On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.
When I took this picture, I thought it included all my groceries.
But then I realized that some things were missing, and sure enough, there was another bag in the car.
Good thing I noticed, because in the kind of temperatures we’ve been having lately, that food would have melted/spoiled really quickly!
In case you’re wondering, I bought the four containers of Edy’s ice cream because they were buy one, get one free, and there was a $4 back deal if you bought 4. So, we’re going to be unusually spoiled with ice cream for the next week or two.
This week I used some of my Weis coupons, and also a few from Coupons.com, which is my new source of coupons now that I don’t get a newspaper subscription anymore (I used a $1/1 Nexcare coupon, which made a box of waterproof bandages $.99, and I used some $1/2 cereal coupons). I also got a number of buy one, get one free deals at Weis (blueberries, grape tomatoes, and of course, the ice cream). Most of the time I buy my produce from Aldi, but the buy one, get one free sale made the blueberries and tomatoes cheaper at Weis.
I spent $104.93, which means that I’m ending June a little over budget (because of my wheat purchase, I was supposed to keep my spending around $82/week this month).
Fortunately, though, July is a new month, and I get to start over fresh with another $400.
For breakfast, we’ll be eating homemade granola, homemade yogurt, fruit, scrambled eggs (with no salmon, thankyouverymuch!), and cereal.
Lunches will be yogurt smoothies, fruit, nuts, sandwiches, and leftovers as necessary.
Saturday
Sunday
- French Toast
- OJ
- fried eggs
Monday
- Shrimp Pizzas (this got bumped from last week and was replaced with a chicken salad)
- Watermelon, blueberries, and strawberries
Tuesday
- Tropical Grilled Chicken
- Two-Tone bread
- green salad
Wednesday
- Shrimp Pasta Salad (I got two pounds of shrimp for $6 last week, which is why we’re having it twice in a week!)
- Cheese Bread (day old Panera bread from my freezer)
- fruit salad
Thursday
- Grilled Hamburgers
- homemade buns
- raw veggies
- potato chips
Friday
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I LOVE your menu plans and budget for groceries! I try to budget around the same $$ (actually less since my fiance’ had lost his job – back to work now- yay!). I find that when you PLAN what you are having for dinner each week it makes the trip easier & prevents ‘impulse’ buys which is what causes you to spend more! Thanks for sharing each week… it’s extremely motivational!!
Good catch finding that extra bag. Why is it always these kind of items that get forgot. One time I got in my trunk and found a package of butter that have fell from my sack, a week before. The bad part was I hadn’t even missed it. Talk about food waste.LOL
Ooh, how does one make two-tone bread? Hope you’re having a great weekend!
Funny that you mentioned the ice cream, that was the first thing I saw in the picture! We are in ice cream mode around here, so I have been taking advantage of the sales too!
I found your site recently and am inspired, thanks so much
I tried the Tropical Grilled Chicken and the whole family agreed – fabulous! I paired it with a great tropical rice recipe I found here: http://steamykitchen.com/57-tropical-rice.html
I would also really like to know about two tone bread
Thanks.