Menu Planning: #229

-

 

Meal planning is essential to eating healthy, keeping the grocery bill down, and maintaining your sanity throughout a workweek.   In addition to meal planning, I try to prepare meals as much as possible over the weekend.   This helps to lower my stress during the week.    However, if we have a busy weekend, I try to plan simple or crockpot meals.      


Our grocery bill has been reaching or surpassing $200 a week for a while and this month, I am going to try to bring that price tag down.  In addition to spending so much money on groceries, we have also been eating out more often.    It is time to change our ways.  Our goal is $150 per week and only eating out 1 time in the month of November.     


Week 1 = 193.10


Week 2 = $277.84


Week 3 =$138.26


Week 4 = 

  • $101.98 (Eating out Replacement, Stock Up Items, Christmas Gifts)

  • $109.02


Stock Up Items include: Since we went to a specialty store that has great prices on some of our holiday and pantry favorites at rock bottom prices, we picked up some extras. 

  • 10 Mama Pad Thai Bricks (These are great for adding a few ingredients and replacing a takeout meal.)

  • 1 Coffee Flavoring Syrup 

  • 5 Small boxes of Belgium Candy for Gifts

  • 3 Noodle Bowls (Authentic Options for my son to try as a replacement for Bowls that are at least $1.00 in the grocery store.)

  • Stroopwafels for Christmas Treat (We selected the smaller version which was $1.00 cheaper per box.) 

  • Walnuts (Incredible price)

  • Reduced Fruit and Vegetables 


Eating Out Solution:   

  • Invested in better ingredients and cooked at home. 

  • I became ill during the week, so sandwiches and leftovers to the rescue.  

 

Monthly Total: $820.20


Meal Preparation Plan

  • Hard Boiled 12 eggs

  • Cut up Vegetables for the week

  • Cleaned out the refrigerator and froze what we wouldn’t be able to eat. 

  • Shopped my refrigerator and pantry 

  • Hummus


NOTE- 

1- Click on the picture and get a link to a post sharing the recipe. 

2- Although all prices were correct at the time of the blog postings, the current cost of preparation of these dishes may be higher due to inflation and/or location.     


Breakfast Options: 


Hard Boiled Eggs

Egg McMuffin Sandwich

Cereal


Monday

Leftovers


Tuesday

Ravioli 

Salad


Wednesday

Sandwiches


Thursday


Turkey

Macaroni and Cheese

Roasted Vegetables

Pumpkin Cheesecake


Friday

Mussels

Riced Cauliflower


Saturday

Turkey Stoup

Salad

Bread


Sunday


Cajun Shrimp

Pasta

Salad

Bread


M- Stir Fry 

T- Kielbasa 

W- Taco Night

Th- Sandwiches

Fri- Pizza

Sat- Butter Chicken

Sun- Chili


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


If you are interested in last week’s Menu Plan, the link is below. 


What is your meal plan for this week?


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 coo...
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....
Read more

The Frugal Five: #88

-
Image
  The Frugal Five: #88 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.     This week I am exploring how to keep costs down during busy weeks.    Keeping dinner on the table instead of eating out is one of my strategies to get the job done.    Here are some of my tips and trips.    1- Free-Bee Pick Up  Over the last month, we have been blessed with several Free-Bees.  First, a friend gave us a dozen eggs from his chickens.  In addition, we picked up several photos with discount codes from Walgreens and CVS.   Next, we used our local grocery store coupons for several free food items such as seltzer water, ice cream, etc.   Then, we picked up toothpaste and eyeliners from ...
Read more