Weekly Meal Plan ~ 5/14/12 -- 5/20/12

This week is all about keeping my groceries under budget and I did just that! I allot $75 per week for our groceries and this week I spent $63.27! This is for an entire week of groceries!! If you haven't started meal planning yet, give it a try. It's amazing how much money you will save. I used to spend anywhere from $100-150 a WEEK in groceries and now I've cut that by half!

Here is my meal plan for this week:

Monday: Baked Ziti, Salad, Garlic Bread

Tuesday: Spicy Tomato Soup & Grilled Cheese (Sometimes I add the beans and pasta in this soup and sometimes I don't. It's good either way)

Wednesday: Grilled Chicken, Baked Potato & Sauteed Squash & Zucchini from the garden

Thursday: Mexican Chicken Casserole (I'll try to post this recipe later this week. So easy & so good)

Friday: Sloppy Joes

Saturday: Chow Mein (I'll also post this recipe later this week. It's also very easy & budget friendly)

Sunday: Roast, Pinto Beans & Cornbread (I cook my roast & my beans in my crock-pots. This is also a very easy meal to throw together. I love crock-pot meals on Sundays because I can put them on before church and come home to dinner).

I didn't post breakfast & lunch this week because we hardly ever follow "the plan." But here's what we rotate and eat:

Breakfast: Oatmeal & Toast, Pancakes, Biscuit & Gravy, Toast & Scrambled Egg, Bacon Biscuit, Muffins, Cinnamon Rolls & Fruit.

Lunch: Mac & Cheese, Soup, Fish Sticks, Chicken Nuggets, Hot dogs, Left overs, PB&J.

Snacks: Fruit, Gold Fish, Smoothies, Cereal.

Here's my grocery list:

Spaghetti Sauce, Chicken Breasts (I buy the bagged frozen chicken breasts at Wal-Mart, $6.98. Depending on how much chicken we eat during the week it will usually last for about a week and a half), Chuck Roast, Potatoes, Carrots, Hot dogs, Sweet potatoes, Manwich, Italian Sausage, Cheese, Garlic cloves, Bacon, Apple Juice, Milk 2% & Whole, Sour Cream, Sugar, Drinks (I have to have my caffeine especially in the mornings & this week I bought four 2 liters for $2.00 at Wal-greens using coupons), Orange Juice & Popcorn. Everything else such as the Garlic Bread, pasta, beans, etc. I already had on hand so I didn't have to buy those.

This week I shopped at Save A Lot, Wal-Mart & Walgreen's. I know everyone doesn't have time to go to all three places so this isn't the most practical idea, but when I go grocery shopping & as I call it "coupon shopping," I don't take the kids with me so it's kind of like my free time. I like to go and see how much stuff I can get for pennies on the dollar. lol. So even if you can't or won't go to three different stores, you can still save a ton of money just by planning out your meals. I hope you give it a try.



Coupon Extravaganza!

I recently got back into couponing and I couldn’t be happier. I know I posted yesterday about my grocery budget only being $75.00 per week, but on top of that I also budget $20 a week for couponing. This covers my weekly papers ($4.00) and gives me money left over to purchase items that happen to go on sale. I used to have a pretty decent size stock-pile and now it's dwindled away, so this $20 (well $16 after paper costs) lets me stock my stock-pile. I also try to budget $10 a week for diapers. So with that being said, I went to CVS today and here’s the break-down.
Transaction 1. Two Packages of Huggies Little Mover Diapers ($10.00/pkg.), One package of Huggies 148 ct. wipes ($6.00/pkg.). I had $1.50 ECB (Extra Care Bucks) left over from a previous transaction and then I used a $2.00 off diaper coupon and a $1.00 off wipes coupon. The total for this transaction was $22.97. I received $10 in ECBs.
Transaction 2. Three Boxes of Cereal. Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch & Cookie Crisp and one roll of Bounty Paper Towels. The cereal was buy 3 boxes for $9.00 and receive $4.00 ECB. I used a $1.00/3 boxes of cereal and I used a $0.25/1 roll of paper towels. I paid with my $10 ECBs. My total OOP (out of pocket) was $0.58.
Transaction 3. Children’s Allegra $9.99. I used a $2.00 off coupon and I used my $4.00 ECBs from transaction two. My total OOP was $4.59 and I received $4.99 in ECBs.
Transaction 4. One gallon of milk ($2.99) and 5 cans of Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup (0.69/can). I used a $1.00/5 cans of soup and then I used my $4.99 in ECBs. My total OOP was $0.45.

(Here's a pic of everything I bought)

My TOTAL OOP was: $28.59 for a total savings of $67.82! A 70% savings!!

My New Found Hobby

I know this blog is mainly about my family, but I can't contain my excitement about... COUPONING!!! =) I just happened to turn on the tv and watch the new show on TLC , "Extreme Couponing." After one episode I was hooked. I started scrounging around and scouring the internet trying to figure out how to start couponing. I found this awesome website The Krazy Coupon Lady. It's been extremely helpful! I then started printing off coupons and buying copies of a couple Sunday papers and voila. I'm now a couponing mama! LOL!

The first page of my coupon binder =)

My coupon binder, finally organized. YAY!

My first "couponing trip". I spent $47.04... a 61% savings!!!