Update $50 Grocery challenge

Well I succeeded the first week. I did one more trek to the produce store and spent a little under $10 and we purchased two soft drinks at a gas station. Some of the produce I bought included: spinach, broccoli, strawberries, and apples.
I had planned to write out all of my menu plans to share, but it just didn't happen. Here's some of what we did to be able to manage staying at that $25 level for the week.

I had a frozen turkey breast (actually a gift from my mother who bought two because it was BO GO free at her local grocer.) We cooked that up one night, and we used that for sandwiches, and I also made a noodle casserole with it in the crock pot which was enough for dinner one night and lunch the following day. The basic recipe was similar to tuna noodle casserole- Egg noodles, can of cream of mushroom soup, turkey, chopped carrots, celery, and onions. I also threw in some of our leftover vegetable soup that I had made earlier in the week.

My husband made salmon cakes (like crab cakes) using some canned salmon we had on hand and a recipe he found on line. So that was our dinner another night.

Some of our breakfasts included: milk & cereal, spinach omelet, sausage and frozen waffles.

For lunches with the kids, we had some of the turkey sandwiches, peanut butter sandwiches, and some chicken nuggets (already in the freezer) with fresh fruit.

Some of the things that we were able to learn from this: 1) we did the challenge at half price 2) I need to do more planning ahead of time to make sure I had enough snacks while on the road with the kids 3) baking from scratch is way cheaper, but makes for a lot more dishes 4) $25 was probably too low and we felt a little deprived.