50 Dollars a Week Grocery Challenge

Today was the first day of the challenge.  I spent a total of 6.86 for the day.  We had pancakes, hash browns and split 2 grapefruits for breakfast.  For lunch we had homemade bread, cheese and a Southwest salad kit mixed with greens that were both on sale for 50 cents each.  We each had 1 cookie from a package that cost 50 cents with a coupon for 12 cookies.  For dinner, I made a jambalaya without much meat at all.  I usually put chicken, sausage and ham, but tonight we just had a little tiny bit of ground beef that was left over from the holidays.  We also had applesauce from our trees and cottage cheese that was free with a coupon.  I was able to use a lot of vegetables today because of what I had frozen from our garden this summer.  We also had free potatoes that people gave us in the fall that are almost gone.  Without that, it would have been very hard to have the proper amount of fruits and veggies for the day.  I am finding that I have to go to stores more than I used to to check out the deals and use coupons to see if I can get free or very inexpensive items.  We missed having a glass of milk with the cookies, but all and all it worked out well today.