Grocery Spending and Menu Plan | Warm Day Edition
The groceries are a little lacking in stuffed animals this week.
That's because it was a lovely, warm day when we went shopping (50 degrees!), and my kids were out enjoying the weather instead of putting stuffed animals on the groceries.
Of course, Zoe had a sea creature with her.
(the kids have named this whale "AnneMarine"...you know, sort of like AnneMarie. Except not quite.)
Sonia was out there too, of course (and she does still have hands. hee-hee.)
She was just busy chucking bouncy balls out into the grass and then running to pick them up. 😉
I'll leave her and her mismatched outfit up (which I love!) there on the side while we talk about grocery spending. Let's see...if you remember from last week, I was working with a limited budget ($77.23) this week, so I tried to plan a menu that required minimal spending.
I spent:
-$42.50 at Weis
-$34.15 at Aldi
And that makes for a total of $76.55, which is just under my $77.23 budget. Phew.
Next week it's a new month, and a new budget...yay! I'm hoping to actually have some money left in my envelope at the end of next month.
Breakfast this week will be a combination of toast, oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, pancakes, and cereal. Lunch, as usual, is yogurt, yogurt smoothies, fruit, sandwiches, and leftovers as necessary.
And, here's what we're eating for dinner.
Saturday-We're having a date night (woot!). My dear brother and sister-in-law gave us a restaurant gift card for Christmas with the attached gift of free babysitting (double woot!). I am e x c i t e d, both for the food and the company. 🙂
Sunday
Monday
- Chicken Tacos
- fruit salad
Tuesday
- Shrimp Taco Salad
- garlic bread, made with French bread from the freezer
Wednesday
- Swiss Mushroom Chicken
- Herbed Wheat Rolls (a new recipe)
- for a side dish, I'll use up whatever veggies happen to still be around
Thursday
- Tomato Tortellini Soup (a new recipe)
- Garlic Breadsticks
- green salad
Friday
- Chicken with Parmesan Risotto
- green beans
Have a lovely date night 🙂
Congrats at coming in under budget! 🙂 BTW, I love your blog!
Sounds like a great evening planned, have fun!!!
Love the pics of the kids playing outside 🙂
Yay for you! Made it under budget. Enjoy your evening out; all couples need that once-in-a-while.
Always enjoy your menus. I can usually find inspiration here. If that tortellini soup recipe turns out good, hope you share it.
Ref the soup - yes please do share in a future post! I am inspired! Since taking on your top tips for bread making I am now able to produce a fabulous crusty loaf! Hubby and kids impressed (well kids less so...) - fantastic... 15 mins kneading a day... cals burned... muscles worked... and my kids are learning bread doesn't magic itself into a plastic bag and appear on a supermarket shelf (I love taking it from the airing cupboard and showing them how it doubles in size). Thanks Kristen! Have a great date!
Did you know, you can make your own brown sugar and it's way healthier than what you buy in the store? Martha Stewart has the recipe. You put your regular cane sugar in a food processor and depending on how light or dark you want your brown sugar, add a few tablespoons of molasses and give it a whirl. I haven't bought store brand brown sugars ever since I made my first batch. I use it in all my baking, oatmeal dishes etc. etc. Molasses is very good for you! I store my home made brown sugar in a re-cycled glass jam jar and keep it in the cabinet.
Give it a try!
It's not healthier - that's the same way that manufacturers make it - but it's more convenient for a lot of people. A friend of mine used 2T per cup sugar for light brown, 4 T. for dark.
I was thinking the same thing...brown sugar is just molasses and sugar, whether you make it at home or at the store.
You're right, though, that for people who don't use a lot of brown sugar, it's more convenient to make it in small batches at home. We use brown sugar in our oatmeal, which we eat very regularly, so going through a bag of it is no problem at all!
Have a great date! What a thoughtful gift. Definitely one to add to the "experiential, Compact-y" list!
Love the blog and the cute pics of the kids!
We got some mild 40's weather here in NY, but we also got miserable rain with the mild weather. Back to 15 degrees now!
34 degrees and rainy here today. This has been the rainiest year ever! Global Warming at work, I'm afraid...
Well done on coming in under budget. It's not easy is it?
Impressive that you were able to stock up on flour using only your usual monthly budget. You should be proud of yourself ... so should your family.
I love the punny name for Zoe's animal. What is it with little kids wanting to carry around all their blankets and stuffed animals?