Menu Planning #142

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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.  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.   

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