Week One: $21 Challenge

Like I stated previously, I'm going to do the $21-a-week challenge for about a month (or longer) to get a better idea of my food budget and to be more conscious of the amount of money I spend on food. Although this challenge is a good idea, I feel that a week is too short of a length of time. Adding a second week onto the first would allow you to see how you spending decisions in the first week affect the second. But anyway, how am I doing you ask?

Well, Tuesdays are usually my grocery shopping days (I had actually been getting groceries on Tuesdays for like, a year, before I noticed a pattern!). I get paid biweekly but I save money back so that I can get groceries weekly. This allows me to have a supply of fresh produce in my fridge at all times. This past Tuesday though, I got really sick. I thought it was food poisoning at first (yes, vegans can still get salmonella) but all the preliminary tests came back negative. No-one knows what happened so a virus is now suspected. This is important because it has completely changed my grocery habits for the week and probably for the next. They want me on a BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesauce, and Toast) until I feel back to normal (which is hopefully soon). So because of this, my groceries of the week were as follows:

1. Cream of Rice at $2.29
      This is actually easier on my stomach and since a serving is four tablespoons the box lasts forever.
2. Store-Brand, No-sugar-added, applesauce at $1.37
3. Store-Brand Peanut Butter Toasty Crackers, an 8 pack for $1.88
      This is close to toast in my book.
4. Organic Rice Milk, plain flavor, at $2.29
      This was a super score at my Aldi's. I'm soy intolerant so I normally buy rice or almond milk.
5. Progresso Lentil Soup at $1.48
       I usually make soup at home but the oven's broke, I feel like crap, and I'm under budget this week, so what the hell. This is my lunch and supper today.
6. Bananas at $.39/lb.
       This was an Aldi's price. I got around 3 pounds of bananas so the total price was $1.24.

This puts this weeks grocery totals at $10.55 plus tax. This is unusually low, but that's because I didn't eat anything on Wednesday and my mom provided me with applesauce, plain oatmeal, and popsicles on Thursday (it was free and a one-time deal so I'm not including it, but even if you add it in I'm under my $21 limit). I will be getting groceries this upcoming Tuesday depending on how I feel.