The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget- 3rd Week

Well, here it is- the last grocery week of the month for us. And this week we managed to keep the bill under $50 fairly easily. Even after two stores we hit total at $40.84. Although I realized I'll probably need to pick up some cat food sometime this week, so that will inch up a bit. We still have a little food leftover from the baby shower I hosted this weekend and once again a recipe carry-over from the week before. But I'm realizing that that meal might be put on hold again due to a change in plans for our upcoming weekend. Hmmmm. Anyway, in making this week's menu I relied on the rest of the Rosemary bread in the freezer, as well as some frozen bolognese sauce. This week also has two meals that use eggs, as I've been letting the eggs I buy go to waste lately and want to make sure I use up what I had to buy for some baby shower recipes. Relying on using up what we had and meals that use cheaper ingredients, some of which were on sale, I was able to plan a meal that I had to buy practically every ingredient for- the stuffed peppers. The most expensive ingredient for this recipe was the corn meal, which was a 5 pound bag and will last long beyond this one dinner. The rest of our shopping was comprised of our usual produce purchases, cereal, and Josh's favorite fig cookies. So, what are we eating this week?

-Rosemary French Toast w/ mushrooms & onions and salad
-Polenta-stuffed Poblanos w/ spicy black beans & tomatoes and salad
-Baked Eggs w/ mushrooms, onion & croutons and salad
-Bolognese Pie and salad

Think I'll postpone the manicotti (again). Josh and I decided that we haven't had enough together time lately so we plan to order pizza Friday night and get crumbs in the bed while we watch movies. :)

The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget- 2nd Week

This week, once you take into account the body wash, wrist brace, and salad & sushi we grabbed for lunch, we only spent $50.87. This week's menu is built around leftover ingredients from the previous week's meals. I will use up the rest of the tortillas and cheese from our Spinach Quesadillas by making Zucchini Quesadillas this time. And I'll be trying out a new recipe to use up the rest of the spaghetti sauce that I originally bought for the Meatballs & Spaghetti dinner. The rest of the week's meals were decided on what I had in the pantry. I also took advantage of a couple of sales this week to stock up on some things. I bought 3 cans of tomato soup for $1.80, a favorite of mine and also an ingredient in my beef stew which I will no doubt be making soon as the weather turns cooler. And we bought nearly 2 dozen BIG apples, which were on sale for .99 cents a pound. Now we won't have to buy any apples next week! Salad ingredients, fruit, and pantry staples fill out the rest of the grocery purchases. So, between what we already had and this week's purchases we'll be having the following this week:

-Hamburgers w/ chili-roasted sweet potato wedges and salad (carry-over from last week)
-Zucchini quesadillas w/ black bean soup and salad
-Broccoli & cheese stuffed manicotti and salad
-Minestrone and salad
-Frozen pizza (very busy day prepping for baby shower this weekend)

The Incredible Shrinking Grocery Budget

Well, well, well..... here I am. Again, taking forever to get around to posting something. And not even a recipe post at that. We are tightening our belts lately due to lots of unexpected and, to be perfectly honest a couple of unnecessary (but fun), expenses. This month we have a goal of keeping our weekly grocery bill under $50 to help offset some of this spending. We both take our breakfast and lunch on workdays, so that makes it a bit more of a challenge. However, the freezer is well stocked so I don't have to buy meat, and it's not quite time yet for holiday baking, making it a perfect time to cut back on the grocery budget. With that in mind I made the following menu for the week:

-Baked Potatoes & Salad
-Spinach Quesadillas w/ Black Beans & Salad
-Rosemary Meatballs w/ Pasta & Salad
-Steamed Veggies w/ Brown Rice & Salad
-Grilled Cheese & Chicken Noodle Soup
-Hamburgers & Chili-Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges

I already had the meatballs, ground beef, pasta, rice, sourdough bread, and cheese so none of those things had to be purchased. Working with what we had helped a lot- we spent $40 and some change this week. How much do you typically spend on your groceries? Have you come up with any new ways for keeping your food bill down?