Nate and I have had lots of conversations lately about living simply. In some aspects I feel like we do a pretty good job - almost all of our clothes and furniture are second-hand. We don't buy a lot of stuff that we don't "need".
The part that I haven't been really good at is grocery shopping and meal planning. I finally got tired of waiting until 5 or 6 every night, then doing the typical: "What are we going to do for dinner?" "I don't know...what sounds good?"
I have decided to start being intentional about meals in our house. Healthy and cheap. Those are my two goals. My goal each week is to grocery shop for the next week of meals, trying not to go over $20. At least once a week I would like to make something that I can have extra of to freeze and use at a later date. I plan to shop mostly at Aldi (thanks for the coaching, Kel!).
This week I went over budget in order to get some larger quantities of staples (potatoes, onions, hamburger) but they are definitely things I will use every week.
Here's the grocery list -
* Potatoes (10 lb)
* Onions (bag of 8)
* Carrots
* Tomatos for chili and lazagna
* Cottage cheese
* Chicken broth
* Egg noodles
* Hamburger for chili and lazagna (I ended up getting 5 lb and will freeze what I don't use)
Total: $21.92
* 2 little whole chickens for soup and crockpot
---I had to get these from Meijer becuase I wasn't sure about using the frozen one's from Aldi.
Total: $7.63
GRAND TOTAL (drumroll please...): $29.55 (which averages out to$2.96 per person per meal)
And here's the menu for the week:
Monday - Homemade Chili
Tuesday - Chicken (+carrots, potatoes, onions) in the crockpot
Wednesday - Homemade Lazagna
Thursday - Chicken noodle soup (with veggies in it)
Friday - Spaghetti
I plan to freeze a small lazagna and whatever chicken noodle soup we have left.
So there it is...We'll see how creative I can get. Are there any great meal ideas out there? If so, please let me know!!!
Jess...my husband and I found frozen bread at our local grocery (GIANT in Pennsylvania)...but I'm sure you can find something like it somewhere. It's already in a loaf shape and the package has 4-5 loaves of bread for about $3. We liked using it for fresh bread once a week (cheaper than buying a loaf) but also for thawing it out and making pizza dough, stromboli, even cinnamon rolls and other desserts. Glad to see there are other young couples out there who are conscious of living simple. Sometimes it's hard when we're surrounded by so much consumerism, but WAY TO GO! =)
ReplyDeleteGlad things are well with you and the family, great birthing story by the way!
-Jess
Hi Jess! It's so good to hear from you! I hope you and Dan are doing well! I'm assuming you're back from Japan...how was that experience???
ReplyDeleteOooh Stromboli...I've never attempted to make that. Is it easy? I'll have to look for that bread.
hey, we're still in Taiwan...enjoying it, but reading your blog makes me long to settle down and start a family. We've applied for the Peace Corps, so if we get accepted, it'll be atleast 3 years until we're at the point to 'settling' in the USA. Glad you're doing well. Check out our blog sometime if you get a chance...
ReplyDeletewww.ankneyadventure.blogspot.com