With slightly less than half of February to go, I came really close to caving in to temptation tonight and ordering take-out for dinner. But then I considered what my choices were, which were even fewer once I limited myself to places that delivered. As we leaned closer to ordering Italian I thought of the whole wheat penne pasta in my pantry, the can of diced tomatoes – also in my pantry, and the chicken which I had defrosted and which was ready to be cooked into some delicious creation of my choosing. Then I looked in my refrigerator…I noticed the spinach which would soon expire…Dinner was suddenly and enthusiastically back ON!!!

The menu I concocted consisted of breaded and baked boneless chicken breasts (breaded with whole grain bread ground together with garlic, salt and pepper), whole wheat pasta tossed with a tomato sauce made of diced tomatoes, onions, red wine and garlic, and finally, the spinach sauteed with garlic and the few mushrooms remaining in my fridge. You know what? It was all ready within 45 minutes, start to finish…including most of the clean-up. The take-out place we would have ordered from would have taken about that long from the time we called in the order. Once the time to figure out what everyone wants to order is taken into account, it would be closer to an hour. The best part is that the meal I made was healthy and nutritious and delicious, and everyone left the table feeling sated and happy…and just in time to watch the day’s Olympic events coverage…

It just doesn’t get any better than that!

Every year for Valentine’s Day I make heart-shaped sugar cookie ‘valentines’ for my boys. I have done this for them since they were in pre-school.

The experiment is evolving. Due to teenagers – I mean circumstances – beyond my control I am going to track my dinner expenses only. Certainly I can keep within the $5/per person/per day limit if only dinner is taken into consideration. Actually, I know that over time (as I build up reserves of my main staples) I can keep within that limit for the entire day. However, I have one person in my house convinced he is not getting the same amount of food as he was prior to the experiment, and I am now taking breakfast and lunch out of the equation to keep the peace, or at least try to regain it. Even adding a little extra to the budget to make sure lunch is hearty will keep me well below what I had been spending each month. Dinner was the meal I had been spending the most on. I refuse to give up now that I am halfway through.

Tonight’s meal was pork chops (from a sustainable farm in TX), creamy mashed potatoes, green beans and a hearty salad. I was FULL at the end of the meal…did not feel deprived one bit. And I got a bonus today: my husband came in a couple of days early (okay, two bonuses…), and that means ten extra dollars to add to the $15 I have yet to spend for the week to stay in budget!

Jewelry Diet, you wonder? What? Where did that come from??? Okay, okay…I have dubbed this the ‘Jewelry Diet’ because I realized that if it works I will save enough money each month to invest in a nice piece of jewelry!! So if I follow this ‘diet’ I will not only be eating healthy, I can look like a million bucks, too! More incentive to stick with it!

Details: I am into the second week of my experiment. The end of the first week found me about $40 over budget. Although I did not go to the store and spend more than the initial $71, I did supplement with items already on hand in my pantry and refrigerator. In accounting for their costs I used the price I would have paid for them in full even if I only used a fraction of the quantity, and anything I was not sure of price-wise I erred on the high side. Among the supplemented items were some fresh salad ingredients I had leftover prior to my experiment’s onset. I certainly did not want to waste anything soley to prove a budgetary point. This week I should be using only things I have bought (or accounted for) since the experiment began…any perishibles should now be used up. I will get a slight amount of help this week from the fact that the dried fruit I bought for my son’s lunch last week should last this week (and possibly into next), and I have some rice and a small stock of pasta still left from last week.

One advantage to this experiment besides the obvious one of saving money while eating healthy? My refrigerator is staying much cleaner because I have not overbought items which will be only partially used up before eventually getting thrown out…

UPDATE:
I have returned from Whole Foods with my total expenditures at $75.53. This includes fresh vegetables: lettuce, radishes, mushrooms, cucumber, onions (red and yellow), potatoes (sweet and golden), carrots, garlic and even a slaw mix; fruits: bananas, apples, lemons (Yay!!), 1 lime, 1 pear; fish: frozen mahi-mahi and ahi tuna; whole wheat penne pasta; apple juice; cranberry juice; frozen vegetables: broccoli, green beans and peas; and a few other odds and ends. I still need meat for a few dinners, but the meat specials weren’t as good this week. I think the new specials come out on either Tuesday or Wednesday, so I will re-check later. I do have meat in the freezer I can use, and it has the prices on it so it will be easy enough to add into the budget if needed. I regret not taking advantage of the chicken and pork specials last week…oh well! By the way, my husband will be here for 4 days this week, so this week’s budget is $90…woohoo, almost $15 more dollars to spend!!