monthly grocery shopping — Cooking During Stolen Moments

Weekend Shopping and Baking

March 21, 2010 By Kate 1 Comment

One of our biggest goals every weekend is to spend some time getting prepared for the week ahead. It just makes everything flow better throughout the week. So our Saturday mornings are typically spent getting any cleaning and chores done before we have fun. And Sundays are usually the day I like to get some extra work done in the kitchen.

On Saturday, we made a trip to the grocery store to pick up some things we’ll need to get through the week. Our monthly stash is still going strong and shouldn’t need any supplementing beyond the usual produce and dairy items. Here is what we bought.

Sour cream (16 oz.) – $1.74
Milk (1 gal) – $2.49
Butter (1 lb) – $1.99
Eggs (1 doz) – $1.39
Oranges (6) – $2.64
Red grapes (2.56 lb) – $2.53
Bananas (2.7 lb) – $1.34
Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips (1 bag) - $2.98 (a special request from my husband)

TOTAL: $17.10

Total spent so far this month: $389.09

Amount left in the monthly budget: $60.91

We’re going to need some more produce later this week. I didn’t want to get too much on Saturday since I was waiting on a sale. We’ll also need some toilet paper and possibly dishwasher detergent. But otherwise, I think we’re on track to come in under budget.

As for Sunday, I spent some time doing some baking for breakfasts and snacks. (By the way, if you haven’t checked the great conversation and tips in the comments on my Snack Supply post, you should! I know I’m feeling inspired.)

I made two dozen muffins – 1 dozen blueberry and 1 dozen chocolate chip. (Minus two that little hands just couldn’t wait for!)

I also made a heaping platter of bacon waffles. These are perfect reheated in the toaster.

All of those things have been packaged and stored in the freezer. I’m looking forward to some easy mornings this week.

I also made a banana snack cake for the kids to enjoy after school. I’ll be sharing that recipe later this week.

Stop by The Happy Housewife and Balancing Beauty and Bedlam to see how Toni and Jen spent their weekends.

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Grocery Shopping Results

March 7, 2010 By Kate 4 Comments

Our shopping is done for the month. The fridge, freezer and pantry are completely stocked. It feels so good to have that all accomplished and to know that all we’ll need is some produce, eggs and milk to round out our weeks.

We ended up splitting our shopping trips into two days instead of just one. Saturday morning was a busy, get-stuff-done-around-the-house kind of morning. There may have a Wii competition or two going on also. So by the time we made it out the door, it was already 2 pm. And since Sam’s Club really does become an event for us (browsing all the aisles, looking at books, enjoying samples, etc.), we didn’t get home until almost 5:30.

But it actually worked out perfectly since I got to take our 5 year old son on a date to Kroger today. It seems like he and I rarely get to do stuff together alone anymore, so we both really enjoyed our time at the store. He is becoming an awesome little helper and such a gentleman too! Makes my mama-heart proud.

Anyhow, on to the shopping. Here’s where we started from.

And here’s where we ended up.

It’s definitely a huge difference.

Some of the highlights from this months’ purchases include:

17 lbs. ground beef
3 lbs. each bacon and breakfast sausage
6 lbs. chicken breasts (+ the 6 lbs. already in the freezer from last month)
A huge bottle of olive oil that will probably last a year
Loads of snack foods for the kids at school and after school
6 lbs. of nectarines (If these start to good bad before they’re all eaten, I’ll slice and freeze for use in smoothies.)
6 lbs. of coffee
Enough rice, barley and elbow macaroni to last 2 months, at least

Altogether, we spent a grand total of $368. That leaves $82 for two or three quick milk and fruit runs the rest of the month. Judging by what we have on hand now and my plans for putting it all to use in the freezer and such over the next few days, we probably will not need to use all of that. But, we’ll see.

Here are the post-shopping pictures:

From the Sam’s Club trip.

From Kroger. My helpers were just too anxious to start unpacking for me to get a picture with everything unloaded, but hopefully you get the idea.

Now the fun really begins! I’m formulating batch cooking plans over the next several days to put all of this to good use without any going to waste. The freezer will be stuffed, that’s for sure.

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My Menu Planning Basics

March 16, 2009 By Kate 8 Comments

This week, for Finding Freedom Friday at Cents To Get Debt Free, we are sharing our menu planning basics. Because menu planning is a subject so near and dear to my heart, I just had to participate.

How many weeks you plan at a time. I plan for a month at a time with a master meal plan. However, I don’t plan specific meals for specific days. After the monthly meal plan is created, and after we have done our grocery shopping for the month, I plan individual weekly menus. These weekly plans correspond with the monthly plan for the most part. I will admit that we don’t always stick to the exact plan because I need variety in the kitchen.
How do you keep track of it all? I use a master monthly plan and a master monthly grocery list. The monthly menu plan then stays on top of our microwave throughout the month and I use it to create my weekly plans. Usually the weekly plans are written out in a notebook and then transferred to my other blog for Menu Plan Monday.
How do you decide what to eat? As I said, I like variety in the kitchen. I try to rotate our meals so that we eat something different at every meal on a weekly basis. We definitely will repeat meals throughout the month, especially breakfasts and lunches. I do some batch freezer cooking at the beginning of each month so I always make sure I plan for at least 6 dinners and 12 breakfasts that can be frozen. Even with all the planning, I rarely stick to the plan as it is written. I shop and cook in such a way that I can make lots of different meals from the same basic ingredients.
How has it helped you? Menu planning like this has been a huge help! It allows us to stay at or below our monthly budget of $350. It has also helped nudge me into freezer cooking and I know enjoy being able to take several meals out of the freezer throughout the month. Even without having a stand-alone freezer, I am able to fill it enough that we can make it through a whole month with just one big grocery trip.