Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | It's been a while.
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.
Due to one thing or another, I haven't done one of these posts in a bit!
I visited Weis and Aldi this week. I felt uninspired when I came home, so I snapped a picture of my groceries still in the bags.
But then I thought that a picture of soda, Doritos, milk, and white flour would make you guys worried for our health, so I took this picture too.
There really was some not-bad-for-us food in those bags.
I also plan to stop by a local orchard for a half bushel of peaches this week, and I'll get some more produce from my parents' garden as well.
The soda and Doritos were for Joshua's birthday dinner, a meal chosen by him and almost entirely bereft of any nutritional value (Deep Dish Pizza, Doritos, Jello, and soda, with cake and ice cream for dessert).
Birthdays come but once a year, I say, and there are other nights to eat salad.
I spent $70.61 at Weis and I would tell you how much I spent at Aldi, but my receipt seems to have sprouted wings and flown away. I know it was around $60, though, so I've got some wiggle room for buying peaches.
Breakfasts this week are nothing unusual...the options are toast, yogurt, fruit, granola, cereal, and eggs.
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.
Here's what we're eating for dinner this week.
Saturday
- Since we had Joshua's birthday dinner last night, we're having our takeout date night tonight
Sunday
- We're celebrating Mr. FG's grandma's 90th birthday, and I think all I have to bring is a dessert.
Monday
- Shrimp Burgers
- Spinach Salad
Tuesday
- Ranch Cheddar Chicken (a new recipe)
- fruit salad
- probably some kind of bread...haven't decided yet
Wednesday
- Beef au Jus Sandwiches
- green beans
Thursday
- Grilled Chicken Sandwiches
- whatever produce needs using by then
Friday
- Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kids
I hope you have a lovely Saturday.
If I carve out some time today amidst birthday weekend festivities (Joshua's friend Thomas is still here and we have several birthday activities planned), I want to write a special post for tomorrow, so do stop back in. Hopefully there will be something here! 🙂
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Today's 365 post: It was a Boston Cream Pie
Joshua's 365 post: Joshua doesn't have one up for today yet, but you probably haven't seen his post from yesterday yet.
Woohoo! Ok, I know it's weird, but these are some of my favorite posts. I also noticed in Joshua's 365 picture today that you store your peaches in a box from the Aldi salsa - way to recycle! (Maybe part of the reason these are some of my favorite posts is because I like to recognize the Aldi foods.)
Thanks so much. You've just reminded me to get my planning done.
Yes, call me CRAZY but this is usually my favorite post too. Not to say that all the other ones are any less important. I just like seeing what you guys are eating!!!
I am really trying to cut down my food waste here. It is the most silly thing to expend the energy and time to get the food, make the food, and then throw away the food or forget to use the food, or the food went bad, because I did not even remember the food. There are people dying of hunger and for me to throw out precious food just makes me ILL. Okay, enough ranting for now!!!. Enjoy the weekend!
Hi Kristen!
I love these posts, too, and I'm always excited a about the recipes you share. Thank you!
I have 2 questions...first is about the shrimp burgers. They look amazing, but mayo doesn't agree with one of our household. Is there something else I could use?
Second question...I am just starting to eat fish. I tried cooking it once, and it was, uh, well, a disaster, (that's a nice way of putting it! lol). I like really mild fish, and the only one I've been eating at home is a parmesean breaded talapia from Sam's- tasty for sure, but not as healthy and probably not very frugal. Help! How do you buy fish, and how can a newbie cook it without food waste disasters?????
Thank you for your help!!
Oh, and P. S. - I learned the most wonderful thing about food waste! When we started tithing I noticed the Lord has helped me sooooo much by reminding me what's in my fridge to use up!!! Who would-a thunk it???!!!! Yay!
Hi Kristen,
I'm not sure if you shared this before but can you tell us about some of the products you like to buy at Aldi. We have an Aldi in our town and I'm hesitant to try shopping there because I don't want to "waste" money on something that may or may not be good. I would like to make the switch from name brand to save.
Thanks!
What do you typically pay for peaches straight from the tree?
For Jan (above me), we usually buy frozen plain tilapia either from our local grocery (Kroger) or Sams's/Costco. I think if you could find it plain (esp at the wholesale store), the price would actually be quite fair. Red snapper is also a mild fish, but usually costs more than tilapia. We usually just back or sautee with a little extra virgin olive oil and a little seasoning (few sprigs of rosemary or a little lemon pepper or soem basil....just whatever we have around).
I'm so jealous of your low food bills!! If only...
Jan - I don't know if it would work in the shrimp burgers, but we use ranch dressing in chicken/tuna salads because my kids don't care for the mayo. They never notice it in the shrimp burgers though 🙂
Aww..he is an awesome brother!! The pictures are so so sweet!!! Happy Birthday, Josh:)
As a fanatical meal planner and budgeter myself I love these posts. I love looking at the food all bagged up! Strange! Anyhow... I have just changed my shopping method, I was online shopping and sticking to £100, over the last couple of months (since getting great reader feedback on my cooking from scratch experiment) I decided to look at doing a physical shop, and have now got my weekly spend down to £75 and this week £50! WooHoo! I have to shop in 4 separate shops to do this but luckily they happen to be all in the same area in the town I now shop in. I do Home Bargains, then the freezer shop, then the market for the produce and finally the butchers.
Wendy and Jessica,
Thank you for your advice! There's hope, yet. 🙂 I'll give these ideas a try.
How does everyone know when the fish is done? I either cook it too long or not enough. I have yet to get it just right - thus part of my frustration.
Thanks again!
So I'm very interested in keeping my budget low for groceries, so this topic is exciting to me. But I'm afraid I'm not seeing the math. The title section has $100 as your weekly budget for food et al. But you spent, $70 at Weis and around $60 at Aldis. That equals $130, so where is the peaches wiggle room coming from? Have you adjusted your budget to $150 a week and not updated your tag line? Not trying to bust your chops, just trying to keep up and learn. I'm feeding 3 adults and have only managed to get our budget down to the $175-$200 range so far, so I'm interested in any tips I can pick up.
Thanks! Love the blog!
Susan
Oh, no, I'm shopping every two weeks now! So when I go shopping, I've got twice the budget to work with. 🙂