Grocery Spending and Menu
If you recall from last week's grocery report, I was a bit over budget. Ahem. So much so that I figured I needed to average about $84 for the next three shopping trips in order to stay on budget. How did I do?
I spent $54.44 at Aldi and $32.72 at Weis. That adds up to $87.16! I'm pretty pleased with that, as it's really close to the $84 goal I was shooting for.
I have about $165 left for my next two shopping trips, which means I should try to keep my bill at $83 each time I shop. Hopefully I can manage that. And in November, I am determined not to get behind right away like I did this month.
These are the eats at our place for the coming week:
Breakfast-I'm going to try hard to avoid cereal for the most part for the kids and myself (my husband leaves really early for work and usually just has time for a bowl of cereal.). Anyways, the kids and I will be eating things like oatmeal, pancakes, muffins, scrambled eggs, toast, and of course Lisey will be eating sweet potatoes (she puts butter and a bit of brown sugar on top of them, which makes them sort of breakfast-y, I suppose!).
Lunch-leftovers for my husband, and the kids and I will eat bread, yogurt, yogurt and fruit smoothies, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, and leftovers if necessary (not all at the same time!).
Dinners will be as follows.
Saturday
- Thin Crust Pizza
- green salad
Sunday
- French Toast
- Fried Mush
- OJ
Monday
- Quick Crispy Chicken Breasts
- cheese biscuits
- orange slices
Tuesday
- Shrimp and Ravioli in pink sauce
- french bread
- steamed green beans
Wednesday
- Tandoori Chicken
- Two-tone bread
- green salad
Thursday
- Beef Au Jus sandwiches on homemade french bread (I'll make extra on Tuesday)
- steamed green beans
Friday
- Chicken with Parmesan Risotto
- pull-apart garlic bread
- grapefruit halves
Kristen - totally unrelated question. I've been wondering what time you start your day. I'm on the east coast (Massachusetts) and I tend to check your blog daily at work (shhh!) in the morning (around 8am) and have noticed that your post is already up for the day! Of course today is Saturday, so I've slept in a bit, but your grocery shopping is already done! And if you're in another time zone in the U.S., you're doing all this even earlier!
Hi there, I was wondering if you've ever posted your recipe for your pull-apart garlic bread?
I'm interested! Thanks.
Erika, I currently start my day at 4:45 EST. Yawn. My husband is working a very early schedule right now, and regardless of the schedule he's on, I usually try to adjust my routine to match his. So, I go to bed at 8:30 pm with him, and get up at 4:45 am.
And his work week right now goes Tuesday-Saturday, so I'm up early on Saturdays. Monday mornings we sleep in, so that's why my Monday posts have been a little bit late to arrive. lol
I actually go grocery shopping on Thursdays. I take the picture of my groceries then and just post it on Saturday. I never manage to get to the grocery store before 8 am! In fact, I don't think Aldi even opens before then.
This coming week, I'll be publishing a post that chronicles my activities for a day, so that might give you a better idea of my routine.
Stacey, I was just thinking about that this morning! I know I took pictures when I made it one day, but I don't think I ever got around to posting it. I'll take new pictures when I make it this week and get it ready for a future Wednesday Baking post.
Kristen, I have noticed in your grocery picture there are always stuffed animals and/or toys are they part of your grocery budget for the week or are they just artistic interest for the picture?
Anne, my son threw a stuffed spider into the picture one week as a joke, and my readers enjoyed it so much, he kept adding stuffed animals. So now the kids usually add in some sort of stuffed animal or toy each week. 😉
Zoe did most of the adding this week, as you can tell by the plethora of sea creatures (Zoe is obsessed with fish and other aquatic animals!).
Joshua lost the original stuffed spider there for a little while, but the spider reappeared this week, and he's in the photo somewhere.
Kristen, I'm always so heartened by your dedication to family and home. I'd love a return to real values in society and it is indeed sweet to see someone following simplicity, frugality and a love of home and family. I always enjoy your posts!
That is an insane amount of food for that price!! In Canada, the milk alone would have cost $18 or more!!
I'm very impressed.... your menu looks great!
I'm so jealous!!! 🙂 How in the world do you feed a family on only $90/week. That is awesome! I'll be checking out your site, but any suggestions. I already shop Aldi's for staples and Weis for the meats and name brand stuff. Help 🙂
That is awesome that you line your day up with your hubby's! I do that too, it's so nice to see him before he leaves for the day.
What I really want to comment on though is your crust recipe, it's amazing! Hubby wonders why we ever "bought" pizza. Thank you so much!!! =)
I was wondering...how much did you pay for the little feet and legs? tee hee :o)
I would suggest making a batch or 2 of pancakes ahead of time and freeze them, and your husband can heat them in the toaster and eat them in the same time it takes to have that bowl of cereal, and it is less expensive.
I noticed that your daughter likes sweet potatoes for breakfast. We just found an awesome deal on sweet potatos and thought to pass on our recent find. Have you ever went to a local farm to get those? You can often find sweet potato seconds in bins seperate from the regularly priced produce. Just last weekend, we bought a 1/2 busshel of sweet potatoes seconds for $4.00. We also bought 1/2 busshel of tomato seconds for $2.00. The only thing I could find wrong with the "seconds" is that the potatos and tomatos were a little bigger than your average size. Okay, some of them were HUGE.
I made your thin crust pizza the other day and blogged about it. I made it with half applesauce and half oil. It turned out amazing. I made personal size pizzas for my husband and I because we didn't have any parchment paper in the house. I will be using this recipe again and again!! Thanks for posting it.
Hey, I just wanted to say that I found your blog and spent about an hour reading it without even realizing where the time was going. Kudos to you!