2016 Groceries Week 4 - $19.11

Another week of the Pantry Challenge. 

I was at QFC Monday hoping for find hummus on clearance and I did!  One was $1.79 and another on sale for $2.99.  I also saw GF cupcakes and some clearance meat for pizzas.  I spent $14.85.

Late in the week I went to Fred Meyer for brown rice cakes.  While there I found a clearance bag of granny smith apples (3/$1.00) and some nice-looking clearance bananas.  I took a photo that didn't save on my camera for some reason.  I spent $4.26.

Then Friday night my friend gave me a bunch of stuff she was cleaning out of her pantry including 5 packets of taco seasoning, a mix for gluten-free caramel apple coffee cake, and an assortment of tea.  I love tea and some of these are really fancy! 

I am blessed to have some wonderful, close friends who know me and know my heart.  When I shared with them last week about how stressed and overwhelmed I am with life just now one of them suggested I don't keep doing the Pantry Challenge.  I immediately balked and said I was definitely still doing it.  Reflecting over the next few days I realized that I wanted to keep doing it because it's something I'm actually good at and can succeed at.  I feel like I fail in so many areas of my life that I am desperate to do something well!  However, I AM going to stop limiting myself to $20 a week now that I've managed 4 weeks.  I will still try to keep my grocery bill low, but as I'm getting used to DH being back at work I find I do need to make meals that are fast & simple.  The Pantry Challenge requires a lot of cooking from scratch and I just can't do that once or twice a day and expect to stay on top of my house and homeschool, too.  While I know I could do the Pantry Challenge successfully for another month or so, it's simply more important to make other things a priority just now.

Week 4 Total: $19.11
2016 Year-to-Date: $65.93
2016 Weekly Average: $16.48

Love, Katie