It's ok to add and cross things off your list in the store - Meal Planning May 2nd - 8th

Written by Post Comment

This week was another larger budget weeks and that's good because we were completely out of chicken breasts.  Need to restock!  So, Thursday night I actually created the list for dinners and looked in the fridge and pantry to see what we had on hand.  We weren't going to be doing our normal get up, do bills, and then go grocery shopping on Friday.  I had promised to help my brother with his new apartment.  So, I got up early to do the bills to know what we were working with money wise.  We went, did our magic, and went straight to Walmart to start on our grocery shopping.  Here's what I came up with for our dinners:
  1. Chicken Wings  (already have the wings)
  2. Hot Dogs (Somewhat of a carry over.  Jon had accidentally left the hot dogs from the week before in the trunk of his car while we were at my mom's)
  3. Chicken Casserole (As I type this, I'm thinking of changing this.  When I do make this, I will write a post for it.)
  4. BBQ Pork Chops 
  5. Pizza Casserole  
  6. Spaghetti (already have the noodles and sauce)

I must say, ever since we've started calculating and sticking to the list, we've been able to get in and out of Walmart pretty fast.  Now, we do have to stop in the toy and electronics sections for Michael, but sometimes I think it's more for Jon.  This time, Jon found three Hot Wheels that he felt Michael had to have.  I'm ok with getting Hot Wheels since they're only $0.97 and we don't buy them all the time.  Here's the list I had for Walmart and the items prices:

  • can of corn  $0.78
  • can of green beans
  • 2 boxes of chicken flavored stuffing  $1.98 x 2 = $3.96
  • steam-able bag of mixed veggies
  • hot dogs  $1.98
  • french fries  $1.00 x 2 = $2.00
  • fruit gummies  $2.00
  • loaf of bread  $1.48
  • bag of chicken strips  $4.00
  • BBQ sauce  $2.48
  • wing sauce  $2.08
  • birthday card for our nephew, Ryan  $3.34
  • Kool Aid  $0.20 x 16 = $3.20

 As you can see, there were somethings crossed off the list and the Kool Aid is in green because it was added to the list in the store.  For some reason they were completely out of the style of green beans I generally buy and I thought we might have the mixed veggies in our upright freezer (it's filled with veggies and fruits).  The total that we spent at Walmart was $31.19.

At Wegmans, now that we know were most things are, we can get in and out a lot quicker than Walmart.  Even with a longer list this week, we got in and out fairly quick.  Here's the list and the prices for each item:
  • gallon of whole milk  $3.59
  • OJ  $2.49
  • pepperoni  $2.29
  • pizza sauce  $1.49
  • mozzarella shredded cheese  $2.69
  • chicken  $13.25
  • 1lb hamburger  $3.59
  • pork chops  $4.55
  • butter
  • onion  $0.86
  • potato chips
  • bananas  $0.85

 You're probably first thinking, why in the world did she pay $13.25 for chicken?  Well, this is why:
Wegmans' Family Pack of chicken breasts.  Don't let this picture and the packaging fool you, those chicken breast are fairly large.  There are 10 breasts there so when you break it down, we paid $1.33 per breast!  Since I generally use two breast for each chicken meal, this will give us five chicken meals and will probably last us the rest of the month.

 We crossed off the butter because we were getting pretty close to going over budget and could last a week on the butter that we had.  The potato chips were crossed off because Jon had forgot about the individual packages his grandparents had bought him.  We added bananas because I wanted some and I'm working on a guest blog for a friend about smart phone apps and bananas was an offer this week on Checkout 51.  The total spent at Wegmans was $36.54.  Not too bad with all the meat that we purchased.

 Our budget for the week was $70 and the total spent at both stores was $67.73.  I was so happy that we stayed under budget by $2.27!  When we got home, I did the steps to earn $0.50 for the milk purchase through Ibotta (click here for my post about Ibotta) and uploaded my receipt to earn $0.50 for the banana purchase through Checkout 51.  Yes, you read that right - I earned $0.50 on a $0.85 purchase of bananas!

 I'm thinking for next week's meal plan post, I'll be adding the Wegman prices for the items we buy at Walmart and vise versa.  That way we can see if there's a huge savings cost or about equals out.  What are your plans for this week?  How have you kept your grocery bill down? If you like what you just read please click to send a quick vote for me on Top Mommy Blogs- The best mommy blog directory featuring top mom bloggers

Tags:

Share:

0 comments