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Menu Plan Monday

Posted on 12:00 AM comments (1)
Labels: Aldi, grocery shopping, Menu, recipes

I typically do my menu plan for 2 weeks' meals, and I do a major grocery shopping trip every 2 weeks. I do coupon-based shopping each week at Publix and CVS, and stock up on as many items as I have coupons for that are free or nearly free. Then, when I plan my menu, I try to focus on using as many items that I already have on hand as possible, and buy the rest of what I need at Aldi.

My current grocery budget for our family of 5 is $125/2 weeks, including diapers, personal care products, paper goods, detergent.. basically, anything the grocery store sells. I try to keep under $100/2 weeks, so that I have some money left over to play with if a great coupon deal comes up, or we want to splurge on some unplanned snacks during our 2 weeks between shopping trips.

This week, my family is driving to Virginia to see my mother-in-law graduate and receive her bachelors degree, so we'll only be home for 9 days. I made my menu based on those 9 days, and made my grocery list accordingly.

When I plan my grocery list, it helps me to use the Aldi Price Sheet I created. This way I have an idea of how much I'm going to be spending before I leave the house. Knowing this amount helps keep me from throwing unplanned items into my cart at the store, and lets me know how much I have remaining in the budget so that if I see an item at the store that I need but didn't plan on buying, I know if the money is available to purchase it.

This week's meals aren't very exciting, because I was trying to keep the costs low so we can use the extra money for our trip. And there are a few repeats because we're going out of town in the middle of the two week period, so we'll have some of the same meals before we leave, and then again after we get back.

Here's this week's menu (keep reading to see the shopping list with Aldi prices)

Breakfasts:

Cereal
Toaster Strudel (stocked up 2 weeks ago for nearly free at Publix)
Pancakes with fruit sauce (made with frozen organic fruit stocked up on 2 weeks ago for nearly free at Publix)

Lunches:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches
Lunchables Subs (stocked up on for free at Publix last week)
Ramen cups (my 12 year old daughter's favorite)

Dinners:

Spaghetti and Meatballs: one pound of spaghetti noodles, one jar of pasta sauce, and a bag of frozen precooked italian style meatballs.
Meatball Stroganoff: 4 packets of brown gravy mix, prepared as directed and simmered with 8oz of sour cream, a package of original style frozen precooked meatballs, and a can of sliced mushrooms; served over a bag and a half of cooked egg noodles, with a side of canned peas.
Salsa Chicken: 3 large boneless/skinless chicken breasts, a jar of salsa, a cup of shredded cheddar, and 8 oz of sour cream; cooked in the crockpot and served over a pound of cooked elbow macaroni, and a side of canned corn.
Pineapple Brown Sugar Ham: A $4 turkey ham, cooked in the crockpot with a can of chunk pineapple and juice, and 1 cup of brown sugar. Served with white rice and a side of canned green beans.
Taco Pasta (recipe below)
Spaghetti and Meatballs (see above)
Meatball Stroganoff (see above)
2 packages of frozen Salisbury Steaks with gravy, cooked as directed and served over white rice with a side of canned peas.
Frozen DiGiorno pizza and breadsticks (stocked up for free last week at Publix).

Some of the items for these meals (other than the ones I've already indicated above) I already have on hand: all the canned vegetables, elbow noodles, brown sugar, and canned tomato sauce and taco seasoning and ground beef for the Taco Pasta.

Here is my shopping list for the meals above (I always estimate up on the prices, and guess a little high for the items I don't know the price of):

$2, 2 sour cream

$5, 2 shredded cheddar

$4, turkey ham (sold by the pound)

$2, 1 cereal

$4, peanut butter and jelly

$2, salsa

$2, 2 lbs spaghetti

$2, 2 spaghetti sauce

$4, 3 egg noodles

$3, 3 lbs white rice

$4, 8 packets brown gravy

$1, 2 cans mushrooms

$3, box of ramen noodle cups

$2, pineapples

$2, 1 bread

$8, 4 meatballs

$4, 2 salisbury steaks

$54 total, estimated high. I still need to buy Pull Ups, shampoo and conditioner, and snacks for the trip, but there's plenty of money left over in the budget for those things!

____________________

Taco Pasta Recipe

(I got this recipe from one of the bloggers who posted on last week's MPM, but I didn't plan to be blogging about it so I didn't keep the link. If it was you who posted this recipe, thank you and sorry for not being able to credit you! :)

Taco Pasta

1 pound ground beef
1 package (1-1/4 ounces) taco seasoning
1 can (15 ounces) tomato sauce
1 package (8 ounce) shell macaroni, cooked and drained (I'm using elbow macaroni)
1 can (4 ounces) chopped green chilies
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese

In a skillet, brown ground beef over medium heat.
Drain and add taco seasoning, tomato sauce, and green chilies.
Stir in cooked macaroni.
Place in a 9×13 pan.
Top with cheese.
Bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until heated through.

For more ideas on planning your own menus, or to see what many others in the blogosphere are eating this week, hop on over to Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie.com!

This week's trip to the grocery store

Posted on 11:04 AM comments (1)
Labels: Aldi, grocery shopping, Menu, recipes

Every two weeks, I go grocery shopping at Aldi for the next two weeks' groceries. The nearest Aldi is about a 45 minute drive for me, which is why I only go bi-weekly.

Before going, I make up a menu plan for two weeks and then write up my grocery list. I include approximate prices from my Aldi Price Sheet, so when I go to the store I know a ball park figure of how much I'm spending before going in.

My grocery budget for 2 weeks is $15o, including diapers, baby wipes, and all the household supplies. I very rarely spend all of that, usually I come in right around $100, and we use the remaining to go out to eat during that two weeks, as a treat.
I started a special diet 10 days ago, so unfortunately I am spending more on groceries this week because of special foods I need to buy for it. But this week, I got everything on my list for $126, which is $63 per week. Not bad for our family of 5!

I thought I would post my list, for anyone who is interested in seeing how I shop. In a follow up to this post, I'll show you how shopping the sales at Publix each week using coupons allows me to stockpile items that I can get for free or close to free and how that helps to keep my grocery budget down.

Here is my menu for the next two weeks:

Dinners:

spaghetti, peas

tacos & yellow rice, corn

salsa chicken (chicken breasts, salsa, shredded cheddar, and sour cream cooked in the crockpot and then shredded and served over elbow noodles), corn

chicken and dumplings (I add carrots and celery to mine), green beans

porcupine balls (ground turkey seasoned with salt and pepper and mixed with minute rice and shaped into balls, then simmered in spaghetti sauce until cooked through), peas

chili cheese burgers (cooked ground turkey,mixed with a can of chili and a cup of cheese, heated through and served on hamburger buns, sloppy joe style), curly fries, corn

augratin taco bake, green beans

brown sugar ham (a $4 turley ham cooked in the crockpot with a can of pineapples and juice and a cup of brown sugar), rice

spaghetti, peas

middle eastern rice, green beans

salisbury steaks (store bought frozen family size meal with gravy), over white rice, corn

veggie burgers (cooken ground turkey mixed with a can of condensed vegetable soup, served over hamburger buns, sloppy joe style), mac and cheese, green beans

chicken ceasar salad pasta (I mix mine with half a bottle of store bought ceasar dressing, rather than making my own as she instructs in the recipe), corn

Breakfasts are cereal or pop tarts (stockpiled) or peanut butter toast.
Lunches are PB&J sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, or leftovers from dinner, and fruit.

And here is my Aldi list:

6.87 3 gallons milk
1.18 3 cans biscuit dough
0.99 sour cream
1.99 shredded cheddar
4.00 ham
2.98 3 bags salad mix

0.99 veg oil
1.10 garlic powder
1.10 onion powder
1.10 chili powder
1.10 cumin
1.10 basil
1.99 corn meal
2.97 spaghetti sauce 3
1.59 spaghetti
1.69 elbow noodles
0.99 egg noodles
3.38 2 boxes cereal
1.98 yellow rice 2
1.49 salsa
0.99 augratin potatoes
3.00 canned chili 2
3.00 bullion cubes
0.90 diced tomatoes2
0.95 vegetable soup 2
1.50 ramen noodles
9.73 7 chunky soup
4.90 corn 4, peas 2, green beans 4
1.99 pineapples
2.00 zucchini
4.00 2 oranges
5.97 3 apples
7.50 5 tomatoes
1.58 2 hamburger buns
0.99 bread

3.98 salisbury steak 2
celery carrots
11.90 ground turkey 10
16.47 chicken 3

120.84

Some of the prices above weren't listed on my price sheet, so I estimated what I thought they would cost. I always estimate high. I forgot to add diapers ($5.49) to the list, and baby wipes. Even after adding those at the store, my total was only $126, because I estimated high on the things I didn't know the cost of.

So that's how I do my grocery shopping. Be sure to read the follow up to this post and see how I got over $80 worth of groceries at Publix this week for only $1.20!

Menu Plan and Aldi grocery list

Posted on 11:17 PM comments (3)
Labels: Aldi, groceries, Menu

Since my little hiatus from deal shopping and blogging, my coupon stash has seriously dwindled. I am happy to say that I am back in the saddle, and feeling great about it!

I need to build back up my coupon organizer, but in the meantime, I have been managing to stay well within our grocery budget ($70 per week for our family of 5) without coupons, by shopping at Aldi. A new Aldi store opened near us last month, and I have been so excited to be able to have their great prices to fall back on while I was burned out on coupon and deal shopping.

Every week, I have been planning out my menus and grocery lists with prices based on Aldi's pricing sheet (available inside the door at my Aldi store), and I thought that starting this week, I'd post about it in case any of you need dinner ideas or just want to use my whole list!

So here it is. Typically, I plan for 7 dinners, my daughters and I eat cereal for breakfast most days and my husband has a granola bar on the way to work. I know, not very exciting, but it works for us at this stage. My 11 year old eats lunch at school, and my husband has a separate amount of money budgeted for his lunches on his break from work, so I only plan lunches for my 2 1/2 year old and myself (my 8 month old eats baby food).

This week's dinners (this week I bought 8 dinners because I threw on the pizza at the last minute, but I still stayed way under budget!) :

Pizza (take and bake from Aldi)
Pineapple-Brown Sugar Ham (Put a 3 lb turkey ham in the crockpot with half a can of pineapple and a cup of brown sugar, cook on low for 3 hours), with Sour cream and chive mashed potatoes and peas as side dishes *I already have the peas in my pantry*
Spaghetti (1 lb spaghetti noodles, one jar spaghetti sauce, and 1 lb. ground beef *I already have the ground beef in my freezer*)
Chicken and Dumplings (Put 3 cans of Chicken broth and 3 large chicken breasts in the crockpot on high for 4 hours. Remove the cooked chicken and cut into bite sized pieces. Return chicken to the crockpot. Remove 2 cups of broth and in a separate bowl, stir in 1/2 cup of flour, return broth/flour mixture to crockpot to help thicken. Using 2 tubes of buttermilk biscuits, flatten each biscuit in your hands and tear into small pieces and add to crockpot. These will be your dumplings. Cook for 30-90 minutes more until dumplings are cooked through. You can also add carrots and celery to this when you add the dumplings, I did not this week), serve with corn *I already have corn in the pantry*
Meatball Stroganoff (Using 3 packets of brown gravy mix, prepare as directed in a large saucepan. Add 8oz of sour cream and 1 package of frozen turkey meatballs, simmer until meatballs are cooked through. You can also add a can of mushrooms if you like, I did not. Serve over cooked egg noodles.) Serve with peas *I already have peas in the pantry*
Bubble Pizza (I made exactly as directed, only exchanged the pizza sauce for spaghetti sauce. I didn't use any extra ingredients). Thanks Meal Planning Mommies! I love their site. Serve with green beans *I already have green beans in the pantry*
Chili (Brown 1 lb ground turkey, drain. Add 1 large can of tomato juice, 2 cans chili beans, and a packet of chili seasoning. We eat ours with cheese crackers)
Salsa Chicken (Put 4 chicken breasts in the crockpot, add one large jar of salsa and 8oz sour cream. I usually add a cup or two of shredded cheddar, but I only have mozzarella this time, so I will try that. Cook on high for 6 hours, shred up the chicken with 2 forks before serving. Serve over cooked elbow noodles. This is a staple in our house, we all love it!) Serve with corn *I already have corn in the pantry*

For lunches, I planned 3 Mac and cheese days (I have fruit cups in the fridge already) and 2 cold tuna noodle casserole days. Maybe a pb&j in there if we get bored (we always have the fixins for pb&j)! I also threw in ramen noodles and 3 cans of soup for my older daughter, who often comes home from school hungry and is a total soup and ramen lover.

Here's my grocery list, with prices:

$5.97 3 gallons of skim milk
$1.89 Cookie Cereal
$0.89 canned pineapple
$0.99 box of Sour cream and chive potatoes
$0.99 cheese crackers
$1.69 2 lb box of spaghetti noodles
$0.99 egg noodles
$1.69 2 lb box of elbow noodles
$3.57 3 boxes of Shells and Cheese
$1.98 2 jars of spaghetti sauce
$1.14 2 cans of tuna
$1.56 4 chicken broth
3 packets brown gravy (not sure on the price)
chili seasoning (not sure on the price)
$0.99 large can of tomato juice
$0.90 2 cans of chili beans
$2.00 box of 12 ramen noodles
$4.17 3 cans of Chunky soup
$6.50 take-and-bake pizza
$1.52 4 cans of refrigerated biscuit dough
$0.99 16oz tub of sour cream
$1.99 bag of mozzarella cheese
$1.49 1 lb of ground sausage
$3.50 turkey ham
$6.49 3lbs frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
$1.99 frozen turkey meatballs

Pre-planned total: $55.88
Actual total when leaving the store was $60.xx
The other $10 of our weekly budget will go to buy Hubs's granola bars (he doesn't like the ones from Aldi) and baby food at Kroger or Meijer.

There you have it, that's what we'll be eating around here this week. If you like this kind of post, or if it was helpful to you, leave me a comment and I'll try to do them every week in the future!

My Meijer list and Menu Plan for this week

Posted on 12:29 PM comments (1)
Labels: Meijer, Menu

Ok, confession time. While I'm an addicted, maybe even obsessed couponer when it comes to CVS, I really haven't been in the habit of matching up coupons for groceries. This really is silly, considering that I buy 6 -8 papers every Sunday and have all of these grocery coupons going to waste.

So I'm going to try to take the time each week to plan out a menu based either on the deals at Meijer or the deals at Kroger, or both if they're just that good, and plan out a list that matches the coupons to the sales.

This week I didn't even look at the Kroger ad. I'm tempted to now, but I have my week's worth of groceries planned out for under $40 (that wasn't a planned number, just what it came out to be. I was hoping to have it under $50) just from looking over the Meijer ad.

Ok, here's my Menu Plan for Dinners this week (lots of chicken):

Crockpot Thai Chicken, (thanks OrgJunkie!) brown rice, canned veggies
Chicken, Salsa, sour cream, and cheese in crockpot, spanish rice, canned veggies
Marinated Chicken on the grill, corn on the cob
Chicken Helper, canned veggies
hamburgers, fries, salad
Calzones, salad

For the Crockpit Thai Chicken, I'm going to use a whole chicken, because it's on sale at Meijer this week. I have pretty much all of the other ingredients already, including the brown rice.

For the Chicken, Salsa, etc., I have a little stockpile of salsa in my cupboard from a previous week at Meijer. I also have all of the ingredients for the spanish rice on hand.

For the marinated Chicken, I'm working my way through 5 bottles of Lawry's Marinade from a previous week at Meijer when I was able to get them for free.

For the Hamburgers, we bought a box of 32 frozen patties for $12 for the 4th of July, knowing there would be many left over. We still have at least half of the box, so we'll be having them at least once a week until they're gone.

For the Calzones, I bought everything to make them last week, but forgot to buy sauce (spaghetti or pizza). So this week that's all I need to make that meal.

Ok, so here's what I'll be buying at Meijer (I'm doing separate transactions because Meijer only doubles 2 of the same coupon per transaction, and the Colgate toothpaste and Betty Crocker Warm Delights will be free after their coupons are doubled):

Transaction 1:

$9.99 (2) 40oz Meijer frozen chicken breasts, B1G1 (5 lbs)
$2.56 3lb grade a fresh whole chicken ($0.89/lb - $1/1 Mealbox coupon)
$1 (4) corn on the cob
$4 (6) DelMonte canned veggies
$0.79 Meijer 16oz sour cream (on sale $1.29, -$0.50 Mealbox coupon)
$2 Spaghetti sauce
$2.77 Gallon Milk
$3 (estimate) Half price Sargento shredded cheese
::The following is advertised in-store on a shelf tag (not in the ad) as Buy 2, Get 2 free EZ-PIC instant coupon savings, the register will scan the first 3 at $1.99, and when the 4th is scanned, it will subtract $1.99 twice from your total, and will say "Free item EZ-PIC" on the receipt:
$0 (4) bags Malt-o-Meal Bagged Cereal - Buy 2 at $1.99, get 2 free, EzPIC instant savings (use 4 $1/1 printables)
::The following items are 10/$10, get 11th free:
$4 (6) Hamburger Helper (after 2 $1/3 printable coupons)
$0 (2) Colgate Total toothpastes (after 2 $0.50/1 from 6/29 SS, doubled)
$0 (2) Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after 2 doubled $.50 coupons from 7/13 SS,)
$0 OreIda Easy Fries (11th item free discount)

Transaction 2:

$2 (4) Dole salads (after 2 $1/2 printable coupons)
$2 (2) Aunt Millie's hamburger buns
$0 (2) Colgate Total toothpastes (10 for $10, -2 $0.50 from 6/29 SS, doubled)
$0 (2) Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)
$0 OreIda Easy Fries (11th item free discount)

And I'll do these in two more separate transactions, since I have a total of 8 coupons for these to use:

$0 2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)
$0 2 Betty Crocker Warm Delights (free after doubled $.50 coupon from 7/13 SS)

All in all, my total should be $36.11 before tax. Not bad!

I have plenty of Chef Boyardee (from a previous Kroger sale), PB&J, and ramen noodles for lunches this week, and I'm sure there'll be left-overs as well.

And a big thanks to MommySnacks for the heads up on a couple of the above deals, and for the motivation to go digging for some more!

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Menu Plan Monday

Posted on 3:00 AM comments (1)
Labels: Menu, saving

This is my first time participating in Menu Plan Monday!
Since this is a blog about saving money, I thought I'd put together a menu of inexpensive meals for the week.

Monday:
Pineapple-Brown Sugar Ham (I use a Turkey Ham from Aldis that costs about $3.50, put it in the crock pot with a small can of pineapple slices and juice, and a cup or so of brown sugar. With augratin potatoes and a vegetable, this feeds my family of five (minus the newborn), and all four think it's delicious!)

Tuesday:
Meatball Stroganoff (Simmer 2 jars of fat free beef gravy, 8oz sour cream, a small can of sliced mushrooms, and a bag of frozen meatballs till cooked. Serve over egg noodles)

Wednesday:
Italian Chicken (I use 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, garlic, oregano, basil, and parsley, all in the crock pot for 6-8 hours on low. Delicious over spaghetti noodles.)

Thursday:
Breakfast for dinner (omelets, biscuits, hashbrowns)

Friday:
Porcupine Balls (mix 1 lb ground beef, 1 egg, 1 cup minute rice, salt and pepper and shape into balls- I make mine golf ball sized. I cook in a pot with a jar of spaghetti sauce for about 20 minutes, turning halfway. Original recipe called for tomato soup instead of spaghetti sauce, but we like our way better. We like this served with yellow rice as a side dish, and a vegetable.)

Saturday:
$6 extra large "bake it yourself" pizza from a local convenience store.

Sunday:
leftover buffet

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