The Beginnings

Since I moved to California a month ago, my diet mostly consisted of pizza, fast food, beans, and pasta.  I got tired of it...my health was suffering.  Not to mention Garry's genetically programmed to have all kinds of awful health problems that I want to avoid as much as possible.  I knew the only way to make this happen was to make food a priority.  


The problem is mainly working on a low budget.  $200 for the month MAX.  I know we can do it...especially now that we have some basics in our kitchen.  It's going to take some research, planning, and creativity but I know we'll be eating better on such a tight budget.


The last two weeks I've been cooking on and off and just recently began taking pictures of the food.  Now I'm doing more research into designing meals for cheap and learning how NOT to give into the urge of "I don't feel like cooking, let's go out tonight".  I think better organization will prevent this from happening in the future.


The plan of action?

1. Find a bunch of meals that are cheap and only require basics to make  
2. Assign each of those meals to a day so there's more expectation of what's to come on that day...to fend off "let's go out" cravings
3. Shop weekly for any ingredients we may need--this is just to start off and see how it works
4. Cook more vegetarian meals to save on meat costs; we will only have meat 2-4 times a week

I also have a plan of action for the stores we're going to be shopping at.  While we have a membership card at Safeway, it's cheaper for us to first go to the Dollar Store and get whatever basics we need (such as spices...they have SO many spices for only $1 while Safeway sells them for $3-5!)  They're really good about having the most necessary basics like bread, spices, flour, corn starch, and sugar.  

Whatever we can't get there or find a better deal on elsewhere will be bought at Food 4 Less or Safeway.  The other day we stopped into Food 4 Less to see what it's all about and the prices were significantly lower than Safeway!  So I want to experiment with Food 4 Less for right now...but Safeway is third in line right now.

Of course all of this is probably going to drastically change as I go.  I'm brand new to cooking for myself every day let alone budgeting on top of that.  But we all gotta start somewhere and this is my game plan.  And this blog is here to 

A. Inspire me to keep going with this and not just say "screw it" and get mcd's every night

B. Learn more about food, flavor, budgeting, ect.

C. Share anything I learn with everyone else to make cheap, delicious, and better-than-fast-food meals

Grocery shopping begins Saturday.  My blog starts tomorrow...what's on the menu?  Who knows.  We have a bit of beef, tuna, a chicken breast, 3-4 potatoes, a cup of rice, bread, spices, tomato sauce, eggs, and oil to work with...we'll see what happens!

Also!  I plan on the beginning of every week telling what exactly is on the menu for each day so I can stick to my goal but also so anyone reading knows what to expect for that week and can make sure they check out a certain day that looks especially yummy :)

Bon Appetit!