Grocery Spending and Menu Plan-1.31

I don’t have time this week to do a full grocery report, so you just get a picture. I know some of you will be wondering why I bought a few boxes of prepared snacks(like granola bars)…I normally make stuff like that myself, but there was a ridiculously good deal going on at Weis, and with some doubled coupons, I paid almost nothing for them. Rest assured that these are not normally on my list. 😉

I spent $57.56 at Weis this week. However, I returned the dandruff shampoo I bought last week(I got some at Aldi instead), so I got $5 back. I also got $5 cash back from a promotion on the granola bars I bought, and I had a rebate for the Windex ($3.69). So, I actually only spent $43.87 of my grocery budget at Weis. I would have spent quite a bit less there this week, but Tyson boneless skinless chicken breasts were on sale for $1.59/pound. That’s a really good price, and it’s the chicken brand that Cooks Illustrated rated a best buy.

At Aldi, I spent $45.39, which bumps my total up to $89.26. I was pretty happy with that, considering I stocked up on chicken, but then I remembered that I’d spent $5 at Lauer’s earlier in the week(two cans of beans and a box of tapioca). Sooo, I’m at $94.26 for the week. That is still within my weekly budget($80-$100), but I really prefer to keep it closer to $80 than that.

To help me with that in February, I’m participating in the February Food Challenge over at Give Me Back My Five Bucks. I said that I would spend $320($80 a week) on groceries for the month of February, and hopefully I’m up to the task.

Here’s the food plan for this week(as a reminder, lunches and breakfasts are not included here, but are included in my grocery spending/budget. A post about that is here.)

Saturday

• The husband and I are going out to eat, all by ourselves! I’m very excited about this…we haven’t had a date night since September, and this one should be very cheap as I have $30 in gift cards to our restaurant.

Sunday

• French Toast
• fried cornmeal mush
• OJ

Monday

• Stuffed Chicken Breasts
• English Muffins
• grapes(yup, they were on sale again!)

Tuesday

• Shrimp Veiness
• Garlic Bread
• Horseradish Carrots
• green salad

Wednesday

• Grilled Jerk Chicken with grilled pineapple(I got one for $2 at Weis!)
• Buttermilk Biscuits
• apple slices

Thursday

• a new chili recipe from Cook’s(a beanless recipe…my husband hates beans)
• cornbread
• grapefruit halves

Friday

• Stromboli
• green salad