Weekly Shopping Trip- 01/11/09

Since I now have a job, which will require me working at hours I don't know yet, I decided to get a head-start on the weekly grocery saga by shopping on Sunday. A couple blogs ago, I told the sad tale of how we currently do not have a working vehicle. Can we say, "professional pedestrian"?? 

Luckily, we live right across the street from a Super-Wal-Mart. I don't really like grocery shopping there because they rarely have any discounts, and their produce is usually inferior for a higher cost than elsewhere, but I'm going to make the best of it! Here's what $25 bought me this week (no picture, because I'm too lazy right now):

Bag of 6 Grapefruits-$2.00

Carrots-$1.44

1 Onion-$63

Brown sugar-$1.38

2 lb brown rice-$1.42

3 Ramen packets-$.52

1 can fake Rotel-$.68

1 can Ranch-style Beans-$.58

1 can black beans-$.64

Peanut butter-$2.08

1 box of pasta-$1.16

Vegetable oil-$2.32

Dozen eggs-$1.52

Half and half (pint)-$1.52

Butter-$2.54

Whole fryer chicken (3.5 lb)-$3.60

Total before taxes: $24.03

I am really having to rely on stuff that is already in the pantry, as a large chunk of this week's budget was spent on staples. I don't know if I like having to decide whether to get peanut butter or mayonnaise this week, or having to choose between getting flour or getting butter and stre-e-e-tching this week's flour. I may end up expanding the budget to $30, but I haven't quite given up on $25 yet. We'll see what happens in the next few weeks.

Breakfast

Oatmeal

Grapefruit

I'm going to try my hand at making breakfast cookies . We'll see how that goes.

Pancakes

Lunch

Tuna sandwiches

PB&J sandwiches

Leftovers

Dinner

Roast kosher chicken

Leftover Italian Chicken

Chili (unused from last week because we were unexpectedly invited to a friend's house to eat. Score!)

Chuck Wagon Dinner

Leftover Bread Meal

Busy Day Lo Mein (taken from Newlyweds blog)

Southwestern Bean Dish

This post is brought to you in part by The Grocery Cart Challenge. See you next week!

Weekly Shopping Trip

My inspiration for our $25-a-week food budget is brought to you courtesy of The Grocery Cart Challenge. Seems that there are a lot of people out there committed to saving money on groceries! The car has been having trouble this week (the battery likes to die when it gets really cold, really fast), so my gallant husband decided to accompany to the store. My husband is a lot of fun to be with, but this was not conducive to frugal shopping. My conversation the entire time was a cycle of, "Sorry, honey, that's not in the budget. No, love, we don't need root beer. Or chips. Or pizza. No, we are not spending the extra food money on Taco Bell." (what can I say, my guy LOVES junk food :-P) After we came in under budget, we actually did buy a dollar can of Pringles. Oh, joy in a can! Pringles are a rare treat in this house.

What $25 bought us this week:



Salsa-$2.19
1 lb Raisins-$1.89
4 lb sugar-$1.85
Chili-$1.19
Bag of coconut-$1.15
BBQ Sauce-$1.09
Angel Hair-$.88
Macaroni noodles-$.88
Chili beans-$.59
Diced tomatoes-$.55
Tomato sauce-$.50
Hot dogs-$.98
Sour Ceam-$1.50
2 lb onion-$1.86
3 lb baking potatoes-$1.72
2 avocados-$1.18
3/4 lb tomatoes-$.99
1/2 lb broccoli-$.93
Cabbage-$.70

Total: $22.62

Total after tax: $24.55

Yippee! I was so happy at the register to see it all come under budget, even with tax!


The dinner plan this week:
Homemade macaroni and cheese
Chili spaghetti
Baked potatoes
Rice with Goodies
Cream tuna
Tacos
Chili


Good luck to all with your grocery budgets!

The Frugal Feeding

A few weeks ago, I decided to feed Adam and myself for $25 a week. This does not come without its unique challenges, since almost anything takes a good chunk out of the budget. Want that jar of peanut butter for $2.50? Congratulations, you have just spent 10% of your budget! So anyways, here is the week's menu plan:

Dinners
Lentil soup (no sense letting that Christmas ham bone go to waste!)
My special Southwestern Bean Dish
Beef Carrot Casserole
Baked Potatoes
Stir Fry
Spaghetti
(Friday nights, we eat out)

Lunch
I am experimenting with making bread because store-bought bread is so darn expensive. We have tons of leftover ham, and we also have cheese and any condiments you could wish for. We are set for sandwiches!

Breakfast
This family loves oatmeal. We have tons of it lying around. I also do pancakes, and this week, Apple Walnut Muffins will pop up somewhere.

A lot of this stuff is already in the house. I like to make gargantuan amounts of a single dish and freeze the leftovers. Here is what $25 bought me this week:



Cottage Cheese: $2.88
Sour Cream: $1.50
Chili powder: $2.99
Flour: $2.29 (I caved in and got the bleached because it came with coupons for other baking goodies. How do I live with myself?)
Lentils: 2 bags for $.99 each
Tomato Sauce: 2 cans for $1
Turkey bacon: $2.75
Bananas: $1.98
Carrots: $1.89
Potatoes: $1.54
Apples: $1.40
Onion: $1.04

I got to the end of the shopping excursion and realized I did not have enough money in the budget for coffee!!! I had an extra dollar left in the budget, so I bought one of those little Millstone 99-cent bags. It's good for a few cups. This is going to be a very. long. week.

Millstone coffee: $.99

Grocery Total before tax: $24.23

Hooray!