Meal planning and grocery budgeting go hand in hand, I believe. Please share your meal planning and grocery budgeting strategies, your menus for the week, etc.

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My grocery budget is $150/month for 2 people (DD 17 and I). It includes only our food items and does NOT include pet food, household cleaning products, toiletries, etc., even though these items might be purchased at the grocery store. I have different budgets set up for those other items.

My grocery budgeting strategies include knowing the prices of items so I can recognize a good sale when I see one, buying mostly items that are on sale and stocking up when I see a good "loss leader" sale.

We'll stick to our standard $400 a month for grocery and household items for our family (six people, ranging from 2.5 to 45) for November.

Some things I'm looking at in November to better organize our food budget, options, etc:

1: A friend south of me has been getting into coupons quite a lot. I'm talking with her to see if coupons could actually do anything for us, as I tend to buy on the "lowest sale price for generic" cycle, and we don't eat processed foods in most cases (and coupons for veggies rarely happen!) I have a feeling I can do the best by looking for coupons on household items (like toothpaste), but coupons may not be helpful for grocery items at our house.

2: Working my way out of meal-planning ruts by exchanging meal and bulk cooking ideas with a small group of local and internet friends.

3: Learning to make a few new recipes, including tamales.

I personally do not have an exact budget set up for myself (and DBF). I tend to do the majority of grocery shopping and he does the eating out.

I watch the sales and shop religiously with them. I go through the papers, generally do not use coupons as I find the no name brands to be cheaper. This will be an expensive week for me as Thurs to Sun, 2 different stores are having meat sales. 1 is having whole boneless strip loins for $2.77/lb, sliced free. The other is having boneless skinless chicken breast for $1.50. Will stock up on both then spend an afternoon wrapping, labeling and freezing. That should get me through the winter. Last week was able to get the imitation crab meat for half price so bought those and filled a shelf on the freezer door too.

In September, I spent over $400 at one time to purchase a lot of food. Currently we're still eating from that. I have had to purchase some household goods and perishables but the bulk was from that purchase. I do believe I can make it into the first part of December without buying and more groceries.

This next week I do have to buy household purchases though. We're out of a lot of things.

In addition, our Church is having a Christmas Bazaar next weekend. Tonight I hope to dip the seven dozen cherries that were wrapped with fondant. I also have some other candies that can be sliced into rounds or squares. This last weekend I made a breakfast ring and can make a couple of those as well. The recipe was for green and red cherries but I made pecan, cranberry, and orange "wreath". I'm not much for breads. I don't have the patience, but the family thought it came out quite well. So we'll see.

Tonight we're having leftover soup. Last night we had sloppy joes with carrots and apple slices with milk. It was hot, quick and easy so that the kids could enjoy the festivities.

We average $60-70 a week for two people cooking mostly from scratch. We need to do a freezer inventory and plan out a menu for a month to see what we can come up with to pare down the freezer.

We have $175 saved for the meat sale Dec 18th. We will probably go up to $250 depending on what they have. We spent $100 last year and vowed to save to double that if the deals were there.

We are back to having chef salads twice a week. DH wants to lose some weight and that worked in the past. We had some discussions about portion size for everything else.

When I defrosted, re-organized and inventoried the deep freeze in Sept. my meal plan was targeted to using foods in the pantry & freezer. Except for Canadian Thanksgiving, business dinners, fresh fruit & produce, we are continuing the plan.
Monday: Broccoli Salad, Pork loin steak, Italian, sliced potato, blueberry cobbler [leftover fm Sunday]

Tue: planover roast chicken/Chicken/Rice casserole, mushrooms, 4 bean salad, jello

Wed: V8, Liver,sausages, onions, mashed potato, jello

Thurs: Chicken vegetable soup, grilled cheese sandwiches, fruit salad

Fri: Pita pizza leftovers, salad, turnip puff

Sat: German sausages, homestyle potato pancakes

Sun. Leg of lamb, all the trimmings

This week we'll have:

Ham & Cheese Stromboli with dipping sauces of marinara or white garlic

"Corndog" Bake (cornbread with onions, real corn, and sliced Polish sausages, plus cheese)

Mongolian Beef & Onions, over rice, and likely with pot-stickers (all homemade!)

Breakfast Supper (diced potatoes, onions, peppers, eggs, cheese)

Salad Bar (sounds fancy, but I just set out lots of dribs and drabs, and let everyone create their own salad)

Sweet & Sour Meatballs sound really good, or else Swedish Meatballs over homemade egg noodles... I'll have to choose!


For lunches, leftovers, and finishing up last week's Baked Potato Soup.

Breakfasts will rotate amongst hot oatmeal, homemade pancakes/eggs, homemade muffins (I need to get dig out the molasses, so I can make pear-gingerbread muffins!), fruit buckles.

I do need to plan out most of the month at some point this week, so I can go shopping late this week or on the weekend. I'd like to spend about half my budget up front, and get stocked up, so we're only filling in through the rest of the month.

However, our favorite grocery will do turkey on specials this month. Usually, if you buy $50 in groceries, you can get a nice turkey for 38c a pound. At that rate, and having a freezer, I'll make smaller trips three times, and have loads of suppers in my freezer!

MMMM, everything sounds great. I love hearing about the wonderful meals everyone is making.

Last night we had leftover soup, peanut butter toast and oriental salad.

I need to really work on my meal plan during my break and lunch hour.

I went grocery shopping on Sunday afternoon. Although it was done on Oct. 31, I'll count it as part of Nov. shopping. Went to the ethnic store for fresh vegetables and fruits and to the regular supermarket for milk, etc.

Spent $19.45 at the ethnic store and bought:

broccoli crown, $.79/lb = $.90
green beans, $.99/lb = $1.17
beets, $.59/lb = $.73
cucumber, 3/$1.00 = $.34
brown onions, $.25/lb = $.33
carrots, $.40/lb = $.40
zucchini, 3lb/$1.00 = $.80

red grapes, $.79/lb = $1.74
black grapes, $.79/lb = $1.54
persimmons, $.79/lb = $1.56
Fuyu persimmons, $.79/lb = $$.89
bananas, $.49/lb = $.90

2 6oz. paprika, $1.69@
chilli powder, 6 oz. = $1.99

pork sausages, 10 oz = $1.49

tea biscuits, 454 g = $1.29


Spent $24.95 at the regular supermarket, and bought:
2 gal. milk, $2.69@
1/2 gal. apple juice, $1.69
32 oz flavored coffee creamer, $3.99
4 boxes (14 oz. @) cereal, $1.49@
hot cheetos, $2.50
7 6oz yogurt, $.39@
gala apples, $.49/lb = $1.52
2 bread rolls, $.59@

Nov. grocery spending = 19.45 + 24.95 = $ 44.40

Balance remaining in Nov. grocery budget = $150 - 44.40 = $105.60

Week's meal plan:

Sunday (10/31) dinner: rice, chicken curry, cucumber salad; grapes

Mon (11/1) - b'fast: ground beef/veggies filled pastries, banana, apple juice
lunch: sandwich roll (bread roll, lettuce, cold cuts, mayo & mustard); grapes; brownie for DD
dinner: rice, chicken curry, green beans; peanut butter cups

Tues (11/2) - b'fast: DD - peanut butter/oats cereal bar; Me - banana & tea biscuits
lunch: rice, chicken curry, green beans; Asian pear for DD; grapes and strawberries for me
dinner: probably fried rice with ground beef and vegetables (celery, onions, carrots, corn); fruit salad

Wed (11/3) - b'fast: banana bread, by itself for DD, with cream cheese for me (DD won't eat any type of cheese)
lunch: rice, chicken curry, green beans; fruit of choice
dinner: rice, teriyaki beef with broccoli and bell peppers

Thurs (11/4) - brunch: pancakes, sausages
dinner: rice, chicken curry, garbanzo beans, green beans, cucumber salad

Fri (11/5) - b'fast: choice of cereal, cereal bars, etc., plus fruit
lunch: rice and either leftover teriyaki beef or chicken curry with leftover green beans
dinner: maybe pasta

Sat (11/6) - brunch: waffles
dinner: not sure yet what I want to cook. If I go grocery shopping on Sat., I might buy some fish to cook for dinner. We haven't had fish in a while.

I've posted this idea in other threads, but thought I'd post it again here in case someone hasn't read it.

I created a list of all of the main course foods that we like and organized them according to preparation time and/or method. My categories include:

* Crock Pot
* Grill
* Quick & Easy
* Average
* Time-Consuming

I then created a spreadsheet on which I have pre-filled four weeks' worth of daily meal ideas that include both the main course, as well as side dishes. I schedule each meal according to the amount of preparation time and our normal weekly schedule. (For example, I prepare quick and easy meals or use my Crock Pot during the week and save the more time-consuming recipes for the weekend.) We eat leftovers for dinner on Friday nights, and we go out for lunch on Sundays after church, so I really only cook 5 nights per week.

Re-using my list every month (with minor changes)eliminates the need to keep planning new menus. For weeks when our normal schedule changes or I want to try a new recipe, I simply choose a different menu option from my list or omit it altogether if we won't be eating at home.

I've also prepared a separate list of every single ingredient that is needed for each meal. This saves me an enormous amount of time when preparing my weekly grocery list because my menus are already pre-planned. All I have to do is check my pantry and refrigerator to see what I need.

PG