Friday- Homemade (freezer) breakfast burrito with hash browns, sausage, bacon, and cheese (top left)/ Lizzy and I split some pasta salad, peppers, carrots, Yumm sauce, apple, and crackers with PB (top middle)/ brown rice, beans, Caribbean Jerk Beef Shish-ka-bobs, and fresh fruit salad (top right)
Saturday-Toast with peanut butter, banana, & honey. Fruit Salad, and coffee (bottom left) / Leftovers from dinner Friday night (bottom middle)/ BBQ Chicken and Salads at my parent's house (no photo).
Monday- yogurt with strawberries plus coffee, homemade Yumm cup, apple, some cheese (no cheese in Yumm cup)/ beef enchilada (leftover from Sunday's roast) with green sauce, milk, strawberries
Wednesday- wheat toast with banana, peanut butter, and honey plus coffee/ split a 6inch turkey subway with Lizzy and cheddar Sunchips/ homemade pistachio pesto over wheat pasta and chicken, blueberries.
On Tuesday, I also was getting a hankering for something sweet, so I made these flour-less fudge cookies, which I really really liked.
And then today, things looked like this:
So here's what I have to say about shopping on a super tight grocery budget like ours:
- It often includes eating the same or similar things several days in a row, which can be boring at times, but helps from wasting food. My lunches are usually leftovers from dinner (Justin usually packs a sandwich for his lunch, and about half the time Lizzy has what I'm having and half the time she has a sandwich of some kind along with fruit and veggies).
- It doesn't include a lot of convenience food or snacks. Sometimes, choosing to snack on an apple and cheese means that we have less cheese for dinner that night...which is generally fine, but just makes you think about what you're eating differently (am I really hungry, or do I just want something to munch on?) Most treats are homemade. We don't usually drink anything other than water, milk, and coffee, though I do love to splurge on good lemonade when we can. I've gotta meal plan in advance (and stick with it no matter how tired I am) since there's not really a last minute option like macaroni and cheese or frozen lasagna/pizza. I'm not gonna lie, sometimes it sucks, and all I want to do is grab a pizza and a soda (oh goodness, that sounds so good right now!).
- I think we do a pretty decent job of eating fairly non-processed foods, but I could (and have at times) gone even more "scratch" than you saw this particular week--making bread, stock from scratch instead of canned, soaking beans instead of canned beans, etc. It helps save money, but is also a significant amount of additional work.
- Justin likes to have meat every night at dinner. I'm not quite so attached to meat, so I often do the rice and beans thing for lunch because it's less expensive while still being filling.
- We usually eat a LOT more spinach salads since they're filling and inexpensive. But salads have been my one pregnancy aversion this time around, so you didn't see as much of it this particular week.
- It's not possible to eat this much fruit on this budget during the winter.
- I think it would be VERY HARD to shop on this type of a budget with food allergies.
Thank you so much for posting this! I desperately need to get on a food budget, as that is one area that we just tend to get what we need, when we need it. If we put more thought and planning into it, it could potentially save us a lot of money! And all your food pictures made me so hungry!
ReplyDeleteHa, I already commented...but seriously, this was so helpful - so helpful in fact, that I emailed my hubby a link (he does a lot of the shopping) and told him we need to implement meal planning/shopping - and that it IS doable! :o)
ReplyDeleteWe actually eat pretty similarly. Lots of repeats, lots of simple meals. We try to make large enough dinners so that we can take leftovers in our lunches the next day. We always pack our own lunches for work. We drink water, milk is only used for cooking and cereal. Neither of us are coffee or soda drinkers and I think we probably only drink juice a couple of times a year. One of the things I find has helped us keep our food budget low is cooking in large batches and then freezing portions of it for later. Then when we have those evenings of desperation and don't feel like cooking...there is most likely something that will appeal. We also do a ton of grilling in the summer, it's cheap, easy clean up and everything seems to taste better. :)
ReplyDeleteI think this is really awesome! I also need to do better about using ingredients we have on hand in my meal planning instead of new recipes that call for NOTHING I have on hand!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
Those cookies look amazing!!!!
ReplyDeleteThose cookies look PHENOMENAL!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI NEED to get my grocery shopping on a budget.... but I fail at the self control to not buy what I want... Props to you!
Maybe I'm missing something but what is Yum cup and Yum sauce? You inspire me to be a better shopper/ grocery budgeter/ meal planner.
ReplyDelete