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Grocery Report/Menu Plan | Studies in avoiding the grocery store

On Saturdays, I share my menu plan for the upcoming week along with a photo of my groceries and a tally of my spending. My goal is to spend $100/week for our food, toiletries, and cleaning products. I’m currently in the midst of trying to buy more local, sustainably-produced food while sticking to my budget. Can it be done? I don’t know, but I’m going to try, and I’ll share what I learn as I go along.

Grocery Shopping

I didn’t purposely shop for two weeks when I went shopping the last time, but I’m happy to report that I’ve managed to go the whole week without really grocery shopping.

Nice.

I just made a quick stop into Aldi to pick up some milk, oranges, and clementines, and a few other things, and then we were good to go for the rest of the week. The meals I made used a lot of stuff I had on hand, and I found some goodies buried in the freezer that helped us get through.

Of course, this means I really do need to go grocery shopping on Monday, but I’m pleased to have put it off for a week.

gratuitous photo of marshmallow snowman to make up for lack of grocery picture

By the way, I’ve been shopping early in the week recently, which means these posts are usually reporting on shopping that’s been done almost a week ago.

That sounds awfully confusing.

I used to shop on Thursdays or Fridays and then report on Saturdays, but I’ve been trying a new routine of shopping earlier in the week, and I think I like that better so far.

You probably didn’t need to know all that, huh?

gratuitous photo of fallen snowman, just because it's funny. note to self: next time, use the caramel the directions specified.

Anyway! The long and short of it is that I only spent $35 on groceries this week, which means that my January grocery budget is lookin’ good.

Also, my fridge is lookin’ nice and empty, which is as it should be prior to a grocery shopping trip.

The Meal Plan

Since Mr. FG works second shift, we eat our dinner meal at noon during the week, and at night on the weekends. And our lunch meal happens at night during the week and at noon on the weekends.

We do eat breakfast in the morning, though, all week long!

Breakfast options are homemade yogurt, granola, scrambled eggs, oatmeal, fruit, and cereal.

Lunches will be comprised of sandwiches made with whole wheat bread, homemade yogurt, yogurt smoothies, cottage cheese, fruit, raw veggies, nuts, cheese, and leftovers as necessary.

Here’s the dinner meal plan:

Saturday

Sunday

  • French Toast. And I’m thinking about going all fancy and making Challah especially so that we can use it for French Toast.
  • local sausage
  • OJ

Monday

  • Fish Sandwiches
  • Whatever produce still happens to be lurking about!

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

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Today’s 365 post: This is an unusual January sight.

Joshua’s 365 post: Bird Good, Bird Bad

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Katherine

Monday 23rd of January 2012

You will not regret trying those soft breadsticks, I made them once and now my family wants them weekly, they are really good!

Raye

Monday 23rd of January 2012

I shop once a week which is usually on Wednesday when the sales start. I also use a Grocery app from my smart phone and as I run out or get low on a grocery item I log it in on my Grocery app, so by Wednesday I have my grocery list and head off to Aldi to buy just those items. Save me a ton of money buying just the items from the list! Now to start menu planning which is kind of hard since it is just me during the week because my husband travels during the week. But since it is a new year maybe I will make it one of my New Year's resolutions and save even more money!

Adventures in dinner

Monday 23rd of January 2012

I try to avoid the grocery store too. I just can't seem to avoid picking up extras when I'm there. We buy our meat from a farmer friend and get everything else delivered by the organic guy on Wednesday's. I save a scary amount of money then.

Adventures in dinner

Monday 23rd of January 2012

I try to avoid the grocery store too. I just can't seem to avoid picking up extras when I'm there. We buy our meat from a farmer friend and get everything else delivered by the organic guy on Wednesday's. I save a scary amount of money then.

Dana

Sunday 22nd of January 2012

Just wondering...do you ever use a Crock-Pot?? I can make meals to last for a couple of days for just a few dollars! Still loving your blog...Happy Sunday!

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