Category Archives: Menu Planning

Menu Planning

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Our crazy life continues but it appears that we may slow down just a bit after this week. One of the advantages to doing a monthly menu plan is that it allows us to adjust if wanted or needed without running out to the store. I made some big changes from our original plan this week for two reasons. The first was that I was given several food items that need to be used in the next week. Secondly, the weather has finally turned to fall and our garden should be much slower in production in the next couple of weeks. We have been letting our green peppers grow and were rewarded with a HUGE harvest today. I actually had enough to make stuff green peppers for dinner, put away a bag to freeze to use in soup and have enough left to make breakfast burrito bowls later this week.

reakfast–   Saturday- Sausage Cresant Rolls(the fill was actually left-over from last week). Sunday- Choices.  Monday-Overnight Apple French Toast. Tuesday- Choices Wednesday- choices. Thursday- Breakfast burrito bowl Friday- Choices.  Choices include : leftovers, eggs, grits, French toast, pop-tart or toaster strudel, Breakfast croissant, toast or cereal.

Lunch- Our lunch menu has changed as Kendall had a really rough time with her braces and we decided to buy thermos for both Zach and Kendall to use. Monday-Egg salad for Kendall and chicken nuggets for Zach. Tuesday- Macroni and Beef, Wednesday- Kendall wants left over soup and Zach has chicken nuggets again. Thursday-Tomato soup and goldfish, and Friday- Spaghetti O’s. I have already made two salad for this week and will take leftovers otherwise.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- leftovers.   Dinner- Kimonos(eating out).
Sunday- Lunch- Broccoli- Cheese Soup. Dinner- Stuffed green Peppers. (I also frozen enough stuffing for another meal.)
Monday- Squash peperoni pie. ( Made this up trying to use what we had, if it works will be awesome and easy to throw in again)
Tuesday-Mexican casserole- already in fridge
Wednesday- Kielbasa and rice
Thursday- pulled pork and carrots
Friday- country style steak and gravy or leftovers depends on how the week goes.

Menu Planning

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We survived the last couple of weeks!  This week things are a tiny bit slower with no baseball game on Monday!  We have changed to a monthly menu plan and I am really enjoying the way it is working. First, Matt and I both know what is on the plan for dinner but we also know that if something changes grab another night. Second, it allows us to know what items we need to purchase and what things can wait. My goal for the last 3 months of the year, is to keep our grocery budget to less than $300 a month. This is a low low number for us but we have several large meat orders that we are working our way through which helps to significantly reduce the budget in addition to several family birthday and trips that mean we get to eat out more. Finally, we are finally not wasting food, or at least wasting a small amount which gets tossed in the compost bin so not really a waste. In fact that is the theme of this week’s plan… eating up leftovers!

Breakfast–   Saturday-Cereal, Sunday- Trisha Yearwood Breakfast Casserole.  The rest of the week will be a choice of leftovers, cereal, fried eggs, yogurt or breakfast bars.

Lunch- This week, I will have already made a chicken salad for Monday, and Tuesday- salad. Wednesday and Friday will be leftovers.  Zach and Kendall have 2 days of chicken nuggets, 2 Uncrustables with cheese crackers. and a sandwich. Lily and Matt will have frozen burritos or leftovers or pizza or chicken nuggets.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- grilled cheese sandwich. (Trying to use up some bread)   Dinner-Leftover of choice
Sunday- Lunch- Friends provided . Dinner- Pick your left over meat, I cooked green beans, stuffing and fried apples to go along with this.
Monday- Chicken Fried Rice
Tuesday-Amanda’s birthday- Eating out to celebrate
Wednesday- Hamburger Helper
Thursday- Turkey pot pie (To finish up the left over turkey)
Friday- Homemade pizza night

One other important note, Lily is enjoying cooking and is making usually one meal a week. This past week, she actually made stuffed green peppers on Thursday, a cake on Friday and the breakfast casserole on Saturday for Sunday morning.

Menu Planning-10/02/2016

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I tried to get things planned and prepped ahead for this week as it would appear to be one of the busiest so far. I will not even make it home on Monday till after cheerleading. I am actually taking two meals with me that day.   One thing that has been working the last couple of weeks for us is Soup on Sunday. It is easy to put everything in the crockpot and let cook while we are at church. After lunch, I have been turning off the crockpot and we can enjoy a second time for dinner. I plan to continue this at least for a month and see if anyone object loudly.

Breakfast–   You will notice I am planning on cooking a lot more than usual this week. One of the reason is I am heading to work later. I always store the leftovers for the next week. Saturday-Gravy Biscuits by request, Sunday- leftovers.  Monday- Breakfast Burrito Bowl- I am not scheduled to work till 9:30 and I have already cut up everything to cook. Tuesday- Cereal or yogurt, Wednesday- Baked Oatmeal, Thursday- Tricia Yearwood’s Breakfast casserole, Friday- Leftovers.

Lunch- This week, I will have leftovers and salad. Zach and Kendall have 2 days of chicken nuggets, 2 Uncrustables with pirate booty and a sandwich. Lily and Matt will have salad or leftovers or pizza or chicken nuggets.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- leftovers.   Dinner- Meatloaf, squash casserole, mashed potatoes and cake.
Sunday- Lunch- Taco Soup. Dinner- Sloppy Joes and French Fries
Monday- leftovers
Tuesday-Chicken pie, green beans from freezer and fruit
Wednesday- Pulled pork, carrots and fruit
Thursday- Country Style Steak, rice and fruit
Friday- Homemade pizza night or leftovers. .

I am amazed to look back and realize how far we really have come in the past year. In October last year, I was excited to say that our eating out budget was contained at $200 which was half of September. This year we have more activities and I am excited to say that we spent less than $50 in September on eating out, except for Zach’s birthday meal.

Random Tuesday Thoughts

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  • Zach got a hit and ran all the way to 3rd base last night. He ran and  touched home plate!  Even a loss is fun when you are learning.
  • We have been without air conditioning or heat for the past week I think we save approximately $25 a week this way.
  • All three kids have field trip this month. I am sad to say that Lily’s trip to play putt putt was the cheapest at $15. What happen to “free public school.”
  • We are continuing to earn extra money to pay toward our next Disney Trip. September has been a great month, by friend we should have earned $100 in gift cards.
  • I get to speak at Kendall school on Thursday.  She is so excited, I hope she will be proud afterwards.

Menu Planning-9/25/2016

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Another busy week in store. We are determined to keep our food bill down so with a plan in place here we go.

Breakfast–  Saturday-We splurged- Breakfast from Biscuit King, Sunday- Yogurt and leftovers.  Monday- Grits and Eggs (I am not planning to head to work till 9 so good morning to cook) . The rest of the week will be leftovers including Waffles, cereal, toast including French toast  or yogurt.

Lunch- This week, I will have leftovers and salad. Zach and Kendall have 2 days of chicken nuggets, 2 Uncrustables with pirate booty and a sandwich. Lily and Matt will have salad or leftovers.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- leftovers.   Dinner- leftovers.
Sunday- Lunch- Stuffed Green Pepper Soup. Dinner- Cheeseburger Pizza
Monday- Rice Kreola
Tuesday-Cowboy Beans from freezer
Wednesday- Turkey breast and stuffing
Thursday- Beef and Broccoli or left overs
Friday- Squash lasagna or leftovers.

 

Simple and quick are the cues for the week. Maybe we will get more creative next week.

Menu Plan- 9/11/2016

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This coming week our lives have officially hit the crazy stage again with multiple (yes meaning more than one) practices each night except for Friday. We also have eye appointments this week.  I know that without a plan we would be eating fast food a lot but here is the plan.

Breakfast–  Saturday- Gravy Biscuits, Sunday- Breakfast Burritos.  Monday- Strawberry and Cream Baked Oatmeal. The rest of the week will be leftovers including Waffles, cereal or Sausage Egg Croissants (on sale at Costco)

Lunch- We have enough Lunchables left to finish out the week. I have pre-cut up salad things for several of the days for Lily and myself.

Dinner-  Saturday- Lunch- Fast food.   Dinner- Cookout with neighbors
Sunday- Lunch- “Alice Springs Chicken”, 6 layer salad, and creamed corn.    Dinner-leftovers or sandwiches
Monday- Sloppy Joes and French fries .
Tuesday-Spaghetti and meatballs, Garlic toast
Wednesday- Honey Garlic Shrimp (new recipe) and fruit
Thursday- Beef and Broccoli or left overs
Friday- Shepherd’s pie

5 Things Financial

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A day late and a dollar short…. so I thought I would share anyway. I can’t even say these are five frugal things but this is our reality.

  1. The first pay of the month was this week. Unfortunately, both our electricity and water bills were both the highest we have had in several years. The water bill was $45 due to a leak. The electric bill $301, mainly due to extreme heat we are experiencing this summer. I saw last night that we have had 53 days in the nineties, our average is 26.  The good news is that we are expecting to have cooler this week, which means the end of our air!
  2. We were planning to keep our grocery budget at bare bones this month. We already have a menu plan in place. We did need some breakfast items including milk so I head to Costco. Our membership was due. We also decided to purchase some steaks from Zaycon, so we are still under budget but no where near bare bones.
  3. I am really liking the McDonald app. Today, I enjoyed a large diet coke and Kendall a hashbrown for $1.07.
  4. Baseball is an expensive sport. Zach decided he wanted to try it out this fall. I am really surprised at all the cost associated with it. I did purchase cleats and a helmet from a family at our pool.
  5. After  a month of struggling with Verizon, Matt and I both have new IPHONES. They really are a lot faster and easier to read for me. This should be the end of electronic purchases for the year!

Saving on Saturday-9/03/2016

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Just for the record, I have 3 or 4 post that I have planned in my head and just no time to get posted. I am going to have to work on a better schedule for the next month if I have any hope of meeting my goal of 20 post. Now on to the regularly scheduled topic… saving.

This week, I have been saving and using gift cards to keep our budget low. If I purchase a gift card that is one thing but these cards are free from either swagbucks or MPlaces.

Thursday- I used my McDonald’s app to purchase Matt, Lily and myself breakfast for a grand total of $4.70. Total saved $10.00
Next Matt stopped at Starbuck’s to grab he and Lily a treat. He used a gift card earned from Swagbucks to pay so no out of pocket. Total saved $8.50
We picked up donuts to take to Zach’s class at school for his birthday. I purchased a BOGO card several years ago and continue to reap the benefits. Total saved $8.35.
I was disappointed that my Disney gift card order at Target was cancelled but decided to use the money to purchase some K-cups. I was able to purchase 4 16 packs and a container of pumpkin pie spice for zero out of pocket. The best part was I received free shipping and an additional 5% off because I have my target card store. Total Saved $53.
Total saving for Thursday: $80

Of course, it is Labor Day weekend so we had to go to Lowes. Last week, we grabbed a $10 Lowes card and a $5 Lowes card from MPLACES. We purchased bug spray, mums, pavers for the garden and light bulbs. I was able to use the cards with no trouble. One was actually on my phone and the second was a printed one. Total saved $15.

I did some planning ahead for this weekend, we have enjoyed three meals at home today, in addition to work outside the entire day. I am very tempted when we get busy to grab some fast food or order a pizza, so this is a true victory. I am going to say we saved $10 on pizza that we made at home instead using Sour Dough bread, spaghetti sauce, cheese and pepperoni.

Aldi is a great place to shop for groceries and their price in our area are significantly lower than the other stores. I sent Matt to pick up a dozen eggs on Friday. They were on sale for $0.79 a dozen so he grabbed the last 4 dozen available. Total saved $3.00

Our biggest and final saving of today is on clothing. My sister in law called and offered hand me downs for the girls. I am excited to spend a couple of hours see what we were given.

I think this is probably one of  my biggest weeks of saving so far!

Thursday Thoughts

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  • Zach has been missing his two front teeth for almost 4 years, I noticed today that he has one that is grown in about half the way and a second that is starting. This is changing his appearance and I will miss my toothless wonder.
  • Lily and Kendall both had orthodontic appointments today. Kendall mouth is umm not the best. In fact, she will have a tooth pulled in September and start her first round of braces in October. We are hopefully that two sets will do the trick.
  • Lily will only need one set of braces so we will continue to wait for all her permanent teeth to come in before starting braces. Next summer is the estimate.
  • I picked up one of my two new sets of glasses today. My ordinal pair was over 2 years old and the side piece had broken. The doctor did not include bifocals on my prescription and I lasted less than 3 hours at work before calling and getting the prescription corrected. I do have a second set but of course they are on back order and will be here after my vacation.
  • Lily will officially start school on the 22nd. We are all becoming very anxious about this.
  • We have worked this month on restocking our pantry and freezers so instead of focusing on the budget, I have been focusing on eliminated waste. I have discovered several areas that I can make improvements on. First is water, I am trying to use water that we cook with instead of pouring down the drain. Second is food, we have stopped menu planning this week to focus on eating what is ripe and in our fridge that needs to be cleaned out.
  • Today was our third trip to the water park. It was a much shorter trip only four hours but we all had a blast and I am exhausted! We are hoping to squeeze one more trip in prior to public school starting.

Saving on Saturday 08/06/2016

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sos

This month we are approaching our grocery budget a little bit different. First, our summer is coming to an end. Next week is our final “slow” week of the summer followed by our beach trip. So after looking at our supplies and realizing that we are to back to school days and crazy nights. So the decision was made to go ahead and get things ready for our crazy busy life. We headed to Aldi on Wednesday night to buy some staples and make sure we had can goods. Next it was Costco on Thursday. Fortunately, Costco had an awesome sale on convenience foods and lots of things that make our lunches easy to pack in the mornings.  Zach and I also went to Walmart and grabbed 40 lunchables which were on sale for $1 each. These are awesome for the kids at the beach and also for a special lunch treat.   On Friday, I stopped at CVS to grab the laundry detergent that was on sale. This is a ton of shopping this week but I am vey happy with feeling confident for the first couple of month of fall.

Next is actually getting some things in the freezer for grab and go dinners. Matt picked up 80# of ground beef that we ordered from Zaycon on Friday afternoon.  This is some of the freshest meat we have ever received the date stamped on all the packages is July 23rd, so 2 weeks ago this was a live animal.  We decided to simple put in the freezer 20 pounds or 10 packages to use for things that call for raw meat.  Next we spent five hours, fry up and packaging the rest in one pound containers. These are also for pulling out for taco meat, spaghetti sauce, hamburger helper, sloppy joes, chili and stews or crock pot recipes that call for a pound of ground beef. I estimate this should last us six to nine months. This morning I made a large batch of French toast. The kids and I enjoyed some for breakfast and the rest was frozen to stick in the toaster for a quick easy breakfast.

We have a very full pantry and freezers. I plan to reduce our grocery budget to $100 in September and $300 in October. I may be able to keep it low for the rest of the year depending on how things work out with sales and how much the kids decide to eat.