Budget: Eating in Day 6 & 7 (finished 7-day challenge eating-in analysis)

Day 6

Budget:  Rollover $16.35  + $5 for the day = $21.35

Didn’t cook again today.  Had a blueberry yogurt muffin miniloaf and tea for breakfast.  Carol said don’t bring anything since Kris made corned beef and cabbage and there was a lot left.  So I went to pick up my hold at the library and drop a book off.

I didn’t have time to do anything with the mystery meat which turned out to be beef now that it has thawed so I will cook that tomorrow.  Off to Carol’s for the night and eating corned beef.

Day 7

Budget:  Rollover $21.35  + $5 for the day = $26.35

Ok, finally set out to cook the thawed beef.  Cooked beef and garlic and then threw it in the crockpot.

Turned out the only vegetables I had that were any good were the tomatoes and carrots so I threw them into the crockpot with oregano.

My potatoes, onions and mushrooms were not good so had to be trashed.  Should have cooked them earlier.  I still have some mini bell peppers. So tomorrow I’ll add them.  For today, I had an okay beef and tomato and soup.  Not great though.  Really needed the onions and mushrooms.

End of Challenge analysis

Cooking in — I did start cooking again.  I had been out of the habit for a couple months and either nuked Marie Callendar’s, Lean Cuisine or a Hot Pocket or I picked up a Caeser’s $5 lunch pizza, Arby’s roast, Subway $3.50, or a hamburger.

Initially I went for my easy comfort foods: cold ramen, somen and ochazuke.  But I made blueberry yogurt muffins and beef/tomato soup.

Carol broke her pelvis.  Since she’s my friend, I stayed the night as she couldn’t walk.  Kris and Bev helped during the day. Kris cooked for Carol a couple days so I ate her cooking a couple days.  It put a slight glitch in the challenge and made it a bit cheaper since Carol wanted to feed me by sharing what Kris cooked for her as a thank you.

I lost 10 pounds unexpectedly.  I think eating in is less fattening than eating out even if I did cook with butter and bacon.  Kind of suprised me as I wasn’t lookng at low-calorie cooking but there it is.

I saved quite a bit of money.  I only spent $8.65 this week mostly on drinks.   I saved $26.35.  My usual daily budget is $5 a day so $35 a week.  I should have done this challenge earlier as I had to throw out some vegetables that I hadn’t used.

I want to redo this challenge again once Carol is better and I can spend more time at home.