Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | Christmas Week!
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.
This is my off-week for grocery shopping, and I have to say, it is quite delightful to have a week without the usual shopping trip. I'm pretty sure this every other week plan is saving me a significant amount of time, so yay!
I think I might go a little longer than two weeks between shopping trips this time though, because I'm due to go shopping again on Christmas Eve day. I know the grocery stores and just stores in general are going to be craaaazy that day, so I'm going to try to put off shopping until after Christmas.
Did I tell you that it snowed here? It's somewhat unusual for us to get snow before Christmas, but it happened this year and last year (though last year we got a much bigger storm in December).
We didn't get a lot of snow...just enough to make things look kind of Christmas-y. And since it's been so stinking cold here this month, I wouldn't be surprised if this snow is still around on Christmas Day.
Anyway, here's what we're eating this holiday week.
Saturday
- Pizza! Not sure what kind yet, though.
Sunday
- Buttermilk Waffles
- local sausage
- OJ
Monday
- We'll be at my parents' house celebrating Christmas with my side of the family. This will come as a great shock, I know, but I am bringing rolls. I'm thinking of going with Honey-Glazed Pan Rolls.
Tuesday
- Tortellini Chicken Salad
- Pull-Apart Garlic Bread
Wednesday
- Fajitas with peppers and onions
- fruit salad
Thursday
- Broiled Tilapia Fillets
- Potato Fans (a new Cook's recipe I'm trying)
- whatever veggies need to be used by then
Friday
- We'll be celebrating Christmas with my in-laws. I know I'm bringing French Bread, and maybe some other things too. We just haven't ironed out the details.
Since this coming week is so holiday-filled, we'll take a break from Food Waste Friday and the usual Saturday grocery post (I likely won't have shopped by then anyways!). Most of you will be busy celebrating with family anyways, not reading my blog, so it'll probably be sort of quiet around here next weekend except for some picture posts.
But hopefully I'll manage to get the usual stuff up during the week for those of you who are not too busy with Christmas prep to read my blog!
Today's 365 post: Bundled Up
Yes, we got snow too. It does look Christmas-y! Do you have a good recipe for Fajitas? I noticed you were having them this week, and I would love a simple easy recipe for this one!
Have a wonderful holiday...sounds like some great celebrations! :)!
I do! I use Cook's Illustrated's recipe, and we love it. I haven't posted it here before, though.
I sit here with 12 lbs of butter, sugar and flour ready to bake for everyone when what I really want to do is ski! Oh Christmas time.
Last year we were on our way to Florida to celebrate and got stuck in that crazy snowstorm that hit the east coast. It was sooo funny seeing North Carolinians shoveling with their dust pans! I had never seen so many tractor trailers in the ditch, and people just didn't know how to drive... All the Ontario and Quebcec plates just kept going slow and steady.
Have a great Christmas time
I say, if you want to ski, then ski! Worse comes to worse you can always just buy some nice cookies or biscotti 🙂
I am originally from Pennsylvania but now live in North Carolina. Snow shovels are an oddity here.
I have been teaching a children's Sunday School class on discipline. This past week we studied "Discipline of Duty", using a story about a train ride to City-on-Life. Well, last week our story took the train into a tunnel on a mountaintop. The train got "snowed in". Our activity for the day was to "dig out", using various shovels I brought. We went outside and dug in the sand.
One of the shovels was a snow shovel. Only two in the class even knew what it was.
This is completely off topic, but I thought you might be interested to know that in Bethlehem, PA this year they will be "dropping" a large Peep for their New Year's Eve Countdown 🙂 I heard it on NPR...you wouldn't believe the things that get dropped!
Oh, how fun! I'll let my kids know. 🙂
I just did massive grocery shopping on Wednesday, and stocked up on everything I need. The goal is to not set foot in the grocery store until well after Christmas. I will gladly pay the extra few dollars on my power bill to have my extra fridge in the garage. Hooray for buy milk 5 gallons at a time! It is glorious to have an extra fridge to store extra milk, produce, cheese, and butter. It more than makes up the cost to not have to run to the grocery store constantly (I am a sucker for compulsively stock up on sales items if I go to the store to often. :D).
If only I had a garage.....
It is awfully hard to fit more than one or two gallons of milk in a single fridge, so we always have to make a milk run on my off-weeks of shopping.
Would you mind sharing how you make your grocery lists at some point? I love seeing how different people write them.
Sure...I'll try to remember to do that after Christmas. Feel free to remind me if it seems like I've forgotten!
Good work. It is best to not go to the store too much right now if you can avoid it. It was a mad house. They messed up everything for me. I got so mad but, I kept my cool.
Fantastic post! I found you through Jo at simplybeingmum.wordpress.com, who participates in No Waste Friday. She and you have inspired me to clean out my fridge, waste not, and as a result (within one week, mind you), my family is:
-eating and behaving better at the table (We have a four-year-old and 19-month-old.)
-eating healthier because meals are planned (easier to make them complete, nutritionally speaking)
-enjoying creative meals (and I am not terribly original in the kitchen)
Kristen, I appreciate that you don't shy away from the Christianity bit. I write about minimalism, and I think that I've lost some readers by mentioning God and church in the context of our family life. But it's how we live (quite imperfectly, of course), and I strive to be truthful.
So the long and short of it is: Thank you for the inspiration.
Oh, that's lovely to hear. I'm very impressed that you've managed to do all that in a single week!
And yes, don't ever feel like you have to keep your faith under wraps when you blog. Don't be ashamed of the gospel, sister! 🙂 I think that you'll find that as long as you share your faith with gentleness, respect, and humility, most people will respond positively.
Just wanted to pop by and wish you a lovely Christmas. I did my last shop last Saturday and it will take us through until 28th December. I won't be doing Food Waste Friday this week, as am busy prepping for Christmas day. We have loads of snow in the UK and I love it! Have fun - Jo
been reading your blog for a while now. had a question about your meal plans ... is that just dinner for the week you're posting? do you eat the same things for lunch and dinner?
i'd like also to know what most of your breakfasts and lunches are like, and why most people who post menu plans only post (seemingly) dinner ....
thanks in advance! love your blog.
karen 🙂
I am a stickler for meal planning as well! I find that I spend less when I am able to plan around ingredients that I already have in the house and my family likes to be able to select a meal from the list for dinner that night. It just seems to make everything so much easier!