Family Dollar Day 1

  I didn't realize when creating this idea, just how difficult shopping for real food at the Family Dollar was going to be.  I should have had a better outlook on this, but like usual, my brain tricked me.   Upon shopping for drinks I realized there would be absolutely no way I could stay in my $65 budget if I had to buy 28 milk cartons and 14 mini almond milks ( i.e. 2 servings of milk for each of my kids).  So I had to improvise.  I decided to spend $35 on food, leaving $20 left for fresh fruit, turkey, milk, and juice at Walmart, and $5 for rice and noodles that I have in my pantry.  I realize this is cheating in the grand scheme of things, but it was really my only choice.
   For the most part I will be leaving out breakfast and lunch.  Breakfast always consists of a granola bar or apples for the 2 of us that eat breakfast. And lunch always consists of either a turkey sandwich with 'whales'  (the dollar store equivalent of goldfish) and fruit, or a Peanut Butter and Nutella ( I have had these toppings in my pantry for months) sandwich with whales, or chicken nuggets of which I bought 4 packages at the dollar store.

Here is our meal plan for the week:

-  Friday dinner-  Au Gratin Potatoes with ham $3 (2 boxes of potatoes and 1 ham steak)

- Saturday dinner-  Make your own mini pizzas with tomato sauce and pepperoni $4  ( 2 packages of 2 pizza crusts, 1 package of pepperoni, and 1 can of tomato sauce, and one of my stockpiled blocks of cheese)

- Sunday dinner -  Steak Tacos  $4 ( 1 package of soft taco shells, 1 can of refried beans, 2 'Ribeye steaks', aforementioned cheese, and Taco Bell salsa from a box meal I bought months ago and never used)

-  Monday Dinner -  Hot dogs with corn $3 ( 1 package of hot dogs, 1 package of bread, 1 can corn)

- Tuesday -  Tostados and rice $3  ( 1 package of tostados, 1 can of refried beans, cheese, and pantry chicken pilaf pantry rice)

- Wednesday dinner - Orange Chicken and White Rice with peas $5  ( 3 packages of orange chicken, 1 bag of pantry rice, and a can of peas)

- Thursday dinner - Hamburger helper with smoked sausage  $3  ( 2 boxes of pantry hamburger helper, 1 package of smoked sausage)

Total costs for 7 nights worth of meals = $25

   As of 8:12 pm we have completed our first day of Dollar Tree living on a budget.

Also, please check out this link.  www.livebelowtheline.com .   I would love to say this is the reason we started this.  But it will be the reason we end it.

5 weeks, 5 stores. $65 dollars

    Only two days ago I was in the food aisle at the Dollar Tree thinking "  Hey, I could use some pasta sauce."  Then I ran past it to grab Emma before she decided to get those 'terrible two' hands on something that could be permanently damaged.  As my husband took the kids back to the car, I got in line with my four bags of candy and whatever it was I had gone there to get.  Without the need to tell a child to stop touching something and the daydream of having a nanny that usually comes while waiting in line, I stared down the basket of the man standing in front of me.  Frozen burritos, 3 cans of spam, some twice baked potatoes.  I thought " Man, that must be awesome to be able to spend $25 on all of your food for the week." And then I became obsessed.  " Why can't I do that?  Sure we have 5 people to feed who are all some of the most picky eaters you will ever come across."  And then I answered myself with a resounding " We can do this!"  I continued to obsess over the logistics of feeding my family for a week on dollar tree food.  What will my husband think of this plan?

    As it turns out, he thinks I am nuts, and he doesn't want to eat anything from the dollar tree.  Especially when he found out the day this plan started hatching, that his raise went through ( Hurray!!).  But this was my challenge and I had already accepted it.  ( And yes, I do realize that talking to myself, answering myself, and telling myself "Challenge Accepted"  HIMYM style is completely insane.)  Imagine his dismay when I come out of the room this morning and announce,  "This is no longer a 1 week project.  I am going to take this particular challenge and apply it to several stores.  Dollar Tree, Walmart, Publix, Sams Club, and Winn Dixie."

   In order to make this all fit together, I have decided to give myself $65 dollars a week.  This will need to cover all food and drinks that I purchase for the week.  Seeing as my pantry is fully stocked with seasonings, condiments, random bags of noodles, and about 40 cans of stuff, I am going to allow myself the use of pantry items that are not main ingredients to meals.  I.e.  I can not use boxes of hamburger helper without subtracting the cost from the weeks budget.  However, I will not be including the cost of other purchases such as diapers, socks, baby shower decorations and the like.  I will blog each evening about what we had for dinner and any odd snacks worth noting.  Seeing as we are an active family, I don't think there will come a week when at least one day doesn't include a fast food run.

   Day 1 begins Friday. Although I can tell you right now, I did my Dollar Tree shop today and I am pretty sure the cookies won't make it.