Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | Odd Shopping Week
I did not go to Weis and Aldi this week, which is very unusual. I did spend money on groceries...just not at those two stores.
Safeway
Last Saturday I stopped at Safeway and spent $9.42. I bought $.99/pound grapes and $3.99/pound shrimp (I needed the shrimp for our Sunday meal, and none were on sale at Weis).
Giant
Then on Thursday, I went to Giant because we had a $25 gift card from filling a prescription. I spent $29.36 there, and I'm sorry, but I have no photo of those groceries. I bought all-natural lunch meat, bacon, strawberries, milk, green beans, bananas, and a few other things.
Safeway, part II
I thought the Giant trip was the last grocery store trip I'd make for the week, but after seeing the Safeway sale ad yesterday morning, I had to stop by and get the cereal deal. Safeway was right on my way home from helping at a sister church yesterday, so I popped in and bought these groceries:
This cost me only $6.50, which makes me happy. I had a coupon for a free bag of Sunchips (I think I got it by becoming a fan on Facebook or something), and I am totally going to try composting the bag. I got the OJ because I forgot to get some at Giant, and the cereal, of course, I got because of the sale.
The 5 boxes of cereal were $9.50 before coupons, and I had $4.50 in coupons. That means my 5 boxes cost $4, which is even less than I thought I'd pay (woohoo!). That's because when I calculated my deal yesterday, I didn't realize Safeway doubled $.75 coupons...I'm so used to Weis' policy of only doubling $.50 or less.
Local Food
I got local eggs ($5 for 2 dozen) from my blog reader and some beef from a local farm. It was (gulp!) $4.50/pound, which is a lot more than I'm used to paying for beef. I know that's not a lot to pay for real, local beef, but it's an adjustment for me! I got 2 4.5 pound chuck roasts, so I paid $40.50 for that.
But, because I did minimal shopping this week (which is forcing me to use up the food I already have here), my total for the week was still only $90.86.
Breakfasts this week will be yogurt, bananas, muffins, toast, and oatmeal. Lunches will be homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, fruit, sandwiches, and leftovers as necessary.
Saturday
- Pizza, of course 😉
Sunday
- Either French Toast or Buttermilk Pancakes...I haven't decided yet!
- OJ
- maybe Fried Mush
Monday
- Ham sandwiches on homemade rolls
- Spinach Salad
- Sun Chips
Tuesday
- Zucchinni/Chicken Pasta Salad
- Whole Wheat Rolls
Wednesday
- Grilled Hamburgers
- Homemade Buns
- Grilled Vegetables
Thursday
- Shrimp and Ravioli in Pink Sauce
- Whole Wheat French Bread
- green salad
Friday
- Chicken Quesadillas
- fruit salad
Definitely not your normal week w/out a trip to Aldi's. Hope you love the beef. I bet you'll notice a difference in the taste/texture; a good one though. You'll have to give us a report.
How coincidental, I'm going today to pick up a local beef roast as well. I switched to buying local meat + most dairy last summer and still experience sticker shock. In fact I found I had to curtail my meat consumption pretty heavily to stick to my budget. But this has allowed me to explore a lot of cool international vegetarian cuisine. I'm just feeding myself, not small children, so I can afford to experiment, but it's a thought--especially if you want to continue/expand your buying local habits. As an aside, I'm not sure what the regulations in your area are, but here an "all natural" label means diddly squat, especially on a package of ham that is by definition processed. Not that that's necessarily bad, but I'm naturally suspicious when it comes to food labeling.
Shrimp and Ravoli in pink sauce. Please share the recipe. Sounds so good
$40 for 9 pounds of beef is a lot, but I'm sure each 4.5 pound chuck roast will feed your family for 2-4 meals! If you figure it that way, it's not so bad.:P I would shred the leftover potroast and use it to make beef with barley soup! If you get 8 meals out of the 9 pounds of beef, you're doing pretty well.
I splurged on 6.5 pounds of stew beef this week. Mine is just regular beef, though, so I only spent like $11. I can't wait to smell that beef stew simmering in my crockpot! Now I'm hungry...
Last week I made Kristen's Beef Au Jus sandwiches in the crockpot, using a little under 2 pounds of beef (her recipe called for 4 lbs I think) since it was just for my boyfriend and me. I kept the liquid amount the same, and I was able to make 2 sandwiches and then turned the left over broth/beef into the most delicious beef barley soup that got us through a dinner, a lunch, and then one more bowl the next day. Not bad for 2 pounds of beef! Here's the soup recipe I used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Beef-Barley-Soup/Detail.aspx
Glad to hear that you've found a local farm for meat.
There's no denying that it's more expensive, but I think you and your family will love the difference in flavor... and will feel happy that you are supporting your local farmers and eating "real" food.
Thank you SO much for ALL the help, humor, Godliness, integrity and more we get from you!
We just got a new foster baby, so I am Unsubscribing from a lot of things right now....but will look up your wonderful site when I can!
God bless all y'all---"real good!" 🙂
Oh, I'm sad to see you go, but I totally understand! Family always comes first, and you're doing a great thing. 🙂
Hello! Thank you very much for your tips. I buy in Winco and Costco. they have pretty good deals, depending what you are looking for. The stores you mention dont have a branch around here. Anyway, I wonder if you can please give me links for the coupons..you said you had one they give a small commission for you...but you dont write the name..
Thanks again!
Claudia
There actually is a link in that post...it's the blue words "coupons.com" earlyish in the post. But, you can also always click on the coupons.com ad on the right side of my blog, and that will accomplish the same thing. Thanks!
Got your mail with the link for coupons..thank you..I ll start using them!
I would love to see the recipe for zucchini and chicken past salad sometime!
Also, take heart in what your paying for your meat. The local element is so good on so many levels! Plus, before I even got to that part of your post I was telling my husband that you got grapes for 99cents/pound and your local eggs!! Just can't get deals like this in Ireland. While we do choose to live here I do miss the cost of things in the States!
Hope you enjoy your local meat! Will look forward to hearing if there were any differences for you guys.
I love french toast, especially if its made with vanilla extract, cinnamon sugar and heavy whipping cream! Yum!
did you ever think of buying a half of a cow? i just called the other day and it equals out too only $2.35 a lb! now these cows were local, but i have no idea if they are grass fed or corn fed or whatever. i don't get that into it all yet:)
i forgot to mention that a half of cow is ALOT of meat. so you may want to split it with someone. although i'm thinking of getting the front quarter which is mostly ground beef and roasts, which is what we use the most of anyway.
We shared a cow with 3 families this pass year and it was the perfect amount of beef to get us through the year. The steaks were great but the biggest surprise was how amazing the ground beef tasted. My husband (who helped butcher the cow to save on processing costs) explained that the ground beef came from actual meat and not combined junk from a bunch of industrial raised cows.
Don't expect too much from that compostable bag. I've tried that with several "compostable" commerical packagings and been universally disappointed. Either they need a hot compost pile or can't be composted at all in a home system. My money's on the latter but maybe I'm just a pessimist.
i got a bag of sun chips today and I'm going to try to compost it as soon as it's empty. I can't wait!
I am still amazed at the couponing in the USA. There is no way Safeway here in Canada would 'double' a coupon let alone allow you to use 1)more than one coupon at a time for the same product 2)take a coupon when its already on sale. At 9.50 for 5 boxes of cereal - that works out to what, 1.90 a piece? To get a box of cereal for under 3 even ON SALE is a miracle here.