Grocery Shopping and Weekly Menu Update

Let the stocking up begin! This week I had an extra perk in the grocery budget and I made the best of a good thing! Let's see what I got for FREE this week:

A pouch of cat treats
1/2 gallon of Dean's Ice Cream
2 bags of Steamfresh Corn
4 boxes of Honey Bunches of Oats

I hit my Italian grocery for produce and prosciutto ham for my salad on Easter and Hungarian Sausage that was on sale. I then filled my cart at Aldi for a whole $69.00 and most of it was stock up for a later date! LOVE IT! DH finds comfort in an overflowing pantry as well!

No Corned Beef and Cabbage this week since we just had it, and not too adventurous in the meal planning department this week. I switched my Emealz from ANY STORE to the new choice of ALDI. The whole list - should I have needed everything was $62.00 for the 7 days of meals! I was impressed! Decent meal ideas - I'm saving it for next week, I think.

This Week's Meals:

Monday: French Toast Bake
Tuesday: Hungarian Sausage & Pierogies
Wednesday: Monterrey Spaghetti (with Chicken)
Thursday: Kielbasa Soup
Friday: Winging it - pantry pot luck!
Saturday: Italian Easter at my mom's! I can't wait!
Sunday: Boys on their own (I work at night)

Recipe Request for Chicken Picatta

The recipe from E-Mealz may be copyrighted so I don't want to infinge on them -- and this one is more like what I make myself (just too lazy to type it out - or rely on my memory) I'm really bad at writing down how I make something and usually go by tasts and the "add a little of this and a little more of that" rather than measure anything unless I'm running directly from a recipe. I take after my Italian grandma, I guess.

Chicken Picatta from the RecipeZaar -- I'm not real fond of bitter tasting capers so I usually leave them off and instead will do something like mushrooms.

E-Mealz now offers Vegatarian!

Veggie-Mealz

I guess you can call me a cave woman -- I gotta have my meat, however this may interest some people out there. E-mealz is introducing something new:

"E-Mealz just got greener! We are introducing this “Veggie-Mealz” plan as a family-friendly dinner menu plan to feed 4 to 6. “Veggie-Mealz” is not for every version of vegetarian diets, but for the broad appeal of a vegetarian diet that allows for eggs and dairy (lacto-ovo). There is enough flexibility in the plan to be of organizational use to anyone on a vegetarian diet. You can easily make adjustments to the meal plan and grocery list to suit your specifications."

End of Week Update

A little extra goes a long way
As stated in an earlier post, I was given a bit more buck for the bang on the grocery budget.
Still keeping my weekly 3 store run for deals, I have been able to restock the pantry, spice cabinet and the empty freezer is getting full! (should have defrosted the freezer while it was empty -- but will a freezer defrost while it's in a garage in the Midwest in winter??)

Important Stockpile Information
I've been watching for "the sale" on pasta that my Italian grocery gets every once and awhile. That's when I typically stock up on pasta to last me for ... quite awhile. Well, I haven't seen a sale on pasta in quite awhile, however what I HAVE seen is the prices going UP!

I guess this little "Grain Shortage" they have been touting lately may actually be true. Because of this, I bought 6 boxes of Aldi Penne Rigate and 3 bags of flour. Take notice in your area if this is one of your staples and stock up so you have what you need.

Small Battles in a Large War
My Citibank statement came in - and although I had noticed the total due and even posted it here - it finally hit me at the small victory that had happened that I hadn't really noticed before. First I have to tell you a little story about my Citibank card.

Back in the good old days when balance transfers were free and the percentage rates were super low FOR LIFE, I decided to throw quite a bit of debt onto this Citibank card. I call it my storage card. "I'll pay for it when I can" because the payments were low and the finance charges were either 0% one balance transfer and 1.99% on the other - there was no urgency. And there wasn't. I've been paying the mins on that card forever!

I started at $17,000 of transferred STUPID debt from other credit cards that were used as my life support because I was living without a plan.

The small victory? It's under $10k!

E-mealz
My friend sent me an email asking what was on my list this week. For those who haven't heard about E-Mealz there are quite a few posts about it on my blog. It's a nice and easy list of meals with recipes and a grocery list. Saves time and money by having a plan BEFORE you walk into the grocery store! I'm on the Any-Store plan and I've been mix and matching meals from previous weeks. (I'm always a rebel) here's a snippet of what's on my Meal List this week from E-Mealz :

Chicken Piccatta (I love lemon!)
Pepper Steak
Baked French Toast (different than my recipe!)
Black Bean & Smoked Sausage Soup

I'm getting into making a soup every week. The boys didn't care for my Greek Lemon Chicken & Rice last week. "Too much lemon!" Ahh, well. MORE FOR ME!

Our Weekly Menu

Well, with everyone in the house with a queazy stomach or worse - I have been saving a fortune in food costs and energy cooking dinner! Want to bet even without eating that I am the only one in this family that WON'T lose weight! LOL

Monday: BRAT DIET (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast)
Tuesday: BRAT DIET (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast)
Wednesday: BRAT DIET (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast)
Thursday: Game Plan is Pan Fried Ravioli (but we'll see who feels like eating)
Friday: Corned Beef and Cabbage ?? (have a feeling we might push this off til next week too)
Saturday: Greek Lemon Chicken Soup with homemade bread
Sunday: Boys on their own for dinner

I didn't post my menu for the last few weeks. Sorry about that. A lot of duplicates from thngs I have made before exccept I did try one of my new E-Mealz recipes from my last week menu list. I have never EVER tried a Tater Tot Casserole before. Just doesn't sound right to me... I dunno. Well I tried their recipe of putting tater tots in a 13x9 baking dish mixing cooked and crumbled ground beef with cream of mushroom soup and an envelope of taco seasoning together and pouring on top of the tater tots and covering with taco cheese and baking. (I made a double batch -- cooked for about an hour) and it tasted REALLY GOOD!

Here's a few meals off of my E-Mealz menu that I got this week.
I have the ANY STORE option.
(I just have to wait to get everyone WELL before I start this.)

Chinese Pot Roast (sounds good - doesn't it?)
Chicken & Cranberry Pan Sauce (oooo I can't wait to try this one!!)
Salsa Sirloin Salad
Ham & Cheese Crescent Roll Ups

I'll keep you updated on how more of these recipes turn out.

Winter Blah-dom

The Storm that Wasn't
The weather people like messing with me I think. Throughout this whole week the forecast has changed dramatically of what was going to happen today. I've heard everything from flash floods, freezing rain to up to 18 inches. Of course, I work the night shift tonight which means I'll be on the road when what is now rain turns to ice driving home. If I'm lucky someone will have thrown some sand down, because I think we are all out of salt. Joyous! Black ice and night driving do not go well together.

A Needed Break
Besides OUR neighboring tourist town there's another BIGGER tourist town north we have plans to visit for the day. A quick rejuv. Of course, everyone and their uncles are thinking the same thing - and the town's hotels are to capacity. You know what THAT means, don't you? Crowded restaurants, crowded stores, crowded, crowded, crowded. Gasp! Why do I keep doing the tourist town stuff?

Glory of Grocery Shopping
My husband found a store in a town not too far away that does DOUBLE COUPONS every day! It's the same chain that I used to shop that did double coupons on Tuesday before the SuperWalmart put them out of business.
This gives me another store choice as I try out my E-Mealz menu list next week. I'll be excited to share my review. I've printed two weeks worth of meals and the recipes look simple and NOT way beyond frugal like '101 ways to eat on beans and rice' like I feared. It's real food! There's meats, there's vegatables and thank GOD -- Pasta and Bread!

Financial Stand-Still
Of course, when you are flying along for what seems to be a mile a minute, sooner or later you have to come to a stand still. And I'm there. I should be picking up soon at work, but the snow, being sick, lack of things to work on.....they all have played hell on my paycheck this winter. My worst winter in the last 5 years!
We've been flying right along that I hadn't even noticed that fact until this weekend when I played the comparison game. I hope to have an incredible spring with extra hours or I will have to go look for a moonlighting job.

UGHH!

E-mealz : I wound up joining & saved money doing it!

I talked about it last week that I was strongly considering trying the E-mealz because my weekly meals really needed a pick me up. In fact, I haven't even posted my Weekly Menu because it's basically the same things I had already posted. B..O..R..I..N..G!!

I was listening to the Friday Edition of The Dave Ramsey Show and I heard the advertisement for E-Mealz again. I was on my way home from my weekly shopping excursion. I spent $1.04 OVER my weekly budget. I found it ironic because that's what it would cost me a week to join E-mealz with the code: DAVE. No joke.

What is it?
E-Mealz is a menu planning site that not only comes up with a meal plan, it gives you recipes and a shopping list for 7 meals a week.
You can choose between Kroger, Publix or Walmart and your menu plans are built on what is on sale that week. I chose to do the ANY STORE PLAN because I bop between stores so much and although I do have a SuperWalmart close to me - it's not my first choice grocery store.

They also have special needs for families such as LO-CARB, LO-FAT or POINTS SYSTEM for families or ANOTHER plan if you are just cooking for 2.

Although I have a basic outline of my Weekly Menu this week because I went shopping yesterday instead of Tuesday because we are supposed to get "substancial" snow again (man I am so incredibly tired of SNOW), I downloaded my first week's menu.

What's the Menu Look Like?
Sounds pretty good -

1. Mexican Meatloaf
2. Spicy Pork Tenderloin
3. Raspberry Chicken Salad (using rotisserie chicken that I can get FREE at work!)
4. Sausage Fajitas (using smoked sausage that ALWAYS goes on sale)
5. Chicken and Rice bake
6. Cauliflower Cheese Soup
7. Tater Tot Casserole

And recipes look very easy too. Not that I will do 100% of my weekly meals based on this, but it sure puts a few more options into my boring menu list and doesn't seem to cost an arm & a leg.

I'm sure a brunt of the shopping list may be done at Aldi, but I 'll let you know how I do with the recipes and what the price list comes up to be.

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families
Enter Code: DAVE for $2.50 off membership! ($12.50 for 3 months)
That's $1.04 a week for weekly meal plan, recipes and organized shopping list.

Can this be the answer to my weekly menu doldrums?

I went grocery shopping yesterday. You've heard me moan and complain about how my shopping trips just aren't as lucrative as they once were. I know the food prices are going up everywhere and it's the truth. I'm not store loyal. I bounce between store to store for whatever deals I can muster. I plan my weekly menu and try to use items I currently have. Frankly, I'm in a rut. I'm eating the same meals over and over (because I know they work into the budget) and I'm BORED .... and BROKE!

There's been a lot of talk about these Meal Planning services. I've been hesitant to join any because I don't see why I would pay someone to do what I already do. HOWEVER, I did find this one that kind of intrigues me. It's inexpensive. It comes with a grocery list and recipe instructions. They say that the shopping list is around $75. which is about what I spend every week. New recipes? Stays within the budget? Shopping List? I can go to any store? I may actually sign up for this one. My Weekly Menu will be a little more interesting .. THAT'S FOR SURE!

$15 every three months = $1.25 a week. I think I may be able to fit that into the grocery budget.

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families