When is the last time you set a $25-per-week-

budget for groceries?

During July and August, I have participated in a $25 per week grocery challenge. The first week took very careful planning. This second week was fairly simple because I had leftovers from the first week and didn’t require much. In this post, I’ll share the amount spent and how two of us, my husband and myself, are making it with the $25 budget.

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The Grocery Budget Challenge

grocery budgeting
$25 Grocery Budget, Week Two

You know by now, if you’ve read the first two grocery budget challenge posts, that I accepted a food budget challenge by Patty Cakes from pattycakespantry.com who got the idea from Amanda, a food blogger at The Fundamental Home. Patty Cakes and Amanda both feed a family of five. Spending only $25 in a week for two people should be a piece of cake, right? For my household, although two people, grocery budgeting is like buying for two households. That’s because my other half drives a big rig and cooks meals in the truck in a slow cooker.

Spending only $25 in a week for two people should be a piece of cake, right? For my household, although two people, grocery budgeting is like buying for two households. That’s because my other half drives a big rig and cooks meals in the truck. It’s a 2-1/2 quart oval slow cooker from Target that latches. It’s the handiest way to cook in the truck.

For Week Two in the challenge, I spent $17.69 for the house (this challenge is house groceries only). I purchased two pounds of 85% Ground beef which the supermarket meat department said was 95% lean. At the checkout, however, the meat was listed as 85% lean. I ended up freezing both pounds and sending one package with my husband for one of his truck meals. So at first, I paid $23.18 but then deducted half the hamburger price for the package my hubby took for his truck slow cooker meal. I was pleased with the outcome, $17.69, for Week Two. Actually, I often ate leftovers from two of Week One’s recipes, pimento cheese (sandwiches) for lunch and Pressure Cooker Chicken Alfredo Pea Soup.

chicken soup in the pressure cooker
Pressure Cooker Chicken Alfredo Pea Soup

Recipe Ideas for Brown Rice

Since I cooked brown rice for the chicken/pea soup, I had extra rice and did something I haven’t done in many years. I ate rice cereal. I grew up in East Texas the first ten-and-a-half years of my life. My family then moved to the Gulf Coast area where rice is often served with gravy and meat for dinner. However, we had always eaten good ol’- fashioned mashed potatoes and gravy with dinner. Rice was for breakfast – the only cereal I recall eating as a young girl before I reached double digit-age.

I love brown rice, but white rice is what my mother cooked in my early years. Either one, brown or white rice, works just fine for cereal. Need a recipe for that? I’ve got a rice cereal recipe for you that includes the directions on how to cook brown rice in an electric Farberware pressure cooker:

 

Brown Rice Cereal

How to make brown rice cereal

Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 1
Calories 218 kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 tbsp butter
  • 1 package sugar substitute

Instructions

  1. Put one cup of brown rice and 3 cups water into an electric pressure cooker.

    Farberware
  2. Close and lock the pressure cooker lid, and cook the rice for 35 minutes on the timed cook selection.

  3. Allow the steam to be released then open the lid.

  4. If the rice is too watery, cook about an additional five minutes.

  5. Check your pressure cooker rice instructions as they vary. 

  6. My Farberware pressure cooker has a rice-cooking option (perfect if you choose to have white rice cereal), but it doesn't cook the brown rice long enough.

  7. After the rice is done, measure one cup of it and put into a bowl with one or two packages of sugar substitute and 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk.

  8. Stir well and enjoy!

  9. Store the rest of the cooked rice in the refrigerator to go with lunch or dinner.

You can also make rice pudding with the leftover rice. I haven’t made brown rice pudding yet. When I do, I’ll blog about it and let you know how it turns out. However, you can easily find brown rice pudding recipes if you want to go ahead and try it out. Let me know if you do. I might use your recipe.

Thank you so much for stopping by to see how the $25 grocery budgeting is going. Like to try the grocery budgeting for your family? Imagine the extra money you can use to knock out some debts with or save up for something special you never have the extra for. Grocery budgeting just takes planning and the determination to stick to the budget.

Have a great week!

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