Grocery Report/Menu Plan | Essential Shopping
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.
As you know, I spent a good pile of money at the grocery store last week, so I didn't do a full-blown trip this week...just a stop at Aldi for some essentials.
Ok, so, the thin mint cookies there weren't exactly a necessity. But they ARE really yummy. In fact, we ate them side by side with a real Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie, and we decided that the Aldi ones better.
Plus, the Aldi version is around $1.50/package, so there's that. You could buy cookies, donate to the girl scouts if you wish, and still be money ahead!
(of course, these aren't particularly healthy, but the ingredients are no worse than the Girl Scout cookies...I checked. 🙂 )
I bought a few other things that aren't in the picture due to my own oversight...more produce, some cheese, and a box of cereal.
I spent $49.89.
Breakfasts this week will be cereal, granola, yogurt, toast, eggs, and fruit. Plus the occasional yogurt smoothie if I feel inspired.
Lunches (we flip-flop our lunch and dinnertimes because of Mr. FG's work schedule) will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.
And here's what we're eating for the main meal of the day (we eat this at lunchtime during the week and at night on the weekends.)
Saturday
- Takeout Date Night for Mr. FG and me, something simple for the kids
Sunday
- French Toast
- OJ
- fried eggs
Monday
- Chicken Tortellini Salad
- garlic breadsticks
Tuesday
- Clam Chowder (bumped from last week)
- Whole Wheat Rolls
- green salad
Wednesday
- Pulled Chicken Sandwiches
- fruit salad
- broccoli
Thursday
- Thanksgiving! I'm sure you can guess what my contribution to the meal is. 😉
Friday
- Homemade pizza
Have a lurvely weekend!
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Today's 365 post: Evidence of a successful leftover-eating night
Joshua's 365 post: Light Stripes
Rolls are now my contribution to Thanksgiving dinner since I started baking with your recipes. I haven't decided which one I'm making this year. My husband and I love the honey glazed rolls but since it's not at my house I can't exactly serve them right out of the oven. Have you ever made crescent rolls?
On the farm we called the noon meal "dinner" and the evening meal "supper". You probably prefer the word" lunch" for the noon meal but you might like "supper" for the name of the evening meal.
I saw the "Thin Mint" cookies at my Aldi for the first time this week and snatched them up. Yes, they are fabulous (uhm...ours are definitely gone already. Thankfully, we had guests we could blame! :)) and inexpensive! Love Aldi!
Do you still do takeout date night at dinner time? Like 7 p.m.? Or, because you're eating dinner at lunch time..are you doing that around noon? That doesn't seem like much of a date right before Mr. FG has to go to work... just wondering if this got moved around too! 🙂
I am not partial to the combination of mint and chocolate (I'm ok with that 😉 ). But Aldi does have some great peanut butter cookies. Those can't come in the house ever. I may be tempted to eat the entire package!
I wish we had an Aldi but we don't. We have a Winco that is similar.
I'm a meany when it comes to Girl Scout cookie selling time. They set up on tables in front of the stores and I have to ignore them because if I stop I'll buy a whole bunch and then I eat them pretty much by myself. Thin Mints are the best.
Is that Sonia peeking between the cheese and milk? Too cute!!
Let's say a child sets up a lemonade stand, and you decide to donate a couple dollars to them and buy your lemonade at the store. Now let's say everyone did this. I'm sure you can see the problem that would eventually arise. What would happen to all the lemonade?
I'm a Girl Guide leader (a Spark Leader specifically). Our girls are asked to sell a certian number of boxes of cookies each year. While donation are always appreciated, that child is still stuck with boxes of cookies to sell. And that's not my decision, it comes from the Higher Ups, I have to hand out a given number of cookie boxes each year to keep the program going. Personally I prefer the fact that we sell an actual product most people will use, or eat as the case may be, rather than just asking for donations.
So what happens to cookies that are not sold? Most often we are required to sell them, but if for some reason we find them impossible to move they go back to headquarters (complete with shipping and the carbon footprint that leave). Then some are donated to homeless shelters, some are sold at a discount to bakeries, and ice cream companies who use them in their recipies. However when Girl Guides resort to any of those measure we take a hit, and we lose money.
I love the program, I grew up involved in all levels of guiding, and I have met so many wonderful women and girls. I believe strongly in our ideals of environmentalism, leadership amonst young women, and sisterhood. Girl Guide cookies are not sold year-round, but on occasions when they are in season I hope some people will consider supporting the Girl Guides and Girl Scouts with the purchase of cookies. When they're out of season I'm all for lower cost alternatives. 🙂
but if they don't taste as good, why bother buying them? why don't the girl guides change bakeries and maybe more people would buy the cookies.
I ran a Girl scout troop for three years back in about the year 1999. We never had any quota we were required to sell. Matter of fact I had a little jewish girl in my troop that refused to sell the cookies. It was something about her religion or at least that is what she and the mom told me.
Anyways....she did not sell, but she did reap the rewards of our troop because that is how I roll. I would never exclude a girl from the troop activities for that reason. That would be mean.
I suggest just trying to sell what you can sell and the parents will just have to step up and pay for anything the cookie money does not pay for. It is as simple as that!!
There are no quotas to fill for my daughter's troop. They take orders, the orders are then filled and delivered. Not sure what Girl Guides are, but they must have a different system than Girl Scouts.
Girl Guides are basically the Scouting movement here in Canada. WAGGGS, the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, basically umbrellas Girl Scouts and Guides worldwide.
I should note that our cookies here in Canada, while we do have thin mints, are different than those sold in the States. And we don't have most of the varieties you have, just thin mints in the fall and vanilla/chocolate combination packs in the spring. So it is possible yours taste truly horrible, in which case I'd recommend letting the American Girl Scouts organization know you aren't buying cookies because of the taste. If enough people complain I'm sure they'd review the recipe.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that Girl Guide/Scout Cookies are not about the cookies. It's about supporting the girls, and the cookies are just a bonus. Our cookie program is also set up to teach certain ideals, which are Business (marketing, initiative, project planning), Financial (handling money, goal setting, customer base), Guiding (being a good citizen, public relations), and Social (creativity, safety, teamwork, conflict resolution, and leadership).
I believe the cookie program benefits girls, and I believe strongly in supporting girls through cookie sells. We don't ask parents to pay any money for our troop activities. This way parents who are in a difficult financial situation are free to enroll their girls in Guiding. There is an enrollment fee, but we offer a financial assistance program for that fee which I've never seen a family fail to qualify for. Furthermore the money used to purchase cookies is not being spent on sleepovers and parties. We plant trees, maintain a community gardens, sing to residents in hospitals and retirement homes, collect for animal shelters, and prepare meals for food distribution programs.
To me it's not a question of cost. Well, not entirely. I don't like the taste of Girl Scout cookies, and I don't like the ingredients. If I like the product I will buy the product. If want to support a charity I will give that charity money. I see no reason to mix up the two.
I made crescent rolls last year. It takes a few days so there is some planning involved but it wasn't difficult at all. I used a Cooks Illustrated recipe and they were really yummy.
Oh, FG!! I am so disappointed -- "Thin mints NOT an essential?" -- I don't know if I can keep reading this blog!!! 🙂
So wish we had an Aldi's!
I just wanted to let you and your readers know about my best friend's upcoming show: The Ambush Cook. It premieres on December 3 at noon on OWN (not exactly a frugal channel to get, unfortunately). But her show is fabulous (I got to watch the taping of several episodes)--all about getting people into their kitchens and cooking their own food instead of wasting money (and calories, etc) on eating out or buying frozen dinners and take out. Lots of awesome recipes and great tips for beginner and expert cooks alike. Check out the trailer at http://www.oprah.com/own/Official-Trailer-The-Ambush-Cook
"In face, we ate them side by side with a real Girl Scout Thin Mint cookie"
you might want to change that face to FACT
Thank you! I fixed it. 🙂
In my haste, I skimmed this post. I read only part of the sentence, but I rather like the trick my brain played on me: "In fact, we ate them side by side with a real Girl Scout". I'm LOL at the image of cannibalism over at La Casa FG.
I'm pretty sure any cookie would taste better than a Girl Scout. Hee.
I am glad to see the positive feedback for Aldi's. I switched to shopping there a couple years ago and still get a lot of negative feedback from those in my social circle about shopping there. Yes, there are some things I will not purchase there due to bad experiences, but that can happen anywhere! And the amount of money I save by shopping there is unbelievable.