Week 2, Day 3

Today cost a little bit more than usual. That's alright though because we have left over money from the past two days and the rest of this week we're going to be eating mainly sandwiches because we're leaving on Thursday for Paul to take the FSOT (wish him luck!) and tomorrow we're eating leftovers for both lunch and dinner to prevent anything going bad in our fridge- yuck!

The reason for our overage was this: Last week at Institute (like a non-mandatory extra Mormon Sunday School during the week), Brother Cornelsen told us he'd be gone this week and asked if Paul and I would teach in his place. There are only two other people in our class besides Paul and me, Bill and Mike. On his way out, Bill asked if I'd bring treats and I said sure and then he asked specifically for some Jell-O Rainbow Cake. Rainbow cake was one of my very favorite things growing up. It's simple and fun and I think it tastes awesome!

Here's what Rainbow Cake amounts to:

1 White Cake Mix ($0.98)
3 eggs ($0.21)
2 Packets Jell-O any flavor (I used Peach and Strawberry- super yummy!) ($0.68)
1 container Cool Whip ($1.00)
Rainbow Cake Total: $2.87

After you make the white cake and let it cool, you prick the top at half inch intervals and mix each package of Jell-o with a cup of boiling water and (if you use a 13x9 like I do) you pour each kind over half, sort of overlapping in the middle. After you let it chill for 3-4 hours you "frost" it with Cool Whip and that's it- super easy deliciousness! I suppose I should have just made a cake from scratch but I wasn't thinking about that last night and honestly I was so worried about making sure I was prepared to teach for an hour and a half that I probably would have taken the easy way out anyways. I was worried (only for my waistline) that we'd come back with half a cake to take home but that was silly of me. We only have 3 pathetic pieces left (and I only ate two small pieces so most of the work was done by 3 people!). I really want to watch my sugar intake but I think I may just have to have a piece for breakfast....

I know this looks unappetizing, to say the least, but it was the best looking of the 3- I told you they demolished it!

Tonight's soup cost a little bit more than I planned it to as well which was disappointing but again, I was so flustered today I forgot to put the chicken on to boil and by the time I remembered it was too late to cook chicken AND eat it for dinner. I did some quick thinking and remembered that part of our food storage is some cans of chicken. It's decent quality stuff but I wasn't really planning on using it unless we had no other option but seeing as we're leaving in a couple days and we had the last of the semi dead peppers from our garden to use up, I guess there wasn't much other option. This soup made a lot and I actually think there will be enough left over from dinner tomorrow night that I'll have to freeze some but Paul liked it so much I don't think that will be a problem :).

The little garnish of cheese and sour cream were things I was about ready to throw away anyway so I'm not counting them towards the total but I'll have to use them next time too!

Here's what our super easy Chicken Fajita Soup worked out to be:

1 can Chicken ($1.96- ouch!)
1 packet Fajita Seasoning ($1.11-also ouch but apparently no one makes a generic, what gives?)
1 onion ($0.60)
4.5 peppers from our garden ($0.00!!)
Frozen, Chopped, Jalapenos from last year's crop ($0.00!)
1 can Rotel ($0.75)
1 cup dry black beans ($0.48)
1 bag of Kroger tortilla chips because we're out of tortillas and I won't get to Sam's til Saturday ($1.00)

Chicken Fajita Soup Total: $4.79

The total of this soup alone is more than a day's allowance for both of us, even with the home grown peppers but next time I make it the chicken should be at least $1.50 cheaper, I'll make tortilla chips which will save $0.70, and if possible, I'll mix my own spices. This will make the total $2.59 or less- MUCH more budget friendly.

Here are today's totals:

Breakfast (bowl of oatmeal with the trimmings and 5 scrambled eggs) $0.52
Lunch (1 pb&honey sandwich & 2 apples) $1.26
Rainbow Cake $2.87
Chicken Fajita Soup $4.79

Day 3 total: $9.44

Honestly it's really hard not to freak out looking at that total. I keep reminding myself that tomorrow is only going to cost like $0.34 but we're still looking at over twice the daily budget with today's total. Having money left over from Sunday and Monday will put us in the clear but I was getting really used to only spending a couple dollars in a day- it's fun. So it's our first day of overages and it was a doozy, I made some mistakes I definitely do not plan on making again but I'm sure there will be new ones to discover- that's what keeps us humble, eh? ;)