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.