 dollars per week. At first, it was a pantry challenge as well to see if I with CKD could still feel healthy eating pantry or shelf-stable type meals. That only took a few weeks to decide absolutely not. However, as the weeks have gone on I have found that we can still eat quite healthy on the small budget I created. We still have a few snacks for the week, and we still eat meat. It is a little trickier I will admit, but so far it is very easily doable. If you take out all of the junk we tend to eat, then you can afford the good stuff. I can’t afford organic, or grass-fed most weeks, but I can squeeze it in if it is on sale. If I could tolerate beans better, and my family would eat beans as an alternative to meat, that would be much better, but alas I am not the only person that eats in the house.
As you will see in the picture this week I focused on meat. I went to Save A Lot because they had the best prices on the meat. My husband likes those Ole low-carb wraps, I do too, actually, I just don’t eat them as much. They are quite expensive for only 8 wraps. I am going to see if I can find a recipe to make my own homemade low-carb wraps. They don’t even have to be low-carb as long as they are high fiber. There are some snacks in there too, for my daughter and husband. I tend to try to avoid snacking altogether. We still have apples and oranges on hand. My daughter likes those instant potatoes for her lunches. Drinks are one place that can suck up a lot of money. We have cut way back on the drinks, and just have water most of the time. Except for coffee and creamer, if you have been following along then you know coffee is no longer part of this budget. I tend to buy the larger packets of meat and then split them up into proper portion sizes before freezing them. Use your leftovers too! Don’t let your family waste them. I spent $2.50 at the Dollar Tree and picked up the lentils, and a 2 pound bag of rice. The lentils do not bother my stomach as much as beans, but my family won’t eat them. So, I will prep them and store them for me when I don’t want meat. I spent the full 63 dollars this week, and not a penny less.
This week my husband was away for dinners, again, but he will be back next week. So, my daughter and I had smaller meals and leftovers. I did some meal prep this week by air-frying almost a whole bag of potatoes. Now they are ready for any meal I want to use them in. Potatoes take forever to cook, but they are affordable and healthy. I have started a new plan as part of my weight loss journey to eat little or no carbs after lunch. I can not say I have adjusted to this yet, and it is still a work in process.
For dinners coming up we will be having: tonight baked pork chops and a veggie, Saturday ravioli with sauce, Sunday breakfast for dinner, Monday cornbread and ham. Now, they may not be in that order, and I haven’t thought past Monday. Since I am doing low carb for dinner I will either prepare the dinner meal for lunch, as my husband still works from home, or I will make it for dinner and save it for my lunch the next day and eat something else for dinner. So far it really only affects the ravioli dinner, and I don’t really care for them anyway.
I bought the ham steak on purpose because I knew I had two cornbread mixes in the cupboard that need to be used. Now, they do have HFCS which I generally avoid, but I bought the dumb things and I refuse to waste them, but I won’t buy them again. Gas is getting so high now, that we probably won’t be heading to Aldis again anytime soon unless I go after work, but even then it is still not that close to my new job and I really don’t want to shop after working all day. So, I will have to do with the stores that are closer to me.
Leave me a comment if you are giving this challenge a try and how you are doing with it.
Have a great weekend!
Living Life With CKD 