Money Saving Tip

Money Saving Monday!

Someone once said that the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.

Why do we whine that we spend a lot more than other people at the grocery store, yet we continue to do shop the way we have always shopped. For years I researched how other ladies bought groceries and gathered all the information I needed to make changes, but I just couldn't formulate a plan. Part of my problem is my perfectionism. Thankfully I've gotten a better handle on that in recent years thanks to flylady.

The best thing I've ever done for our grocery budget was to buy everything I NEEDED for one week and that was it, zip zilch nada, nothing else. It NEARLY killed me to miss out on the sales. You know what though? I survived and I've been able to lower our grocery bill substantially from that little exercise. I don't shop that way anymore, but it's nice to know how little I actually need to spend for one week at the grocery store. I got this idea from Gayle at the Grocery Cart Challenge .

My challenge to you in the new year is to try something new. After scouring your pantry (fridge, freezer, cupboards) for meal ideas, buy everything you need for one week and that's it. Don't run to the store if you run out of something, don't buy anything extra. Get creative if you run out of something. Try it for a few weeks and see what happens.

C'mon, I double dog dare ya...


One final note: if there is an amazing sale that happens ONLY ONE TIME A YEAR, please take advantage of the sale. I know in some parts of the country there are canned good sales in January.

Pantry Principle - buying too many items

I try to plan my menu around what is in my pantry. This is also known as the pantry principle. FYI - my "pantry" includes items in my freezer, fridge and cupboards.

A good way to be completely overwhelmed when stocking your pantry is to wander through the isles buying prepackaged things. IE. crackers, cookies, mixes, cereal, etc. Ask me how I know!!!

A much better method is this: limit the number of items you buy from the store and keep those stocked in your pantry. For example, instead of stocking up on cake mixes, pancake & waffle mixes, cookie mixes, cookies, crackers, bread, tortillas, etc., stock up on basic ingredients and learn how to cook and bake! It's really not hard. It is a bit time consuming in the beginning, but once you find a tried and true recipe, you'll find cooking/baking goes very quickly.

It's a lot easier to grocery shop when you limit the number of items you buy at the grocery store . It's also a lot easier to keep track of the sale prices when you have fewer items to track.

Money saving tip: the pantry principle will save you money if you spend the time to learn how the system works.

Menu Plan Monday 12/21-12/26

In my life, the best time to make a menu plan is when I'm too busy to make a plan. I really had to convince myself this morning that it's going to help me tremendously during this Christmas week. With company coming and having a cold/no energy I realized that having a plan will help me focus my energy on other important things.

• Sunday - DH is making white turkey chili w/ roasted sweet potatoes


• Mon - B: french toast L: white turkey chili D: turkey pot pie w/ beef soup (from freezer)


• Tues - B: steel cut oats L: FFYS (fend for yourself) D: pizza


• Wed - B: scrambled eggs w/ toast L: FFYS D: DH making hamburgers or bean soup


• Thurs. - FFYS until dinner

Christmas Eve Dinner: turkey ala king and a bunch of appetizers

Christmas Day: For Breakfast I'm making an egg bake with eggs, cheese and shredded potatoes, with banana bread from the freezer. For Lunch/Dinner we're having Ham, twice baked potato casserole, green beans, challah bread

Dec 26th: we're having steel cut oats and whatever else! I'm fairly certain we'll have a lot of leftovers plus we plan to do some touristy stuff when our family is here.

Any or all of this might change at any given time, but I'm okay with that...at least I won't have to think of food if I don't want to!

Check out orgunkie.com for more menu plans!

Christmas Baking

I spent a LOT more money than usual for groceries this week because we're having Christmas at our house this year. Apparently we like junk food that is expensive! Good thing we had this in the budget!

If I would have had to buy these homebaked goodies our groceries would have cost even more. After three hours, I have 2 pumpkin pies, 2 loaves of banana bread and 1 loaf of Challah bread. I also boiled up some sausage and put it in the food processor to get it in tiny pieces. I don't need this until we make stuffed mushrooms on Christmas Eve, but it sure is nice to get it out of the way!

Menu Plan Monday 12/14 - 12/20

I'm not sure what veggie I'm serving with some of the meals yet. It will depend on what is on sale at the store this week.

1. Turkey with creamy garlic pasta, sweet potatoes and peas
2. Baked potato soup with bacon, cheese, broccoli
3. Crispy lemon Beef over rice w/ carrots
4. Spaghetti
5. Bean Soup
6. Pepperoni & Mushroom Calzones or Pizza
7. DH cooks on Sunday

Next I need to work on my menu plan for company that is coming at Christmas. I am waiting for the sale ads to come out on Wednesday so I can get busy!

Grocery Shopping 12/10/09

Last week on I worked on a two week dinner plan and shopped accordingly. I am determined to purchase the majority of my groceries every other week. I need to ease in slowly to this way of shopping or I'll give up if I can't do it perfectly.

So the week that we get paid I plan to make a two week menu plan and buy everything I need for two weeks. My menu plan will be based on everything I have in my "pantry" (freezer, fridge and cupboards). The "off" week I will stop in to buy any amazing loss leaders, milk and fresh fruits and vegies if needed.

I'm happy to report that it worked! I thought it was going to be really really hard to get used to, but it wasn't at all. I really like the freedom this gives me, especially during this time of year. Last week when oranges were $.33/pound I should have bought a LOT more. Unfortunately I didn't know if they were going to be any good. It seems like this time of year they are always hit or miss.

During the week we did purchase a few needs like fritos, candy canes, hot chocolate and apple cider. What?!? Those aren't needs?

Prior to grocery shopping today my total was at $99.96.



Today I spent $5.00 on pasta to fill my pantry and then the rest of the money I spent was on grapefruit, bananas and milk.


Including today's purchases, my total for the month is $126.36.

We'll see if any more "needs" come up before next week!

Check out more grocery deals at Money Saving Mom and Grocery Cart Challenge!

Menu Plan Monday 12/7- 12/13

Last week I figured out what we were going to eat for the next few weeks . I did all of my grocery shopping last Thursday, so making my menu plan for this week was easy! I looked at my calendar to see when the basketball games were, practices, and any other commitments we had, and then scheduled dinners that would work with that night.

• Mon: baked potato soup Cottage Cheese pancakes, sausage, hash browns, fruit (I changed this because we ate Stupid Easy CP Sausage and Potatoes for dinner on Saturday and ate the rest for lunch on Sunday - too many potatoes for the main meal!)


• Tues: lasagna (basketball game - will make in the AM)


• Wed: Smothered bean burritos - this is already done! Yeah!


• Thurs: Buffalo flavored turkey spaghetti - one of our new favorites!


• Fri: Crispy Lemon Beef


• Sat: Cajun beans and Rice w/ smoked sausage

For breakfast we're having waffles, steel cut oats, scrambled eggs, homemade granola and probably french toast. We'll fill in with cold cereal and/or leftovers.

Planning Planning Planning!

The way I SAVE MONEY is by planning!

In this case, I was looking ahead to next week and had to decide what to do with the meat I bought yesterday. Freeze or cook?

I made up my menu and spent one hour prepping meals for next week so it'll go a lot faster at dinner time.

I boiled up 2 pounds of hamburger. 1 pound will be for lasagna and 1 pound I added some cooked lentils and taco seasoning. I froze a small baggie of this for my kids' lunches and left the rest in the fridge in case we need lunches this weekend.

I fried the pack of bacon. I need bacon for baked potato soup next week and for refried pinto beans. I froze all of the cooked bacon. Saved some of the grease for a rainy day (yes, completely unhealthy, but OH SO GOOD!). I made the refried pinto beans, spread them on a tortilla, added cheese and salsa, rolled them up and put them in a pan. When I was done I spread a can of green chile sauce on top. Threw it in the oven for baby and me Placed it in the freezer for dinner next week.

I cut a third of the roast off and cut it into bite sized pieces, then using my meat tenderizer I took my anger out on life on the poor pieces of roast. Since I'm not angry I doubt it did any good, but it did freak my dog out a bit! I'm going to try a new recipe for crispy orange beef next week.

I also made guacamole, but that was just for me! Yummy!

Next week dinner prep should be a breeze!

Grocery shopping on 12/3/09

Lueders 12/2 picked up 1 gallon of milk $2.13

Safeway and Lueders:
$17.28 for the "pantry" (aka - stuff I didn't need now) cheese, cream cheese, cereal, and 2 cans mushrooms

$71.62 for "needs" for 2 weeks

Now - the DETERMINATION to make grocery shopping every other week work!!!

Next week I'll see if there are any amazing once in a lifetime only loss leaders and make sure we have enough milk. Other than that I need to stay out of the store. How nice to have menu ideas already done!

Check out Moneysavingmom.com and Grocery Cart Challenge for more grocery deals!

Menu Plan Take: 1,200,233,423

So I can change my mind once or twice or a million times right???

Here is my very tentative plan...I am going to shop on Thursday 12/3 for food to last us for two weeks. Next week if I run to the store it will be for some milk and any INCREDIBLE, ONCE IN A LIFETIME loss leaders (yelling at myself, not you). I'm not sure that I'll have enough fresh fruit either. We have a lot of canned fruit and tons of frozen veggies though so we'll see!

Days in December (dinners are NOT in order of when they'll be served - that never seems to work out for me!):

1. Turkey Pot Pie (put one in the freezer as well)
2. Mac & Cheese w/ sweet potatoes
3. Potluck - bringing brownies w/ caramel sauce
4. Smothered refried bean burritos w/ tomatoes
5. Lasagna - which we'll eat throughout the weekend
6. DH is making chili w/ chuck roast
7. Cajun red beans and rice
8. tacos w/ burger or chuck roast and lentils - black beans on side or taquitos
9. Buffalo flavored Spaghetti w/ chicken or turkey
10. Spaghetti w/ meatballs possibly???
11. Soup - baked potato soup or bean soup w/ creamy garlic penne pasta
12. ?
13. DH cooks on Sundays
14. Black Beans and Rice or Spicy Beans
15. Chx or turkey ala king
16. calzones

All of this is subject to change depending on the sales. Last time I was at Safeway I found awesome deals on shrimp and fish so we'll see! My plan is to spend $80 on things that we need and then stock up on a few things that rarely go on sale (8oz shredded cheese is $1.00 per bag!)

Safeway 1st:

• promo deal for cream cheese? $1.00 ea? Check egg promo as well
• cereal $1.25 for mini wheats w/ my rain check and coupons $5.00
• oranges $.33/lb - $5.00
• avocado $.77
• pears $1.00/lb - 4?
• Grapefruit is 2/$1.00...depending on the size of them I may or may not get them
• Roast $1.88/lb $4-$8 (not sure of the minimum amount I can buy)
• Bacon $2
• Butter? $2
• Price of Chinese egg noodles & wrappers
• Check coffee if less than $5.99 buy
• Check olive cost (coupon $1/2)
• Check Rotel cost (coupon $.50/1)
• look for cheap shrimp & fish as well as bananas
• Total expected to spend $ 27 w/o anything past Bacon

Small local store - Lueders 2nd:

• Kielbasa $3??
• Burger (depending on meat purchase at Safeway) $3
• Boneless Pork $1.79/lb (for my "pantry" $5
• Cheese - 3 bags Italian and 4 bags pizza cheese - $7
• More shredded cheese for my "pantry" depending on how much $ I have
• 1 Block of cheese $1.25 if sharp cheddar is available
• sm miracle whip $2
• 1 tomato $1
• 1 head garlic $1
• lots of bananas $.39 - $3.00
• 1 bag onions $3
• 5 lb bag of grapefruit (if not at Safeway) $4
• Cabbage $2
• Carrots $2
• Milk $2.00
• 1 yogurt starter $.50
• Buttermilk $1.50
• Daisy sour cream $3
• Eggs either 18 or 12 med. & 12 large $3
• butter? $2 (have 3 lbs right now)
• Applesauce $2
• Salsa $3
• Popcorn $2
• Elbow macaroni $2
• Price of Chinese egg noddles
• salt $.50
• Check price of raisin bran
• Corn Tortillas??
• Farmland Sausage Roll $1 ea - get rain check
• total expected to spend (nothing past salt) $53

Total $27+53 = $80. Okay now that is funny! I hadn't added it up yet, but I knew that previously I was able to spend $40 per week on things we NEEDED for that week's menu so that's how I arrived at my goal of $80

Depending on the deals I find, I think I want to buy 2 more bags of Italian Cheese and Pizza Cheese for my pantry.