Blech. I didn’t do quite so well this week with my grocery shopping trip. I have excuses, of course. I really had a hard time coming up with a menu plan this week. I had ended up shifting this past weekend’s menu around, and here I was, already at a new week, and I didn’t want to think about it. But thought had to be done, as there were just dregs in the bottom of both the gallon of milk and the pitcher of juice. So I started my menu plan, but didn’t quite finish it. I didn’t fill in Saturday or Sunday at all, and thought that maybe I’d be inspired at the store. We all know that is never a good way to shop! Stupidly though, that was my plan. Partway through my trek through the store it became clearly obvious that I was going to go over my $82 budget for the week, and that didn’t include anything for Saturday or Sunday.
So I really fail, because I will probably have to hit the grocery store twice this week. Sigh.
I was also short on time today, so I didn’t have the time to assemble the big buy on the table and take a picture, so I’m afraid this is as good as it’s going to get.
All told, I didn’t do super awful- my grand total was $90.53, $8.53 over my self-imposed budget. Part of that extra expense came from the $4 package of delicious Sun-Dried Tomato Chicken Sausages I decided I wanted to buy and add to tonight’s Linguini Alfredo. I think it was worth the overage, because the sausages were delicious. I also took a gamble in the produce department and picked up six kiwis at the price of 3/$1.00. The kids have been asking for them, and they’re a little on the hard side, but I’m hopeful they’ll soften up beautifully and the kids will be happy. Those were the “not on the list” impulse buys this week. What really drove up my bill this week though were these guys:
A week ago I determined that I wanted to make some delicious Clam Chowder for a soup this week, and then make some homemade bread bowls to eat it in. I knew that was going to affect the budget a bit, but put it on the menu anyway. When I saw the price of the cans of clams, I only paused for a second before putting them in my cart. At $1.39 per 6 ounces of chopped clams, that’s not bad, but when you need 36 ounces of clams… it added up. I spent more on the clams and clam juice than I did on two steaks for making Beef Stroganoff- and I’ll only use one of the steaks and freeze the other for another time!
So here’s my shopping list:
- 3 pound bag Clementines
- 3 pounds of Pink Lady apples
- 3 pounds yellow onions
- celery
- mushrooms
- 6 kiwi fruit (added at store)
- loaf of French bread
- 1 loaf white whole wheat sliced bread
- 1 package 10-inch flour tortillas
- 12 ounces egg noodles
- 6 bottles juice for kids
- 32 ounces clam juice
- 36 ounces chopped clams
- 1 6 ounce can tomato paste
- Cooking Spray
- Dried thyme
- 16 frozen corn dogs for lunches
- sirloin tip steaks
- country style pork ribs
- hard salami
- Al Fresco chicken sausage (added at store)
- 2 boxes cereal
- 2 gallons milk
- quart half and half
- 2 4-packs Yogurt
- sour cream
- 1 block medium cheddar cheese
- 18 count large eggs (Hey, these came down in price this week by almost a whole dollar!)
- 4 frozen fruit juice concentrates
Just typing this list in, I see where I could have done better this week. I didn’t really need the sour cream ($1.99) as I already have an almost full tub in the fridge. But I’m planning a pork carnitas taco tomorrow night, plus a stroganoff the following night, and I wasn’t sure if I would have quite enough. In retrospect, I should have left it at the store, and then run out and picked up one if I ended up needing it for Wednesday’s dinner. I also didn’t really need the cooking spray yet, ($2.29) but my can is running dangerously low, and nothing works like cooking spray for baking. The corn dogs ($3.99) obviously weren’t necessary, but the kids will be really thrilled to find them on a few lunch plates in the week ahead. I guess if it really came down to it, I really didn’t need to buy the loaf of bread either, and I could have just purposed to get up early tomorrow and bake some bread, that would have saved an additional $2.09.
I don’t know. I’m really not digging the Monday grocery shopping trip, to be honest. Monday’s are pretty busy, and it’s enough work to get school rolling for the week, coming up with a menu so I can go shopping is kicking my butt! But, I don’t want to wait until Wednesday to shop, so I guess I’ll just have to keep rolling with the Monday shopping trip. What I need to do is start thinking about next week’s menu earlier, so that Monday all I have to do is make my grocery list and check for coupons. I think next week to make up for the extra I spent this week, we’ll be eating one or two of the meals I have tucked away in the freezer. We’ll see.
Tomorrow, the menu plan, and a little more on my menu planning thought processes. When I have them.