Grocery Spending/Menu Plan | Oh, how I procrastinate!
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 don't procrastinate in every area of my life, but when it comes to running errands and going grocery shopping, I do indeed. I'd be happy to just stay right here at home and never go shopping again if it were possible.
Alas, it is not. And so I am going to go grocery shopping today...I cannot put it off for even one more day.
So, I have no grocery spending to report as of yet. I do have a menu planned, though.
Saturday
- Thin Crust pizza (topped with mushrooms and bacon)
- green salad
Sunday
- We're having a multiple birthday celebration with my Mr. FG's family (there are 4 February birthdays within a space of 10 days). I'm making cheesecakes (I'm thinking of making a chocolate one and a traditional one)
Monday
- Clam Chowder
- french bread
- green salad
Tuesday
- Salmon with Creamy Dill Sauce
- English Muffin bread
- green beans
Wednesday (Sonia's birthday! So she chose the meal)
- Stuffed Shells (I just use the recipe on the back of the box)
- jello
- lemonade
- some kind of bread...still waiting to hear what she wants
Thursday
- Chili Verde (a new recipe my sister recommended)
- sliced peaches
- green salad
Friday
- Takeout date night for Mr. FG and me, something easy for the kiddos
And now I'm off to tackle my enormous to-do list for the day...make pizza dough, go to Michael's, Aldi, Weis, and the bank, come home, make lunch, make communion bread, make cheesecakes, make yogurt, put sheets back on my bed, wrap presents, bake pizza, clean up dinner, put children in bed, watch a bottled water documentary with Mr. FG (that's more fun than to-do) and go to bed!
(I did already clean my bathroom, which is good because there was pink mold growing in my shower. Ewww.)
I dearly hope that next week is a little calmer than this week. I think I've had something extra going on every single day, and all those extra things start to add up after a while.
Today's 365 post: This is why I take my camera everywhere
I procrastinate with those errands too, though I do love to food shop!
I'm thinking that shopping every 2 weeks like you do would be an excellent time saver but I'm not sure how I would do it.
Do you have more than one freezer to accommodate all your food?
I am a procrastinator as well, so I try to do as much shopping in the same store as possible. The bottled water documentary you are referring to was excellent. It was very enlightening. I love your blog by the way and I enjoy your humor.
I procrastinate the grocery shopping too. Oddly for me it's not the actual shopping itself I dislike it's the prep work that needs to go on before going grocery shopping that I don't like and therefore procrastinate doing. Oh and a word of warning to anyone who uses a back of the box recipe as there go to recipe for something. You should make sure you have it written down and not count on the recipe always being on the back of the box. I learned this the hard way years ago with my cornbread recipe. I used the recipe that was on the back of Albers cornmeal boxes and since it had been on the back of it for years I never bothered to write it down. Then I one day I went to make cornbread and the recipes on the back of the box had changed. Luckily for me Albers is owned by Nestle so I emailed Nestle asking for the recipe and they were able to email it to me. I'm sure it helped that I was able to tell them not only that it was a cornbread recipe from the back of the Albers box but the amounts on some of the ingredients. Having learned that lesson I now make sure I have a copy of any back of box/label/bag recipe that I like particularly those that I rely on as go to recipes.
Ooh I'm thinking about clam chowder for dinner here too next week. I have a recipe I've been meaning to try for ages.
I get that same pink mold (I chose to think of it as soap scum, I'm not sure how I justified it being pink) and your post intrigued me enough to google it. Wishing I hadn't! Now I know it's a bacterium called serratia marcescens that EATS the soap scum. Ick!!!
On the other hand, your pizza sounds delicious 🙂
I procrastinate by going food shopping. Too bad we can't trade chores.
I think I'm actually spending MORE money by going shopping every two weeks instead of every week. Apparently I need to soothe that packrat/hoarding urge. Or stick to my list better.
I so hope it's Tapped you are watching...Americans spend more on bottled water than gas!!!!
Wow you do have your hands full like I do. I found good chemicals to use at the dollar store. I love bottled water. My favorite is Coca Cola's Dasanni. You get cokerewards points if you buy it by the case. I find it cheap. No bad chemicals or chemical spills that they have happen with no notice or regard for public health. I hope that is a good documentary. Have fun with the birthday parties.
I am definitely no fan of bottled water (very much the opposite!), and I haven't even watched the documentary yet. Tap water, a Brita filter, and a Klean Kanteen can provide you with the same product at far less cost to your pocketbook and to the environment.
Not to mention that you won't have to lug cases heavy water bottles to your house. 😉
A large percentage of bottled water is just filtered tap water anyways, sold at an incredible, insane markup.
Or unfiltered water - there are no regulations specifying the content or sanitation of bottled water. In a nontrivial number of cases, tap water is more sanitary.
And tastes better! I get funny looks at work when I get water from the tap - next to the bottled water fountain. But the tap water tastes so much better.
Dasani is tap water in a bottle made from gas by products.
Since you mentioned pink mold in the shower....I have a question. Despite my best efforts to keep my showers clean, well ventilated, etc., I find that mold eventually grows on the plastic bath mats and the shower liners. I end up having to buy new ones b/c I simply cannot remove it. Any suggestions???
Throw your shower curtain and tub mat in your washing machine with a few old towels, a scoop of baking soda, laundry detergent, and a cup of vinegar. Wash it on your regular cycle. The towels and baking soda act as "scrubber" and loosen the soap scum and mold, the vinegar kills the mold and mildew. When the washing cycle is done hang it back up to drip dry. I also spritz my shower curtain and shower walls after each use with half vinegar/ half water that I keep in a spray bottle in the shower. It helps slow down the build up of mold and soap scum ( I hate to clean the shower! :D)
My husband used to soak our plastic bath mats and shower items in a bucket with bleachy water. We've since bought an organic cotton shower curtain and throw it in the washing machine when it gets grodey.
I just spray down my shower with bleach once a week. As soon as you turn the shower on, most everything gets washed away without any effort. Of course, some stains do require some elbow grease despite my best efforts to not have to get down on my hands and knees.
How do you make clam chowder? Thank you.
I tried the filters but, they are expensive. I get them when I have the money and use the pitcher. It is good but, I like the flavor of the other water better. Ours has too much bleach I cannot get out.