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Grocery budget & meal planning

January 19th, 2018 at 07:05 pm

It’s insane how much we have been spending for a family of 2 adults & 1 child for household, diapers and groceries. So far this month, we have spent $432.18. We have roughly $70 left in the budget for January. This spending doesn’t include pet supplies.
Yesterday, I did a LOT of stocking up – we had eaten down our freezer stash in December. So we needed to stock up on meats, fruits & veggies, diapers and basics.
I am meal planning my booty off. With a 2 year old who demands dinner the second we walk into the door on a work night, I use meals I made & froze or easy meals during the week. So that is what I am concentrating on. These meals will take us well into February.
This weekend, I am making lots of meals for the freezer. We will also grill some chicken for snacks/lunches for the week (we are doing Weight Watchers & trying to eat healthier).
I plan on making Korean Spicy Pork Loin Saturday night. Leftovers will also be frozen and I am going to try to make a healthy 2 ingredient bread recipe – I am going to make garlic sticks and pizza crust. Wish me luck!
Once all of this is cooked – we will have a freezer full of:

3 Family meal servings of meatloaf muffins
2 Family meal servings of Taco Meat
2 Family meal servings of Sloppy Joe
2 Family meal servings of honey sesame chicken
2 Family meal servings of barbecue chicken
1 Family meal serving of Korean Spicy Pork
4 Family meal servings of Potstickers (premade frozen)
1 Family meal serving of fajita chicken
2 Family meal servings of Turkey meatballs

On days I work remote, I cook a hot meal – so that will be when I do a balsamic honey pork chop and some pretzel crusted Dijon chicken. We also have turkey meatballs in the freezer (precooked) and will use that with pasta one night.

Each week, I will meal plan out of what we have to work with, and there will always be room to switch things around.

This week:
Sat 1/20: Korean Spicy Pork Loin (leftovers will go in the freezer), brown rice & veggies
Sun 1/21: Beef taco salad
Mon 1/22: Fajita Chicken & peppers
Tues 1/23: (husband’s late night): Fend for yourself – (ends up being potstickers a lot of the time)
Wed 1/24: Turkey Meatballs & pasta
Thurs 1/25: Balsamic Pork Chops
Fri 1/26: Sloppy Joe & pasta

Grocery Spending, Freezer List, Meal planning!

October 20th, 2014 at 01:31 am

Used up a big part of our grocery budget this week to do some freezer meals & meal planning.

Saturday, I did some shopping and then made meatloaf muffins, meatballs, hamburger patties, breakfast potatoes and froze them. I then put together an Apple, Pear & Pork freezer meal for the freezer too; Since there's 2 of us, I split the recipe into 2 freezer meals. I also bagged the meatloaf & meatballs into single servings.

Then I made a pasta salad for lunch & took a freezer inventory to help with meal planning.

Today, I made some stuff for work breakfasts (hard boiled eggs), snacks (cucumber & tomato salad) & lunches. My husband grilled some chicken & I prepped salads for chicken Caesar salads for the week (lunches).

Friday (Husband home only): Leftover Sloppy joe & peas

Saturday: Breakfast - hashbrown potatoes
Saturday: Lunch - pasta salad
Saturday: Dinner - Out

Sunday: Brunch - Out
Sunday: Dinner - Creamy Spicy Sausage & Tomato Pasta

Monday: Breakfast - yogurt, hard boiled egg
Monday: Lunch - Creamy Caesar Salad
Monday: Snack - Cucumber & tomato salad
Monday: Dinner - Apple, Pear & Pork crockpot meal

Tuesday: same breakfast, lunch & snack
Tuesday: Dinner - leftover pasta from Sunday

Wednesday: Breakfast/lunch: TBD
Wednesday: Dinner - Meatball subs

Thursday: Dinner - Leftovers

Friday: Dinner - out

After this week, we will still have a freezer full of:

-4 servings of Meatloaf muffins
-1 Crockpot Apple, Pear, Pork meal
-5 uncooked hamburger patties
-4 servings of cooked beef with onion
-1 Crockpot BBQ chicken
-1 cooked sesame chicken
-1 sloppy joe meal
-12 servings meatballs
-potatoes O'Brien
-blueberry muffins (5 packs of 2)
-grilled chicken
-3 spicy turkey sausages

Saturday Randomness

October 21st, 2012 at 01:15 am

I went to my step-niece's cheerleading this morning, ran some errands then came home & have been fighting a migraine all day. In the fits of energy that I had today, I did few fun things.

I am using one of the two closets in the spare bedroom for the storage of gifts, wrapping paper, ect. I didn't want to just leave them on the floor or the shelf, so yesterday, I brought home 2 printer paper boxes from work (free). They are ugly though, so I bought a sturdy gift wrap from the dollar store ($1) the other day.



Today, I wrapped them up & made them pretty. There is plenty of paper leftover AND the inner core of the wrapping paper roll is craft paper, which I will be using to 'wrap' my coaster gifts with. Well worth the dollar & now that I know that the inner part is usable paper too, I am buying another roll or 2 a I plan on making a couple more of these. Double win!





I also took inventory of the freezer, pantry & fridge. I am going to work on a meal plan tomorrow.

Other than these 2 projects, I have been napping, watching tv and going through emails.

Roommates, food freebies & freezer (long & probably boring)

September 30th, 2011 at 11:53 pm

Happy Friday All! It's been a stressful week and I am looking forward to some relaxing this weekend.

Today was payday, so I budgeted out everything:

In cash, I have:
$40.00 towards Wine Tour
$77.49 towards Groceries
$90.00 Entertainment spending

I paid some bills:
Mortgage
Electric
Reimbursed mom for some Halloween Decorations

And I bought Groceries
-Acme $5.49
-Farmer's Market $10.30
-Walmart $29.46

My manager let us out early (WOOO) and I was able to get all my errands done & get home by 2:30. I had time to clean my room, prep food for the wine tour tomorrow, clean the bathroom and help the new roommate move a dresser upstairs. She has her stuff here, but will start actually living here tomorrow.

Once she left, my previous roommate came by & picked up the last of her stuff. She gave me the $75.00 she owed me and the keys. I did an inspection and found that she left a couple of things:

-1/2 bottle of Pino Grigio
-1 clean tupperware bowl & lid
-a bunch of salad dressings (1/2 used)
-1/2 jar of vodka sauce
-protein shake
-1 full large, unopened bottle of V8 Splash
-3 bags of frozen mixed veggies
-1 bag frozen steamer red potatoes
-1 bag frozen broccoli
-1 lb ground turkey burgers (frozen)
-1 bag broccoli & rice
-1 bag Tyson grilled chicken strips
-2 opened 1/2 full bags of veggies

Most of it usable - I will get rid of the opened veggies (freezer burn), vodka sauce & some of the dressings - but all the freezer food is good and healthy! So Yay Freebies. I then had to move all the food around in the freeze to free up 1/2 the space for the new roomie.

And since I did that, I took a freezer inventory: (boring, I know - but its really good for planning)

-1 1/2 bags turkey pepperoni
-2 - 4packs of breaded chicken patties
-6 servings chicken breast
-4 frozen turkey burgers
-1 container lime sherbert
-4 tilapia fillets
-2 1/2 bags Morningstar crumbles
-1/2 loaf bread
-4 veggie burgers
-4 servings turkey bacon
-1 bag no sugar added strawberries
-1 bag no sugar added blueberries
-1 bag broccoli
-1 pint blueberries
-8 bagel thins
-1 bag broccoli & rice
-3 bags mixed veggies
-1 bag grilled chicken strips
-4 pack water ice
-9 meatloaf muffins
-4 servings sloppy joe
-3 cinnimon raisin bagel thins

The rest of my night will be dinner, making the rest of food for the wine tour tomorrow, cleaning up the kitchen & dusting/vaccuming the empty room. Hope everyone has a good night!

Tons of Stuff Done Before Noon & Food Inventory

June 26th, 2010 at 05:43 pm

Well, its in the 90s today & has been since about 10am. Ugh. Good thing I woke up early this morning. I went & ran my errands - Grocery store #1 for ground turkey, Farmer's market for fruits/veggies, Walmart for cat litter, the bank, and gas station. I also picked up a few movies from Redbox at $1/day, its a good deal!

I came home & put a chicken breast covered in chicken broth in my mini-crockpot. Perfect for single size & I plan to shred the chicken and put hot sauce in it for some buffalo chicken salad later.

After that, I have taped off & painted the bathroom ceiling. It will need a second coat, which I hope to get to late this evening.

The new roommate is working out well. Apparently she will rarely be around on weekends. She left last night & won't be back until Sunday evening. She finally did some grocery shopping and with her stuff now in the pantry, fridge & freezer, I thought it would be a good time to take inventory & make meal plans to use up some of the older (and the new) food.

Forgive me if this is dull for you, I just wanted to lay the list out there - it does not include condiments and/or spices.

Freezer -
2 fudge pops
1 and a half packs turkey pepperoni
2c frozen strawberries
1 pint blueberries
5 servings sloppy joe
1/2 loaf wheat bread
8 bagel thins
1 banana
2 packs diced chicken for salad
12 meatloaf muffins
1 lb chicken breasts - need to invite family over to use up
3 flat out wraps
6 individual serving chicken breasts
1 lean cuisine

Fridge -
1 pitcher water
1 pitcher pink lemonade
lots of beer (leftover from party)
pasta sauce
salad fixings
plum tomatoes to make homemade bruschetta
cottage cheese
3 individual puddings
grapes
3 bananas
spinach
snap peas
scallions
Weight Watcher mexican cheese
1 lb ground turkey - to be browned with onion & frozen in individual servings

Pantry -
pasta sauce
pretzel chips
pasta - penne, spaghetti & shells
fat free croutons
popcorn
peanut butter
sugar free jam
ff chicken broth
diced tomatoes
green beans (2 cans)
canned pears
tuna pack
4 cans tuna
shake n bake
stovetop stuffing

St Patty's Weekend

March 15th, 2009 at 08:36 pm

Yesterday I was up and in the city at 10am for the St Patty's Day Parade, of which I saw none of Smile My friend was pouring beer at a local church and there was tailgating in the parking lots around the church.

We were there til 3. I paid $10.00 for a mug and had unlimited 'free' beer. Then we went to a local pizza place and between the group, split 3 pizzas and fries. Total out of pocket for the day: $23.00.

Today I had some college friends and their baby over for lunch. Used chicken from the freezer, potatoes & made some pasta salad. So no spending today.

I'll have to do some grocery shopping tomorrow now. I'm out of veggies!


Here's an updated list of my Freezer Foods. I'm working on my meal plan now

1 wheat wrap
5 wheat pitas
3/4 Loaf wheat bread
1/4 loaf rye bread
4 Blueberry/banana muffins

4 bananas
4 pints blueberries

5 servings Sloppy Joe
1 package turkey pepperoni
5 servings Bacon
3 servings Meatloaf Muffin
6 servings Ground Turkey and onion
4 servings London Broil
5 servings Chicken Fajita
5 servings Taco meat
11 servings Morningstar Chick'n
6 servings Chicken Breasts

1 bag Breakfast Potatoes

Walking the Walk

March 8th, 2009 at 06:26 pm

So lately I've been doing a lot of talking about being super frugal because of some increased expenses, but then I go and buy paintings for the living room. And I've way overspent in my entertainment again this pay period.

Well, I'm finally going to walk the walk, since I've been doing plenty of talk the talk.



Last week week I:

-Worked to decrease my electric/gas bills. The weather is helping as my heat has been off for 2 days. Hope this warm weather streak lasts.

-Negotiated a new deal with Comcast to keep the services I have within $5.00 of where they were before the promo rate expired. Its only good for 6 months, so I set a reminder to myself to call in September.

-Organized all my paperwork. Perminantly filing all 2008 information. Keeping the temporary files open for 2009

-Packed lunches all but 2 days. One was a work outing lunch and the other was becuase I was really ill and barely made it into work at all that day.

-I set up a meal plan and am using freezer meals

-Did my taxes and found out that I'm getting a decent state refund. It cancels out most of my amount owed to Federal. (YAY). All adjustments have been made so that I will NOT owe next year.




This week I am:

-Instituting no spending except for the following expected expenses:
- $15.00 milk, yogurt, produce
- $10.00 Night out with friends on Monday
- $10.00 much needed toiletries

-Packing breakfast & lunch. Having dinner at home

-Putting items up on Craigslist as part of my March To-Do list

-Updating my account/password list to be included in my In Case of Emergency file.

Taxes Done and I Owe

March 3rd, 2009 at 03:25 am

So I did my taxes & it turns out I owe a bit. I was expecting that and I have the savings to pay them, but I feel the need to go into SuperFrugal mode and try to cashflow it back into savings within the next month or so.

In SuperFrugal mode, I look for both big and small savings. I am going to limit entertainment spending, limit grocery spending, work to find additional sources of income and basically do anything I can to conserve spending and earn more.

The hardest thing for me, will be entertainment. Lately I've been a lot more social at work, with friends and dating. All of which entails spending. So this will be the trickiest.

Today was a no spender, which is good.

Tomorrow will not be one, as I have a date and will be offering to pay for dinner this time around. (Expected Entertainment spending $25.00?)

Wednesday, I'm having friends over to watch LOST and plan on offering them dinner. I will stop at the produce stand for veggies for the week, but will make dinner out of my freezer/pantry. (Groceries $10.00)

Thursday, my work group is going out to lunch. I'm hoping we can keep it really, really cheap, but as there's 10 of us, I'm only 1 vote. Worst case scenario, lunch will be about $10.00. I'll be staying in Thursday night. (Entertainment $10.00)

The weekend is up in the air, we'll have to wait and see what social things I have going on.

For frugal entertainment, I plan on doing the following:

Playing Wii with the nephew
Watching Library movies
Reading Library books

All of these I've said before, but I get a lot of enjoyment out of them and free is always good!

I just updated my request list at the library. Plenty of movies for me to watch as they become available.

Oh and to keep track of freezer food: I used 1 ground turkey with onion for pasta sauce for dinner. I used another to take to work for lunch. (2 ground turkey w/ onion used)