The Party Is Over...

It's so nice we get to start the new year with a clean slate! I love to make goals and plan out or future year. This year, I am especially excited to start anew with my grocery planning. It has been an interesting year for me: the first six months we were living a glutton lifestyle- we were in temporarily living, switching houses each month. We received money for groceries since we were on 'travel'. The amount of money we received was much more than I would normally spend, but I didn't have a car, and was in a new foreign location with no guarantee of what kitchen gadgets would be around. This meant a lot of eating out, and a lot of convenience foods.

The result? We didn't eat very healthily, and I lost my grocery-budgeting muscles. And my real muscles. That is why 2018 is going to be a year to regain all of my atrophied muscles. 

I'm re-committing to a healthier, less expensive way to feed my family. I am one who likes routines, so I've come up with a 'routine' for my meals, so I don't have to think about much. Another thing I wanted to do is post about it here, so I am held accountable. I hope you will glean something interesting or useful from these posts, but ultimately, I am posting to help me stay on track.

Here is my weekly dinner plan:

• Sunday: New recipes/special recipes and dessert (Roast, steak, salmon)
• Monday: Pasta (Spaghetti, Beach st. Chicken, Lasagna, Mac and cheese)
• Tuesday: Tacos/Mexican (Enchiladas, tacos, taco salad)
• Wednesday: Stir Fry/Asian (Korean beef, Teriyaki chicken, fried rice)
• Thursday: Soup (clam chowder, split pea soup, chili, chicken noodle, veggie stew)
• Friday: Pizza (pepperoni, chicken bbq, garlic chicken)
• Saturday: Grill (gyros, burgers, teryaki chicken skewers, veggies)

When it comes to lunches, I plan to have a rotation of the following:

• Bagels
• PB&J
• Tuna/Tuna melts
• Ham and Cheese rolls

Breakfast will be selected from the following, convenient, easy, and healthy options:

• Cereal (bran flakes, plain cheerios, chex) 
• Fruit
• Yogurt
• Oatmeal/Hot Cereal with blueberries 
• Eggs
• Breakfast 'cookies' 

Along with my weekly dinner plan, I have my list of basics that I always like to have around. This will be my skeleton weekly shopping list. I have been shopping at Aldi, which is nice because I can grab the basics and not have to worry so much about shopping sales. 

• Fruits: Apples, cuties, bananas, craisins
• Vegetables: Mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, spinach
• Dairy: Plain Greek yogurt, milk, almond milk, vanilla yogurt
• Meat: Ham, chicken, ground turkey
• Other: Eggs, pistachios/almonds, pasta, refried beans, salsa, tortilla chips, hummus, cereal

Ultimately, I'm not sure how much to budget for all of this. While we've done the $50 grocery challenge for a while, I have a family of 5 now, and I want to see how it will all work out. I expect I'll be able to pull it off at $75 a week, but only time will tell.

Grocery List for the Week $50 Grocery Challenge and What I Actually Spent

As you know, I recently went through my cupboards.  I wrote down some of the things I need to replace and put them on my list for the week.  I checked the fridge and freezer and cupboards and decided on menus that would use some of the things I had already.  After making the menu plan, I looked up the ingredients I needed and added them to the list.  I then add basics like milk, juice, cheese or eggs if needed.  After I write the list, I go through and write down how much I think each item will cost.  I try to make sure I am estimating on the high end, so I will have plenty of money to do what I need.  After that, I am ready to go shopping.

Here is my list:

1.0  Quick oats, 2 cups in bulk
1.5  Oat bran, 2 cups in bulk
1.0  Salt, 1/2 cup in bulk
5.0  Organic dried cranberries
1.5  Sunflower seeds, 1 cup in bulk
1.5  Carrots
4.0  Italian Sausage at butcher block
3.0  Cherry tomatoes
1.0  Orange for juice in salad dressing for one of the recipes
1.0  Bacon for 2 meals, salad bar
2.0  Cream cheese, 2
2.0  Whipping cream
1.5  Sour cream
3.0  Red Wine Vinegar
1.5  Corn on the cob
1.5  Bananas
4.0  Cherries
1.5  Buttermilk for pancakes, muffins, or whatever
5.0  Other produce on sale or reduced

Total:  $45.00

I still have five dollars to stock up on anything I want on sale.  At first I had zucchini and yellow squash on the list, but our garden squash is almost ready so I can use that instead of buying it.  I was going to buy fresh parsley, but I used dried instead since I had it on hand.  I don't have an expensive cheese that is called for in one of my recipes, so I found a clone that uses cream, sour cream and cream cheese instead.

I went shopping today, and this is what I spent:

 .50  Cucumber
1.18  Apples, reduced 2 packages at 59 cents each
2.60  Pineapple
1.18  Yogurt 2 at 59 cents each
 .51  Quick oats
1.02  Oat bran
 .41  Salt
4.95  Organic dried cranberries
1.41  Sunflower seeds
1.19  Carrots
2.27  Cooked sweet Italian sausage
2.29  Tomatoes
 .58  Orange to juice for a homemade dressing
 .24  Bacon from the salad bar
2.78  Cream cheese 2 at 1.39 each
1.89  Whipping cream
1.20  Sour cream
2.55  Red wine vinegar for a salad dressing
2.49  Gallon of Milk on sale
1.00 Corn on the cob, 2 ears
1.04  Bananas
1.79  Cherries
1.49  Avocado
4.99  Rotisserie Chicken
 .54  Pepperoni

Total:  $42.09

Plus $5.79 husband bought ice cream

Total:  $47.88

Instead of buying cherry tomatoes, I bought slicing tomatoes because they were about 1/4 of the price.  I bought a gallon of milk instead of a half gallon because it was a good price and was the amount I estimated for milk.  I bought half as many cherries because I wanted to buy pineapple.  I bought a chicken because I had some extra money and froze over half of it in the freezer in four bags for meals in the future.  I bought less sausage than planned because I really just need it for flavoring.  I still have some money left for the week.  There are some great sales, but I think I will freeze part of the meals this week so I can have meals for next week and spend some of the grocery money on the sale items.  I will go shopping next Tuesday to take advantage of some sale for this week.

By having a detailed list and estimating the amount I think I will spend, I weigh produce to make sure it stays in the estimated amount.  With the buttermilk, I can make biscuits, pancakes, etc. I saved the cranberries and one of the cream cheese packages until the end so I could skip them if I went over.  I had plenty of money to buy them.  Notice I am using the meat more for flavor and not giving anyone a large portion.