For about 2 weeks now, I have been trying to make our family stick to the envelope system of budgeting. We are having passing success in that I now know we were way off track in our spending and I have finally made a budget and found a way to organize all our bills and monthly spending. I divided our spending into 2 categories: bills we pay online through our bank or websites and purchases with make with cash. Our groceries fall in the cash category. Groceries also happen to be an area where I really cut our spending. I am limiting us to $50 a week in groceries. Sounds crazy right? Well, I am justifying it by this logic. When I was single, I spent $30 a week shopping at Whole Foods. I didn't clip coupons, I didn't buy generic, I certainly didn't pay attention to sales and I never ever planned ahead. Granted, I ate pretty much the same thing every day, but I was eating pretty well. So $50 a week, is roughly $7 a day to feed my husband and I. Enter meal planning...
Almost every dinner lately (unless we are grilling) is something I have made in bulk and frozen. Our freezer is pretty full, and as I see items go on sale (or if I have a coupon), I will buy it and stock pile it until I have all the ingredients for a regular recipe. This means I don't usually shop for a specific meal each week. This is not a perfect system, and we are frequently guilty of an impulse buy, but we are working on that.
We grocery shop on Wednesday's because my mom gets a Senior Discount at Kroger. Since Kroger is running a fuel point special over the summer, I might also shop on the weekends for the extra points, but I try not to since we don't get the discount. However, since I get my gas at Kroger, and you get twice the fuel points by shopping on the weekend, and argument could be made for moving my savings on gas over to the grocery budget. Since this weeks dinners are already planned, the only thing we will be shopping for is anything we need for breakfasts and lunches, and I'll be on the look out for coupon or sale items I can stockpile for dinner prep.
This weeks menu is:
Monday- Chicken breasts with roasted carrots and smashed potatoes. This is the only meal that didn't come from the freezer this week. The chicken was on sale, the potatoes were purchased in bulk for multiple meals, and the carrots we paid full price for.
Tuesday- Roasted red pepper baked ziti- A few weeks ago Italian Sausage was on sale, so I grabbed two packs and tossed them in the freezer. Gluten free pasta seems to be in a sale cycle right now, so I have been buying 2 boxes every week. I made 4 batches of this meal over the weekend, for a total of 12 servings.
Wednesday- Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas-
Canned items were on sale, and I used up leftover chicken, cheese, and tortillas from other meals. I only paid full price for the enchilada sauce and sweet potatoes. I made 5 batches of this meal, or 15 servings.
Thursday- Beef stew with mashed potatoes. I made the beef stew awhile ago, and it had finally come up in the freezer rotation. Usually I will make a triple batch, and then freeze two. I will be making the mashed potatoes fresh this week (since I have a few more potatoes left from my bulk purchase), but otherwise I usually keep some on hand that I defrost and bake while the beef stew is reheating.
Friday- Thai Shrimp Soup. This starts with my vegetable soup as a base, and then I add frozen shrimp, coconut milk, rice noodles, and a peanut sauce to the mix. We did not plan ahead for this one, so we paid full price for the extra ingredients, but sometime you give into the cravings.
Saturday and Sunday will be leftovers, unless we see an awesome deal when we grocery shop tomorrow.
This week I planned 3 meals to prep for the freezer:
Bran Muffins for my husbands breakfast
and Butternut Squash Pasta.
I got gluten free pasta for less than $2 a box last week, so we are definitely going to have a lot of pasta meals in our freezer. Since I also prepped a ton of Veggie Spaghetti Sauce not too long ago, this gives us something to put it on. I should note that I always try to include a meat, a veggie, and a carb in my dinners. Sometimes I make a salad as the veggie, and sometimes the carb is an after thought, but I do try to make sure it is always balanced. Additionally, it is very important to consider serving sizes when you are on a budget. You will get so much more bang for your buck when you actually measure servings. I like to freeze meals in 3 portion sizes (since there are 3 people in our family), so we don't waste food by throwing away leftovers. This also keeps us on track calorie wise.
So, what should you take away from this?
1. You are probably spending so much more on groceries than you need to. You don't have to go coupon crazy to really see a difference. We are saving an average of $30-$50 a week by combining sales, coupons and my mom's senior discount.
2. Definitely shop with a grocery list, and keep an eye out for sale items you can use later.
3. Stock your freezer with easy meals. Every morning when I get up, I pull out that nights meal to defrost. This has saved us so much money since we aren't eating out any more.
4. Use those gas points! I saved 70 cents a gallon this month with gas points. I can't believe I haven't been doing this sooner. That savings goes back into my grocery budget or my emergency fund.
5. Buy in bulk and plan in bulk. It is often cheaper to buy a lot of one type of meat or other ingredients. If you can make multiple meals out of these and freeze them, not only does it save time but it saves a lot of money. Just because you make them all at once, does not mean you have to eat them all the same week.
6. Measure your food before your freeze, and package in appropriate serving sizes.
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