Monday, May 16, 2011

Weekly menu

In the past, I have talked about how much we spend per month on groceries and ways to save. Even so, I am finding it much more challenging to stay within the budget with a growing family, gas prices, and the ridiculous price of groceries.

Let me start by saying, I love Aldi! BUT...the closest one is a good 15/20 minute drive and with gas sometimes it just isn't worth it. Even so, I try to make an Aldi run at least 2x a month. Now...what do I do on the off weeks? TOPS...barf! It is right in town (3 miles from our house to be exact) and very convenient. For a while, it wasn't too bad. Yes, their produce isn't much to talk about about the the price of many products was at least 50 cents more than those at Aldi. But now...it just insane! Today I did my weekly shopping at Tops and could barely (actually I went a dollar over) stay within my weekly budget. I didn't buy anything special and if you have read some of my former posts, you will see we really don't buy much.

I just need to let it go...I know. Food is a necessity and my kids would not be happy campers if mommy boycotted grocery stores. But I figured this is a time to bring back an old post on saving money on groceries. Stop by and revisit it and see if it helps. I believe the most important part to saving money is weekly menus....SOOOOO I included mine for this week so you could get a glimpse of meals at the Riedl household.

Monday:
B: Eggs, sourdough bread (or GF bread), with sausage
L: Yogurt, PB&J, and carrot sticks*
D: Stew with baked potatoes, GF brownies

Tuesday:
B: Pancakes with strawberries
L: Tuna, celery with peanut butter
D: Chicken Parm with ziti and baked broccoli

Wednesday:
B: Yogurt and granola
L: MOPS brunch...kids get leftovers
D: Pork chops with corn bread and mixed veggies

Thursday:
B: Eggs, toast, fresh fruit
L: PB&J with cucumber
D: Meatloaf with mashed potatoes and corn

Friday:
B: Oatmeal with fruit
L: Playdate lunch (Cooper get a GF sandwich)
D: Ballet recital...Leftovers


*lunches are different for everyone due to work/school schedules but we try to stick to one basic main course. I tend to eat leftovers...

So there it is folks...our weekly meals. I only buy what I need for these meals and a few snack items for the kids. Just and FYI....I don't actually plan weekend meals because we are in and out so much. We usually just fly by the seat of our pants for those meals.

Looking for more ways to save on groceries...any ideas???

3 comments:

Julie said...

Hey Kara!
Each week I (TRY) to look through my cookbooks and find 5 recipes that use similar items, and go from there. This week, we are having tuna/white bean/ spinach salad, and tomorrow chicken, sauteed spinach with garlic, and white bean dip with veggies... then a polish sausage with mixed veggies dish over mashed potatoes, and then chicken pot pie w/ mixed veggies and diced potatoes in it... some variety, but some of the same ingredents. It can be fun getting creative!

Unknown said...

Hi Kara,

I just checked out your blog. You spoke highly of Aldi's, and I've been wondering if it's worth the stop there.

To help save money, I try to do pasta at least one day a week. We'll do breakfast for dinner too. I also buy the biggest roasting chicken I can at Wegmans for around $6. We have that for dinner one night, and we use the leftovers throughout the week (fajitas, soup, sandwiches, etc). I also try to buy the Family Packs of meat at Wegmans to save a lot of money. I freeze everything! I know you are like me, I make everything from home and rarely buy processed foods.

The summer should be better when there are more freshly grown items at home, and then meal planning goes around "What can I make with another Zucchini?" LOL! We'll change the blog to Zucchini recipes:)

Sheila G. said...

We do something similar in regards to meal planning. On Sunday, we plan the dinners for the week by looking through cookbooks and looking to see what's in the pantry that needs to be used up. Like you, lunch often consists of leftovers. I'm starting to learn more about using coupons to my advantage to save even more money on what we are already buying.