Tag Archives: groceries

Menu Plan: 5/30-6/5

Our first cash grocery trip was a success! We put together a list, and then based on previous shopping trips and current sales I estimated the cost to be sure we were in the right range. I kept track of my individual price estimates for each item on the grocery list, and as we filled our cart I replaced my estimate with the correct price. I was only off for a couple of items, so my estimate was pretty close.

We ended up spending $9 under our $60 budget for a total cost of $51.63. That money will be put aside in our envelope to cover us in future weeks if we have to go over budget or hopefully it will make it to the end of the summer so we can use it for something fun!

I was definitely more mindful of our spending during this shopping trip than I usually am, but I don’t know if that’s because I was using cash or because I’m making an effort to spend less. I had an extra $30 in my pocket for entertainment and household expenses, so I can’t attribute our mindful spending to fear of spending more than we had. But I think knowing that we can’t just swipe our debit cards is making it easier for us to avoid overspending, since we know that this $90 is it for the week.

Kacie brought up a good point when I asked for advice on cash budgeting last week. She said cash budgeting made tracking expenses more difficult for her. Since I use Mint.com to automatically track my spending and budget, this is also an issue for me. My solution is simple: Mint.com allows you to split transactions and categorize them separately. Each week, I’ll save my receipts until our ATM transaction shows up on Mint, then I’ll split that cash withdrawal and categorize it according to our receipts. Whatever doesn’t get spent will remain “Uncategorized,” which means it won’t go into our normal budget. The only problem will be accounting for that extra cash when I spend it later. I’ll let you know if I come up with a solution to add that into our budget. It will only be a problem if I don’t spend it in the same month I withdraw it.

Here’s my $50 lower-carb menu plan for the week:

Saturday: BLT Salad
Sunday: Pork chops and green beans
Monday: Greek chicken salad
Tuesday: Chicken fajita tortilla soup (minus the chicken and tortillas to limit carbs and conserve chicken)
Wednesday: Mexican chicken skillet (Like a Mexican stirfry with peppers, corn, tomatoes, and chicken)
Thursday: Scrambled eggs and bacon (I’m not a big fan of breakfast for dinner, but it sure does save money!)
Friday: Barbecued chicken with corn on the cob

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu plan: 5/23-5/29

We had an incredible but utterly exhausting weekend. We were only gone for two days, but it feels like we’ve been gone a week! I’ll write more about our weekend — and our change of plans that saved us a ton of money — tomorrow. For now, all I can manage is a menu plan for the week.

I’m trying out the low(er) carb thing by cutting breads, pastas, and potatoes from our diet. These are three of our main staples, so menu planning without them is a challenge.

I’ve been struggling to lose a pesky 10 pounds gained over the past year with no luck, and several people have suggested that cutting carbs might be the answer, especially since so much of our diet revolves around unhealthy carbs like bread and pasta. Last week I limited carbs and lost 2 pounds after months of working out and dieting with no results, so I have a feeling it might be working.

I don’t want to do anything too drastic, though. This has to be a lifestyle I can live with, so we’re working on planning our meals around low-fat protein and lots of veggies so we can maintain this new diet long term. And of course, our meals have to be frugal.

Here’s what we came up with this week. I’m pretty proud of how delicious it all looks!

Monday: Mini cheeseburger salad with honey mustard dressing
Tuesday: Fajita grilled chicken  with sauteed onions, peppers, and corn
Wednesday: Chicken kabobs with peanut sauce & steamed vegetables
Thursday: Taco salad
Friday: Tomato-basil baked chicken with spinach salad

Tomato-basil baked chicken

Thin cut boneless, skinless chicken breast
Mozzarella cheese
Can of diced tomatoes
Fresh basil, chopped
Extra virgin olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sear chicken in hot pan with olive oil on both sides. Finish cooking in oven (about 20-30 minutes). Top with mozzarella in last five minutes and allow to melt. Heat diced tomatoes on stove top. Add salt, pepper, and a little olive oil. Top chicken with diced tomatoes and chopped fresh basil.

We just came up with this recipe, and we haven’t tried it yet. I’ll let you know how it turns out! For more menu plans, check out OrgJunkie.

Have a great Memorial Day everyone!

Menu Plan: 5/18-5/23

It’s Monday again, and you know what that means. Not only is it the beginning of the week (a week before a holiday!), but it’s also time for a menu plan.

Summertime arrives early in North Carolina, and that means fresh fruits and vegetables are not only delicious, but cheap! So we’re cooking with more veggies, eating fruit for snacks, and enjoying big salads.

I’m also trying to cut carbs again — not drastically, but we’re cutting back on pastas and potatoes in our meals. Since I’m avoiding heavy breads, our weekly Friday standby of homemade pizza is also out for the time being. :( Pasta and pizza are staples for us, so it’s a challenge for us to plan meals without them. I would love some suggestions for low-fat, low-carb recipes.

This week pork tenderloin was on sale, so we’re using it in three meals. Our total at the grocery store was $57. I’ll be eating salad for lunch at work when leftovers aren’t possible.

Here’s our menu for the week:

Sunday: Rosemary roasted pork tenderloin and green beans
Monday: Pork stir fry
Tuesday: Chef’s salad
Wednesday: Pork fajitas
Thursday: Grilled chicken breasts with vegetable succotash (we substitute the butter with a little olive oil in this succotash recipe)
Friday: Chicken Caesar wraps and steamed edamame

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

How do we measure up to national averages?

One of the main concepts of frugality is that life isn’t a competition when it comes to finances. I try to avoid comparing myself to other people, because we inevitably fall short in terms of material possessions.

Just for fun, though, I took a look at some national averages to see where we fall on the spectrum. I was actually surprised to discover that in some ways we’re right on target. I had hoped we’d be considerably more frugal than the national average, but it turns out we’re pretty average.

Housing

I couldn’t find any hard and fast statistics newer than 2004. As of 2004, the average American spent 21% of their income on housing costs. But that was 5 years ago, and so much has changed since then. According to CNN Money, mortgage costs should equal no more than 28% of your income. Our rent is about 26% of our monthly income, so it looks like we’re pretty average in that respect.

Savings

This is my favorite category. :) As of February, the national personal savings rate reached 4.2%. We save a minimum of 21.5% of our after-tax income every month. Yay us!

Food

I’m sort of bummed about where we fall here. According to the USDA food plans, families of 2 living on a “thrifty” food plan spend $82.10 a week on food. Doesn’t sound too thrifty to me. We typically spend $60 a week at the grocery store, but our monthly food costs are closer to $400 total, or $100 a week.

We’ve become increasingly lazy about monitoring food costs, and those extra trips to the grocery store and occasional meals out really do add up. So we’re closer to the “low-cost” food plan, which is about $104.60 a week (again, that doesn’t really sound “low-cost” to me). We’ve always struggled with food spending, and this little comparison exercise has really opened my eyes. We need to crack down.

Debt

The average American owes $8,329 to credit card companies. We owe $0 to credit card companies. Woo hoo! When it comes to student loan debt, we fall above the national average, though. The average American student graduates with about $21,900 in debt (that’s $43,800 per couple). We owe about $60,000 to student lenders, or about $30,000 each. That’s about 37% more than the average. :(

Retirement

Again I struggled to find recent statistics for what the average American saves for retirement on a monthly or even yearly basis. I guess there are too many factors. But a number that gets tossed around a lot as a “recommended savings amount” is 15% of your income. We’re just getting started on retirement savings, and we made the decision to start slow for now at a 3.5%. Not so good, but our plan is to ramp up our retirement savings when we finish paying down our debt and get our liquid savings where we want it to be.

This was an eye-opening exercise that really showed me where our strengths and weaknesses lie. We should be able to easily cut our food costs, netting us about $160 a month for savings and debt repayment. We just renewed our lease, so there’s not a lot we can do about our housing costs until we move, but when we move we’ll try to get below the national average. I’d like to fall on the lower end of the scale in all of these categories (except savings and retirement, of course).

How does your budget compare to national averages?

Menu Plan: 5/2-5/8

We spent all day Sunday cleaning our apartment. We cleared our cabinets and closets, vacuumed under furniture, and tried to reach every crevass that has been neglected during the winter months. It feels great!

At the grocery store we spent $56. We’ve been getting really bored with our old standby menus, so we’re trying to change things up with a couple of new meals. My parents are arriving for a visit this weekend (yay!), so we’ll be going out to eat Friday.

Sunday: Chicken paninis
Monday: Taco salad
Tuesday: Chicken enchiladas
Wednesday: BLTs
Thursday: Pizza
Friday: Dinner with parents

For more menu plans, visit I’m an Organizing Junkie.

Hope you’re all enjoying the start of your week! Happy Monday!

Menu Plan: 4/18-4/24

This was quite an expensive week at the grocery store — $68. Yikes. But we needed olive oil, and we ended up needing two separate types of meat, something that doesn’t usually happen.

This week we tried to focus on planning lunches for me. I’ve been struggling to find lunch ideas that are healthy, cost-efficient, and tasty enough to help me avoid the temptation of my co-workers’ daily lunch invitations.

Here’s the menu for the week, broken down by lunch and dinner.

Saturday
Pizza

Sunday
Roast, potatoes, and green beans

Monday
Lunch: Leftover hash with roast, potatoes & veggies
Dinner: Leftovers/sandwiches

Tuesday
Lunch: Sub sandwich
Dinner: Pasta primavera

Wednesday
Lunch: Leftover pasta
Dinner: Tacos

Thursday
Lunch: Leftover tacos
Dinner: Balsamic chicken with baby spinach

Friday
Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly
Dinner: Pizza

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie.

Menu Plan: 4/11 – 4/18

It’s been a refreshing long weekend, mostly full of rest and relaxation. It’s time to get back to work, but even after the three-day weekend I’m feeling unprepared. Don’t you hate when that happens?

We’re keeping it very simple this week. Our menu plan is made up of staples and easy dishes. We’re making a couple of pasta dishes simply because I’m still struggling to find dishes that are easy and tasty enough the next day for lunch.

Here’s the menu:

Sunday: Stuffed manicotti
Monday: Sandwiches/leftovers
Tuesday: Whole wheat pasta with marinara sauce
Wednesday: BLTs
Thursday: Chicken and broccoli stir fry
Friday: Pizza

For more menu ideas, check out OrgJunkie.

Don’t waste your money on individual snack-sized treats

Every afternoon around 4 pm, I start craving something sweet. There are always treats hanging around my office, but none that I want to eat since I’ve been trying to lose weight.

At the grocery store over the weekend, I decided it might be nice to bring sugar-free Jello snack packs. They’re sweet, and at only 10 calories they wouldn’t add on to my calorie count for the day. When I saw the price on the snack packs, though, I couldn’t bring myself to pick them up. Almost $4 for six little half-cup snack packs? Ridiculous considering the cost of a package of Jello.

So I decided to make my own snack packs. I have little half-cup Tupperware that we use for condiments and snacks. I bought a package of sugar-free Jello for 89 cents, poured it into the individual serving-size cups, and voila! Snack packs for 1/4 the cost!

If you pack your own lunch for work or your kids’ school lunches, then you’re all too familiar with the high cost of individual serving sizes. Instead, invest in some good snack-sized Tupperware (or reuse plastic baggies) and make your own snack-sized treats.

Snacks like chips, crackers, Jello, and pudding are cheaper in bulk. Split them up into individual serving sizes for convenient lunch snacks or just to control your portions. You’ll eat less and spend a lot less on snacks, and that works for me.

An easy guide to buying generics

Buying generic or store-brand items is one of my favorite ways to keep grocery costs down. But I’m frugal, not cheap, which means I won’t sacrifice quality completely just to save a few cents.

Generics have come a long way since I was a kid. Our grocery store even stocks a variety of low-cost organic generics. But there are still many generic products that, in my opinion, aren’t worth the pennies it cost to make them, let alone 75% of what I’d pay for a quality name-brand item.

Finding quality generics is a game of trial and error. The only way to know for sure if a generic is worth buying is to try it for yourself. There are some general rules I’ve found that can make the process easier, though.

Always

Staples – Milk, eggs, sugar, flour, tea, bread, butter, and other basics cost 25-40% less for generics, and you’ll never know the difference.

Canned fruits & vegetables – Many times the store-brand versions are even higher quality than their name-brand counterparts.

Medicine – The active ingredients are the same, but the cost difference is mind-boggling. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen, and all of the various cold medicines are as much as 75% cheaper in generic.

Tony takes a Claritin knock-off for his seasonal allergies, and it costs almost 1/4 of what we’d pay for Claritin. Seriously, 30 pills for $4 compared to 30 pills for $17 in the name brand. The store brand works just as well. The same is true for prescription medications. Always ask for the generic, and make sure your doctor writes substitutions into the prescription.

Sometimes

Cleaning products – Store-brand glass cleaner and bleach work just as well as their name-brand counterparts, but I notice a dip in quality for heavy-duty cleaners like shower and tub cleaners.

Cereal – Almost all of the major brand-name cereals come in a generic version, and we’ve only tried a handful that weren’t very good. At half the price of name brand, it’s always worth it to try.

Hygiene products – We buy name-brand toothpaste and deodorant, but Tony’s shampoo is always generic. This is one of those areas where you really have to try the product to know for sure.

Remember, if the product is low quality or doesn’t do its job, you’re not really saving money by buying the generic — you’re just throwing money down the drain on a low quality product.

Never

Dog food – It’s all our dog eats, so we spring for the good stuff. On the spectrum of dog food brands and prices, the food we buy probably falls somewhere on the upper side of the middle. It’s not the super expensive stuff, but definitely not super cheap or generic.

Peanut butter – We’re both picky about peanut butter, and ever since we discovered Skippy Natural we’ve been hooked.

Paper towels & toilet paper – I’ve experimented with generics, and the result wasn’t pretty. We use coupons and buy in bulk to reduce the cost.

Coffee – We brew a half pot every morning, and we each drink a cup. We’ve tried to buy store-brand to save money, but it’s like drinking mud. We don’t go all out and buy Starbucks, but we spring for a cost-effective name brand and save money by buying in bulk and limiting our consumption.

What are your rules for buying generic?