Menu for 12/7

The weather is turning colder and so more hearty items are making it onto my menu each week.  Some considerations for the menu plan this week were using up the leftover Roast Pork that I made on Monday, the fact that I want a hamburger (my husband will still grill as long as it isn't snowing or raining, lucky me!), and trying to keep my budget on the low side.

I am keeping the basic expenses as low as possible because my grocery store is having a meat sale this weekend.  I already know that I want to get a couple of pork tenderloins since I just used the last one from my freezer.  Beyond that, my purchases will depend on how much money I have left and how good the prices are.

Chili

This Chili recipe is a great basic recipe.  I really like it because it is wonderful as it is, but it can also be tweaked to fit your personal preferences.  We always start with this base and then adjust it depending on what flavor profile we want at the time.

Chili

recipe by Jerry Hall (my stepdad)
Serves 6-8

2 pounds ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

Grocery costs

I had more staples that needed to be purchased this week than I normally do.  It just seems to happen that way some times, doesn't it?  Even though I knew my staples would be higher, I went ahead and bought ahead on some deals that my store had going on.  Going over budget a bit now will end up saving money later as long as I manage my pantry well.  I did end up over budget a little for this week.  Not too terrible, but something to keep an eye on to make sure it doesn't become routine.  Normally I would cut the splurge purchases, but I bought those in my first shopping trip and didn't realize yet that I was going to be over budget.

So here is where it all went:

Menu for 11/30

Another week is upon us and after the craziness of last week, I'm ready to start cooking at home again.  We are going to be at home for 5 meals this week, so planning wasn't too bad.  Since the meal plan from last week barely got looked at, there are still two meals that I was going to do that we weren't home to have.

After scanning the grocery ads for this week, I saw that other than a few stock-up items, there wasn't a whole lot that was going to help out with keeping the grocery costs down this week.  I have to check to see what we have before I go to the store, but I'm guessing that half of our protein is coming out of our freezer.  One thing that I did see on sale for this week was avocados.  I love avocados.  Seriously love them.  So one of the big considerations this week was planning for at least one meal that needed avocados.  Here is what I came up with:

Grocery costs

Well, we made it through the Thanksgiving holiday!  We had a great time with family and of course had wonderful food.  And thanks to having many meals with family, it wasn't even a challenge to stay on budget this week.  We did still have food costs, though, so here's what it looked like:

Menu for 11/23

Thanksgiving is upon us, and of course this makes for ever-changing menu plans.  I will say, it does feel a bit strange to be thinking about what to eat more than a week from now.  I realize, though, that with our holiday plans, if I don't think about the menu now, the earliest I would get to it was probably next Monday.  And that means that Saturday through next Tuesday would be a mess of trying to get shopping done and meals on the table.  So here I am planning!

The first thing for me to take into consideration for the upcoming week is that this last meal plan that I was working with got changed.  Our 6 dinners at home have now become 4.  Since I already had what I needed to make all of those meals, I had to figure out which ones to keep on schedule and which ones to move back into this coming week.

The Challenge

Once upon a time, back when I was part of a family of three, I never really thought about menu planning.  Going to the grocery store every couple of days was one way that the kid and I got out of the house.  Not to mention, there is something I like about the grocery store.  I love exploring and finding new things.  But I digress.  When our family of three turned into four, I found that it was increasingly difficult to get to the store that often.

So I had to start planning ahead.  No more choosing dinner based on what sounded good at that moment.  Well, at least not every night.  Goodness knows I go off plan.  It took me a while to find my rhythm.  About the time that I really got into regular planning, we realized that we needed to start cutting costs, and one of the areas that took a hit was the grocery budget.

Grocery costs

Alright, now that the grocery shopping is done for this week, the total cost came to $92.87.  Here is how it all broke down:

Breakfast: $6.48
Lunch: $6.28

Menu for 11/16

Here is the menu plan for this week.  I knew that we would have at least one dinner away from home, so there are only 6 evening meals planned.  We will be having:

Baked Potato Soup
Pizza