Here's the link to Sept...

Grocery Sept.

DS and I are going to try a new meal plan. The goal is partly to eat more nutritiously, and especially to save money, including by eating out less.

I took a plastic calendar (dry-erase type) from an office supply store, and on it put small sticky notes for each day of the month. These will be reusable, and if they wear out, we can make new ones. On each note is a type of main meal, such as meat loaf, seafood, chili, chicken, barbecue, pork chops, etc. We have also included a few vegetarian items, casseroles, and so on. Since we rarely eat pancakes or waffles for breakfast because of lack of time to fix them, we can eat them for dinner once a month each. We've designated 4-5 days as "out" food, whether Taco Bell (which DS loves; I usually eat leftovers when he gets TB food), delivered pizza, one fast-food meal (McDonald's, KFC, or whatever), maybe Chinese, and one other. The "other" could be a meal in a "better" restaurant (Olive Garden, say) if there is a special occasion - my birthday is this month. Probably the in-laws will treat me, but I could cover DS's food. Anyway, I'm going to try to track the meals and estimate the cost if home-cooked, based on grocery prices, and log the exact cost of anything else. Because the sticky notes are removable and repositionable, we can adjust what we are actually having on a weekly, or if necessary, daily basis. We could decide not to have X or Y because of a change in plan, and have Z instead because it is quicker to fix. I can make some things ahead, such as spaghetti, but we could eat it on a different day (I usually make more than one batch, anyway, and freeze the rest.) I'll let you know how well this works.

sounds like a great plan, simplicity!

good luck w it!

mary

Wow, Simplicity, that's great! A lot of thought and planning went into it, I am sure. I like the flexibility you have built into it. Please let us know how it works out for you.

I tend to plan my meals around grocery specials and what I have on hand.

Dinner tonight was chicken fried rice (leftover rice, leftover roast chicken from the freezer, bacon from the freezer, green peas from the freezer, an egg, some broccoli). Dessert was frozen "molten lava cakes" that I had bought on sale and kept in the freezer for a treat.

Lunch tomorrow will be the last of the meat pastries I baked the other evening. Dinner might be hot dogs.

i went grocery shopping wed. i spent 4557 at bj's of which 2199 was for 45 rolls of tp., and 2250 at food lion

bj's
tp 2199 reg 2599
12 c batteries 829 reg 1029
4 qt 1/2 and 1/2 179 ea
4 bean salad 64 oz 599

food lion
f l oatmeal flavored 235
2 tomatoes 356
lg f l sharp cheedar 429
2 hillshire smoked sausages 200 reg 250
hillshire deli meat sm 345 reg 399
4 cheese alfredo sauce classico 250
f l sliced beets
2 f l yogurt 2 for 97

total of 6807 spent this trip. total of 24171 spent in the month of sept. this leaves 15829 to go into my 'mad money' acct

mary

Last night a friend came over and we made a massive batch of meatballs and meatloaves. We had enough for 4 meals each of meatballs and 4 meals of meatloaf.

Tonight we are having chicken in stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes and the last of our corn on the cob. I made enough chicken and tomatoes to freeze another meal.

Jenn, that's EXCELLENT planning!

I have been much more frugal in my food shopping now that I have the food stamps. I have 7 days to go before it refills with another $200 and I still have $111 dollars worth left!! I would have to spend over $15/day left to use it all up so I think I have done very well.

I spent $20 and got a lot! The only thing I had to pay cash for was cat food and toilet paper. Everything I bought was on sale (some seriously marked down) and I focused on things I could take to work that don't have to be refrigerated (none at work) so I could grab and go. For those of you that like to keep up with my food health, sodium, fat ect (LOVE YOU) I choose low sodium and low fat items.

This is what I got:

1/2 gallon milk
loaf of bread
2 bags of salad mix ($.49@!!)
box of mini donuts ($.80)
box of cream danish (not the most healthy, but good for occasional grab and go)
Chocolate pudding cups
Mixed fruit cups
instant oatmeal
graham crackers
light popcorn
applesauce cups
bag of chips
spaghetti sauce
chili seasoning
2 pears
low fat vanilla ice cream (my treat!!)

I am going to freeze the rest of the chicken and dumplings made earlier today and make a batch of chili with the ground beef I already had on hand. I had made the chicken and dumplings with a canned soup and it tasted too salty so don't want to eat the rest right away. Will save til a time I need a heat and eat item and have made an effort to reduce sodium intake prior.

Phichef: I've heard if you cut a potato in half and then heat the food the potato will absorb some of that salty taste. It might be worth it to find out if this actually works.

Hot dogs and salad for lunch, today.

Macaroni & cheese and ground beef for dinner.

I will grocery shop tomorrow. Need quite a few "stock up" type items.