Grocery Spending and Menu Plan-Still here, by popular request.

First, the food. Can you tell that Zoe put the stuffed animals in this week? (since they’re all sea creatures!) I think there are five altogether.

I don’t usually buy this much soda, but I needed it for a birthday gathering we are hosting here today.

At Weis, I spent $33.44 (I am slightly embarrassed to say $.50 of that was for a dark chocolate covered marshmallow pumpkin. I ate it last night, though, and it was heavenly.). $56.58 was my total at Aldi, which puts me at $90.02. I told you all last week that I was trying for $82, and while I didn’t meet that goal, I was sort of close, much closer than I would have been if I had no goal. I managed to resist buying a lot of things yesterday because I knew I didn’t have much wiggle room.

All this means that if I want to stay on budget for October, I have to spend only $74 next week. Yikes. I’m not sure I’m up to that task, but I’ll give it a shot.

(Note to self: Let’s try and not get behind on the grocery budget again, because catching up is hard work.)

Ok, on to what we’re eating. Breakfast this week will be the usual…oatmeal, toast, yogurt, sweet potatoes for Lisey, bananas, and granola. For lunch we’ll have yogurt smoothies, homemade bread, oranges, cucumbers (my children like to eat them sliced and sprinkled with salt), and leftovers when necessary.

This is what we’ll be eating for dinner. Some of these meals got bumped from last week, because I changed things up a bit from my plan.

Saturday (we’re having a multi-birthday gathering here today, but mostly for my father-in-law, who chose the menu)

• BBQ chicken sandwiches
• homemade buns
• scalloped potatoes (I’m using a Cook’s recipe, which will hopefully be good!)
• jello
• German chocolate cake
• vanilla ice cream
• oh, and soda. 😉

Sunday

• I was going to make a tasty seafood dip, but decided I did not have enough money for that. So, I think we will have French toast.

Monday

• Shrimp and Ravioli in Pink Sauce
• french bread
• green salad

Tuesday

• Chicken with Parmesan Risotto
• pull-apart garlic bread (future Wednesday baking recipe)
• grapefruit halves

Wednesday

• Roast Beef Panini Sandwiches
• cucumber salad

Thursday

• Tandoori Chicken
• two-tone bread (future Wednesday baking recipe)
• green salad

Friday

• Fish Sandwiches
• homemade buns
• side dishes will depend on next week’s produce sales!