Sunday plans, & February challenges

I'll be recapping my goals soon & setting new goals for February, but wanted to start thinking about some sort of food/pantry goal in February. 

I received two very discounted offers for food delivery services (Blue Apron, Hello Fresh) for the month, & have decided to try them & see what we can do to fill in around them. We spent zero dollars on dining out in January, so I'll roll that money forward into February dining out. We also have a couple of birthday in February, and we will be doing takeout (selected by the birthday person) & the delivery service meals will certainly mix up our norm. For Hello Fresh, we opt for the 2 person serving, and Blue Apron will be a 3 person serving. We'll plan to fill in around the gaps with one additional planned meal a week, and then frozen leftovers.

M & I are also fasting two days/week, which will reduce food needs a bit further (total of four skipped meals, x2 people, per week). 

Here's what I'm thinking for the menu this week (Blue Apron starts the following week)

• Friday - Baked chicken & green beans (I had the last of the sesame beef)
• Saturday - Nick was supposed to cook, but finally got an open tennis court with Sam, so I handled dinner & changed plans at the last minute. The kids getting any outdoor time together is a big win. I made pad thai with gluten free noodles (details coming) that was awesome. I served it with shrimp (M) & chicken (the rest of us). 
• Sunday - Nick is making chicken mango tacos. I'll make chicken yakisoba, for myself & leftovers for the week. The Hello Fresh tacos tend to serve 3, so if we can make it stretch, the yakisoba will just roll forward to another day. I like to have food for the week prepped ahead of time, regardless.
• Monday - I have a late meeting, so Nick will make taquitos. M can't eat taquitos, so he'll have salmon.
• Tuesday - yakisoba, or if we need another option, dragon noodles & turkey meatballs for protein.
• Wednesday - taco slaw (freezer), with additional cabbage
• Thursday - leftover dragon noodles & meatballs (salmon for M)
• Friday - either the new Hello Fresh meal, or leftovers

Factoring in the cost of the delivery services, I think I can cut $250-275 off of our spend from January. It's not sustainable to do this with delivery services, as these are special one time offers, and they will be cancelled after the promotion period. It would be great to get our February food spending so low, so that's my challenge for the month.

On to what's happening today:

• Run
• Vacuum
• Clean the kitchen
• Take Nick to volleyball
• Go to Target. Pick up a couple of freebies.
• Work on another hat for the homeless
• Start my new strength challenge (the January one only had 30 days, and the February one also comes with 30 days, as they are month agnostic)
• Plan my schedule for the week: work, workout, & fasting days
• Mail/package up an eBay sale
• Set February goals

For those of you who are gluten free, or looking for low carb options, I wanted to recommend these "Healthy Noodles" that we bought at Costco. We used them to make pad thai (the recipe is on the back) & they were delicious & had very few calories (30 calories/serving). This is not a sponsored link - I just really liked the noodles & know there are quite a few low carb/Keto people out there. Enjoy!

What about you? Are you doing any fun February grocery challenges?