Category Archives: Menu Planning

Menu Plan Monday

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imageSide note…yes I plan to include random pictures from the beach with each post,just because it is fun!

One of the ways that we are able to afford our vacation is by planning ahead. The focus of this beach trip is the beach, which for us means alot of playing in the sand and water. The condo we stay at is at least a 10 minute drive from   any resturants or stores so we plan ahead and usually only eat out a couple of times.

The menu looks  a little different this week because we actually plan a little bit more.

Lunch- “Lunchable” and sandwhiches on the beach.

 

Sunday- Breakfast- Cracker Barrel    Lunch- Steak and Shake Dinner-Pimento cheese sandwhiches
Monday- Breakfast- gravy and biscuits, Dinner- PF Changs for my birthday.
Tuesday- Breakfast- Donuts, DInner- Mexician feast.
Wednesday-Breakfast- Sausage cresant rolls, Dinner- Baked ZIti
Thursday- Breakfast-poptart/ cereal. DInner- Hot Dogs
Friday- Breakfast- Eggs, bacon, toast.  Dinner: Chicken and Broccli
Saturday- Breakfast- Poptart/Toast/cereal.  Dinner:  Seafood out or left-overs

Monday Menu Planning 08/03/2015

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After begin so far over budget last month, you would expect us to have lots of food and items to choose from. Unfortunately, this is not the case, mainly because of the way I shop.  We are heading on vacation  next weekend and my plan is to not shop for groceries until after our return. This should help reduce/contain the bill for August. So this week is about using fresh items and cleaning out the pantry so to speak.

Breakfast-Cereal, Poptarts, grits, French  toast, breakfast burritos and maybe some baked Oatmeal to help.

Lunch- Leftovers, sandwiches, dipping day at least once. I made a batch of egg salad and chicken salad on Saturday so sandwiches are the main choice for the week. If needed we have bowls of Mac and Cheese as well as crackers that could be come lunch easily.

Dinner– Focus on smaller meals with little to no leftovers to toss.

Saturday- Lunch: Egg Salad and Chicken salad on Ritz crackers, because we had no bread.   Dinner- Pasta salad with pork, watermelon cantaloupe..

Sunday- Lunch- Cowboy beans.  Dinner-Chicken salad sandwich on fresh sour dough bread.
Monday- Pork chops, potato salad, cantaloupe and cucumber relish
Tuesday- Roast with carrots, onions and fresh fruit.
Wednesday-Hamburger Helper
Thursday-  Layer Taco Salad
Friday- Falafas in crockpot and/or leftovers.

Currently we have about 1/4 a gallon of milk left and are out of several of the kids favorite foods but they are leaning to eat what is on hand. I am hoping to grab an awesome deal on lunchables to use when school starts so at least they have something to look forward to.

Saving on Saturday-August 1st

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sosTarget is one of my favorite stores to shop. I love combining sales and other special deals. This week was an awesome week to stock up on drinks and purchase jeans. I actually received a text message from Target asking me to combine a sale with a 35% off cartwheel of sodas.. I was able to purchase 4 12 packs of Diet Coke, 1- 12 pack of Coke and 8 bottles of Diet Coke for $13.00 or $2.16 each. These will come in hand on our upcoming  Beach trip. Matt requested we grab some “Crystal Lite” packs as well. They were also on sale. Prior to making the trip, I ordered 105 K-cups, they were on sale at Buy Two, Get one Free with an additional 10% off for store pick up, the individual cost of $0.33 each. The final great deal at Target was jeans for both girls, on sale for $10 with an additional 5% using my Target card, which is connect to my regular account.

Shopping is not the only way that I am saving money this week. We are planning our annual trip to the Beach next week. In the past, we have been able to stock up on “Lunchables” to use most days on the beach. This has not been the case so far this year. I have decided that it would make the most sense to make a huge batch of sour dough rolls next week, bake and use these as our ‘sandwich bread” Today, my goal is to make egg salad, and chicken salad to use for these meals. I will also be make a big bowl of pasta salad to take as our meal to the pool this afternoon.

Menu planning and working out  a laundry schedule for the week to maximize the use of our clothes line should round out the day.

 

5 Things Friday

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  1.  Amanda took Kendall to Chunky cheese today to celebrate her birthday! Looks like they had fun..IMG_3614.JPG
  2. We have purchased new living room furniture. Matt picked up a new television stand last night and we should receive the new couch we ordered sometime next week. I will post pictures once I figure out where everything is going.
  3. The county swim meet is exactly one week away. I am one of the organizers for the event. Matt and I spent 7 hours yesterday working on printing and tying up loose ends. I am so excited to see the girls swim but also ready to get some of my time back.
  4. We did not stick to our menu plan at all this week. But we are trying to use the veggie from the garden on a daily basis.
  5. Our new budget is working so far. I especially like having cash for quick grocery store trips. I made sure to count and thing about my purchases before making them with cash.

 

Sunday Menu Planning and other Random thoughts

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I have really enjoy this 4 day break. One of the main things that has happened is that I am finally caught up.  This upcoming week is a relativity slow one for us. Cheerleading is on vacation, so the kids have swim team practice each day and piano on Friday. My work is also slowing down as everyone (all 3 of us) are working this week a regular schedule so I should be able to get home early most days. As I posted earlier, we are growing the stockpile which means lots to choose from when menu planning.

Breakfast-Cereal, Poptarts, grits, toast and breakfast burritos at least one day.

Lunch- Salad (lettuce is already prepared, tomato and cucumbers from garden), sandwiches, hot dogs or left-overs. I am really encouraging Matt and the kids to eat sandwiches or left overs this week so that we can not waste any food.

Dinner– The exciting news here is that I should be able to eat most night with everyone prior to swim practice! First time all summer.

Saturday- Lunch: Potato salad, Mandarin salad, pasta salad, watermelon.   Dinner- Potluck at the pool.

Sunday- Lunch- Leftovers from the week including Chinese, steak or salads from yesterday.  Dinner- Pimento cheese and bacon sandwich on sour dough bread.

Monday- Grilled chicken, sides will be leftovers from the weekend.
Tuesday- Falafel in the crockpot. The plan is to wrap these up and eat at the swim meet.
Wednesday-Salisbury steak, rice and watermelon.
Thursday-  Options include leftovers, shrimp or chicken nachos . (I will make the decision Wednesday night based on what the refrigerator is looking like and my mood.)
Friday- Pork chops, veggie and fruit.

With our garden in full production, the goal is to freeze a small amount each day, eat as much as we want for lunches and not waste any food!

 

Growing Our Stockpile

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My primary area of focus for the month of July is going to be to grow/replenish our stockpile. The only constraint is the $700 food budget.

The rationale behind this decision has several different aspects. First, July should be the month in which our garden produces the most. Next, and more importantly is that we are running low on items that can no longer be neglected. As we made our menu list for the week, we realized that 4 of 7 meals were going to be chicken. Zaycon also notified us this week of a change in the delivery date of our ground beef order, unfortunately this is our week of vacation.

Our first stop was the “local” meat processing plant- Shuler Meats. We ended up purchasing $230 worth of meat. This may seem extremely high but in reality this meat in addition to the chicken we already have will last 3-4 months.  We purchased 30# of ground beef, chicken drumsticks, NY strip Steaks, cube steak, round roast, beef stew and sausage. Looking at the numbers we have enough meat for 47 meals, that is an average of less than $5 a meal or less than $1 a person per meal. Wondering what we did with all this, glad you asked!  We took 20# of the ground beef and fried it up, freezing it in 1# packs for use in many common recipes and for quick meals like tacos and hamburger helper. The other 10# we made into “Salisbury steaks”.

We have also made trips to Aldi, Costco and Food Lion in the last two days as well. Aldi had an awesome deal on blueberries so I have froze several pints of these for future use. I also purchased a couple of bags of dried beans that have been cooked and frozen. Throwing away food is the biggest waste of money in the US, so I ended up steaming and freezing spinach as well as a bag of apples that became fried apples/apple pie filling to prevent their waste.

Out of our garden, we are getting an abundance of cucumbers, I have made several batches of “cucumber relish” and discovered an awesome recipe for “refrigerator pickles” that the kids love so I currently have 3 gallons of these. Tomatoes are one of the easiest items for me, I simple dice and cook we use these for any recipe that calls for diced tomatoes, tomato sauce or stewed tomatoes. I have even been known to add seasoning to these for recipes that call for Italian style tomatoes. I am able to finish and freeze at least one batch ever couple of day.

The final and smallest way, I am growing our stockpile this month is couponing. I am determined to stick to our budget but hope to add a couple of snack foods for future list if the right sale occurs. Do you have any plans to grow your stockpile this summer?

All about the Food

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The past several months have been a struggle in regards to food/groceries and our budget.  We have been attempting to eat what we have and maintain a $600 a month grocery budget while keeping a crazy schedule. I am very thankful that when school ends this Friday, our schedule will become a little bit simpler because the kids will be able to sleep in a bit later in the morning in addition to getting a nap during the day if we are really late getting to bed. School ending will not have an effect on our grocery budget however. We have been packing lunches all year long so in theory we should be eating the same amount of food.

With our busy schedule it has been several months since I have been able to devote time to restocking our freezer with items that make life easier at dinner and breakfast time. The good news is that this weekend, I have been able to accomplish a little bit of that. I am trying to be creative and use food before it ends up in the composite pile as well.

Saturday cooking included: French toast, deviled eggs, potato salad, mandarin salad, watermelon prep, sour dough bread, banana chocolate chip muffins, Mexican rice and a baked spaghetti.

I made a huge batch of French toast, using sour dough bread that needed to be eaten. The down side to making my own bread at this point is that I have to feed the starter every 7-10 days, I could simple toss a cup of starter after feeding it but that feels like waste to me.  I was able to use up a loaf and half of bread this morning. Matt is also planning to make pretzels for a treat and it will use the same dough as well.

My kids love to help in the kitchen and I know that I need to encourage and develop that skill as well so this weekend, the little three have been taking turns helping to prepare food. Kendall read the French toast recipe and Zach dump in the ingredients. Lily was able to make “mandarin salad” following the recipe with just guidance from me. For Zach next turn, he was able to help dump and turn on the blender for mixing up bread dough. Kendall helped with deviled eggs today as well.  The kids really enjoyed working in the kitchen. I was able to get all the food prepare that I had planned so it was definitely a win this week..

One of the areas that is always a struggle for us is Sunday. I really like the idea of not cooking and having a day of rest. In order for it not to turn into a eat out day. I am trying to prepare things ahead. The muffins were made on Saturday. Lunch was prepared on Saturday night and will cook while we are at church. Dinner is also all prepared and will just need to be heated up or in the case of most of the food just loaded on plates.

Overall I am very pleased with the food progress we made this weekend and hope that with some extra prep we can avoid eating out and still maintain a budget during June.

Now to the menu plan with some notes about our work on Saturday.

Breakfast-French toast (leftovers from Saturday) ,  Banana Muffins (made for breakfast on Sunday) Cereal, Poptarts, grits and toast.

Lunch-Lunches are going to be packed later today(Sunday) and I will be taking either a salad or leftovers.

Dinner– In addition to the kids “normal” practice this week we have a meeting for Matt on Tuesday and for Sheila on Thursday.

Saturday- Lunch: Potato salad, Mandarin salad, watermelon, deviled eggs. Matt needed some meat so he eat leftover steak.  Dinner- Mexican rice with salsa, cheese and chips.

Sunday- Lunch- Baked Spaghetti (noodles left over from last week and I need to use up the mozzarella cheese , Dinner- Left over meat choice of chicken, steak or pork with the sides from Saturday or a salad.

Monday- Hamburger steak with sides ( whatever is left) from Saturday
Tuesday- Tacos
Wednesday-Rice creole
Thursday-  Options include leftovers, breakfast, pizza chicken  or pulled pork. (I will make the decision Wednesday night based on what the refrigerator is looking like and my mood.)
Friday- Cowboy beans that will be reheated in crock pot. We may add some corn bread just to make things fun.

Finally the budget discussion, after much thought, prayer and analyzing the numbers, I have decided to increase my grocery budget to $700 a month beginning in June. Food prices have been on the rise for the past several years and I have maintained the $600 budget for almost 3 years. In addition as the kids are growing they are beginning to eat more. With this realization I will be add the $100 a month in hopes of making the budget more realistic and obtainable . Is your budget changing?

 

Food For Thought

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Up until this Saturday, I had done no grocery shopping in the month of April. Matt actually ran to the store to pick up milk after we came home from the beach.  Because of the limited shopping our budget has stayed very low for the month. My goal for the month was to keep our grocery budget low and to use up as much as possible from our stockpile so I had already decided that I did now want to spend a great deal and I am pleased to report that I was successful. Saturday turned out to be a very rainy and nasty day, Amanda had planned to spend the day with the kids so she offered to watch all three of the little one while Matt and I went to the grocery store. After ten years of marriage, this even is considered a date! Matt has a free drink from Starbucks so that was our first stop. Next we went to Harris Teeter, I saved around 50% and only used 3 coupons, $3 off a 12 pack of diet coke, $3 off 2 boxes of Starbucks K-cups and $5 off purchase of $50. This last coupon was after all other coupons as well. I did shop in the clearance buggy where I found 3 boxes of ant bait.  We also purchased sausage, bacon and pepperoni with our total our of pocket being $47.67. Next we stopped at Food Lion where we purchased 10 boxes of fruit snacks, 5 boxes of pop tarts and a gallon of milk for $22. I was very pleased with our trip> I am actually still under $200 for the month so I may go to Food Lion for a couple more rounds of Fruit snacks.

After keeping our food budget extremely low for the month of April, I am already looking ahead to May, I know that we are going to need to make a Costco trip at the beginning of the month and it also appears as if we will be purchasing 40# of ground beef from Zaycon to last us through the summer. My goal is to stay under $600 for the month so between these two large purchase we most likely will continue to adapt and ate things that we have on hand. Otherwise if the budget goes extremely high it will negate our positive gains in April.

Next item on our food list is that our square foot garden is growing! I am so excited that not only did all the plants that I have initially planted survive but they are growing. Matt has also added a 2×6 box that we will be planting corn in. Depending how well the corn grows and if we really like it, we may add a third box just for corn.

Finally, meal planning for the week. This will be a special week as both girls have Field Day this week, several appointments on Thursday and we are headed to our last competition for Cheerleading next weekend.

Breakfast-French toast (leftovers) , Cereal, Poptarts, eggs and Baked oatmeal.

Lunch-Lunches are going to be packed later today(Sunday) and I will be taking either a salad or leftovers.

Dinner– Crazy evening schedule with several quick and easy meals thrown in.

Saturday- Lunch: new chicken recipe, Dinner- Homemade pizza with sourdough crust.
Sunday- Lunch- at my parents, Dinner- Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggie and fruit.
Monday- leftovers
Tuesday- Hamburger helper
Wednesday-Chicken pie and Squash casserole, I am taking the day off so I will be cooking!
Thursday-  hot pockets or pizza roles
Friday- Pepper steak and rice.

Random Thoughts Thursday

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  1. It does not feel like just a week ago we were enjoying some fun at the beach!
  2. Matt’s birthday was Tuesday but due to our schedule we decided to celebrate tonight. He wished for things to slow down and I just laughed!
  3. I am amazed at the difference in the weather in different parts of the country. Today it was windy but 65* but in Michigan it snowed!  I am also very thankful I don’t live where it snows in April!
  4. I was able to plant most of my square foot garden today!  The current plan is to finish it in two weeks and replace anything that does not survive. I thought I had checked the weather better but it turns out that we have a chance of going below freezing today so I hope everything survives. I am so excited to get things growing!
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  5. . We are doing really well on our budget for the month. I knew in advance that our beach trip would cost us extra and I am hoping to cover the additional repair to the van as well. As of today, we have spent only $121 of our $600 grocery budget and that includes not only the plants you see above but steaks for Matt’s birthday dinner! In gas, we have spent $309. This amount does include our gas for travel to and from the beach but not the repair that was made on the white van prior to going. I don’t see that we will be spending anything more in gas but do expect to end up spending around $150 on groceries by the end of the month.
  6. Weird things excite me, as you can tell from the numbers above, we have not been grocery shopping this month. On Monday, we went down to our building where we have both our freezers. In the chest freezer is all veggies, it is starting to look a little low except for the zucchini which I froze over 2 years ago.  The other freezer now only contains chicken and is less than half full. I am excited to finally be using and seeing a difference in our grocery budget. I definitely don’t want to use up all our stock pile but like the idea of starting fresh at the end of the summer and attempting to maintain the same $600 budget after cutting it down to a fourth for a couple of month.
  7. Our next and final cheerleading competition is only two weeks away but it at Carowinds which is an amusement park. It will be very expensive but a fun trip. I am actually really looking forward to decreasing our schedule by at least one night a week for cheerleading! Swim team starts everyday in the month of June so I am not sure what we will do for the month of June this year. I would love to take a month off from cheering but just don’t see that happening!

Five Things Friday 4/10/2015

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So glad that Carla did this post today! So I “borrowed” her cute picture and will share my five things!

  1. The white van was treated to yet another set of repairs yesterday. A new heater hose and  air conditioner compressor. This depleted our emergency fund by $450. I am hoping to be able to add a little bit  back to the fund this month but even more so am praying that this is the end of repairs at least  for a couple of months.
  2. I was driving the van to cheerleading last night and on the way home suffered an allergy attack. After a little bit of thinking, realized that it was most likely due to “dust” that had accumulated in the air condition system. This morning, Matt spent another $10 to replace the cabin air filters. I am so frustrated with this van at the moment.
  3. I did have a major success in saving for Groceries. Our menu plan called for Baked Potato on Thursday.  I realized when getting out the potatoes that I still had about a fourth of bag of potatoes that were starting to spout. In order not to waste food, I filled the crockpot with potatoes, used the remaining ones after dinner to make mashed potatoes. One 2 cup set I will use for “shepherd pie” this weekend and the others (2)  are frozen for later use. I also started a crock pot with “potato corn chowder” which will be a second meal for the weekend and then at least two additional meals in the future. So I have managed to cook a minimum of 5 meals in one day using crock pots and food on hand.
  4.  I am working toward a goal of significantly lowering our grocery cost for the month. To accomplish this I want to stick to shopping at CVS and Aldi, no Costco trips. So far for the month, we have spent $38 on groceries. The goal is to spend less than $50, purchase some landscape items and plants for the square foot garden with another $200 and use the remainder to now cover the unexpected van expense.
  5.  In NC on Saturday, the temperature is suppose to be in the low 70s and sunny so we are planning to spend the day working on the Square Foot Garden. I hope to post pictures of all the yard tomorrow.