Meal Planning On A BUDGET.

Hey everyone and welcome back to Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bays!

Today, we are going to be talking FOOD.

I love planning the grocery list and I thought I would share a little bit of how we do that around this household.

Have any of you ever heard of Instacart? If not- MUST. GOOGLE. NOW.

We have been getting our groceries delivered for almost 2 months now. Yes- I said DELIVERED. Groceries. Delivered. It has been a game changer for this crazy family and it makes budgeting that much easier because I see exactly how much I'm spending and no one is throwing anything extra in the cart (like what has happened for 9 years during traditional grocery shopping!)

Our groceries are delivered through Instacart- and we do our shopping through their app- and we order from ALDIS.

I'm not joking when I say that we get SO much more food for the price. We used to shop at Walmart or Krogers, but since switching to Aldis, we have not regretted it once. More food for the same price- yes please! Especially when we are on a tight budget.

This week we spent $117.67 (we budget from anywhere between $100-$20 a week- and that is everything: shampoo, paper towels, toilet paper, food, etc.)

Here is what our grocery list consisted of, organized in to categories.

Lunches:

Cheesy Texas Toast (our oldest is obsessed with garlic bread): $1.75
Mozzarella Sticks $2.19
Pepperoni Pizza Snacks (like pizza rolls): $2.65 We ordered two bags with 40 in each.
3 loaves of white bread: $.85 a piece
Mesquite turkey for turkey sandwiches: $2.75 for 9oz

I also make a brown rice, kielbasa sausage, black bean, and corn mixture and pour it in to a bunch of to-go containers as well. It makes for a healthy, simple lunch we can just grab, heat up, and go.

Brown rice: $1.65 for 14oz
Can of corn: $.49
Can of black beans: $.55
and I already had an extra pack of kielbasa sausage at home.

Breakfast:

A roll of cinnamon rolls: $1.09
Fudge toaster tarts (like Pop Tarts): $1.25
Cocoa Rice Cereal: $1.65
3 dozen large eggs: $1.39 per dozen

I found a recipe for some delicious bagels and have been making them every week to heat up in the mornings for a quick breakfast. You take plain bagels, cut them open, and place them on a baking pan. Next, take a bowl and mix together a packet of cream cheese, a handful of spinach, a cup of Italian cheese, some red pepper flakes, a little garlic powder, and a little salt. Warm til cream cheese melts and mix. Spread over bagels, add a little Italian cheese on top, and bake at 350* for 10 minutes. Next, broil for 1-2 minutes checking on it frequently. So, here's the break down of what I purchased for that.

2 packs of bagels: $1.65 per bag of 8 bagels
2 packs of cream cheese: $.79 per pack of cream cheese
1 pack of chopped spinach: $1.09
1 pack of Italian cheese: $1.99 for 12 oz

Dinners: 

Here is our weekly meal plan with a breakdown of groceries needed for each meal.

**Friday night- Chicken and Fried Rice
1 bag of chicken used for this and Sunday's meal: $5.99 for 3lb
Brown Rice: $1.65
Mixed vegetables: $.89 for 12 oz

I also purchased mayonnaise to make my own yum yum sauce which was: $1.89 for 30oz jar

**Saturday night- Italian Sliders and French fries

I found this recipe on Pinterest and modified it a bit. You take 12 Hawaiian rolls, place them on a baking dish, put pepperonis, salami, swiss cheese on top, add a little bit of red pepper flakes. Bake at 350* for 10-15 minutes. They're so good! The entire family tears them up!

12 Hawaiian rolls: $1.65
Pack of pepperonis: $2.19
Pack of salami: $2.85
Swiss Cheese: $1.65 for 12oz
Steak fries: $1.85

**Sunday night- Stir Fry (I wouldn't call it a recipe per se, but this is how my grandpa made it!)

Using 1/2 the bag of chicken from Friday night.
Green peppers: $2.19 for 3.
I already had onions at the house.
And I bought another box of brown rice: $1.65

I cook the chicken with some salt and garlic powder. Dice it up. Then I chop the green peppers and onions, add those to a pan with some melted butter, garlic powders, and salt. Saute those for about 10 minutes or so. Add those to the chicken. Cook the brown rice and I add a ton of butter to the rice at the end to make it nice and soft. Put brown rice down and pour the chicken/green pepper/onion mix over it. We love it around here!

**Monday night- Sweet Potatoes and Buffalo Chicken

Now, my friend Kelly is obsessed with this concoction and she keeps telling me I need to make it, so that's what we are doing this week!

Bag of sweet potatoes: $2.55 for 3lb
Another bag of chicken: $5.99 for 3lb
Hot Sauce: $2.19 for 12fl oz.
Sour Cream:$.89 for 16oz (we will use a little for this meal and the rest for Tacos)

Preheat oven to 400*. Poke holes in sweet potatoes and bake sweet potatoes in oven for 45-60 minutes. In a bowl, combine cooked (shredded) chicken, hot sauce. Take sweet potatoes out of oven, cut in half, pour chicken mixture inside, and add shredded cheese and sour cream.

**Tuesday night- This is our date night, so our children go to my parent's house for a couple of hours and we usually go out to eat somewhere! No cooking night for Momma!

**Wednesday night- Tacos!!

Tacos are a huge event in our house. Everyone absolutely loves them! My husband is a deer hunter, so we still have a ton of meat left in the freezer from deer season this year. I usually take a pound of deer meat, brown it, and add taco seasoning after rinsing. We add that to soft or hard tacos and add all of the good stuff on top!

This is what I had to purchase this week at the store:

Taco seasoning- $.35
Taco shells- $.99 for 12 hard taco shells
Using leftover sour cream from our sweet potato night
Using leftover Italian cheese from our bagels
I already had onions!
Using one green pepper from the pack I bought for stir fry
We already had salsa in the fridge too

Easy peasy dinner!

**Thursday night- Sweet Potato Sheet Pan Mix

Another Pinterest recipe.

What you need for this:

Chicken Apple Sausage: $3.29 for 12oz
We already have sweet potatoes from Monday night dinner
I already have garlic cloves as well.
And the recipe called for brussels sprouts, but I chose broccoli instead: $1.35 for 12 oz

Preheat oven to 400*. Chop chicken apple sausage, sweet potatoes, and broccoli, then toss together on the baking pan. Whisk some olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper and drizzle over the chicken apple sausage mixture. Bake for 15 minutes.

I'll post pictures of our weekly dinners through the week, so stay tuned for that!

Snacks:

Moo Tubes (like Go Gurts): $1.75 for 8 tubes
Cheddar and Sour Cream Chips: $.89 for 9oz
Barbeque Chips: $.89 for 9oz
Moose Tracks Ice Cream: $2.15 for 48fl oz
Apple Sauce cups: $1.35 for 6
Granola Bars: $1.29 for 10
Chocolate Pudding Cups: $.95
Vanilla Pudding Cups: $.95 for 4 (We bought 2 of these because everyone loves them!)
Fruit Drinks: $2.19 per pack of 10. We bought 3.
Kettle Sea Salt and Vinegar chips: $1.25
Kit Kat bars for movie night: $1.55

CAN YOU TELL WE LOVE SNACKS.

Extras:

1 gallon of white milk: $2.79
1/2 gallon of chocolate milk: $1.79
Coffee creamer: $1.99 for 32 floz
2 rolls of paper towels: $2.19


Not bad for $117.00!

I hope you all have enjoyed our budget, grocery list, and meal planning. Stay tuned later this week for a break down of each meal with pictures!

How does your grocery budget work? Where do you shop? What do your meals look like?

- Alyssa