(Note: This post may contain affiliate links. Possibly several of them. I will earn a small commission if you use my links to purchase a product but your purchase price does not change. Check out the disclosure policy to find out more. Thank you for supporting My Joy in Chaos.)
A peek at our weekly grocery shopping
Each week I plan on sharing a picture of our cart at each store along with a breakdown on what we bought and what we paid. Thankfully we have zero dietary restrictions or allergies which helps us keep our budget on the low side. We try to stick between $80-90 each week for our family of seven. A lot of times what is on the menu doesn’t directly correlate to what we buy because I like to plan our meals from what we have on hand currently and use our budget to stock up on good buys plus produce and dairy products.
I screwed my whole shopping trip up this week, you guys! I made this list of everything we need for the month of December for meals and normal groceries. Well I didn’t think closely enough about the extras we need – like produce! Ugh. Thankfully Micah had an hour or so to kill while the kids were at dress rehearsal for the Christmas pageant at church and we got to run out for the forgotten items. That’s what I get for trying to overplan – I completely missed the basics!
Walmart
Creamer $2.98
Apples $3.74
French Bread reduced to $0.60
Mushrooms $1.87
Rice $2.32
Sub Rolls reduced to $1.23
*submitted receipt to ibotta for any item rebate (-$0.25)
Total: $12.49 after rebates
Costco
Tomato Paste $4.39
Diced Tomatoes $2.99
Tomato Sauce $2.99
Flour $6.49
Milk $2.79
Mozzarella Cheese $10.85
Cheese Brick $4.99
Bananas $1.39
Total: $41.87
Cash Wise
Egg Noodles 2 @ 0.98 = $1.96
Coffee $4.77
Ground Beef 6lb @ 1.88/lb = 11.28
Eggs 4 @ 0.98 = $3.92
– 1.00 (in store rewards)
Total = $20.93
Grocery Total: $75.29
Does your grocery budget need some help? Are you needing to find better ways to eat the types of foods you want on the money you have? Grocery University is what you need! This is an audio course meaning you can listen while you do the dishes, fold laundry, or drive your kids around! Let Crystal Paine of Money Saving Mom help you make the most of your grocery shopping and be intentional with your budget in this digital course.
Menu Plan
I love menu planning and seeing other’s dinner plans! I’m weird like that 😉 As I’ve shared before, being in the kitchen is my happy place so I love finding meals that are new but I also never forget our favorites! These will link to the author’s original recipe unless it’s my own recipe/creation that I don’t have a link for… yet.
If you need some inspiration for how to create menu plans you can read here where I go into detail about how I make a plan for our food week and here to read how I create our grocery list.
I don’t make specific plans for breakfast and lunch but these are the basics I rotate between while throwing in a few other things for special days or weeks when I have the right ingredients.
Breakfasts: Pancakes, Coffee Cake, Egg Sandwiches, Sausage Balls, Eggs (various ways), English Muffins, Banana Bread, Biscuits and Gravy, Oatmeal, and various types of muffins.
Lunches: Leftovers, PB&J, Meat and Cheese Wraps, Cheese Quesadillas, and Mac ‘n’ Cheese.
Dinners, however, are always planned for since they tend to take the most ingredients and prep time.
Here’s what’s on our menu this week:
Sunday: Chili – One of these days I’ll get our recipe up but seriously, it’s so easy. I do equal amounts of canned tomatoes and tomato sauce (we blend the diced tomatoes smooth), add chili beans, ground beef, and chili powder to taste. So simple. Then we top it with sour cream and cheese. Yum!
Monday: Pulled Pork Bombs – I haven’t made these in a while but since we have an abundance of pulled pork and I’m working on eating out of the pantry and freezer this month I pulled it from the archives. These would also make a great appetizer!
Tuesday: Grilled Cheese & Homemade Spaghettios – We’ve never made homemade spaghettios and honestly, I’m not sure our kids have ever had them… but we grew up on them so I thought it would be fun to try the homemade version. And we have an abundance of tomato sauce right now 😉
Wednesday: Meatball Subs – I’m always amazed at what a hit these are with my kids that usually don’t care much for meat. I guess cooking them in my homemade pizza sauce and topping the sandwiches with mozzarella makes them forget that they are eating balls of meat.
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Movie Night – pizza crust recipe here and pizza sauce recipe here.
Saturday: Potato Pancakes – We need to finish off the bag of potatoes from before Thanksgiving so potato pancakes it is! We use a recipe passed down from Micah’s grandpa which makes it extra special.
What’s on your menu this week?
Do you want to get your kids in the kitchen with you? Check out Kidstir! They offer a monthly subscription box with kid friendly recipes and tools so you and your child can work side by side in the kitchen creating healthy meals and fun memories. You can watch my unboxing video of our first kit here.
