Day 5: How to meal plan

Meal planning is probably one of the most cost effective ways to reduce a grocery bill. If you don't plan you either wander the grocery aisles deciding what's for dinner there, buy ingredients you already have, or you forget items and have to return to the store later. There are many ways to plan and organize your meals and I am going to share mine. Before I get to the planning I will share quickly what our meals were for the day... again... a boring meal day. Same old lunches, however, dinner was ground chicken spaghetti with salad. The only ingredients that were bought ingredients were the ground chicken and the spaghetti sauce I bought on my trip to the store the other day.

Now to my meal planning... My husband and I have been married for 5 years now and I have been meal planning since we got married. Here goes...

Step 1: Survey the Pantry
Check out what you already have to get ideas on meals and to start your list.

Step 2: Look at store ads
Proteins can be some of the most expensive parts of a meal so I always look at the ads to see what proteins are on sale. Look for other items like cheese that are common ingredients. After I figure up proteins I start to plan my meals.

Step 3: Decide on Meals
One of my favorite things to do is recycle/domino meals. I recycled a meal in the previous post when I used the leftover taco meat from the night before, added peppers and onions and turned it into "garbage nachos" the next night. You can find another way to do this below in the example meal plan.

When I decide on my meals I list EVERY ingredient I need for each underneath the meal title. You will see why I do this in a little while...

Step 4: Survey the Pantry again
This time take your list and a highlighter with you. If there is an item that you do not have in your pantry, highlight it on the list. When you are done you now have your shopping list!!! :)

I know it seems like there is a lot of steps to meal planning but really it doesn't take much time at all. I assure you, you will see a big difference in monthly expense as well as less stress throughout the week when you meal plan. With that being said, do your best not to stray from your plan. If you want to switch your meal order around that's fine but make sure to make the meals you have bought ingredients for. 

Example Meal Plan: (This is one from a while back but I reuse them from time to time)

Monday-
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Bread, lunch meat, carrot sticks, chips, and banana
Dinner: Crock Pot chicken- Whole chicken, spices,
potatoes,carrots, and onion. Sides- veggies from the crockpot, crescent
rolls,and green beans.

Tuesday-
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Left over Crockpot Chicken
Dinner: Spicy Chicken soup- left over chicken pulled from bones from crock
pot meal, onion, garlic, jar of salsa, 2 cans of diced tomatoes, 1 can whole
tomatoes, 1 can tomato soup, chili powder, 1 can of corn, 2 cans of chili
beans, 8oz sour cream.

Wednesday-
Breakfast: Cereal and Milk
Lunch: bread, lunch meat, carrot sticks, chips, and banana
Dinner: Left over soup for a quick meal before church

Thursday-
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Bread, peanut butter, jelly, yogurt, orange
Dinner: Spaghetti- ground turkey or ground beef, sauce, noodles Sides: Salad (lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, Italian dressing) ,garlic toast 

Friday-
Breakfast: Cereal and milk
Lunch: Left over spaghetti
Dinner: Italian Chicken- 2 chicken breasts cut in half, pepper, salt, Italian
dressing, bag of frozen veggies, basil Sides- veggies already in the meal and rice

So there you have it... If I have left anything out or if you have any questions just comment below! :) Have a great night! 

 

Day 4: Recycling leftovers!

So here we are, day 4 and I am happy to report no money was spent. Tonight we used leftovers from the night before to make a new meal. I call it recycling leftovers and it's one of my favorite things to do! Somehow, I swear, the second meal always turns out better. haha

Remember dinner from last night? It was just tacos. As yummy as they were I wanted to do a little something to mix it up so I raided the pantry/fridge again. One of the things I already had in my fridge was a package of peppers (2 reds, a yellow, and an orange). I decided I was going to make the hubby super happy tonight and make it a "Garbage Nachos" night! I sliced one of the red peppers and threw it in a skillet to saute it. After a few minutes I tossed in some onions from the night before. When they started to get a little soft I poured the leftover ground turkey in, gave it a few stirs, and put 1 more tablespoon of that amazing fajita marinade from the night before. Next, I heated up the leftover refried beans as the skillet of goodness was still sizzling a bit on the stove. After your beans are warm take a brownie pan or pie pan and fill it with tortilla corn chips. Plop the beans on top of the chips, than add the mixture of peppers, onions, and meat. Next, sprinkle a little cheese on the top (I chose some of the colby jack I bought yesterday). Pop your pan into the oven on about 350 just until the cheese starts to melt good, than take it out. Last but not least put a plop of sour cream on top and get ready to chow down!!! I know, I know... Taco night, than nacho night? Sounds like we are eating terribly! However, I have to say, 93% lean turkey, corn tortilla chips, fresh onion, fresh red pepper, a little bit of low fat sour cream, a little bit of cheese, and some beans don't really come out all that bad. I think they look a lot worse than they are ;) With our nachos we threw in a big bowl of grapes because they were getting close to going bad. It turned out to be a fabulous Friday night meal! :)

Meat+peppers+onions= pure deliciousness!!!

Dinner is served! Hubby and I just ate straight out of the pan! As you can see I made a mini burrito out of the nacho mixture for my 2year old. The nachos are just too messy for him to handle just yet ;)

Toddler approved!!! He ate it all!

So there you have it, our delicious recycled leftover dinner :) I will have a post soon about meal planning, recycling, and "dominoing" meals.

As for the other meals today? Same old boring lunches... But totally YUMMY!

Breakfast: I was bad and didn't have breakfast, however, my toddler had a banana and some dry cereal.

Lunch: The kiddos (my son and a friend's daughter I kept) had dino pb&j's with apple sauce, half a cheese stick, and spinach leaves with a little ranch dressing. I had a bowl of chicken salad on multiseed crackers with my favorite Australian style yogurt! :)

Aren't the little dinosaur sandwiches cute? :) My mom got me that sandwich mold last year and I finally used it! (sorry Mom!)

I LOVE that yogurt! And those crackers... And the chicken salad... I just loved my lunch ;) 

So there you go... The end of day 4! I feel like things are going well so far. There are still many meal possibilities left in the pantry. If you would like to suggest any ideas post your comments at the bottom! :) And don't forget to stay tuned for the upcoming post on meal planning! :)

Day 3: Grocery Store Run and Meals for the Day

Grocery trip:
I had a quick trip to the eye doctor this morning so Little Big Man and I stopped into the Ingles on our way home. Here is the list of what I bought and my total:
*Roasted Garlic Multi-Seed Crackers (I have to eat wheat free so these are fabulous in place of bread)
*Organic Spaghetti sauce (This was on sale for 1.98 which is cheaper than non-organic)
*Organic Apple sauce (We have a jar in the pantry, however, it was 1/2 price)
*2 containers of Organic Earth Balance butter (This is my fav and was B1G1 so I went ahead and got 2)
*Mozzarella and Colby Jack cheese (They were also B1G1 and I needed enough to get through the month)
*Organic Heavy Whipping Cream (This is for a little experiment ;) stay tuned for that one in later posts)
*1 lb of Ground Chicken (1.99 on special)
*1 lb of 93% lean Ground Turkey (1.99 on special)
*5 bananas
*And a sort of splurge... My fav Wallaby Australian Yogurt! :) LOVE it!!!

TOTAL: $25.05

Meals for the day:

Breakfast: cereal
Lunch: We're boring so same as yesterday :)
Dinner: Turkey tacos with refried beans, and chips and salsa (The only thing new I used for this meal was the turkey I bought today)
All I did to make this meal was cook my turkey than when it is cook poured 3tbs of my favorite fajita seasoning over the top. This stuff is addicting and AMAZING! We just used the corn tortillas I already had (I can't have flour ones), cut up some onion, sour cream, and cheese to fix them up. Than just heated up a can of organic refried beans I had in the cabinet. Throw that together with a side of tortilla chips and salsa we already had and there ya go, easy dinner! :)

This is that awesome sauce I was talking about! YUMMY!!!

Here is our dinner... The pic looks a little yellow but it was delish!!! BTW, the salsa in the background is from our vacation last week, it's super yummy but boy, it will light you on fire!!!

So there you go... Pretty boring day.


Challenge totals at the end of day 3: $30.93

Day 2: Full pantry inventory and Meals for the day

So I have had people asking me about what is already in my pantry/fridge/freezer... I have gone through and compiled a complete list from the beginning of the challenge as to what is in each of those places. As you can see I have quite a bit to get me started (some I don't even know where it came from, LOL), however, most of it is stuff we either don't eat anymore (we changed a lot of eating habits), or are random things. There is also very little meat.

Pantry Inventory

Freezer:
1 whole fryer chicken
4 containers of strawberry freezer jam
Frozen corn
Frozen broccoli
Bacon

Fridge:
1/2 jug of milk
1/2 container of sour cream
Strawberry jam
pack of carrots
peppers
baby spinach
1 coke
broccoli
celery
romaine lettuce
1/2 a cucumber
green onions
sad looking green grapes
green beans
Various cheeses (1/2 bag mozzarella, 2 open bags of cheddar cheese, a tiny bit of Mexican blend cheese, 3 string cheese sticks)
1 bar of cream cheese
One large container of vanilla yogurt
bottled water
salsa
Various sauces and condiments (a tiny bit of mayo, ketchup, mustard, teriyaki, salad dressing, soy sauce, fajita marinade, Worcestershire sauce)

Pantry items:
1 jar of honey
2 peaches
Jar of applesauce
croutons
2 cans of cream of chicken, 1 cream of celery, 1 cream of mushroom
1 pack sweet yellow cornbread mix
1 pack muffin mix
1 pack of dried pinto beans
1/2 a bag of herb season stuffing
1 can each of olives, enchilada sauce, black beans, refried beans, kidney beans, tomato sauce
2 cans of chili
9 cans of various types of tomatoes
2 small bottles of Frank’s hot sauce
3 bottles of bbq sauce
1/2 bag of chow mein noodles
1 sizzling salad kit
1 pk onion soup mix
1 box of gf noodles
1/2 jar of peanut butter
3 half full boxes of cereal
1/2 box of chezits
1/2 bag of rice crisps
bag of tortilla chips
2 sweet potatoes
4 onions
garlic
1/2 loaf of bread
corn tortillas
Flour, sugar, and other baking supplies
Wide variety of dried spices and herbs
1/4 bottle of olive oil
1/2 bottle red wine vinegar
bottle of regular vinegar
1/2 bottle apple cider vinegar
** Raw Oats in an air-tight container
** Brown Rice in an air-tight container
 
Toiletry supplies:
I should have plenty of toilet paper, toothpaste, diapers, wipes, etc for the month or longer on many things.

 So there you have it, all the things I already have. However, I have already used the chicken and I used a few other items in today's meals. One of main purposes of this challenge is to use what I already have. So for today's meals I chose to have just cereal for breakfast, chicken salad with rice crisps and a peach for lunch, and pinto beans and that pack of cornbread for dinner (I still don't know why I had a premix pack of cornbread, I think I thought I was getting muffins, lol). The kiddos (I kept a friend's little girl) had pb&j's with vanilla yogurt and a peach and chez-its. For the pinto beans I used the whole bag of dried pintos, water, 4 slices of the bacon I had in the freezer, a little salt, and pepper. I don't really have any recipes to add to this one but I will tomorrow! :)

Yummy lunch! :)

* I forgot to add that I did have a quick trip to the store last night. I realized I had no eggs for the cornbread so I bought half a box of eggs for a total of $.85. 
** Also, forgot to check the cabinet above the fridge for food. The items in red on the pantry list are those items, sorry about that!

And so it begins... Day 1

So today began our exciting grocery budget challenge! So far so good! I will be sharing our dinner for the evening as well as our lunch I made that will last us the whole week!
Let me start by saying, most of the ingredients in the following meals came from my pantry/fridge/freezer that I already had. I only actually bought 1 new item today that I used.

Quick trip to the store...
So, as I said before, all household items, toiletries, etc have to come out of the $100. Today I ventured to Walmart (not my favorite place at all...). My first purchase of the challenge was; 1 bottle of Palmolive, 1 20-count package of gel tab dishwasher detergent, a lemon, and a lime (random lemon and lime, haha).

My total= $5.03

Dinner!!! (I have to put exclamation marks because I LOVED our dinner!)
Tonight was delicious Teriyaki chicken salads. Nothing says summer like a nice cool, crisp salad! :)

Here’s the meal:
* 1 whole chicken (This came from my freezer) I thawed the chicken, then cut the breasts off (wow, that sounds harsh! haha).
*Teriyaki sauce (This came from my fridge) I laid the chicken breasts non-stick sprayed pyrex pie plate and poured a little teriyaki sauce (about 2 or 3 tbs) on them and than popped them in the oven for a bit on 350 till they were done. I made sure to flip them halfway through and swirl them really good in the sauce after I turned them so they get good and tasty! After they were done I took them out and sliced them.
*Romain lettuce and baby spinach leaves (I had these in my produce drawer already) Washed shredded and put into serving dishes.
*1/2 a cucumber (Had in my produce drawer) sliced and put on salads
*optional ingredients such as carrots, croutons, your choice of dressings (the boys had ranch and I had some of my delicious Orange Poppy Seed dressing), etc.

Put it all together and what do you got!?! PURE YUMMINESS!!!

Notice I also added a lonely orange left over from our vacation this past week. BTW, isn't Tanner's little salad precious? :)

So our dinner was fabulous! After dinner I decided to use the rest of the whole chicken to make chicken salad for lunch that would last through the rest of the week (maybe longer).

This chicken salad recipe I am about to show you is FABULOUS! It's from the Pioneer Woman! I LOVE that lady! Every recipe I have ever tried from her site has been as amazing as the pictures she takes throughout the process of cooking it. I adapted it just a tiny bit so here goes...

Ingredients:
1 whole chicken (I used the now breastless chicken from earlier)
2 celery stalks chopped
3 whole green onions chopped
2 cups of halved green grapes
1/2 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of sour cream (you can also use plain yogurt and I usually do, however, my fridge only had    sour cream)
A sprinkle of herbs (its supposed to be fresh chopped dill but again, I didn't have any at the moment so I used dried parsley and cilantro. This really changed the flavor and was a little disappointing. Still good but disappointing.)
1 Tablespoon of brown sugar
One lemon, juiced (This was my only bought item so far that was used!)
Sea salt and Pepper, just a sprinkling to match your tastes

So here is what I did with all these fabulous ingredients... First I took the whole chicken, put it in the crockpot on high for 2 hrs with just a tablespoon of butter cut into 3 pads and placed on top of the chicken and a bit of salt and pepper. After 2 hrs I put it on low until it was done. This chicken stays so moist and literally falls off the bone when you get it out of the crock pot, it's delish!

I could have eaten just this chicken... yum :)

My poor grapes were looking a bit sad... All this was in the produce drawer in the fridge. Can you tell I LOVE fresh fruits and veggies ;) 

After it cooled for a bit I picked all the meat off the bones and chopped it and added the celery, onions, and green grapes.

 Next I mixed the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl to make the dressing for the chicken salad. Taste it to add any extra to what suits your taste.... Just please, please, use fresh dill! I'm still so bummed I didn't have any! Once it's mixed pour over the chicken mixture and stir till everything is completely blended. Now it's ready to eat or throw in the fridge for later!

Wish this picture hadn't turned out so yellow... hmmm... Well it tastes super yummy and is ready for our lunches throughout the week! :)

The $100 Grocery Challange!!!

Welcome!!! Our family is setting out to conquer the task of having a $100 grocery budget for the whole month of July... Sounds impossible, and it might be, but we are here to test it out. For those of you who may not know, we are a family of 4 (Me, hubby, 2yr old son, 4month old son).

Why this came about...

Many might be wondering why in the world I decided to do this to our family (I know I still am, LOL)... Before our 2yr old was born, we went through Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. It was definitely a life changing and eye-opening experience to say the least and I highly recommend it. However, I have to say, sorry Dave, we fell off the wagon and ran a bit hiatus for a few months. It’s not like we went out and charged up a bunch of credit cards or bought a bunch of stuff on loans or anything, we just haven’t been doing or keeping a budget that allows us to pay off our student loans faster (in his words, snowball debt).
Another reason... I had my 4month old back in Feb. and had to take 6weeks without pay after he was born. Now our savings account is looking a bit wilted and we are gearing up for our month without a pay check for me pretty soon (I’m a teacher, hence the weird pay thing).
The final straw... I was looking through our cabinets when we got home from vacation this past weekend and thought it would be a great idea to empty them through a budget challenge while filling up our savings account a bit more. It’s very convicting to me to open a cupboard and complain there is nothing to eat when people around the world would be happy to have even one bag of dried pintos that dawns my filled pantry shelves. God has blessed us so much and I feel like I need to do this challenge to prove to myself that I have been taking for granted the blessing of food.

I thought I would share this endeavor with our friends, family, and whoever else wants to listen, haha... Somehow I think by documenting it I will be held a little more accountable.

Challenge Rules...

Use nothing but CASH!
The budget must include food, household goods, cleaning supplies, diapers (if needed), wipes (if needed), and toiletries.
You may use anything from the pantry/freezer that was already bought.
The budget challenge will run through June 26-July 26.

So there it is... the rules... pretty plain and simple. I will try to post a daily update with shopping trips (if any), recipes (yummy ones and flops, LOL), and any cool money saving tips I come up with!

I’m super excited about and I hope you are too! Lets get this started!!! :)