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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!