Day 5, $2.50 entree of Creamy Chicken Lemon Parmesan

Creamy Chicken Lemon Parmesan

After a long day working and running errands I didn't even start dinner until after 6:30 but we were eating by 7:00.

I browned some chicken breast in olive oil while bringing a large pot of water to bowl for the pasta.  

Once the chicken breast was nearly cooked thru I added the jar of sauce, turned it down to a simmer, covered it and let it finish cooking while waiting for the pasta to cook.

Once the water was boiling the pasta was done in just a short eight minutes, I drained it, returned it to the pot and poured the sauce with chicken on top.

Served with home canned green beans.

 

Now the coolest thing about this meal is that it cost about $2.50.  Today it didn't cost me anything because all of these items were already on my pantry shelf and the meat was in the freezer.

I never pay over $2 a pound for chicken breast.  I cooked about a pound tonight.  I likely paid between $1.49 and $1.99 for this chicken.

I have eight boxes of this pasta, seven still remain.  Why so many? Because they were FREE after using my Ibotta rebate!

I have six jars of this pasta sauce remaining as well, I paid between .50-.75 a jar between coupons and Ibotta.

I am finding the hardest part of this pantry challenge is that I set the $100 budget.  It's really hard for me to pass up a bargain so I'm finding it's best if I don't even look at the ads or my Ibotta app.

I did however break into my grocery budget envelope Saturday.  I was at Walmart for something else non grocery and made the mistake of walking by the Christmas clearance section, they had big bags of trail mix marked down 75% so I spent $3.50 to pick some up.  Hopefully I don't regret that by the end of the month.

Sunday we dipped into our entertainment/dining out budget and celebrated our nephew's Baptism.  Since we ate out for lunch neither of us were hungry come supper time but our daughter wanted what she calls a "gourmet lunchable"(it's not really a lunchable at all).  It was $2.75.

Today I picked up my hubby's soda and English muffins. Basically I figured we have about $25 a week so I'm still ahead of the curve so far.  

Starting Grocery Budget $100

Day 5 Balance Remaining $84.64

Question of the Day, Do you use Ibotta or other savings apps?

Answering the question of the day in the comments will get you entered to win a Toastmaster 10 x 16 Griddle.  I will randomly choose the winner from those entered on January 31st.