Meal Plan Follow Up

Total for the week - $38.68.

We had the luxury of having Clint come to the grocery store with us this week! It was nice to have someone with and was really helpful. I walked around seeing moms or dads at the grocery store with their kids and was in awe that so many of us do this each week alone. And, many do it with more than just one kid - so kudos to you!

Changes to the shopping list

• So, as wonderful as it was to have Clint, we also end up walking out with a bit more than normal :). But, I think we really only added a bag of potato chips, which I rarely buy, so it's a nice treat this week.
  
• I also don't think I'd added frozen pizza to the shopping list and therefore didn't include that $3.99. I'd taken a meal off, but forgot to add that in.
  
• I picked up $.77 shampoo, but then realized we had shampoo that I forgot about. Debating whether to actually take it back or just save it for next time we need shampoo.
  
• We got a larger bag of carrots...which in the end was a good thing, but at the time was all they had available at the store.
  

That's it!

Oh, and I thought I'd mention that we had the curried lentils over rice meal last night. It was the first time I'd tried it and have actually never made lentils! Clint has always said that lentils are the one thing he just doesn't do (and he's really easy to cook for), so we've not had them. But, we gave the recipe a try and it was really good. Clint really liked it as well. It's an easy recipe from More-With-Less Cookbook (World Community Cookbook). And, it is incredibly cheap. I'll have to check to see exactly how much the meal costs, but I'm guessing around $1 or $2 for the entire meal - how amazing is that!?!

Easy 2nd birthday

So, yesterday I said that I would post some pictures about Evee's birthday and her party. And, by party, I just mean me setting out food (we were all outside) and people chatting and kids playing... Really not too much effort on my part...I didn't plan anything. It was really fun, though, and great to be outside and be together.

As for food, I ended up making brownies in muffin tins - some in cupcake tins that I had, but most just in the pans. It worked out well because we didn't have to cut them or anything. Then I just made chocolate sauce, we had caramel sauce, and got ice cream. I also made our homemade popcorn and got apples and sliced them up. Lemonade, coffee, and it was all set! Very easy to serve and worked out well!

I don't have any pictures from the party, yet, but I have pictures of the apron I made her and the craft box I put together with a lot of random things - paper, crayons, scissors, water color paints, stickers, buttons, fabric, glue... Now

I'm working on making a blanket from unused fabric we had lying around. Then, it will be her "craft blanket", so I don't have to worry about paint going everywhere. I think it will be easier than having her stay at the table. I should have it done sometime this week! I'll make sure to post pictures.

Meal Plan Monday

There are posts I keep wanting to write and am not getting to them! For now I stick, for sure, to Meal Plan Monday and the Follow up, but beyond that is just when I have time. However, I'd really like to finish the post series on 3 Big Questions and then write more about money saving in other areas. A friend had left a comment a few posts ago about what we do as far as clothes and stuff for our home... So, at some point, I'll post more of that stuff. Maybe this summer, which is quickly approaching!

Evee's party went really well on Friday. We went with brownies and ice cream :). I'll put up a post later today on the little gift I made for her with pictures.

As for some meal planning excitement - This past weekend a friend told me that Trader Joe's will be coming to our area soon! She and I both looked into it further and it sounds like it is very true! So, hopefully sometime this summer, but the location and date are still not certain.

I am THRILLED! When we first moved here, I even posted about how much I missed and love Trader Joe's and then e-mailed TJ's just to let them know! :). So, hopefully this fall, we'll be back into swing with shopping at Trader Joe's. I'll have to look at the budget when TJ's comes and set one that is still really low, but realistic for shopping there. It is worth it to us, even if it means upping the budget a bit. It's just such a quality company and they strive for excelence at great prices. Ok - enough of my Trader Joe's tanget.

This week's meal plan...

Breakfasts - Piece of fruit or smoothie, eggs & toast or cereal
Lunches - Bread & peanut butter, fruit or smoothie (depending on what we had for breakfast), veggie (cucumber, carrots, etc.), noodles & cheese or leftovers
Snacks - homemade popcorn, cheese & crackers, fruit, cookies and/or brownies

Meals -
Monday - Beef Roast, roasted squash, potatoes (using the last of the frozen meat)
Tuesday - Curried Lentils
Wednesday - Pinto Bean Soup
Thursday - Grilled Salmon & veggies
Friday - Taco night with friends
Saturday - Leftovers
Sunday - Wegman's Frozen Pizza

Shopping Lists - Wegman's

• Eggs
• Fruit - whatevers on sale
• Bananas
• Brocolli
  
• Carrots
• Bread
• Cheese
• Brown Sugar
• Bacon
• Cereal
• Toothpaste
• Tissues
• Deoderant
• Butter
• Bagels
• Cream Cheese

My estimation this week? $32 - I'll report in!

Have a great week and don't forget to check out the other meal plans over at Organizing Junkie!

Meal Plan Follow Up

This post is coming out later in the week then I'd planned (only by one day, but still...). Hope everyone is having a great week. Thanks for checking out my follow up!

Total for the week - $24.67 and you will see why it was $2.67 over the amount I'd estimated below...

Changes to the shopping list

• The basic major change was that I got a large (2 lb.) bag of coffee instead of the regular 12 ounce bag. It's over $1 cheaper per pound this way and we are obviously set on the 8 O'clock coffee brand (for now at least) after trying to make a switch.
• I also had a coupon for that coffee - $1 off.
• I cut some costs - I bought one thing of butter instead of 2 (we use butter sticks for buttering toast and baking). Thought we'd be fine with one box.
  
• Also, cut out pasta sauce and decided to make my own type of sauce (made it last night and it turned out okay :)).

A nice thing for next week is that we have some salmon (not on the list for this week) and some beef that I froze from last week!

Other notes: I think that I might do brownies and ice cream for Evee's birthday. I'm running out tonight after she's in bed to get that stuff as well as stuff to put together her gift. I'm pretty excited about it - I'm going to put together a box/container of different crafty things for her to do. I'm also working on making her an apron to wear for crafts and baking. We'll see how it goes - I'm not the world's best sewer and haven't done much besides hemming and corn/rice bags. Also, I don't have a pattern, just made my own, but I think it will turn out all the same (am I niave?). I'll make sure to post some pictures of the end results of it all.

Meal Plan Monday

Getting toward the later half of the month - just a week and a half!

Notes on the week: it's Evee's birthday on Friday! So, trying to brainstorm what to do for that. We need to get better at celebrations (and holidays) in general...neither Clint or I seem to be amazing at it, but I think we'll just get better and better as the years come :).

I think we'll do either strawberry shortcake or brownies & ice cream for her birthday. Hopefully the weather is nice and we can celebrate outside. So, that will be on the list this week, although I'm going to pick it up later in the week so we don't eat it in the meantime :).

Also, last week we were blessed with some free food! Pretty crazy, I know. So, we will be using some of that food this week. A friend's husband will be doing an internship at a community center next fall. They help in a lot of different ways, but one thing they have is donated groceries for those who need it in the community. Anyway, we checked it out...and they give a great supply of food! I don't think I'll go again - since I don't feel that we need it (we are simply striving to cut costs and keep our budget low), but I love what they are doing to help our community. And it definitely brought me back to my social work days, which I miss!

It also got me thinking about community resources, in general. It reminded me of how many resources are out there that people may not be aware of but might really need. I'll probably put a post out sometime soon on different community resources (that are beyond just our community) for anyone who might be interested.

Ok - now for this week's meal plan...

Breakfasts - Piece of fruit or smoothie, eggs & toast or cereal
Lunches - Bread & peanut butter, fruit or smoothie (depending on what we had for breakfast), veggie (cucumber, carrots, etc.), leftovers
Snacks - homemade popcorn, cheese & crackers, fruit, cookies and/or brownies

Meals -
Monday - Chicken Roast, roasted squash, green beans, biscuits
Tuesday - Vegetarian Pasta
Wednesday - Leftovers from Monday & Tuesday
Thursday - Chicken potpie (not grilling salmon out, going to save it for the next week...we'll just eat potpie outside :))
Friday - Quesadillas
Saturday - Tuna Melts
Sunday - Beef Roast (meat frozen from last week)

Shopping Lists - Just Wegman's this week

• Potatoes
  
• Frozen peas
• Frozen corn
• Pasta sauce
• Tortilla Shells
• Cheese
• Sour Cream
• Butter
• Coffee
• 1/2 & 1/2
• Body Wash
• Eggs
  

My estimation this week? $22 - it should be a quick and cheap trip to the store, that's for sure! I'll let you know how it goes.

Also, later in the week, I'll be picking up strawberries or brownies and ice cream for the birthday girl! Hope to spend around $10 or less for that and I'll already have stuff for shortcake and brownies, depending what I do.

Have a great week and don't forget to check out the other meal plans over at Organizing Junkie!

Articles to check out

With encouragement from a friend, I've started writing some articles on eHow. I thought I'd post links to them here just in case any of them look interesting to you and you'd like to check them out!

Hope everyone has a great weekend! The weather is finally nice here yesterday and today - looking forward to spending time outside a lot like we did yesterday! It's a wonderful feeling to be wearing flip flops :).

Here are the articles

• Using a Meal Plan for Weight Loss
• How to Make Baking Mix like Bisquick
• How to Travel on a Budget
• Planning a Wedding on a Budget
• How to Start a Meal Plan
• Having a Baby on a Budget

Thanks!

Quick additional Aldi thought...

I did think this morning, and wanted to post it, that Aldi's did have really cheap cheese ($1.49 for 8 oz.). The cheapest I've found it at Wegmans was $4.49 for a lb. So, Aldi's is significantly cheaper ($1.50/lb.) in that area. Also it was $.99 for a dozen eggs which is great. And, then, as I mentioned yesterday, their cooking/baking items were great prices as well.

So, there were some great bargains :). Just not sure if I'll make it a weekly trip...

Meal Plan Follow Up & thoughts on Aldi

Yesterday, as I mentioned in the meal planning post, I went to both Wegmans and Aldi. So, along with prices, I'll share my thoughts on my experience as a whole. Obviously, this is only my opinion and I'm sure all (or most) stores have some great qualities about them. I'll try not to throw out the whole idea...

As I was driving to Aldi (I went there first to compare shop and then to Wegmans where I know what the prices are like), I was seeing places like Dollar General and CVS. These aren't by or on the way to our normal Wegmans' shop (granted, Wegmans is like 2 minutes down the road). I thought, this will be great, I can start shopping at those places too and save even more money. Evee and I will just make a morning of it :).

When I first got to Aldi and was looking through the first aisle, I was having sickening thoughts of "why haven't I gone here sooner!" and "everthing is so cheap"! Specifically talking about spices, flour, sugar, brown sugar...

But, when I went down the second aisle and all consecutive ones, all I could think was, "everything is very processed" and "I can get that for the same price at Wegmans".

So, even though I did get a few things, I wasn't super thrilled with my trip. I felt that the things I normally get at Wegmans I get for better quality and very similar prices (I'm sure some won't beleive that, but it's really true!). Although, you have to watch for sales at Wegmans to get some of those great prices - but often times the sale items are then cheaper than Aldi.

What I got at Aldi

• Flour
• Brown Sugar (added this to the list because it was so cheap there)
• Salt (this was also really cheap)
• Wipes
• Bath tissue (I got 12 double rolls for $5.29 - I last got that same thing last time at Wegmans on sale for $4.99, but decided to get them at Aldi because I didn't know if the sale was still going)

All of this cost me a total of $10.55

At Wegman's I got everything else on my list from yesterday. Changes...

• I didn't end up getting fruit there or at Aldi. Aldi fruit didn't look great and Wegmans wasn't having any special sales. I actually got my fruit this week from Whole Foods who is having great sales - pinapple for $2.99 and oranges for $.89/lb.
  
• We got beef roast instead of our normal chicken. It just sounded good. The cheapest option was to get it in a bigger pack which saved over $1/lb. So, I got 4 lbs. meat. The good news is I froze 3 portions and we'll be able to use that for next week and probably the week after as well!
  

I ended up spending $24.37 at Wegmans and $4.97 at Whole Foods.

Total for the week - $39.89 - $1.89 off my estimation! My shopping list next week should be sparse...

Meal Plan Monday

I hope everyone had a great Easter yesterday! It ended up being semi relaxing for us in the midst of still getting stuff done :).

This week I'm hesitant to state an exact plan because I'm thinking about going to Aldi's and then possible stopping at Wegman's still on the way home because I've never been to the Aldi's here by us to see what they have and what the prices are like (although, they are always lower than anywhere else it seems). So, I'll still give the general idea for the week and the grocery list. I may have many changes this week in my follow up (watch for on Tuesday or Wednesday)!

We still have stuff for smoothies, eggs and toast, and cereal for breakfast. And I guess we've mostly been eating leftovers for lunch. Although I still have/make hummus. Evee will often just have an assortment of stuff - cheese, bread, fruit, cucumber...

This weeks meals:

Monday - Chicken or beef roast (whatever's best at Aldi's). Or, either way, I know I can get split chicken breast at Wegmans for $1.79. Have with carrots and potatoes
Tuesday - Tuna melts
Wednesday - Stir Fry
Thursday - Salmon, buiscuts, and salad (we basically have this whole meal already in the cupboard, fridge and freezer)
Friday - Chicken or beef tacos (using leftover meat from roast and adding rice from stir fry and black beans)
Saturday - Leftovers
Sunday - Frozen Pizza (this is $3.99 at Wegmans for a good sized pizza!)

Shopping list for this week

• Wipes
• Flour
• Bananas
• Other fruit on sale
• Toilet paper
• Coffee
• Pizza
• Tuna
• Butter
• Popcorn
• Carrots
• Taco shells
• Chicken
• Bread
  

I'm not even going to guess on the price since I don't know what it will be like at Aldi's. I figure that I could get all of this (including 4 lbs. of the chicken to use next week too, since you have to buy the club pack) at Wegmans for about $38. So, that or less is the plan!

What I figure I'll for sure get at Wegmans, unless it is significantly less or looks just as good at Aldi's is coffee and pizza.

I hope you meal plan this week and have a great day! Make sure to check out the other plans posted at Organizing Junkie.

Meal Plan Follow Up

The total for Wegmans yesterday was $34.07. So, about $3 more than I'd calculated. Here's why...

• I saved money on oil - I went with Canola oil instead. I hope it's just this one time :). We leave for Clint's summer internship in about 6 weeks, so I didn't want to get the massive thing of oil that last awhile and is cheaper per quart. But, I didn't want to spend more per quart and get a smaller one. So, I settled...
• I also saved $.50 on bananas. Just didn't need the whole 4 lb. We still had some left from before, too.
• We spent more because I forgot to put whole wheat pitas on the list - $1.79.
  
• I also got bagels and cream cheese :). But, I found cheaper Wegmans brand bagels for $1.59 instead of the usual price I pay of over $3. So, good to know!
• The detergent I thought was still on sale wasn't. I still got one that was on sale, but it was $1.50 more than the one I was going to buy.
  
• And, shower soap was $1 over what I predicted. This is something that we don't buy every week, so I wasn't sure. Now I will remember the price better!

At ShopRite I spent $11.59. This was also over my estimation by $2.59. And here's that break down...

• I didn't get watermellon for $.99/lb. It didn't look too good - so that saved us.
• I added ShopRite brand chocolate chips to make cookies for the week. So, that added $1.99.
• I spent $4.60 on chicken instead of the great deal I thought I was going to get with their chicken on sale. I'm not 100% sure, but I felt that their on sale chicken prices were the same as what I spend regularly at Wegmans. It took awhile trying to figure out what to get since the sale had advertised as low as $.53/lb on some chicken, but then when I got there I couldn't find anything as cheap as that and the other stuff was like normal prices to me. A bit frustrating. But they did still have the great strawberry sale!
  

The rest of the month will be interesting. I can spend about $30 a week for the next 2 and then the last week is about 4 days and I'll have around $20 for that. It is going to be tight :).

Thankfully we already have salmon for next week from the bag I got this week. I'll see what else is in the cupboards/freezer as well!

Hope your meal planning is going well this week! Our chicken pot pie looks good for tonight and it was really easy to prepare ahead of time.

Meal Plan Monday

Welcome to Meal Plan Monday! You can see other meal plans posted at Organizing Junkie.

This weekend we spent around $10 (I don't have the receipts right in front of me) on bananas, a bag of chips, and cole slaw - some of which went toward a BBQ and some of which we still have now at home.

I'm thinking of possible adding salmon to the list this week because of the great weather and grilling opportunities that will arise this week...we'll see.

Another "big ticket" item this week is oil. We basically just buy olive oil and use it for everything. Anyone use a cheaper oil and feel good about it? I'd love to know :).

Also, I'll be doing some shopping at Wegman's and some at Shoprite this week. There was some good sales in the Shoprite flyer that I didn't want to pass up - sales on fruit and chicken. So, although I usually only shop at Wegman's we are switching it up this week.

Oh, and - sorry to disappoint - but we aren't having a special dinner for Easter Sunday. We don't have any plans for it so we'll just be having a normal Sunday (as far as food is concerned)...

Breakfasts - Piece of fruit or smoothie, eggs & toast or cereal
Lunches - hummus w/ pita, fruit or smoothie (depending on what we had for breakfast), veggie (cucumber, carrots, etc.)
Snacks - homemade popcorn, cheese & crackers, fruit

Meals -
Monday - Chicken, salad, and buiscuts (similar as last week :))
Tuesday - Chicken potpie (using leftover chicken and stock I already have in the freezer)
Wednesday - Not making dinner (We will be going out with a friend to celebrate her being done with school)
Thursday - Salmon on the grill & salad (Grilling season has started here - so our building and the one across from us has designated Thursday nights to grill out together)
Friday - Stir fry
Saturday - Quesadillas
Sunday - Egg sandwiches & veggies

Shopping Lists

Wegmans

• Soap (shower soap)
• Clothes detergent
• Whole Wheat bread
• Bananas
  
• Salsa
• Salmon
• Cucumbers
• Tomato
• Oil

Shop Rite

• Strawberries
  
• Butter
• Chicken
• Watermellon (I think)
  

My estimate is about $40 this week. I'll report back in tomorrow! Thanks for taking a look at our plan this week. Have a great day and happy meal planning!

It's a Season

I was thinking this morning about how my meal planning/grocery budget shows the kind of season it is for us right now. It won't be like this forever. When I talk with people about meal planning, our grocery budget, meals, I don't think this is how it should be for everyone at this moment. It is for us and I'm sure that many others are in a similar season but, hopefully, in the end it is just a season. One day we'll spend more on groceries :).

I do think it's always a good rule to save as much as you can and not let stuff go to waste. I think finding good deals and using money wisely is a great thing. But, at some point that will look more like a $250 or $300 budget for the month... Some day it may not matter how expensive our coffee is or how to get our fruit in on as cheap as possible. Some day we will go back to having salmon once a week and steak every so often.

The last time we were in a "hard core saving" season like this, it definitely paid off. That's what we are going for again in this season. Before Evee was born - while I was pregnant and maybe a bit before I was pregnant - we were on a super strict budget like we are now. We were able to pay off my undergrad student loans during that time. Once Evee came, it was a payment each month we didn't have to pay and better yet, something that wasn't hanging over our heads. We were able to make a choice of I would work or not.

When I get to my next post about the 3 Big Questions (the book we read around Christmas time), I'll share what our goals are right now through the end of May and then you'll see even more the season that we've chosen to be in. It's good to know what is best and doable for you and your family at this time. I'm sure setting a budget, sticking to it, and meal planning will look unique to each family.