[Michelle98272]

(Sorry this is long but I'm excited that I managed to buy healthy and still stay within my budget!)

I took everyone's advice when I went grocery shopping today for this weeks lunch/dinner stuff. I checked out the sales flyers, I shopped the cheapest stores in town and made sure I used coupons that I'd been saving for $10 off $50 or more, $2 off produce and $2 off meat. Everything I bought was on sale and I used coupons for a few things, too. (My Activia yogurt for instance plus fat free cottage cheese and sourcream).

I bought a large bag of frozen chicken breast for around $7.00 for 4 lbs. I bought a nice BIG flank steak that was in the "buy now" bin for $3.94. A dozen eggs at .99 cents. The store had a big sale on produce so I went the bagged route on salad, spinach, cabbage. I bought bulk carrots and celery rather than pre-bagged. I also got a huge bag of potatoes for $1 and sweet potatoes I found for .99 a lb, so I got 4 lbs. Bananas and apples were both on sale for the organic kind .99lb and 1.29lb respectively.

Once I got home, I made up a menu and got to work, chopping, slicing, bagging, cooking for the week. In about 1 hours time, I made dinner for tonight (steak, salad, baked potato) plus bagged up salad fixings for lunches for 5 days this week and prepped meat and veggies for at least 5 dinners.

I hard-boiled a dozen eggs, pre-sliced and bagged 1 oz portions of mozzarella cheese, baked and cubed 5 boneless skinnless chicken breasts and broiled-and thinly sliced the flank steak that we weren't going to eat for tonights dinner. I portioned the chicken and steak into baggies for quick after work meals or to put in my lunch to be my protein topper for my daily salad.

I prepped the salad, spinach, cabbage and veggies into little individual baggies for grab and go lunches. Cut carrots, celery, mushrooms and bagged them for salads. While I was cutting the veggies, I started a pot of my version of the "Tomato Soup Diet" soup throwing in a can of diced tomatos, a quart of chicken stock, two cloves garlic, onions, cabbage, mushrooms, carrots, celery, a handful of edamame. I ended up with 6 cups of really good veggie soup.

The store also had a sale on big cans of black beans for $1.99 a can, definitley more expensive than starting with dried beans but for the convenience I went ahead and bought them. Black beans, salsa, 2 tbs cottage cheese, 1/2 cooked chicken breast in a pita and warmed in the microwave, for under 300 calories.MMMM, easy peasy lunch! I found whole wheat pita bread for 1.99 and sandwich thins for 1.99 also.

I spent a little over $45 (plus save $16 with coupons) on food to eat for lunches and dinners for my b/f and I for the week. I'll need to cook extras for his dinners like pasta and add garlic bread or something but for me...I have plenty to eat for the next week.

I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to stick to my plan of eating (mostly) whole foods while on a strict budget but with a little help from my friends, I think I'm going to be able to do this! Thanks!

[gloo]

Awesome! And it's amazing to see all the things you got done in an hour that will save you sooo much time during the week. You inspired me.

Oh and also? That chicken pita bean thing sounds yummy! Definitely going to have to try that.

Congratulations...what a great way to start off a new week!

[losermom]

Awesome Michelle! I think that you will be pleasantly surprised how great you will feel at the end of this week with all of that good food! Feeling good--isn't that what this is all about?

[MablesGirl]

wow! I am amazed at all the healthy food you bought for $45. Great job! And read about all your prep work made me tired!

[time2lose]

It is great to hear this! You have proved that you can eat healthy on a limited budget. The prep took some time but you will be so glad during the week that it is all done. In a few weeks, this prep time will be habit and won't seem difficult or time consuming at all! Well done!

[bargoo]

Michelle, I want to come to your house for lunch . Sounds like you have some great menus planned, and you didn't break the bank.

[findingfawn]

Awesome!!

[TaraLee]

You go girl!

[Michelle98272]

I have had excuses in the past to throw in the towel when adversity struck: no money to eat healthy, too tired, too stressed...etc. I've come here for advice each time and have come up with a plan to counter all the nasty rationalizations my brain can throw at my plan to get healthy.

It took some creativity for sure and about 2x longer at the store (I am sure that will be less when I get used to bargain shopping) but so worth it when I see how much I can get while being thrifty yet on plan.

My boyfriend saw all the prepped food last night (it totally fills my largest crisper drawer!!) and expressed his concern that we might not be able to eat it all before it goes bad. I took that as a challenge. All my hard work will not go to waste!

My lunch sack was bulging today. I have in it individual baggies of grated carrot, sliced mushrooms, edamame, cabbage, lettuce, spinach, celery plus a diced cooked chicken breast, hard boiled egg, 1 oz Mozzarella AND one cup of my yummy homemade veggie soup.

My goal is to kick my weight loss in the a** and get to my next mini-goal of losing 7 more lbs to bring my grand total to 27.5 lbs lost (10% of my starting weight-gone!)

I asked my boyfriend for his help too. No beer, hostess cupcakes, Chips Ahoy cookies plus he is to drag my corpse out for a walk whether I want to or not every night for 30 minutes.

[WarMaiden]

*thumbs up* ! If you stick to eating what you've planned this week, you'll feel amazing by next weekend--both physically and emotionally, because comitting to yourself and then following through is completely empowering. And no doubt the fat loss will follow. Rock on!

[PeanutsMom704]

great job!!!!