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Day #2: No Spend Week Diary

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Today is Day #2 of our No Spend Week challenge. So far, so good. We’re out of milk now, but have managed to not go by the grocery store yet. I’m trying to hold off until at least Wednesday to spend our $13 on milk and fresh produce. I do have some almond milk (that’s what I use for my coffee), and the kids will use it with cereal when in a pinch, though it’s not their favorite. We’re soldiering on for now. 🙂

Day #2  Notes:

I made PB&J sandwiches for the girls’ lunches; only 2 slices of bread left after today’s sandwiches.

Fresh fruit and vegetable supply count:   nectarines, 4 strawberries, couple chopped pieces of celery (for dipping in PB as snack tomorrow), half spinach bunch, couple of carrots. Supplies are definitely dwindling!

My meals:

Breakfast:  Coffee (meant to make another smoothie since we still have frozen fruit, but ran out of time getting to work!

Lunch:  Chicken & green beans (Sunday leftovers) with white rice. Getting pretty old by now, the 3rd day in-a-row. Still have more chicken to eat up (that was a big chicken!), but the green beans are now gone.

Dinner (cooking now):  Pork roast (from freezer) with carrots cooked in crockpot (win!); canned corn on the side from pantry. I’m mad at myself for forgetting to pull dough out of the freezer before leaving for work. I’d intended to have rolls on the side but by the time I get home, dinner will be ready (thank you, crockpot!) and we won’t have time to let the dough rise. I’ll have to remember to do that for later this week, because I’d been looking forward to some yummy, doughy goodness! (I love breads and cheeses, what can I say?) 😉

 

I still have plenty of ideas for dinners we can make from foods we’ve got on-hand. Our freezer still includes a lot of meat (different cuts of beef, boneless chicken breasts) and bagged stuff that’s easy to throw in the oven (from Costco we have packages of Orange Chicken, Fish Sticks, and Coconut Butterflied Shrimp). Lots of possibilities for the rest of the week! Other than being bored with my chicken-and-rice leftovers, we’re doing good! I’m confident we’ll make it through the week no problem!

 

Whats on the menu at your house tonight? If you’re participating in the No Spend Week challenge, what types of meals have you planned out from food in your pantry and fridge/freezer?


11 Comments

  • Reply Tracy |

    My husband just left for 16 days. I am going to see how long I can make it w/o going to the store. I am pretty certain I will only need milk and fresh fruit. One person does not eat much.

  • Reply LM |

    Y’know, you can freeze your leftover cooked chicken to use another time, instead of having to eat it all. I freeze in meal-size bags, usually by the second day. Can be used in a ga-zillion ways, and makes for less work during a busy week.

    • Reply Ashley |

      Such a great idea!! We ended up finishing up the chicken yesterday, but I definitely need to do this tomorrow!

  • Reply Susan |

    It’s great that you’re doing a no-spend week rather than going into further debt. However, I’d really like to read about how you plan to prevent what forced you to make this choice in the first place: how did you not realize that you’d already spent so much that you had only $25 left? Don’t you use any financial tracking? Have you slacked at that? Why? Most importantly, how will you not be in this position again?

    The taxes too, you really brushed over that. What mind set led to that mistake? What are your ideas about preventing another ‘mistake’ like that again? Life is always changing; I’d like to hear more about your thoughts on (and reader input/discussion) how you will fix yourself to adress preventing future financial problems. Otherwise, there seems to be a major step missing in your process to blog away your debt. I enjoy your writing, you’ve made amazing progress but am anxious for you to take the next big leap in your mind set.

    • Reply Ashley |

      I totally agree and can only say that more posts will be coming. It’s hard to admit to the mistakes we’ve made over summer. We’ve certainly been facing them and the reality they’ve left us in, but it’s a different thing all together to put it out there for the blog-world to see. It will happen, you’ll just have to be patient with us for now. 🙂

  • Reply SUSAN |

    Regarding the milk and fresh food purchases, I do love fresh fruit, but when it comes to milk, I keep a few containers of powdered milk around. I grew up drinking it and it can be kind of, well, gross, if not prepared correctly. But, if it is made with a bit less water than the directions recommend (perhaps about a 1/2 cup per quart) and made with VERY cold filtered water and left to sit overnight, it definitely passes for use on cereal or in coffee (especially if poured into the milk carton after you make it). 😉 I use it all the time when I want to make macaroni and cheese, or bake something that calls for milk and I just don’t feel like running out to buy some.

    • Reply debtor |

      funny enough, since I grew up on it, I actually prefer it with cereal (although it has to be specific brands). always funny how much our childhood influence and inform our opinions.

  • Reply Kate |

    We like to use our leftover chicken in chicken tacos. We shred up the leftovers and sautee up with some seasonings.

So, what do you think ?