Grocery, Budget and All Things Food Related Part 3

Meals:

If it were up to me we'd eat a lot more meatless dinners. But I'm married to a man who demands meat in his meals. So we keep it simple with chicken, ground beef, kielbasa and occasional steak. Below is a list of dinners that are common at our house.

Chicken Tacos - Chicken is slow cooked all day with bottle of salsa
Stir fry with chicken or steak, peppers and onions
Cheesy spaghetti with chicken or beef
Chicken Alfredo with home made sauce  (butter, garlic salt, flour, milk, parm cheese)
BBQ chicken sandwiches - Chicken is slow cooked all day with onions and enough bbq sauce to cover it.
Lentil burritos - grilled on the George Forman http://www.pinterest.com/pin/267964246549468471/
Sausage over rice with a tomato cream sauce.
Sweet and sour chicken over rice http://madeitateitlovedit.blogspot.com/2012/03/sweet-and-sour-chicken.html
Chicken Chili http://rita-may-recipes.blogspot.com/2011/11/crock-pot-cream-cheese-chicken-chile.html

I'll keep adding more as I think of them but these are a good place to start.

Grocery, Budget and All Things Food Related Part 2

As I mentioned in Part 1 we do all of our grocery shopping at Aldi's. I switched to Aldi's 2 years ago and have been loving it ever since. I love it for 2 main reasons. One, it's cheap. I can get all my groceries for a fraction of what I used to spend at Shop n Save. Two, at the majority of larger chain stores there are so many options, different brands are competing to give you the best quality for the lowest price. This is why instead of one or two bags of potato chips, you'll find whole isles dedicated to the exact same item. At Aldi's there is typically one choice for each thing. There are no price cuts, or figuring out which item is giving you more food for your dollar. You either buy Aldi's brand or you go without. I like not having the choice b/c when given the choice I typically will pay a little more b/c I think I'm getting something tastier or higher quality...even if I'm not.

Anywho...

We are a family of 4 + 2 dogs. 2 adults, a 5 and 3 year old. I budget $120 every 2 weeks ($240/month) for groceries. This does not include, paper goods or dog food. I do all my shopping, minus dog food, at Aldi's.

As promised, here is a list of what I buy at Aldi's every 2 weeks. I don't run to the store in between my grocery trips unless I really have to. If I run out of something, we just do without it until the 2 weeks is over and it's time to go grocery shopping again. (unless it's milk) I also get my eggs delivered farm fresh from a friend. I pay more for them, $3/dozen, but it's worth it for the quality of egg.

This is a list of all the things I typically have in my fridge/pantry not necessarily what I buy ever trip. Obviously, I don't buy pretzels every 2 weeks if we still have half of a container left. It doesn't include condiments which I also do buy at Aldi's.

I'll start the list at the beginning of the store b/c that's the way I see it in mind...

Snacks

-2 bags of potato chips

-1 container of pretzels

-1 box of crackers (comparable to ritz)

-2 bags of turkey jerky sticks

-1 bag of almonds

-1 jar of salted peanuts (hubs won't eat the unsalted kind)

-1 jar of unsalted peanuts

-2 bags of craisins

-a bag of flour, sugar, yeast, and any other standard baking items

-a large jar of peanut butter

-a jar of jelly

-a container of steel cut oats

Dairy

-1 gallon of cow's milk

-1 carton of almond milk (we drink a lot of smoothies)

-half n half

-real butter

-4 bags/blocks of cheese

-Cottage Cheese

-large container of Greek or vanilla yogurt

-10 count string cheese

Other staple items

-coffee and filters

-12 pack Coca Cola

-bags of rice, beans, and other raw grains (never canned)

-2 bags of small tortillas (20 count each)

-small and large zip locks 50-100 count

Produce (I always buy what's seasonal/on sale) 

It's rough because I love avocados but if I know that I'm getting close to my $120 limit, I will go without for awhile.

-bananas are super cheap at Aldi's and I usually buy 2-4 bunches at a time. 

-bag of oranges

-bag of apples

-bag of lettuce

-onions

-potatoes

-tomatoes

-When it's on sale - whole pineapple, grapes, berries, peaches, watermelon, avocados, green beans, broccoli

-On the off season I'll buy bags of frozen berries

Meat

1-2 lb of ground beef

1 bag of chicken tenderloin

1 polish kielbasa

bag of pepperoni

Things I never buy:

-juice

-fruit drinks

-fruit snacks

-cookies

-snacks like gold fish, fruit flavored yogurt or yogurt pops, cheese its, etc

-pre-prepared food (except the occasional frozen pizza)

-candy

-granola/fruit bars

-trail mix

Here's the thing, you might read that list and think "wow, how does she get away with not buying snacks for her kids?! My kids eat all day long." My kids eat all day long too. I just limit them to what I buy. Thankfully I got into this routine and grocery list while my kids were still super tiny and so they never knew any different. It's also a challenge b/c I married a junk food addict and therefor I know that if I don't leave him at home, I can kiss my budget and grocery list good bye. I also never take my kids to the store which often means going after they're in bed or early on a Saturday morning. 

I do other things like use cloth napkins, although we do use paper towels. I cloth diapered when my kids were young. I clean with vinegar instead of expensive cleaning solutions. We've come along way in the past two years of being on an adjusted budget. It was a challenge at first. But I love that we make things work on so little. I'm happier with my purchases and it's always rewarding when I see that I've not only stuck to my budget but at times stayed under budget!

In the next post I'll talk about typical meals we eat on a limited budget. 

Groceries, Budget and all things Food Related - Part 1

While recently commenting on a FB feed about grocery shopping/budgeting, I thought I'd put our info out there in case it might be helpful for you...

2 years ago Carlos quit his job and started a full time PhD program and I started teaching Spanish 10 hours a week and added to my already existing work for my dad's multi-media company to round out to 14 hours a week. My busier schedule was great but having to go from a 2 income family to suddenly 1, was rough. Not only were we now without my husbands decent salary for the first time in 8 years, but my income has always been (and still is) drastically lower than what he was bringing home. 

This left us with having to figure out a budget, which we had never done before. It was tiring and exhausting and was all in the hopes that we could find a way to make life work without me going to back to work full time with a 2 and 3 year old and home. The first thing we did was switch to a cash budget. All of our bills went to automatic payment through our checking account, but our gas, groceries and "fun" money was spent in cash each month. I withdrew the amount I needed at the beginning of the month and 95% of the time only spent the cash I had allotted myself each month. There were of course, exceptions to this. Examples would be something that our fun money didn't allow us to get or if something broke and needed to be replaced, car repairs, etc. But for the most part I've worked very hard to find the best value for my $. 

We are a family of 4. 2 adults, a 5 and 3 year old. I budget $120 every 2 weeks ($240/month) for groceries. This does not include, paper goods, cleaning supplies or dog food. I do all my shopping, minus dog food at Aldi.

We had done most of our grocery shopping at Shop n Save prior to this change b/c it was the closest grocer to our home. We switched to Aldi's right around the time we switched to cash and I've never looked back. At first it took me awhile to get used to. I had to change certain things like, only buying seasonal produce or staying away from canned food and trying to buy more fresh. We're not a picky meat eating family. We eat a lot of chicken, and ground meats which is easy at Aldi's. I've heard complaints from people about the meat at Aldi's and I guess it all depends on what kind you like. Meat is like everything else in life. You get what you pay for. If you enjoy high quality cut meat, then Aldi's may not be your best vendor choice. 

Aldi's produce is good if you buy seasonally. My cart always has bananas, oranges and apples. Beyond that, it's whatever is on sale. I used to plan my meals out and then buy whatever was in the recipe. Shopping seasonally means I don't meal plan in advance anymore. I buy what's cheaper and cook with it. I love to cook and therefor don't mind finding new recipes to try out if I happen to buy lots of something that we don't often eat. (Pinterest and I are besties)

On buying snacks, I try to avoid it. I always buy 2 bags of chips and a 12 pack of soda, but that's for Carlos's school lunches. When I first started shopping at Aldi's he would complain about how the chips weren't as good. He eventually got used to it and doesn't mind anymore. Like I said, it was an adjustment for everyone ;) I do always buy crackers (comparable to Ritz) and a box of honey wheat pretzels (which at Aldi's are huge boxes) and typically I'll buy string cheese. Otherwise, my kids snack on fruit, home made popsicles (yogurt, juice, fruit combo), home made granola bars, or other baked goods. I also don't ever buy juice or fruit drinks. We are a water/milk family. My kids don't need the crazy amount of sugar that juices and fruit drinks contain. If they're thirsty, they know where to find their water bottle in the fridge. All this to say that if my children are ever in your home be prepared for them to think your box of cheeze-its and jug of orange juice are the most amazing things ever b/c they don't ever get that kind of thing at home! My three year old has been known to help him self repeatedly to the neighbors stash of gold fish without asking. (I know, my poor deprived children....wah wah wah.) 

In the next post I'll talk more about meals/grocery list specifically. I try to cook at least 4-5 nights a week. We eat left overs on the weekends and budget for eating out at least 1-2 times a weekend. We never eat out during the week though b/c we'd rather be home together. Our kids are still too young to have after school/social activities that would take us out of the house in the late afternoon/evening hours. 

Finally, I don't coupon. I tried it once and found that I just didn't have the time. I know a lot of people that do, and more power to you. It's just not for me. The other thing about couponing is that it tends to apply to things that I wouldn't buy anyways like Gatorade, fruit snacks/bars or things that I often make from scratch like spaghetti sauce and yogurt. Again, nothing against couponing, it's just not for me.

Up next my typical grocery bill and standard meals throughout the week.