one of our family goals (ok, so its mostly just my goal) for the year is to do our grocery shopping/menu planning 2 weeks at a time. i wanted to do it for time saving sake and also for the sake of ease-so our meals would be clearly planned ahead of time. adam and i both liked the idea of the possibility of saving money and wasting less food.
today i knew that we needed milk and bread (no, i wasn't just freaking out because of the snow predictions) and i decided that i would just go ahead and get our first 2 weeks of february groceries during my lunch break. last time, i did 2 days of shopping so i could go to aldi one day and walmart the next in hopes of saving a little more. i didn't have time for that in just one hour, so i did all walmart (as aldi doesn't always have all of the things we need.)
well folks, i am very very proud of myself today. friday evening after hubs and i had our budget planning meeting, i was very discouraged and afraid to stop working when our sweet bundle of joy arrives--but after my successful shopping trip today, i am feeling much better about it. if i can keep our spending close to what it was today-we can easily cut our grocery budget to $200 a month.
are you ready for the grand total? and this is without coupons because it was a spur of the moment trip and my coupons are at home. $86.52!!! i will say that we are going out of town next friday and saturday for our baby shower with my family, so that cut 2 meals out for us, but still-i think we did pretty well.
so here is our menu plan for the next 2 weeks:
monday: whole wheat spaghetti with ground turkey and sauce
tuesday: taco salad
wednesday: family night worship-mission meal
thursday: chili
friday: probably wendy's on the road (and we do dollar menu, so it may cost $5)
saturday: dinner in celebration of my daddy's 50TH birthday!!!!!
sunday: super bowl foods
monday: tex-mex chicken and rice
tuesday: chili (left over)
wednesday: 3 cheese tortellini
thursday: homemade pizza (i'm gonna try my hand at homemade crust...we'll see)
friday: cheese-filled meat loaf and baked potatoes
saturday: valentine's date
sunday: tex-mex chicken and rice (left over)
since we have lunch foods in our house, we are going to try to do more left overs for dinner when its a meal that makes a large quantity. smaller meals like the spaghetti or taco salad we can still take for lunch when there are left overs. how do you menu plan?
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9 comments:
Mom plans for two weeks. you should call Momma Beville and talk to her! She'd love it!
and I know you already went shopping, but as for the pizza crust, I recommend the box of Jiffy's just add water mix. It takes only five minutes to set up and still tastes great. But that's only if yo're in a hurry. I realize that you may want to make a whole wheat crust or something...but remember to start the crust an hour before you want to make it. The dough usually takes 45 minutes to an hour to rise when there's yeast involved in pizza crust...
hope that helps and I don't sound too much like an employee at papa john's...
WENDY'S DOLLAR MENU IS THE BEST!!!! :D
Also, we do the 2-week plans as well. Makes dinner easy and grocery shopping easier. :)
How great! I actually started doing my menu plans every two weeks also in the beginning of January. I really am surprised how much time and money it saves (and less trips to the dreaded grocery which I HATE!) So glad it's going well for you too!
PS- I agree with Chelsea's comment about Jiffy's... they are quick, cheap, and GOOD!
Good wife, good mama. :) You go girl.
awesome! i am very impressed:)
we also do 2 week meal planning. and i'm telling you, we just recently added aldi in the mix, and it is totally worth going there. i know it's tough to make it an extra trip, but we are saving quite a bit!! and i know you said homemade crust, but have you tried the kind in the pillsbury cans? in the biscuit aisle? they are soooo good!
thanks ladies!!!
jenny, i usually will do aldi, but i just didn't have time yesterday since i was shopping on my lunch break. i love me some aldi though. i was afraid of it at first, but now its one of my favorite places! :)
and for the pizza crust suggestions...i have tried both of those and they are great...i just want to try to make one from scratch...just so i can say i have tried...we'll see how it goes :)
good job on the budget!
Well I love to meal plan, mainly because I am one of those people that would cook nothing if I didnt already have a plan telling me what to do. I go back and forth on the two week thing. I usually have my meals planned out for two weeks, but sometimes i go to the store every week and sometimes every two weeks. So far neither has made a difference in the spending, but I think that has more to do with the plan and a list than how often I go.
Love the jiffy pizza. but i am going to try to make a whole wheat one soon- the jiffy is pretty high in ww points unfortunately.
Awesome Emily! I want to hear more about your crust. I have a couple of recipes, but haven't tried any of them. I really want a good whole wheat one.
Keep up the good work. I saw where you just started back on the envelopes...so did we! It's hard to get back in the groove, but so worth it!
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