Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | It was a shopping week. And also, it's my birthday 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.
There I go again with the long titles.
Here's what I bought this week.
My fridge no longer looks as empty as it did in yesterday's post, that's for sure.
I spent $125.20 at Aldi and $83.93 at Weis. Plus, I spent $28.60 at the organic store earlier in the week.
Yikes.
That puts me at $237.73, which is $37.73 over budget. But, there are several good reasons for this. For one, I bought a ham for Easter dinner, I bought a whole pile of chocolate and candy for our Easter egg hunt, and I picked up some extra bags of flour (the 5 pound bags were on sale for $1.99, which isn't great but is better than $3). Without that extra stuff, I'd have been pretty much on budget.
I'm not worried about it, though...Easter only comes around once a year, and I've been under budget a number of times in the last couple of months. 🙂
What are we eating around these parts this week?
Breakfast is the usual. I don't feel like typing it out right now, so I won't. 😉
Lunches 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. Of course, we don't eat all of that every single day...it's just a list of the things we choose from for lunch each day. And Mr. FG eats leftovers for lunch pretty much every day.
O to dinner meals! I'll type those out because they're a little more interesting than breakfast meals.
Saturday
- We had pizza last night because we couldn't do takeout date night due to the Good Friday service. But no matter...we're just going to do it tonight instead. Yay! I do love me an occasional no-cooking day. In fact, a no-cooking day once a week works out very nicely. I highly recommend it if it's in your budget.
Sunday (my parents are coming over for dinner, and they're going to help us hide eggs for the kids)
- Ham
- Honey-Glazed Rolls (if you need roll ideas for Easter, check out my Roll Roundup post)
- green beans
- fruit salad
- a Lazy-Daisy cake, which my mom is bringing. She made it when my kids stayed at her house while we went to the wedding, and my children are quite in love with it.
Monday
- Sloppy Joes (made with happy local beef)
- fruit salad
- I think maybe we'll have some chips with that too.
Tuesday
- Clam Chowder (I know this is a weird time of year to make soup, but I have some clam juice and red potatoes that need using!)
- Whole Wheat Rolls
- green salad
Wednesday
- This day happens to be the anniversary of the day I was born. I haven't decided yet what we're eating, but I'm not cooking! Also, I might take the day off of blogging. Or I might just be lazy and post a bunch of pictures. You'll just have to wait and see.
Thursday
- Grilled Chicken Sandwiches
- fruit salad
Friday
- Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids (they usually root for popcorn, cheese, and fruit, and there is great rejoicing when I give in)
Have a lurvely Saturday!
Today's 365 post: Cheap Entertainment (I think I only have to take one more picture with Joshua's point and shoot, and then it's back to the SLR for me!)
Joshua's 365 post: Pollen Season
"Happy local beef" -- hee hee 🙂
Hope you have a great birthday, Kristen! Thanks for your wonderful blog. You have inspired me so many times!
It's my birthday week too. Happy Birthday to us! I echo Kristie's comment. Your blog is an absolute favorite. I appreciate your values and ideals and love of life. Thank you for making mine better!
Happy Birthday this week Kristen!!!! I am glad that you were born!!!! You have helped so many people!!!! Please share the recipe for your mother's Laisy Daisy Cake this week!!!! Pleaseeee!
Wishing you a joyous Easter and a very happy birthday.
Then I suppose Happy Birthday is in order!
My favorite thing about these posts are the stuffed animals mixed in with the groceries. 😀
And Happy (early) Birthday!
Glad to see the peeps are cruising about, ready for their holiday!
Seems like I used to make a cake called something like that--the recipe was on the oatmeal canister. Wonder if it's the same as what your mom makes.
Hope you have a great birthday week!
If your idea of laziness is posting a bunch of photos on your blog, I am a slug indeed! A lucky slug, but a slug all the same. Happy Birthday Week to you, Kristen.
Side note- One year a friend of my mom's gave all of her friends calendars for Christmas. In each one, she noted the date of her birth. Here's the twist: she fudged and spread her d.o.b. out over two weeks! If you're reading, Edie - here's to you, you smart cookie.
Remember my fifteen-month-younger-Costco Brother? I found a bunch of Max Lucado books for him at the library book sale last week. There was a little empty space in the box, so I stuffed it full with packages of Peeps! He loves them, particularly when they're a little on the stale side (for added crunch and spongier marshmallow yumminess). I then made the frugal choice to send the box via the slowest available option so he'll get new-to-him books and stale-ish Peeps at the same time.
Happy Birthday!!!!
happy b-day!
We're also transitioning to a healthier diet now, and starting to buy local 🙂 My grocery budget is also $100 a week, for our family of five, and also includes non-food stuff. It's definitely a challenge to fit it all in, but I'm so happy when I can buy local grass fed beef, and pastured eggs-better for us, the animals, and I'm helping support other families in our community!
Have a great birthday week!
First time posting here, but long-time reader/lurker. Your blog is fantastic and gives me so many great ideas/inspirations in helping to live within a budget!
Happy Birthday! The 27th just happens the be the anniversary of my birth as well! Always cool to meet fellow birthday twins! Hope it's a great day for you! 🙂
I just looked up Lazy Daisy cake and will have to make it this week... 😀 I love coconut.
p.s. and happy b-day!
Hope you'll post a picture and the recipe for the Lazy-Daisy cake, even if your mom made it and you don't have the detailed pics of the assembly of it!
Happy Easter! Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!
I have noticed that you tend to buy flour in 5# bags. I never do as a 22# bag (we're metric so it is a 10kg bag that is slightly larger than the old 20#) works out to be much cheaper per pound. Last week the 22# were on for $6.98 which is not a great special and the close-to-5# size was $3.48. Are 20# bags hard to find in the US, or is the price per pound fairly equal no matter what size you buy? I'm just curious. And Happy Birthday!
i am happy to wish you a happy birthday but more than that i wanted to thank you for living up to the Christian ideals by not blogging on Sunday. it seems often our society just seems to see Sunday as another day and i respect your decision not to post.
many happy returns!
I've been following your blog for a few months now and I love all of the recipes and tips. Most of which even apply to a single woman just out of college. I also wanted to say Happy Birthday (mine also happens to be April 27th). I hope you have a great birthday!