It is hard to believe we are already beginning the second month of our family sustainability challenge. While we have made some adjustments in our lives, the overall process has not been as hard as I thought it would be. We are finding new resources all the time, eating better quality food and meeting new people. All good things! We’re also doing pretty well at not wasting food. We did have to compost a bunch of dino kale, but we’ve been pretty good about eating everything we buy during the week!
In week 4, we did pretty well with our meals, eating all meals except breakfast from locally produced sources. This puts us right at 75%. I’m not sure if we’ll always make that target, but it worked well this week! So, how is our budget for next week? Here is what we spent:
Week 5 expenses:
- Farmhand Foods meat box (3.5 lb. mini boneless ham): $15.00
- Water Oaks Farm (eggs): $4.00
- Coon Rock Farm (carrots and tatsoi): $7.00
- Locals Seafood (NC shrimp): $10.00
- Hillsborough Cheese Company (Eno Sharp and mozzarella): $10.00
- Heaven on Earth Organics (sweet potatoes, tomato, broccoli): $13.00
- Bushy Farm (apples): $5.00
- Trader Joes (Ezekiel bread, organic butter, organic tomato soup, free range chicken broth, frozen fruit, organic soy milk): $26.11
- Great Harvest Bread Co. (honey whole wheat): FREE with coupon
Total for week 5: $90.11!! We are under our goal of $100 for the first week! Some of this is due to carryover we have (frozen ragu sauce, carryover local grits, carryover whole grain rolls) plus a coupon for free bread (!), but I still think that’s great. What are we getting for our budget?
Week 5 Menu
- Sunday–Roast Duplin County ham from AD Jones, oven roasted sweet potatoes, broccoli with pine nuts, apple cake
- Monday–Grilled cheese (Great Harvest bread and local Eno Sharp cheese), organic tomato soup [Meatless Monday!]
- Tuesday–Ham and bean soup with kale, whole grain rolls
- Wednesday–All NC shrimp and grits
- Thursday–leftover soup
- Friday–ham, cheese and leftover veggie fritatta
- Saturday–whole wheat pasta with leftover ragu from freezer
Here’s to another fun and adventurous week! Next week, we’ll be planning our Super Bowl menu!
yearofhealthierliving 