Menu Planning #126

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Our meals need to be nutritious, clean, flexible, quick and cost effective.
Between our work schedules and after school activities, we need to carefully
plan our meals so that we do not end up ordering out.  
Welcome to the third week of Stay at Home orders from our governor.   Our
freezers are full and our meal planning doesn’t require as many items to fill it.  
However, the stores are having difficulty keeping up with demand and many
common items are still out of stock.   For example, bagels and yeast. In
addition, I have noticed the quality of the produce has declined over the past
few weeks.     Therefore, when Aldi had many of the things that aren't available
at Kroger's, we picked them up.     
What did we spend? 
Week 1: $187.95
Kroger: $11.26
Kroger: $143.37
Meijer: $33.62
Rebates: $9.40
Kroger cash: $5.50
Week 2: $173.71
Kroger: $173.71
Rebate: 
Week 3- $171.76
Kroger: $42.60
Kroger: $129. 16
Rebate: 
Week 4- $131.16
Kroger: $83.34 - $21.16 (Canning Supplies)= $62.18
Aldi: 70.93
Rebate: $1.95
IBOTTA: $1.20
Kroger Cash Back: $0.75
Total: $664.58
Rebate Total: $16.85
Final Total: $647.73 (WOW- So over budget.)

Grocery Shopping Tip:  Over the past several weeks I have noticed my
grocery shopping experience has changed quite a bit.    In my grocery store
the workers are working hard to stock the shelves, but there are many
products that are not available when I go shopping.    I have a list of items that
I have noticed are becoming scarce, so I check every week to see if they are
available. I also check the prices which have been going up.     I am grateful
to have found dried canned tomatoes, red kidney beans and lentils this week.
Although I am not complete out, I picked them up anyway. I was lucky that
these two items' prices hadn’t gone up.   
Let’s take a look at what we ate this week. 


Breakfast Options: 
Bagels w/ Cream Cheese
Banana Nut Bread
Cereal
Eggs
Monday
Burgers
French Fries
Corn
Tuesday
Tacos
Salad
Chips w/ Salsa
Wednesday
Pasta
Sausage 
Salad
Bread
Thursday
Grilled Shrimp
Quinoa
Broccoli
Salad
Friday 
Pizza
Salad
Saturday
Left Overs
Sunday
Jambalaya 
Cole Slaw
Mixed Greens
Broccoli
Biscuits 
This week’s rough plan: 
M- *BBQ Sandwiches
T- Vegetarian Chili 
W- Pasta
TH- Greek Chicken  
F- Pizza
Sat- Leftovers  
Sun- Grilled Chicken 
* Indicate that the recipe is a new one for our family.    

What did you have for dinner this week?

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