To illustrate how you can plan a menu and spend about $100 per week for a family of four, I present a few "finds" from my shopping trip this week. Safeway had some great deals that fit in nicely with items we had on hand so I spent $129 and shopped for almost 2 weeks! I may need to fill in with a small trip for milk, fruit, and bread but we have plenty of breakfast, lunch and dinner items to last 12 to 14 days.
Here's our dinner menu for the next 10 days (with 2 nights for leftovers built in):
Homemade pizza and salad: only needed to buy lettuce, all other ingredients on hand
Turkey Tacos: buy one get, one free ground turkey, tortillas on sale for $1.99, all other ingredients on hand
Turkey Burgers and Asparagus "Fries": buns on sale for $1.99, asparagus on sale for $1.79 per pound, Lipton Onion soup mix to flavor meat on sale for $1.59
Spaghetti with meat balls and green beans: had all ingredients on hand
Breakfast for dinner: buy one, get one free eggs and bacon!, potatoes for $.99 per pound
BBQ chicken and corn: had all ingredients on hand except for corn
Panini: use ingredients from pizza night, sourdough bread on sale for $1.99
Bean Tostadas and Corn Salsa: refried beans for $1, red bell pepper $.99, had all other ingredients on hand
Other two dinners from freezer meals: sausage and peppers, ravioli or tamales
Other great deals:
Cake mix: $.69 (usually $2.15)
Icing: $1.35 (usually $2.85)
Crispix: $1.88
Yoplait yogurt: $.50
Gala apples: $.79 per pound
Bananas: $.75 per pound
I think my new challenge should be to spend only $75 a week!
Cheap and Cheerful wants to know: What great grocery deals have you seen lately?
I just recently signed up for e-mealz.com I am an intermittent meal planner so this is helping me stay on track. You can sign up for a plan that coincides with local store's specials for the week, and customize it even further by selecting "Family of 4 lowfat dinners" or "family of 2 low carb" etc. It gives you a week's worth of recipes, an organized grocery list, and even organizes everything by "meal numbers" (for instance, if you choose not to make Meal #4 for the week, which is Spinach Quiche, just cross off the "#4 ingredients" on your grocery list). So far on this plan I've spent $110 each week (approximately) and have leftovers for lunches too. This is all for $15 every 3 months! (less than a buck a week...very worth it for me!) -Julie in Seattle
ReplyDeleteVery cool Julie! I love this idea. I think it takes longer some weeks to make the menu and shopping list than it does to go to the store. This would be a big help!
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