My list when I went wasn't very well organized as far as meal planning goes, I had the 4star and 5star items from grocery smarts and another page with the list of necessities which showed a bit more meal planning potential but still nothing solid. I knew my goals - about 30 for Meat, Veg, Fruit, Bread, Milk and Eggs - that's a new recommendation for the Grocery Smart's teachers. Then the other 40-50 on stock ups and other household items.
I started in the frozen foods section and got the frozen meals - 4 Healthy Choice steamers @1.49 each (that's a dollar off). Then the Lean Cuisines, they were 5 for 10, plus I had a coupon that made them 1.50 each - I had 2 coupons so I was going to get 10 - its a good deal... I went and got the milk- with coupon 1.74 and cheese 2 lb brick - with coupon 5.99, some ice-cream -sale, cereal - generic, gold fish - sale $0.99, shaving gel - skintimate @ 0.94 each - 2 cans, I can't believe its not butter - sale 1.75ish, Ritz crackers sale and coupon 1.49 each -3 boxes, wheat thins - sale and coupon - 1.32 ea- 3 boxes, frozen peas - 0.99/bag - i got 2 - I had a coupon for 0.40 off 2, Kleenex sale with coupon made them 0.70 a box - 3 boxes, I picked up some Charmin TP - 13.00, Ziploc's - not a great deal, but necessary with coupon $1.00 off 2, I went next to start getting produce bread and meat - and had been adding up on my phone's calculator the total - I was at like 90 when I realized there was a problem...
I wasn't done, didn't have food for meals for the week, no fresh food, major problem. What do do? Do I just keep going and blow the budget in order to get all of the things that were the good deals? Plus I would have still have to get more stuff... Or do I look like a dork, who has no money and take stuff back, stand in a aisle and add up all of the dollars spent until I was on track? Last years Courtney would have just purchased it all, and agonized over spending too much when I got home. I was feeling week, and had to call Jake and tell him where I was on my spending, and he just kindly listened and asked what I thought, I knew the answer - look like a dork and take stuff back. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it - like so many things in life.
So what do I get, what do I take back? Well I guess I don't "need" 14 frozen meals, and 3 bags of goldfish (my child inside was screaming - but they are ONLY a Dollar!!! - the grown up, was saying no.) So I took back the 10 lean cuisines and stood in the freezer aisle where there were no other shoppers and got out my pencil and paper and did some math.
TP 13
Dressing 2.84 (for 2)
Syrup 1.5
Chili 4.50 (for 10)
Cereal 3.50
Frozen meals 6
Ritz 3
Shaving Cream 2
Kleenex 1.70
Wheat Thins 4
Butter 1.80
Cheese 5.99
Frozen Peas 2
Milk 1.74
Gold Fish 0.99
Ice cream 2.50
Kielbasa 3
Chicken 9
Salad 3
Popcorn 1.80
Apples 2.5
Bread 5.00
Soda 1.80 - I got the Kroger brand -
ok that is - still over budget - shoot - another phone call home - hey how much toilet paper do we have??? enough for the week, yep - ok, take that back, close enough! I didn't figure tax in my adding, but it was close enough! (I am shooting for 70-75 right now). So the total was 79.27 after 12.80 in coupons, 42.19 in fresh values savings! Total savings 54.99 that is 41% I will take it!!!!!
So now that I have all this random stuff, I am not quite sure what we are going to eat exactly, but we have lots of lunch meat from last weeks great deal, meals for lunch at work, bread for all kinds of sandwiches, cheese, cereal, we still have pasta and rice and now lots of chili. This week will also be a bit different because we have family in town so we might not be as diligent at eating at home, which is a big reason to stick to the grocery budget.
So plans for now:
Sunday: Dinner at Lloyd's
Monday: Chicken and Rice and Peas
Tuesday: Kielbasa
Wednesday: Maybe playing with the Arveseth's otherwise - maybe pancakes
Thursday: Sandwiches
Friday: Pork Roast
Breakfasts - toast, apples, cereal, milk, eggs, pancakes, sausage
Lunches - sandwiches, mac and cheese, frozen meals, pasta
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