Menu Planning #164

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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.  


Instead of guessing regarding our food budget, I looked up the Official USDA Food Plans as of December 2020 which was enlightening.    Since, we have 3 members in our household and use the thrifty plan, the food only weekly budget would be $123.40.  However the monthly SNAP benefits average $125 per person or about $260.00 per household.   


Goal: $500.00 

What did we spend? 


Week 1- $108.97

Kroger: $87.83

Meijer: $21.14

Rebates- $9.65

IBOTTA: $7.55

IBOTTA: $1.10

Kroger Cash: $1.50


Week 2-$84.37

Kroger: $84.37

Rebates: $7.44

IBOTTA: $7.44

Kroger Cash: $2.19


Week 3: $183.11

Meijer:$10.19

Kroger: $25.08

    $36.60

Aldi: $111.24

Rebates: $13.29

IBOTTA: $11.00

Coupon.com: $2.29


Week 4-

Week 5- 


Total: $376.45

Rebate Total: $30.38

Final Total: $346.07


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:   Know your prices and when you find a great deal (awesome price, within buy/use from dates and you can estimate how much you can use by the dates), pick up enough for your storage to get you through.     

     

Let’s take a look at what we ate this week. 

NOTE- If you want to see the recipes, just click on the picture to see the link. 



Breakfast Options: 

https://sweetlifeonabudget.blogspot.com/2018/11/making-yogurt-101.html


Yogurt

Cereal

Eggs


Monday

Shrimp Lo Mein


Tuesday


Tacos

Chips w/ Salsa

 

Wednesday


Spanish Chicken

Roasted Potatoes

Green Beans


Thursday


Pancakes

Sausage


Friday

https://sweetlifeonabudget.blogspot.com/2020/09/stromboli-422-each.html


Stromboli


Saturday

Appetizer Dinner

Meat and Cheese

Vegetable Platter 

Dip


Sunday


Cheddar Broccoli Soup

Salad

Bread Sticks



This week’s rough plan: 


M- Greek Chicken

T-  *Beef and Lentil Taco Soup

W- Leftovers

Th- Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie

Fri- Pizza

Sat- *Cajun Shrimp Pasta

Sun- Three Bean California Chili


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


What is your family having this week for dinner?


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