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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.
What is the deal with avocado prices? I miss buying bag after bag and eating it with a variety of meals. I can’t justify nearly two dollars per avocado! Thankfully our Walmart must have ordered WAY too many because they had a huge display marked down to $0.98/each. If I had had more wiggle room in the budget I would have bought more to mash up and throw in the freezer but I held off.
I started buying birthday supplies this trip so I can get a head start on all the baking and food making. Parker will be 9 next week and requested chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. Anders turns 3 on the 24th and he wants a “pumpkin cake” but not made of pumpkin. He want it to look like a pumpkin patch. Last night I started making peanut butter balls (or buckeyes) and ran a toothpick around the sides to give them indents like a pumpkin then stuck them in the freezer. I grabbed orange melting candies to dip them in at a later point. Cade just wants Batman so he’s getting a simple layer cake and I’ll decorate it with the bat symbol. Lots of baking on my upcoming kitchen days!
Walmart
Mushrooms $1.87
Corn $0.84
Peas & Carrots $0.84
Green Beans $0.84
Creamer $4.98
Melting Candies $2.47
Cake Mix $0.88
Avocado $0.98
*submitted receipt to ibotta for any item rebate (-$0.25)
+0.19 tax (melting candies)
Total: $13.89 after rebates
Family Fare
Lunch Meat 2 @ 2/$4 = $4.00
– 2x 0.55/1 coupons (doubled to $1 each) = $2.00
Apples 4 @ 2.50 = $10.00
Garlic Bread $1.00
– free item in store coupon
Total: $12.00
Sam’s Club
Milk $2.75
Cheese Bricks 2 @ 6.38 = $12.76
Baking Powder $5.78
Sausage Roll $5.68
Eggs $3.84
Butter $11.99
Sour Cream $4.11
Bananas $1.38
Tortillas $3.58
Total: 51.87
Grocery Total: $77.76
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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 – It’s finally cool enough to actually enjoy eating a big bowl of chili! This is a major cool weather staple for us so expect to see it on the menu at least once each month until spring!
Monday: Loaded Baked Potatoes – Steamed broccoli, cheese, diced bacon, sour cream… yum! And don’t forget to make the potatoes in the slow cooker to make this a super easy dinner.
Tuesday: Cornbread Waffles & Chili – Have you ever had chili topped cornbread waffles? It’s a fun way to use up leftover chili and the cornbread offers a slight sweetness to offset the savory and spicy flavor of the chili. Yum!
Wednesday: One Pot Enchilada Pasta – It’s been a while since we had this as only half the kids enjoy it but the others at least eat it so I say it’s worth putting on the menu. Plus its delicious and super easy because it all cooks in one pot!
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Homemade Pizza and Movie Night – pizza crust recipe here and pizza sauce recipe here. Happy Birthday to our oldest, Parker! He’s nine today!
Saturday: Chicken Bacon Quesadillas – Chicken and bacon are such a natural pairing and even better when you throw cheddar cheese in the mix and stuff it between tortillas!
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.
