I did it again! Another $40 week at the grocery store! (Nevermind that last week was a $50 week. Some weeks my husband just requires more meat.)
Monday – Spaghetti with meat sauce and homemade garlic bread
(Cheap Tip: Buy ground beef on sale ($1.47/lb last week!), cook, and freeze in 1lb increments. Also, when serving a rather plain, cheap meal like this, spice it up with some homemade bread, or baked potatoes!)
Tuesday – Cheesy Chicken Tortellini and leftover garlic bread
(Cheap Tip: Freeze leftovers from roast chicken for recipes such as this.)
Wednesday – Tacos
(Cheap Tip: Aldis has C-H-E-A-P taco shells, tortillas, and tomato sauce. And we’ll be using that $1.47/lb beef again. For toppings, try to limit yourself to just the basics (cheese, lettuce, and salsa for us) and buy lettuce by the head (ALWAYS under $1) – makes great salads later!)
Thursday – Roast Chicken
(Cheap Tip: Aldi’s sells whole frozen chicken at $0.69/lb! Half this chicken will go in the freezer to be used in another meal next week.)
Friday – Leftovers
(Cheap Tip: What’s cheaper than leftovers?! Don’t let the food go bad in your fridge!)
Saturday – Tuna Melts
(Cheap Tip: When serving more expensive meals in a week, try to balance it out with cheap meals like this (this balances the tortellini and our Sunday meal).)
Sunday – Meatball Stew
(Cheap Tip: Try to substitute cheaper alternatives for the more pricey ingredients. This meal calls for mushroom gravy, which is twice as much as the plain beef gravy at Aldi’s. And we like beef better than mushrooms, anyways.)
For breakfasts, we’ll be eating some leftover pancakes (we like a big (maybe a little TOO big) breakfast on Saturdays) that are being stored in the freezer. And of course, some cold cereal. And maybe, if I can get around to it, some blueberry muffins. I’ve had frozen blueberries in my freezer for months.
For lunches, we’ll be eating scrambled eggs (the toddler, she loves them), leftovers, pancakes, peanut butter on crackers, fruit, and anything else we can find.
For dessert, we’ll be eating homemade apple pie and for Bible study, I’ll be bringing German Chocolate cake.
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What are you eating this week? Do you have a grocery budget? How much do you allow yourself each week?
We budget $50 a week for groceries, but the only time we spend that much is if we host more than one dinner for friends, or if we buy food for the food pantry. We typically run closer to $35/week.
That said, we have a separate eating-out budget that accounts for 1-2 meals a week. I agree that Aldi is awesome, and allows me not to worry much about the budget at all, because food is so reasonable there. I am being a little more conscious of how much meals cost & how much we eat out now that we’re down to one income for a time.
You mentioned tacos and pasta: these are two staples of our table. We eat them a lot.
Nothing like homemade garlic bread! super yummy! I’ll toast ours and then sprinkle a bit of that ‘bread dipping seasoning’ over it with some parmesan cheese. ohhh, to die for!
And have you ever tried making your own tortillas? Takes a bit of time, but is sooo worth it! Uber cheap too!
Sounds great!
Great job!!! 😀 Your menu is inspiring.
I tried making tortillas today… they were NOT round.
Here’s a tip for you–I always, ALWAYS add oatmeal to my ground beef, unless it’s in a soup or something like that. I just fed taco salad to 8 people last week (with ample leftovers for my hubs and I for lunch) using a pound and a half of ground beef. I stretch it with a big fat onion, diced small, and a hearty handful or two or three of oatmeal thrown in just as it starts cooking.
Good job! I spend about $100 a week ($20 on organic milk/eggs delivered), but I have 4 kids! You are doing a great job!
Great job on the grocery budget. My goal this month is $600 for a family of eight. I think we are going to make our goal because I still have about $130 left for the month and I just went shopping yesterday.
Blessings~
Yummy! Good job on only spending $40 this week.
I made spaghetti this week and for the first time made homemade french bread that I turned into some garlic bread! Yummo!
I usually spend closer to $75-$100/week but I am feeding seven mouths! 🙂
one thing we have for luch a lot is baked potatos and we top them with left over chili or cheese or salsa- whatever. cheap and good for you!