Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | It’s an off-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.

The shopping every two weeks thing is still going, and it’s working out quite nicely. I’m definitely saving time this way, and we haven’t been running out of food before the two weeks are up. 😉

On the off-weeks, I do still end up needing to stop somewhere for milk and some produce, but that’s pretty quick and easy, especially because I usually do it when I’m out by myself. Or I send Mr. FG, which works out nicely because he is uber-skilled at sticking to a list (better than me, actually!).

I spent $11.42 when I stopped at Aldi this week, and I did buy something on impulse. It was a container of sour pumpkin candy that my kids had been eying for a while. It was marked down to $.50, though, so it wasn’t a disastrous impulse buy. 😉

In addition to picking up milk and produce, I also stopped at the local farm (where I get my bulk beef) to buy 3 pounds of pork sausage. The sausage was $4.50/pound, so I spent $12.75.

Since I only spent $100.01 last week when I did my two-week shopping trip, I’m super under budget. In fact, my two-week total is only $124.18. Yay!

I’m due for a Costco visit, so I think I’ll use my extra grocery money to buy some honey, nuts, and yeast there.

Breakfasts will be cereal, oatmeal, toast, yogurt, fruit, and muffins (not all on the same day!). Lunches will be leftovers, bread, yogurt, cheese, and fruit. Nothing out of the ordinary.

And here’s what we’ll be eating for dinner.

Saturday

• Pizza. I’m not sure what kind yet, though!

Sunday

• French Toast
• Sausage from the farm
• OJ

Monday

• Beef Au Jus sandwiches, made with local beef (I cooked twice as much as we needed last time, so the meat and broth are in the freezer. Yay!)
• green salad

Tuesday

• Shrimp and Dirty Rice
• green beans

Wednesday

• Chicken Quesadillas
• grapefruit halves

Thursday

• Creamy Tomato Tortellini Soup
• Whole Wheat Rolls
• green salad

Friday

• Eat-in date night for Mr. FG and me, and something easy for the kids

I’ve got a picture-filled post that I’ll publish tomorrow (for real! Not like when I promised photos of Annalise and then flaked out. Ahem.), so do stop back then.

Today’s 365 post: Daddy’s Lap