Project: Use the Food, Week 2

This week brought the challenge of tackling Eva's birthday party and getting ready for family Easter parties (with accompanying food assignments) without going overboard on my grocery shopping. I'm just going to go ahead and give myself a C-. I only bought what we really needed grocery-wise, but I spent the rest of the grocery budget on a bunch of other stuff that I probably could have done without.

I partially blame Eva. She was so convincing with her, "Oh, I've always wanted this for my birthday!" speeches. I ended up letting her pick a new swimming suit, an outfit, a pair of pajamas, and a Barbie for her birthday. I also bought a few things for my kids for Easter - sidewalk chalk, water balloons, and boxes of Junior Mints.* And there went the grocery money for this week, and the grocery money I saved by not overspending last week.

I'm giving myself a C- because I, at least, didn't dip into next week's money. I'm going to get back on track for the coming week. Or so I say...

Even though I spent my grocery budget, most of it went to non-food items, so I've continued using food that I've had in the pantry, freezer, and storage room. But I also ate out a few times... because I am weak. Apparently my blog isn't holding me quite as accountable as I need it to.

Here is what we ate this week (and again, this is really what I ate this week. My kids frequently have something different than I do for breakfast and lunch):

Friday, April 12

Breakfast: avocado toast and smoothie
Lunch: Chick-Fil-A (totally an impulse move)
Dinner: Cubby's (girls' night)

Saturday, April 13

Breakfast: pancakes and fruit (breakfast at the church)
Lunch: avocado toast
Dinner: pizza and vegetables (game night)

Sunday, April 14

Breakfast: German pancakes
Lunch: Swedish meatballs over mashed potatoes
Dinner: quesadillas

Monday, April 15

Breakfast: scrambled eggs, toast, and smoothie
Lunch: Moochies (Eva picked it for her birthday)
Dinner: Hawaiian haystacks (Eva's birthday dinner - we had family over)

Tuesday, April 16

Breakfast: breakfast sandwiches from the freezer (which really aren't that good, and yet, I continue buying them)
Lunch: tomato bisque (I made a batch of this soup a couple of weeks ago and put it in the freezer in individual portions for quick lunches)
Dinner: honey lime tilapia and fish sticks (to use up fish odds and ends from the freezer)

Wednesday, April 17

Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: macaroni and cheese
Dinner: BBQ pork sandwiches (on hot dog buns from the freezer)

Thursday, April 19

Breakfast: breakfast sandwiches and orange juice
Lunch: Cafe Rio (with Christie)
Dinner: Hawaiian haystacks, round II (the kids loved the haystacks on Monday and begged to have them again, so I made a whole other batch)

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Just like last week, I now need to make an edit to everything I wrote above. Let's go ahead and lower that C- to an F. On Thursday I went to Sam's Club and bought 16 lbs of chicken, 4 lbs of round steak, some strawberries, and some blackberries. 

That's not so bad... but then I went to Smith's,

And I bought "stuff." 

Ya know, like three cartons of ice cream and nine bags of chips. 

So now the question is... do I keep trying to make this happen, or do I just give up and buy all the foods?

*I ordered some dresses for my girls, but I don't know if they'll arrive in time for Easter. I also have a new pair of church shoes for each of them (which they need pretty bad). So there could be Easter dresses and church shoes, but I'm not holding my breath. If the girls get the dresses for Easter, Nicky will get a golf outfit. If not, everyone gets a Cinco de Mayo outfit, I guess.