Grocery Plan

Warning: Long Post Ahead!

It's the beginning of May, and that means my grocery budget starts over. Though I thoroughly enjoy planning our meals and grocery needs for a month, it's always a challenge to ensure that I'm feeding my family a healthy, balanced diet on our monthly budget, and allow a little wiggle room for treats and stocking up too. I've found the grocery budget the most difficult to keep, because it's hard to predict how much we'll actually eat, particularly with young children, and also because you cannot always anticipate cost fluctuations.

I've decided to try doing the cash-only system again--remember how I did this last year? We did it for a few months, but I slowly fell off the bandwagon. I would head out to the store to get groceries only to realize once I was there that I forgot to stop by the bank to get my cash! So, I'd just use my debit card, and eventually, I started using it exclusively again. While I still usually managed to stay within budget, I don't think I made the wisest choices, and it was easy to fudge a bit here or there--there is just something about using cash that really makes you consider each purchase. The real key may be to leave my debit card at home so the only thing I have is the cash! That will force me stay within budget!

In addition, I'm implementing another new approach: Once A Month Shopping. The idea is simple: plan an approximate month's worth of meals and purchase all you'll need for the month, spending the bulk of your allotted money in one big trip (around 70%). Weekly "mini" trips allow you to purchase perishables and take advantage of any good deals. So far, I think I'm going to like it, though I actually played it quite conservatively this time in order to see how far everything goes. I was scared to spend too much up front and then run out as the month progressed!

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to post about the experiment, documenting the groceries I got and the meals I fed our family each week. You all can keep me accountable! Truthfully, I'm a little nervous to expose all I buy and what we eat, but anyway, here goes!:

My 1st Trip of the Month:

Aldi
Limes: $1.29
Celery: $.99
2 lbs.. Carrots: $.99
6 Kiwi: $.69
Cucumber: $.49
3 cartons Strawberries: $2.97
1 bunch bananas: $1.16
3 lb. Bag Gala Apples: $1.49
All-Purpose Flour: $1.79
2 Dozen Eggs: $2.58
Corn Tortillas: $1.19
Flour Tortillas: $.99
1 box Ramen Noodles: $2.05
1 bag Sliced Almonds: $2.29
1 box Raisins: $1.29
1 canister Oatmeal: $1.99
2 cans Black Beans: $1.58
2 lbs. Salted Butter: $4.58
2 gallons Skim Milk: $4.58
1 1/2 gallon whole milk: $1.39
single-serve Yogurt Cup: $.39
Total After Tax: $37.04

CVS
2 Liter of GingerAle: $1.33 (Impromtu run for our sick little boy--an attempt to give him some fluids and calories!)

Pick 'n Save
Brown Rice: $1.88
King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour: $3.50
29 oz. can ChickPeas: $2.18
Barilla Whole Grain Pasta: $.29 (after coupon)
Red Baron 4-Cheese Frozen Pizza: $3.00 (after store coupon)
Home Run Inn Pepperoni Frozen Pizza: $4.00 (after store coupon)
6 lb. Whole Chicken: $4.82
3.5 lbs. Split Chicken Breasts: $3.52
5.7 lbs. Chicken Thighs: $5.68
Kraft sliced ColbyJack cheese: $1.99
Land o' Lakes Unsalted Butter: $2.39 (after doubled coupon)
CoffeeMate Natural Bliss refrigerated creamer: $.12 (after doubled coupon)
Marcal Napkins: Free + $1.01 overage (after doubled coupon)
Total After Tax: $32.42

Total Spent so Far: $70.50

Meals this Week (I actually didn't end up cooking much this week, as Ryan was away two nights and a crazy day on Friday resulted in a frozen pizza that night! Abe was sick with a fever and had very little appetite for a few days, so he didn't eat a whole lot either.) At any rate, here's what we ate:

Breakfasts:
steel cut oatmeal, oranges
oatbran muffins, strawberries
strawberry-banana-kiwi smoothies, cinnamon toast
yogurt with strawberries and homemade granola
granola with milk
soaked whole wheat pancakes, warm cinnamon apples

Lunches:
grilled cheese and tomato soup
peanut butter and jelly, apple slices, carrot sticks
salad
leftovers

Dinners:
oven roasted garlic-lemon chicken, parmesan potatoes, steamed green beans
oven pancake with berry sauce
chicken tacos, corn and black bean salad
cheese pizza, tossed salad
leftovers

Snacks:
fruit
caramel corn (most of this was actually eaten by the Bible study guys!)
oatmeal raisin cookies (baked 1/3, froze the rest in ready-to-bake dough balls)
chocolate bunny graham crackers
kettle corn


And, thus ends the first installment of the new grocery plan! The weekly updates that follow should be much shorter :)