Day four of $10 a day (for ten days)

Today was difficult, resolve wise. Thursday's are pay day. I'm coming off of two no spends in a row. It feels like we've been surviving on crumbs (we haven't but food is limited). I did NOT go into this little challenge all stocked up, on the contrary. I really wanted to spend, spend, spend today.

Instead I bought a few groceries and flour (one of the many things we're out of) after accidentally making brownies yesterday; I started to make chocolate chip cookies and only had half the flour I needed. I already mixed up the batter when I realized the flour was almost gone so I put all of the flour in, added about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder, and put the batter in a small glass baking dish. We ended up with some pretty decent brownies instead of cookies.

Tonight we're going to eat some awesome pork stew (I haven't made it yet). I bought a pork loin for $1.58 a pound. Considering that we mostly eat ground chicken or ground turkey which I have a difficult time finding for under $3.69 a pound and we've eaten a lot of eggs over the past three days I'm super duper looking forward to this soon to be pork stew.

I'm went over budget today by $1.73 and I was already over by $2.45 so I'm getting a little ahead of myself for this challenge but the month is not over and my spending is definitely down. For now that's a win.

This little ten day challenge has really gotten me thinking. There have been so many things that I've refrained from buying already in these first four days. We've eaten some even cheaper than normal meals (like two days in a row of eggs and leftover mashed potatoes fried). Mostly because of comments I've gotten on other posts, there are times when I'm typing out these updates I feel like people are reading this and wondering why I'm torturing myself, or picturing me really struggling. We're not struggling. In the first place I could pay some of the remaining September bills a few days late and all would be well. I don't want to. In the second place challenges like this really do grow my resolve, help instill needed discipline in my life, and they open my eyes even more to realities that a lot of people face every single day, the reality of not having enough money for food. I'm not necessarily comfortable trying to buy $10 worth of groceries when my fridge is almost empty but more good then anything results from times like these.

Off to make some pork stew! (I've never made pork stew before. I'm just going to do the same thing I did with the goose, but I have potatoes to add this time)

Spending rundown today: $11.73 on groceries.

My budget for the month is $450.79 which leaves $55.82

Average daily spending for 2015: $17.84