Let’s Eat it Up Challenge
With even MORE budget changes coming quickly like a freight train down the 2025 tunnel… (did anyone else have insurance or tax increases?!)
Your ginger-red headed girlfriend has been challenged to become even more creative with the biggest budget buster: groceries.
Tell me you are also fed up with food eating your budget away!
Now, in our defense, feeding a large crew requires more food naturally. However, food waste and impulse purchases can be controlled in any size household!
So my first new year week challenge for myself (and maybe a few, fellow reading friends this week?):
Eating through our freezer, fridge, and pantry.
This doesn’t mean we have to make weird meals— and it doesn’t mean we can’t buy fresh groceries. Simply, let’s shop our house FIRST. Developing this habit early in the year now will make for a more financially peaceful and doable grocery budget through the next 12 months.
What did I do for Sunday Night? Tacos!
I even made you a quick video…
Monday Night? BBQ Chicken with Cheesy Hashbrowns
Leftover breakfast potatoes, frozen chicken breasts, and pantry bbq sauce.
Tuesday Night? Dinner Guests Edition
Bacon, green beans, butter, minced garlic and French bread all from our fridge and freezer!
Bonus Treat: Making my family’s favorite chocolate chip cookies for dessert!
Making them with pantry items I already have on hand (leftover from Christmas)
Wednesday Night? Crockpot Pork Tenderloin.
Making it by incorporating with apples, butter, honey, balsamic, roasted sweet potatoes all in the pantry and fridge.
Thursday Night? Basil Pesto Chicken
Making with spices and balsamic from the pantry…honestly this is the splurge of the week! My family loves it.
Friday Night? Zuppa Tuscano
Made with sausage from the freezer, chicken base from the fridge, and potatoes from the pantry!
Saturday Night? Pizza and Salad!
Using parmesan, cream cream cheese, and red pepper flakes on hand from the fridge.
Ideas to help stick with your own food budget.
Say goodbye to prepared snacks, hello to fresh.
This doesn’t mean you can’t get snacks; but let’s be smart about it. Instead of 5 boxes of crackers—purchase just 1-2 and replace the others with a healthier choice. Those 2 boxes of crackers can also fill you up more quickly if served with a healthy peanut butter and apple.
Bonus: Make your new go to munchies with string cheese, carrots with hummus, or a simple banana.
This will help your grocery budget and your waistline.
Crackers are around $5 a single box right now!
Let’s compare that to our possible examples:
Three pounds of bananas for less than $3
Pound of Organic Baby Carrots less than $2– and add extra protein with package of hummus for $3.
String Cheese $0.33/ ounce!
See the difference? We aren’t giving up everything we love at the grocery store; but specific substitutions are the key to success with food budgets.
Consider researching and fasting during a meal!
Some clinically approved forms of fasting actually help your body. Skipping a meal (with healthy boundaries and habits) will restart your body with more energy, sleep, weightloss, etc. There are many different kinds—and I encourage you to research them or ask your health specialist to see if this food budget tip would work for you!
Consider hiding vegetables in proteins…
My latest Sunday secret tacos from above?
I made them with 2 pounds of beef…and 12 oz of riced cauliflower. No one knew— and I kept my lips zipped. I saved $8 by using a bag of frozen cauliflower ($1) compared to buying a pound of beef. Plus, your family got a vegetable serving. The taco meal went further too— and thus, saved my family money.
PS If cauliflower isn’t secret enough for your family, I’ve puréed bell peppers and hidden them in the same beef recipe!
Consider only buying what’s on a list you premade…
I know it seems obvious, but the secret is always in the simple. Decide once you won’t buy anything not on the list. It’ll save you from impulse purchases AND remove future food waste if you don’t end up using it.
Consider limiting new recipes…
Make it a special treat to try something new… consider using it as a date night idea! Forgo hiring the sitter, turn on a movie at home, and splurge on that fancy Good Housekeeping recipe you’ve been dying to try.
Consider implementing a repeated meal plan…
We’ve written an ENTIRE article on meal planning! It will change your food budget…and leave you with simple supper solutions.
Consider making your favorite eating out dish and trading it for a copycat version at home…
My husband and I love a good Qdoba chicken bowl…but our current tight budget lifestyle says otherwise. Simply Google a well reviewed recipe and make a cheaper (and healthier) version at home!
Craving an Olive Garden salad? Just pick up the dressing at your local grocery store.
We can challenge ourselves to make almost all the things we love eating out now at home!
We do this as well with my husband’s coffee and my favorite chai latte too…
Don’t get us wrong, we ADORE getting coffee at our local shop—but it’s now a special treat, not a daily necessity.
Not only can I feed more people for less money, I can checkmark the tastebud box of craving a fancy meal.
We aren’t total restaurant scrooges…Brook and I still each go out about once a month with a friend. It makes the time with those we love that much more special and sweet.
Bonus Tip: It costs our family over $50 to eat at Jimmy John’s, but man do we love a good sub sandwich! We now buy their day old bread for cheap—and make delicious sandwiches at home. Saves us over 70% and that goes back into our food budget!
Simply Blooming Grace 