I'm officially 2 weeks through the first month of the grocery challenge. Goal, to reduce grocery bill and eating out by 25 percent, to $725 a month.

Two weeks to go. And EEK, we only have $244 left in the grocery budget. Eating out has really killed us this month.

Every time my mom babysat, we went out to eat as a date, plus throw in some restaurant breakfasts for hurricane evacuees, and then a MLS soccer game that cost us $34 in concessions, and well, you see how it adds up.

The good news. The challenge is kind of fun. It's given me something new to think about financially and it's made me focus more attention on what we're eating and whether or not it's good for us.

Tonight, I made two eggplant / spinach lasagnas, and I froze one for later. This week, I also froze 2 2-cup bags of zucchini (for bread, this winter) and made and froze 3 large bags of homemade spaghetti sauce from the roma tomatoes in my garden.

So, on the food front, all that is positive.

At the grocery today, I actually did pass up a decent meat sale, with steaks and pork chops deeply discounted. We're tyring to cut back on meat, and I still have 3 roasts in the freezer and a pack of chicken from BOGO sales. I figure we should eat those first.