Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | For real this time!
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.
I visited Weis and Aldi this week, and I actually took a photo of my groceries for the first time in a really long while!
(you old-timers will be interested in knowing that the spider that started this whole stuffed animal thing is in the picture today!)
I spent $36.62 at Aldi and $53.50 at Weis, for a total of $90.12. I plan to stop by the produce stand today for some vegetables, so I've got almost $10 left to spend there. Also, we're eating some free local food...I'm still getting tomatoes from my backyard plants, and my mom gave me a big bag of winter squash.
Here's what we're eating for dinner this week.
Saturday
- Pizza. I had plans to make Deep Dish Pizza but with the way my day is stacking up, I think I might delegate the pizza making to a pizza shop down the road.
Sunday (We're having several families from church over, so no breakfast for dinner this week!)
- Tortellini Soup (which I'm making)
- Salad (one friend is bringing this)
- Bread (another friend is bringing this)
Monday
- Sloppy Joes on homemade buns
- steamed broccoli
Tuesday
- Ravioli and Shrimp in Pink Sauce
- French bread
- green salad
Wednesday
- Corn Chowder
- Two-Tone Bread
- green beans
Thursday
- Baked Chicken and Rice
- green salad
- some kind of rolls, maybe
Friday
- Deep Dish Pizza
- green salad
Today's 365 post: Oh look! I'm baking cookies.
Is there a season where there ISN'T Peeps nowadays? I spied the orange marshmallow-y treats in your pile!
I don't think so! lol They're out at Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter now.
Oooh, and don't forget the star- shaped ones onJuly 4th!!!
Kristen, Do you get the frozen ravioli at Aldi? I think I'll be trying that recipe someday soon, looks easy and delicious.
My goodness! I never even thought of looking for it there, probably because I don't buy a lot of frozen food there. lol I got it on sale at Weis.
Let me know if you find any at Aldi. I tried some dried tortellini there that was horrible (it never got soft), but maybe their frozen tortellini is better.
The frozen ravioli at Aldi is amazing. We used to get it all the time before I started making my own...and it's every bit as good if not better than store brands elsewhere.
It looks like the peeps have already been munched upon!
Something *is* wrong with that pkg of peeps, that's for sure.
Weis was displaying the packages vertically, and in some packages the first row of Peeps fell down to the bottom of the package.
I know stuff like that sometimes gets thrown away at the grocery store, so I purposely bought that package. lol
(could I have said "package" any more times in one comment???)
What? Someone else is bringing bread over to your house? That is amazing.
Hee. Well, as it happens, we switched it up. Now my friend is bringing dessert and I'm doing bread.
What are you going to do with the squash?
I'll bake it and use some in muffins/breads, and we'll also eat some with butter and brown sugar as a side dish.
ohhh-I would love your corn chowder recipe!! I tried the aldi tortellini too--it WAS awful!
Well, it's a new recipe from Cook's, so I'll share it if it's good! lol
Kristen, I see your grapes. Our store (Wegmans) has started stocking organic grapes in a package like this, and they are NOTICEABLY cheaper than organic grapes I have found anywhere else. At our store, the 2.5 lb box like this costs about the same as the per-pound price elsewhere (or less!), AND you know how much you are getting instead of getting just having to guess how much is in the bag or measure it and on and on.
I am torn because they're so much cheaper and the packaging tends not to be a sticky mess like the standard holey plastic bag, but I have 2 concerns: 1) the clamshells are not recyclable (I was washing the bags and putting them in the plastic bag recycling at the storefront) nor very good for reuse, and 2) how can they be SO MUCH cheaper?
Any thoughts? Have you found a similar situation with the price? Maybe they are cheaper b/c the packaging protects the product better.
In my area, the clamshells are recyclable, so this is not an issue for me! In fact, it's easier to recycle clamshells than plastic bags here.
I wonder why the organic grapes are so cheap...usually they're very expensive here.