Menu Planning #142

-

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.  We try hard to keep our
total food and household products to under $100.00 per week. 
Goal: $500.00
What did we spend? 
Week 1- $127.66
Meijer: $67.25
Aldi: $23.79
Kroger: $36.62
Rebates: $14.75
IBOTTA: $14.75
Kroger Cash: $11.49
Week 2- $99.63
CVS: $1.92
Kroger: $60.40 
Meijer: $8.36
Aldi: $28.95
Fresh Thyme: $14.67
Rebates: $15.00
IBOTTA: $13.00
Shopkicks: $2.00
Kroger Cash: $9.00
Week 3-  $119.77
Aldi: $71.35
Kroger: $48.42
CVS: $1.08 
CVS: $2.53
Rebate: 
IBOTTA: $10.00
Kroger Cash: $6.25
Shopkicks: 
CVS ECB = $8.00 
Week 4- $89.14
Aldi: $22.35
Kroger: $32.74
Meijer: $34.05
Rebate: 
Week 5- 
Rebate: 
Total:$450.87
Rebate Total: $39.75
Final Total: $411.12
NOTE: Rebate total DOESN’T include Kroger Cash or Refunds because they
will come off of the Kroger Bill automatically the following week.   In addition, I
don’t count CVS as part of the grocery bill because I normally use gift cards
and ECB to get my items for free, so in the end the money is usually to my
benefit.   
Grocery Shopping Tips:    I always like to stock up when prices are rock
bottom.  However, it is really easy to overspend each week.   For example,
prior to the Coronavirus I could pick up a pound of pasta for $0.50 but currently
the prices have been $1.00 or more.    So, when the prices dropped to $0.69
per pound this week, I picked up as many as my budget would allow.    I
wanted more, but I needed to stick to my budget.   Good New- It is on sale
next week too! 
Let’s take a look at what we ate this week. 
Breakfast Options: 
Yogurt
Oatmeal Bake 
Hard Boiled Eggs
Monday
Spanish Chicken
Rice
Broccoli
Tuesday
Pasta
Sausage
Salad
Wednesday
Hamburgers
French Fries
Corn
Thursday
Chinese Take Out
Friday
Pizza
Salad


Saturday
Shrimp Fried Rice
Wonton Soup 


Sunday
Pork Chops
Broccoli/Cauliflower
Watermelon
Salad
This week’s rough plan: 
M- Pasta
T- Quesadilla 
W- Kielbasa
Th- Baked Chicken
F- Hoagies
Sat-  Fish
Sun-  Baked Pasta 

* Indicate that the recipe is a new one for our family.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Keeping Cool Without an AC- Part 5

-
Image
  The news is full of headlines indicating that energy shortages are on the horizon for most of the world. Over the decades, we have become reliant on the coolness of our air conditioners and have forgotten how we survived without them. It is now time to rediscover how to stay cool without our AC. Our 5 part series provides ideas on how to beat the heat this summer without the AC.     House Adjustments- Part 2 By placing house plants, such as English ivy, ficus, and spider plants, throughout your home, you can drop the overall temperature of your house by 10 degrees. In addition, house plants are air purifiers and add oxygen to your home.     For quick relief, create a personal mister to help drop the temperature of your skin: thus making you feel colder. Some people combine a spray bottle and a fan to create a cooling effect. However, I use just the spray bottle with cold water throughout the day and it keeps me cool. In addition, we use cooling clothes to cool us down by placing the
Read more

Frugal 5: #26

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #26 With inflation on the rise and our salaries not being able to keep up, it seems like we have taken a pay cut and must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate our daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     ** Sorry for the lack of pictures. My week has been really busy and I just didn't get around to it. 1- Fall Garden Harvest    With the weather turning cold, we harvested the tomatoes that were left and made dice tomatoes out of them.   This will come in handy for making our taco soup and chili in the upcoming weeks.   In addition, we are able to add a few jalapeno peppers to the dishes.  Our dried mint was placed in containers for making tea this winter and fresh clippings were added to the drying rack.     Finally, our seeds are dried and ready for storage for next season.      It was a lot of work but worth it.  2- Free Item Coupons This week several companies sent me free product coupons, so I
Read more

Frugal Five: #73

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #73 With inflation on the rise and salaries not increasing, our ability to make ends meet keeps going down.    Therefore, we must be more careful with our money.   The Frugal Five is a series where we celebrate the daily or weekly activities that help us live a frugal life.     1- “Potluck” lunch At work this week, we are having a potluck appetizer/dessert party for a colleague’s 60th birthday.  Everyone is expected to bring an appetizer or dessert for the party.    Since there will be a lot of food provided by everyone, I am not bringing my lunch that day and will eat from whatever people have brought.   In addition, on Friday, our social committee is providing us with a turkey lunch feast.     2- Picking up a Cheap Turkey This week at Kroger, if you spend $25.00, then you can purchase a Kroger turkey for just $0.49 per pound.  Although we do not prefer dark meat, we decided to take advantage of this deal and planned for what to do with the dark meat.     No worries
Read more