2 weeks/ $200

[milkmommy]

We have some unexpected expenses this paycheck.. OS once everything is done and we've set aside for church a little for saving and gas.. This is basically what is left for food and general house hold items..
Normally we spend at least double this...

So shopping list meal ideas etc..

my challenges (pros and cons)

1) slightly high food costs I think we are better than some but not as low as others

2) no food allergies and with in reason we CAN handle processed foods with out serious fallouts.. (umm plus minus depending)

3) VERY picky eaters all of them I honestly can think of a single meal I can make other than maybe pancakes that everyone will"happily" eat. (con)

4) A DH with a HUGE HUGE appetite and when hungry enough has little concept of sharing with others.

5) a "meat and potato" kinda guy he wont touch like eggs or beans (without meat) though if I make it the only option he
ll reluctantly eat it (minus eggs)

Margaret could live off of PB and J exclusively and i dont see that changing over the next few weeks....

I have a small kitchen with extremely small prep space and less storage space. Also DH schedule can be odd and planning meals with long steps to cook isn't ideal.. Nor am I intrested in like opening a box type meals (expensive and just icky)

I'm totally fine bulking up meals with conventional rice, potatoes, pasta or bread

Making my own bread does NOT save me money and is a huge waste of my time.. Actually I love to do it but 12 seconds after any are done my kids/DH devour it. Its cheeper to get $1.50 loafs of HFCS free bread. (even if the rest is just standard white bread)

what we have already.. (not a lot)
frozen veggies corn peas green beans some mixed varity green peppers onions.. I can easily get away for using what we have..

basics like flour sugar spices baking soda salt etc....

oatmeal (which DH wont touch)

beans probably enough I have both dried and canned..

some apples..

pretty much out of all else.....

I don't like to shop more than a few days at a time or food gets rummaged through and used up WAY too fast..

Ideally I'd like to pick up enough to cover Thursday- Sunday evening which is usually the hardest since everyone is home....

then Sunday night do Monday-Wednesday... repeat...


Dinner Meal types needed

Monday- Ideally something I can put in the crock pot. DH arrives anytime between about 4:00-5:00 but we have to get DD to her heritage girls meeting by 6pm about 20 minutes away and DH to his evening class by 7:30 (close to where DD has her class) So something that can be ready at a flexiable time and simple is great.

Tuesday- Flexible normal day for us

Wednesday- I dont need as much flex as Mondays but something I can do in say 20 minutes is ideal. Its another DH is home for a limited amount of time before heading back to work. His evening are looong these days so I like to make sure he has something filling.

Thursday- Flexible like tuesdays

Fridays- total flexible but we are always meatless on Fridays (or fish)

Friday/Sat/Sunday overall flexible but love some lunch ideas to keep DH from making hims self huge servings of things.

[mom23sons]

Do you have a place to get meat at a good deal? I can get a 10lb bag of chicken breasts for $19-20. Then you can plan meals around that?
I would buy my meats and then go forward. I would limit the amt of snacks purchased and make a few things(muffins or sweet breads) Make a pot of rice pilaf and have that for a snacky type food. My boys love this heated up for breakfast.

[mamacat]

Look at store ads for places in your area.That can really help to find meat and fruits and vegies and BOGO pasta and bread on sale.make meat meals where you can stretch the meat like chili or spaghetti sauce and not using an entire package of meat the way you might otherwise.If apples a good price buy apples and sometimes a big sack of baby carrots will be a good price.we have to eat on a budget most of time so I try to have either a fruit or veggie with each meal and shop the sales.

[bananacake]

Find out what meats are on sale and who had a big bag of potatoes on sale. Buy fruits and veggies that are on sale as well.

[Soliloquy]

I was just thinking that, not that long ago, $200 would be pretty easy for two weeks. Food prices have gone up SO much.

My ideas have already been suggested. Whatever the loss leader is, plan your meals around that. My local store has "Fresh Friday" where certain produce, meat, bakery, and dairy items are on super sale, often more than 50% off.

[mom23sons]

I have a chest freezer and it allows me to purchase meat on sale and bag it up into 2 lb packages. Then when the budget is low I go dig and find things I didn't know I had and use those up.

[mamacat]

Years ago never looked at ads but sure try to now.One place here has 2.99 lb ground beef day which is less than half the price of ground beef at most stores.If you can find chicken breasts on sale or thighs or legs if you like those you can cut into pieces and sautee and have on hand to make pasta dishes or whatever .

[milkmommy]

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

I was just thinking that, not that long ago, $200 would be pretty easy for two weeks. Food prices have gone up SO much.

My ideas have already been suggested. Whatever the loss leader is, plan your meals around that. My local store has "Fresh Friday" where certain produce, meat, bakery, and dairy items are on super sale, often more than 50% off.

back on our food stamp days we did a month off of $320 it wasn't exactly free range and organic but its wasn't all junk stuff either.

First shopping trip cost me $110.15 which sounds bad if its only for "4" days but
1) this one included household items like toilet paper, cat food, pull ups etc which will be the last I'll need to buy on this paycheck.. plus some of the food items like say rice or Quoin will make multiple servings so thats less I'll need to get "next time"

2) I reworked the budget and freed up about another $50 so that will help...


This trip I bought food wise
Milk 1/2 gallon organic
1 dozen cage free eggs (I have another dozen here)
apples (granny smith I'm going to do a pie) we still have some red delicious
bananas
stawberries (88cents for a lb)
carrots
broccoli
2 onions
about 5 Avocados (25cents each)
1 bagged salad kit
2 packs chicken thighs
2 package ground beef
1 package sandwich meat
1 loaf bread
1 package flour tortillas
1 6 pack Yo kids strawberry yogurt
1 package brown rice
1 package quoin
1 bag Moms choice frosted mini wheat cereal
1 bag tortilla chips
1 block cheddar cheese
1 package Gorden's "smart pack" fish sticks
1 can veggie soup
1 can rotel
2 cans tomatoes (stewed)
1 can patio mexican tomato sauce
1 package pie crust (looking for simplicity sue me )

I figure I'll make up a big batch of beans for tomorrow/weekend (I have plenty here) and we can go like bean burritos then doing the fish will some veggies for dinner

have fixings for sandwiches
Drinks we have water and tea

Breakfast we have some cold cereal, eggs, toast

ready to eat or "snacks"
popcorn (already have)
yogurt
fresh fruit veggies
Hard boiled eggs

I can do maybe a Chili in the crock pot Monday and maybe do some corn bread I think I still have corn meal..

Figure something with the other meat for the other days...

"homemade" pie for a sweet treat that still gives "some" value.

Assuming I can keep people from just raiding the Kitchen we should be good.


Deanna

[JessicaTX]

Avocadoes for a quarter? and strawberries for 88 cents a pound? omgosh I'd live off those for two weeks lol

[milkmommy]

Originally Posted by JessicaTX

Avocadoes for a quarter? and strawberries for 88 cents a pound? omgosh I'd live off those for two weeks lol

I'm the only one that will eat avocados but for that price hey mine!
I'm not a big strawberry person however Margaret loves them.. Dh will pout because I'm not make whip cream..it's too expensive right now though.

[mamacat]

you found some great buys Avocados here are usually 1.00 each or more

[blessedwithboys]

Great buys on the avacado and strawberries! . My advice is to drop the organic purchases when you're on limited funds. I'd rather my kids have more fresh food than less organic food. And I'd think about buying eggs that aren't cage free - unless it's a big deal to you (in which case it's worth it). Eggs are the base of a lot of my cheap meals- eggs and toast with fruit, eggs and banana bread, fried rice , eggs and rice with seaweed to wrap bites of rice in, hardboiled egg with fruit and some kind of quick bread, egg salad sandwiches, etc. I don't really buy cereal- we do steel cut oats in the rice cooker or in the crockpot (Aldi has fantastic prices on steel cut oats). If your hubby won't eat the cheaper foods maybe do some separate things for him or give him a part of the grocery budget?

I also think leftovers make things a TON cheaper. I never do a single recipe of chili or spaghetti sauce. I always double it without doubling the meat, then we either eat it two nights in a row or I throw it in the freezer to pull out later. I also make things like quesadillas to stretch meat (this is a great use for rotisserie chicken! I also save some to put in fried rice).

My kids mostly eat bananas (SO cheap) and apples or cheese sticks for snacks. I also get the GIANT tub of plain animal crackers from Sam's Club and they can have those whenever they want (since they're plain, they don't tend to binge on those). I mix it up by giving them peanut butter or Nutella to dip their fruit in sometimes. If I get strawberries cheap I will put them in some cottage cheese with honey and they loooove that.

[milkmommy]

The milk and eggs were on sale. Eggs were cheeper than the convential milk was just a few pennies more.

---------- Post added at 10:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:21 AM ----------

There is no such thing as leftovers with dh.

[mamacat]

Avocados on sale here right now 10/10.00

[milkmommy]

Round 2 Monday-Friday shopping

We ended up saving a bit because yesterday Cecilia attended her best friends birthday party. They ended up with a bunch of left over hot dogs and chips which she gave a bunch to us.. So that was dinner last night

Anyways from previous list we have used up...
Milk 1/2 gallon organic
1 dozen cage free eggs (I have another dozen here)
apples (granny smith I'm going to do a pie) we still have some red delicious
bananas
stawberries (88cents for a lb)
carrots
broccoli
2 onions
about 5 Avocados (25cents each) (have 2 left)
1 bagged salad kit
2 packs chicken thighs
2 package ground beef
1 package sandwich meat
1 loaf bread
1 package flour tortillas
1 6 pack Yo kids strawberry yogurt
1 package brown rice
1 package quoin
1 bag Moms choice frosted mini wheat cereal
1 bag tortilla chips
1 block cheddar cheese 1/2 gone
1 package Gorden's "smart pack" fish sticks
1 can veggie soup
1 can rotel
2 cans tomatoes (stewed)
1 can patio mexican tomato sauce
1 package pie crust (looking for simplicity sue me )

SO this trip
more cat food
apples
tangelos
strawberries
2 packages stew meat
1 package ground beef
milk
6 pack yogurt
bottled water for DHs office
box frozen waffles
italian dressing
5lb potatoes
bag kettle sea salt potato chips
1 loaf bread
strawberry jam
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1 block monetary jack cheese
1 jar mayo
1 package paper plates

total $74.41

Which gives me about $60-$65 to see us through till the next paycheck...