This week is a little different around here. My husband's father is not doing well so he flew home to be with his family. Leaving me one less mouth to feed till he comes home. Also since he is gone I am able to make cheaper meals that he is not crazy about (he hates soups) and make them last for 2 days instead of one. We had a total of $83.41 left of our reduced grocery budget this month. This week we spent $34.51 leaving us with a total of $48.90 for the rest of this month. We *should be* done with our grocery shopping for this month though!
Meal Plan
Breakfast:
*French toast sticks
*Vegan muffins
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Biscuits and scrambled eggs
Lunch:
*Leftovers
*PB&J Sandwiches
*Turkey Sandwiches
*Ham Sandwiches
Dinner:
*Chicken Pot Pie with Spinach Salad
*Chicken with tomatoes and Basil
*Chicken and Egg Drop Soup
*Chicken Fajitas
*Sour Cream and Enchilada Casserole
*Turkey Taco Salad
Grocery Breakdown
Breakfast:
$2.50
Lunch:
$1.75
Dinner:
$7.16
Snacks:
$11.76
Baking Supplies:
$11.27
Household:
$1.29
Total with Surcharge: $38.26
Total Coupons used: $3.75
Total Out of Pocket:$34.51
Showing posts with label meal planning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label meal planning. Show all posts
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Meal Plan and Grocery breakdown week of Feb 14th
We are still trying to operate on a bare bones grocery budget and so far so good. You will notice that this weeks grocery bill was kept low by using the stockpiled chicken that I got on sale last week. We have $84.31 left out of our original $250 budgeted amount.
Meal Plan:
Breakfast
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Cereal
*Scrambled eggs and biscuits
*French toast sticks
Lunch:
*Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches
*Turkey Sandwiches
*Ham Sandwiches
*Grilled Cheese
*Leftovers
Dinner:
*Greek Fish Bake
*Chicken Potpie
*Chicken Teriyaki with rice
*White Chicken Chili
*Chicken with tomatoes and basil, green beans, and potatoes
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$5
Lunch:
$7.99
Dinner:
$7.65
Snacks/Junk food:
$16.32
Dairy:
$1.69
Household:
$2.49
Total with surcharge: $43.17
Total Coupons used: $5.20
Total out of pocket: $37.97
Meal Plan:
Breakfast
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Cereal
*Scrambled eggs and biscuits
*French toast sticks
Lunch:
*Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches
*Turkey Sandwiches
*Ham Sandwiches
*Grilled Cheese
*Leftovers
Dinner:
*Greek Fish Bake
*Chicken Potpie
*Chicken Teriyaki with rice
*White Chicken Chili
*Chicken with tomatoes and basil, green beans, and potatoes
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$5
Lunch:
$7.99
Dinner:
$7.65
Snacks/Junk food:
$16.32
Dairy:
$1.69
Household:
$2.49
Total with surcharge: $43.17
Total Coupons used: $5.20
Total out of pocket: $37.97
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Meal Plan and Grocery list, week of Feb. 7th
I am a little behind in posting this weeks meal plan and grocery budget (oops!). This weeks grocery bill was done without WIC so our Dairy and Fruit and Veg categories are higher than normal. Also they had a killer sale on chicken breasts so I added a stockpiling category to this weeks budget.
Meal Plan
Breakfast:
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*French toast sticks
*Biscuits and scrambled eggs
Lunch
*Turkey Sandwiches
*Tuna Sandwiches
*Leftovers
*Grilled Cheese
Dinner
*Spaghetti and Romain Salad
*Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans
*Homemade Pizza
*Chicken Fajitas with Fried rice
*Chicken and Spinach Quesadillas
*Meatball subs and green beans
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$0
Lunch:
$6.56
Dinner:
$24.90
Snacks/Junk food:
$14.06
Dairy:
$17.09
Fruit and Veg:
$9.68
Stocking up:
$15.78
Household:
$3.65
Total with Surcharge: $96.28
Coupons used: $1.50 (We were having printer issues this week)
Total out of pocket: $94.78
Meal Plan
Breakfast:
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*French toast sticks
*Biscuits and scrambled eggs
Lunch
*Turkey Sandwiches
*Tuna Sandwiches
*Leftovers
*Grilled Cheese
Dinner
*Spaghetti and Romain Salad
*Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and green beans
*Homemade Pizza
*Chicken Fajitas with Fried rice
*Chicken and Spinach Quesadillas
*Meatball subs and green beans
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$0
Lunch:
$6.56
Dinner:
$24.90
Snacks/Junk food:
$14.06
Dairy:
$17.09
Fruit and Veg:
$9.68
Stocking up:
$15.78
Household:
$3.65
Total with Surcharge: $96.28
Coupons used: $1.50 (We were having printer issues this week)
Total out of pocket: $94.78
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Making your own baby food.
Okay, well really toddler food since my youngest are 13mths. I am not a big fan of those little jars of cut up carrots, apples, and "meat sticks" that they sell in the grocery store. The prices are just nuts when you compare it to 'real' food.
Take one of those little jars of chunked up carrots. At the commissary one of those little jars will run you $0.80 now that isn't unreasonable in itself but if you walk over to the produce department you will see you can get a whole pound of carrots for $0.80! Do you know how many of those little jars you would have to buy to make a pound of carrots? It gets even worse if you look at the 5lb bags of carrots... $0.78 a pound! How hard is it to peel, wash, and chunk up your own carrots? Yes you have to cook them to what I call smoosh consistency but really that time is all hands free. Set the carrots to steam set the timer and walk away. If you have a half an hour you can process up the whole 5lb bag of carrots, separate them into several freezer bags and freeze them. When you run out of carrots in the fridge just pull a baggie from the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight or drop them in some boiling water for a few seconds and they are ready to go. This works great for all types of veggies and your little ones will get tons more variety and nutrients than if you only served them the little carrot chunks! Some options include broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, peas, squash, etc.
Don't get me started on "meat sticks" I am sorry but meat is not supposed to come in stick form! I shudder to think what is in those overly processed sticks. I am adamant that my girls get protein at every single meal. I would go broke real quick buying all those little jars of "meat". My solution is to throw several frozen chicken breasts in my crock pot and cook on high for 6 hours. I then shred the meat and stick it in the fridge. Done! Another option is beans. Beans are cheap, easy, full of protein, and perfectly mushy. Again the crock pot is my friend. I soak the beans over night and then toss them in the crock pot on low for 10hours (smaller beans get done faster). Just like with the carrots and other veggies you can portion them out between baggies and freeze any that will not get used in a week. They are the perfect finger food. Eggs are also a great option. I like to scramble up a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week and then dole them out for breakfast in the mornings. Easy peasy! Also great options are turkey burgers, beef burgers, ham, shredded turkey, etc.
Fruit I do a little different. For things like apples that are hard and need some softening I like to saute them in a little bit of 100% fruit juice just like you were making applesauce, just stopping them before they turn into mush. I personally don't freeze fruit it never quite turns out the same consistency as it went in.
My girls are also allergic to milk in all shapes and forms so if I want to serve the girls any type of baked goods it has to be made from scratch by me with soy products. Again the freezer is my friend :)
Take one of those little jars of chunked up carrots. At the commissary one of those little jars will run you $0.80 now that isn't unreasonable in itself but if you walk over to the produce department you will see you can get a whole pound of carrots for $0.80! Do you know how many of those little jars you would have to buy to make a pound of carrots? It gets even worse if you look at the 5lb bags of carrots... $0.78 a pound! How hard is it to peel, wash, and chunk up your own carrots? Yes you have to cook them to what I call smoosh consistency but really that time is all hands free. Set the carrots to steam set the timer and walk away. If you have a half an hour you can process up the whole 5lb bag of carrots, separate them into several freezer bags and freeze them. When you run out of carrots in the fridge just pull a baggie from the freezer and let it defrost in the fridge overnight or drop them in some boiling water for a few seconds and they are ready to go. This works great for all types of veggies and your little ones will get tons more variety and nutrients than if you only served them the little carrot chunks! Some options include broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, green beans, peas, squash, etc.
Don't get me started on "meat sticks" I am sorry but meat is not supposed to come in stick form! I shudder to think what is in those overly processed sticks. I am adamant that my girls get protein at every single meal. I would go broke real quick buying all those little jars of "meat". My solution is to throw several frozen chicken breasts in my crock pot and cook on high for 6 hours. I then shred the meat and stick it in the fridge. Done! Another option is beans. Beans are cheap, easy, full of protein, and perfectly mushy. Again the crock pot is my friend. I soak the beans over night and then toss them in the crock pot on low for 10hours (smaller beans get done faster). Just like with the carrots and other veggies you can portion them out between baggies and freeze any that will not get used in a week. They are the perfect finger food. Eggs are also a great option. I like to scramble up a dozen eggs at the beginning of the week and then dole them out for breakfast in the mornings. Easy peasy! Also great options are turkey burgers, beef burgers, ham, shredded turkey, etc.
Fruit I do a little different. For things like apples that are hard and need some softening I like to saute them in a little bit of 100% fruit juice just like you were making applesauce, just stopping them before they turn into mush. I personally don't freeze fruit it never quite turns out the same consistency as it went in.
My girls are also allergic to milk in all shapes and forms so if I want to serve the girls any type of baked goods it has to be made from scratch by me with soy products. Again the freezer is my friend :)
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Meal Plan/Grocery Breakdown Jan 30th-Feb 5th
Even though the majority of this weeks groceries are going to be for February since we have not received February's pay yet we will be counting this in the January Budget. This week our budget is running a little tight since it makes 5 weeks worth of groceries so we have tightened our belt and cut out all junk food and non necessary items. I wish this type of grocery shopping was sustainable but my husband is going to want his sodas back :)
I also had a first at the grocery store today, I actually got something for FREE! I know many people have said over and over again how combining coupons with sales can get you items for free but I have never been that lucky. The lowest I had ever got down to was $0.10 for a item, which I am not complaining about! Today I needed Soy Sauce so I went to the store with my $1 off coupon only to find they were having a sale. The 10oz soy sauces were marked at $0.89 each. I double checked my coupon to make sure it didn't have a minimum amount of ounces and since it didn't I snapped that sucker up. I was standing there smiling to myself when I realized I had another coupon in my binder (which I always take with me now cause you never know when you are going to find a deal!). So I got 20oz of Soy Sauce and actually MADE $0.22! My husband things I am crazy for being so excited but I mean come on I was going to buy it anyways and they paid me to take it out of the store :D
Meal Plan:
Breakfast (served with milk):
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Egg Biscuits
Lunch (served with Fruit and milk):
*Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
*Ham Sandwiches
*Tuna Sandwiches
*Grilled Ham/Turkey Sandwiches
*Leftovers
Dinner:
*Tilapia with homemade Tarter Sauce and Salad
*Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and Salad
*Chicken Fajitas with Fried rice
*Pizza Rolls
*Jazzy Ramen
*Mexican Bow tie pasta
*Chicken tortilla soup
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$0
Lunch:
$7.64
Dinner:
$29.51
Snacks:
$3.50
Dairy:
$10.17
Fruit and Veg:
$6.73
Household:
$2.14
Total with Surcharge: $62.67
Total Coupons Used: $6.40
Total out of pocket:$56.27
I also had a first at the grocery store today, I actually got something for FREE! I know many people have said over and over again how combining coupons with sales can get you items for free but I have never been that lucky. The lowest I had ever got down to was $0.10 for a item, which I am not complaining about! Today I needed Soy Sauce so I went to the store with my $1 off coupon only to find they were having a sale. The 10oz soy sauces were marked at $0.89 each. I double checked my coupon to make sure it didn't have a minimum amount of ounces and since it didn't I snapped that sucker up. I was standing there smiling to myself when I realized I had another coupon in my binder (which I always take with me now cause you never know when you are going to find a deal!). So I got 20oz of Soy Sauce and actually MADE $0.22! My husband things I am crazy for being so excited but I mean come on I was going to buy it anyways and they paid me to take it out of the store :D
Meal Plan:
Breakfast (served with milk):
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Egg Biscuits
Lunch (served with Fruit and milk):
*Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
*Ham Sandwiches
*Tuna Sandwiches
*Grilled Ham/Turkey Sandwiches
*Leftovers
Dinner:
*Tilapia with homemade Tarter Sauce and Salad
*Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and Salad
*Chicken Fajitas with Fried rice
*Pizza Rolls
*Jazzy Ramen
*Mexican Bow tie pasta
*Chicken tortilla soup
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$0
Lunch:
$7.64
Dinner:
$29.51
Snacks:
$3.50
Dairy:
$10.17
Fruit and Veg:
$6.73
Household:
$2.14
Total with Surcharge: $62.67
Total Coupons Used: $6.40
Total out of pocket:$56.27
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Meal Plan for week of January 16th
I tend to meal plan from Sunday to Saturday since I grocery shop on Saturdays so here is this coming weeks meal plan and grocery breakdown :)
Breakfasts:
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Cereal
*Scrambled Eggs
*Homemade Breakfast Burritos
*Milk
Lunches:
*Sandwiches (Turkey, Ham, or PB&J)
*Leftovers
*Fruit
*Milk
Dinner:
*BBQ Brisket and Pasta Salad
*Baked Shell Casserole
*Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
*Honey Rosemary Chicken with Broccoli
*Chicken, Rice and Egg Drop Soup
*Leftovers
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$13.82
Lunch:
$5.95
Dinner:
$58.09
Dairy:
$16.85
Snacks/Junk Food:
$14.04
Household:
$20.43
Total (with Surcharge): $135.61
Coupons: $10.40
Total out of pocket: $125.21
**Fruit/Skim milk/etc. Covered by WIC**
Dinner costs were high this week because of having a extra mouth to feed due to having company staying with us. My goal was to have enough leftover from dinners to cover lunches as well. We shall see!!
Breakfasts:
*Waffles
*Pancakes
*Cereal
*Scrambled Eggs
*Homemade Breakfast Burritos
*Milk
Lunches:
*Sandwiches (Turkey, Ham, or PB&J)
*Leftovers
*Fruit
*Milk
Dinner:
*BBQ Brisket and Pasta Salad
*Baked Shell Casserole
*Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
*Honey Rosemary Chicken with Broccoli
*Chicken, Rice and Egg Drop Soup
*Leftovers
Grocery Breakdown:
Breakfast:
$13.82
Lunch:
$5.95
Dinner:
$58.09
Dairy:
$16.85
Snacks/Junk Food:
$14.04
Household:
$20.43
Total (with Surcharge): $135.61
Coupons: $10.40
Total out of pocket: $125.21
**Fruit/Skim milk/etc. Covered by WIC**
Dinner costs were high this week because of having a extra mouth to feed due to having company staying with us. My goal was to have enough leftover from dinners to cover lunches as well. We shall see!!
Thursday, January 6, 2011
1/5 Meal Plan
Breakfast:
*Pancakes
*Milk
Lunch:
*Left over pizza
*Juice
Snack:
*Clementines
*String Cheese
*Juice
Dinner:
*Smokey Black Beans and Rice soup
*Homemade bread
*Pancakes
*Milk
Lunch:
*Left over pizza
*Juice
Snack:
*Clementines
*String Cheese
*Juice
Dinner:
*Smokey Black Beans and Rice soup
*Homemade bread
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
1/4 Meal plan
Today was the first day back at school and for me has been a draining day. My plan was to bake some more bread today but I am just soooo tired, hopefully I can get it mixed up and in the fridge before bed so that I can bake it up in the morning...gotta love refigerator doughs!
Breakfast:
*Confetti Pancakes
*milk
***Thank you hubby for getting the kids fed this morning so I could sleep in a little***
Lunch:
* Turkey Sandwiches
*Banana's dipped in Peanut butter
*Juice
Snack:
*String cheese
*String cheese
*Whole wheat bread
*Juice
Dinner:
*Homemade pizza (with carrots snuck in the sauce, shhh don't tell!)
*Homemade pizza (with carrots snuck in the sauce, shhh don't tell!)
Meal Plan Monday 1/3/11
You know I often wonder when people post their budgets what they are actually eating for that amount of money so I thought it would be interesting to keep a log here :) (OK maybe it is only interesting to me so feel free to skip this post if I am boring you, lol). So here is today's meal plan....
Breakfast:
*Confetti pancakes
*Milk
Lunch:
*Sandwiches (peanut butter, or Turkey)
*Yogurt
*Milk
Snack:
*Apples with Peanut butter
*Water
*Water
Dinner:
*Fried chicken on Romaine with homemade Blue cheese dressing
*Homemade bread
*Milk
You know what I see?? We go through a lot of milk in a day. I need to go through and cut out milk from one meal a day I think. The kids don't need that much milk and it sure would help the budget!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Meal Planning.....
So I admit I am usually a pretty organized person but since having children some things have just fallen by the wayside. A year ago when we started this journey I was shocked to see that we were spending $1,100 a month on groceries for just the 4 of us! Oh my! We have since been able to get it down to $500 and it has pretty much stuck there ever since. One of the things that has helped me a great deal with lowering our grocery budget was to meal plan for the month. Now that sounds easy enough but when you have tons of cookbooks and a recipe box FULL of recipes it is a little overwhelming...I mean where do you start? We always ended up having the same old thing week after week and let me tell you it was getting really old! I just didn't have the time to sit down and pull out all those recipes and search for something to make...who does?? So I came up with the binder idea.
I spent one whole afternoon going through every cookbook I had, all my recipe cards, and all those pages from magazines that we all tear out with the intention of cooking whatever it is but never do. Then I copied all the recipes out of the cookbooks, organized all the recipes based on type (Baking, main meal, side dish, condiments, etc.) and put them into page protectors and used dividers to separate them. Then I went through all the main meals and wrote them all out in pencil on a piece of plain paper, then slid that into the front of the binder. There you go a master list of everything your family loves all in one place and easy to find! When it is time to make up the meal plan for the week I just look at the cover of my binder and pick what I want to make and the recipes are right there at my finger tips. Plus is a meal turns out to not be as good as we thought it would (mainly magazine recipes) they are easy to remove and simply erase from the list.
By going through everything I have found recipes he loved that I haven't made since we were newlyweds! DH and I are both much happier with this arrangement! :)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Finally Taking on the Kitchen
I am a major procrastinator when it comes to my kitchen. Don't get me wrong I love to cook, but I am one of those people who will just go out and buy another jar of seasoning instead of searching my cupboards to see if I already have some. As you can guess I have cupboards that are way to full and tons of extras in there. Over the last few months we have been trying to "live off our pantry" so that we use some stuff up and save some money. This has been a really great thing for us and there were some weeks when I only spent $80 to feed all of us! Even though this has been going so well there was still one area of my kitchen that I was to scared to look at....the spice cabinet! AH! Well I finally went through it ALL the last few days and I worked up a written inventory of what I have.....OK no one needs 3 jars of coriander!!!!
So now that I have a written inventory of my pantry I need to do something with it right? Well I have been haunting the large family websites for ideas on how to feed a large family on a budget (yes I know I don't have a large family but if they can do it with 12 kids I can do it with 2!) and I have come up with some really good ideas. Not only do they have tons of recipes on there that are easy and nutritious they also have meal planning ideas and shopping tips. One of the ideas I have heard for a while now is to only shop once a month....yeah this is a little out there for me....I mean once a month???I am taking baby steps here people and I have worked up a menu for a month but only plan to shop every two weeks for a while to get the hang of it all.
Being that I have TONS of certain spices I took my inventory sheet out and then came up with recipes that will use them, as well as setting certain nights every week to the same dish (i.e. Mondays are spaghetti night). This in theory should save quite a bit of money since I can buy certain items in bulk and then actually use them (novel concept over here). Plus all the meals that I chose are simple to make with only a few ingredients.....no more buying 12 items for one dish! It will be interesting to see how this project works out. I know that at first I am either going to have way to much or way to little of certain items (milk, bread, etc) until I am able to gage the correct amounts per week so I know that I will be going to the store more than once every two weeks for a while but it shouldn't be that hard to figure out right? I will let you know.....
On another cooking related front by garden was a no go....I managed to get one cucumber plant to grow, one tomato plant, and 3 onions. My bell peppers are scrawny and not producing and my zucchini got ate by snails. I did manage to get some basil and flat leaf parsley to grow by bringing them into the kitchen where I can remember to water them. OK so world famous gardener I am not...but hey I tried! Not sure if I will try again....was a lot of money and work for nothing.
So now that I have a written inventory of my pantry I need to do something with it right? Well I have been haunting the large family websites for ideas on how to feed a large family on a budget (yes I know I don't have a large family but if they can do it with 12 kids I can do it with 2!) and I have come up with some really good ideas. Not only do they have tons of recipes on there that are easy and nutritious they also have meal planning ideas and shopping tips. One of the ideas I have heard for a while now is to only shop once a month....yeah this is a little out there for me....I mean once a month???I am taking baby steps here people and I have worked up a menu for a month but only plan to shop every two weeks for a while to get the hang of it all.
Being that I have TONS of certain spices I took my inventory sheet out and then came up with recipes that will use them, as well as setting certain nights every week to the same dish (i.e. Mondays are spaghetti night). This in theory should save quite a bit of money since I can buy certain items in bulk and then actually use them (novel concept over here). Plus all the meals that I chose are simple to make with only a few ingredients.....no more buying 12 items for one dish! It will be interesting to see how this project works out. I know that at first I am either going to have way to much or way to little of certain items (milk, bread, etc) until I am able to gage the correct amounts per week so I know that I will be going to the store more than once every two weeks for a while but it shouldn't be that hard to figure out right? I will let you know.....
On another cooking related front by garden was a no go....I managed to get one cucumber plant to grow, one tomato plant, and 3 onions. My bell peppers are scrawny and not producing and my zucchini got ate by snails. I did manage to get some basil and flat leaf parsley to grow by bringing them into the kitchen where I can remember to water them. OK so world famous gardener I am not...but hey I tried! Not sure if I will try again....was a lot of money and work for nothing.
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