Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | My first 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.
(first, I want to remind you that my $100 Similasan Visa gift card giveaway is still open, so hop on over to enter by leaving a comment on that post!)
Last week, I planned two week's worth of menus and shopped accordingly, so this week is my off-week from shopping.
I made a quick run to the store last night for milk a few other things and spent $9.57, which is perfect because I had $11 leftover in my budget. I didn't bother to get my camera out, though, so you'll have to wait until next week for a grocery photo.
This post looked so sad without a picture, I had to add one. I showed you Lisey's pumpkin before, and this is her working hard on carving it. I love the tongue. 😉
Breakfast and lunches will be the usual, and here's what we'll be eating for dinner:
Saturday
- Pizza, probably thin crust
Sunday
- Buttermilk Waffles
- OJ
- fried eggs
Monday
- Clam Chowder in bread bowls
- green salad
Tuesday
- Chicken Pizzaiola (a new recipe from Cook's)
- garlic bread
- grapefruit haves
Wednesday
- Meatball Subs
- green salad
Thursday
- White Chicken Chili (also a new recipe from Cook's)
- corn muffins
- green beans
Friday
- Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, leftovers or something easy for the kiddos
I don't usually post on Sundays, but there will be something up here tomorrow, so do check back. 🙂
Today's 365 post: How exactly do you lose an umbrella?
Love it!! My Mum says she can't think properly without her tongue sticking out - there is not enough room in her head for her concentration AND her tongue so something has to go! I love the finished pumpkin too!
Very "kid from Charlie Brown" -ish!!! 🙂
Please dont tell me you make your own bread bowls too?
Hey Kristen, could you tell us *how* you make bread baskets?
Lisa, I do. Don't hate me! lol
Franci, I use my French bread dough to make the bowls. I haven't quite got the method down to a science, but I just make the dough into rounds that look about the right size.
It would be awesome if you could teach us sometime. I've tried two recipes for bread bowls and both have not worked for me. Both were sourdough recipes which I had never attempted until the bread bowls. It was frustrating, all the waiting and no success. French bread sounds fantastic for a bread bowl!
This weeks grocery ad had me GIDDY! SO many good deals! I would have managed to stay underbudget too, but they had GM unbleached flour on sale for $1.48/bag. It's so rare to find unbleached flour for cheaper than $2+ per bag that I bought 20 bag (100 lbs)! Which caused me to go over budget by $18-ish.
i'm going to assume that you liked only needing to do a quick/short trip to the grocery store this week. this is my off week for grocery shopping too; i'm going to become one with a paint brushthis morning instead.
p.s. your menu sounds really good.
I did...it was hard to tell this week because on both Thursday and Friday mornings (the two mornings I choose from for grocery shopping), I had unusual stuff come up that sort of used up that time. So, I didn't REALLY get to savor skipping the trip yet. lol
It's a scientific fact that if you close one eye and stick out your tongue you can concentrate much better.
Probably because all your brain power is directed toward that one eye. 😉
I spent the lion's share of this week's grocery budget on a fabulous baking supply sale at the local grocery store. I replenished my dwindling supply of brown sugar, sugar, flour, and shortening. Even got a great deal on cherry pie filling (now I can surprise my Dear Hubby with a cherry pie on Thanksgiving!). All be cooking out of my pantry and freezer this week. Let us know how the Chicken Pizzaiola turns out; it sounds very yummy! Great menu ideas!
Is Cook's the magazine Cook's Illustrated? Or a cookbook by that name? Just wondering what your source is as it sounds like it has a lot of good ideas...
Yep, Cook's Illustrated, except that I sub to the site instead of to the print magazine. These two recipes are coming from a CI cookbook I got from the library...yay for free!
If those new recipes you're going to try are good, will you please share them with us? 🙂
Definitely! When I try a new one and you don't see it here, it's usually because it wasn't as good as I'd hoped. =P
Great job. I am trying to do that too. The Dollar stores help with that, coupons, rebates and ect. Some of the Dollar stores have fresh produce too. Generics are so helpful and using coupons along with sales prices.
OMG, the White Chicken Chili is fantastic! ...I need to make it again.