Monday Menu Plan & Weekend Shopping

Major Shopping to do and only $45 left in the budget. Did I manage?

For the Meal Swap tonight I decided to make sweet & sour chicken. I had a huge jug of sweet & sour sauce and chicken was on sale so I found a recipe. I had some of the ingredients, but I had to buy the chicken, bell peppers, pineapple, onions, and soy sauce. Check out tomorrow's post for the recipe and the meal preparation.

I also am trying to plan for camping the first week of August where I have to provide dinner for 10 adults and 5 kids on two nights. I am making a taco bar one night and beef stew the other night. So I also was watching for ingredients for those meals.

Dinners this week:
Monday - Sweet & sour chicken
Tuesday - Potato Soup (need to use that milk in my freezer)
Wednesday - baked pasta (with white cheddar - a big hit last week!)
Thursday - beef stroganoff (using more milk)
Friday - BBQ
Saturday - leftovers before we leave for camping

Lunches this week:
Monday - Quesadillas
Tuesday - grilled cheese
Wednesday - Mac & Cheese
Thursday - pb & j
Friday - chicken nuggets
Saturday - leftovers before we leave for camping

Here's my haul for the weekend shopping. Altogether I spent $50.51 so I didn't quite make it with my $45 left for the month. Close enough! I actually returned a clothing purchase before my Fred Meyer shopping, as well, so I could use a store credit toward the groceries.



Here's what I bought:
2 english cucumbers - $.50 each on sale
8 bell peppers - $.50 each on sale (for meal swap)
green onions - $.50
red & green grapes - $.99/lb
bananas - $.59.lb
5# bag of onions - $4.79! (Seriously irritated at this price! Ridiculous!)
pint whipping cream - $2.29 (50% off clearance) = $1.15
YoPlus yogurt - $2.29 sale ($.50 store coupon) ($1.00 MC) = $.79
Yoplain Delights yogurt - $2.29 sale ($.50 store coupon) ($1.00 MC) = $.79
Yoplait Fiber One yogurt - $2.29 sale ($.50 store coupon) ($1.00 MC) = $.79
Toradoes - $2.99 (50% off clearance)($1.00 MC) = $.50
2 packages 3+# Chicken Breast - $3.49/lb BOGO
Angel Food cake mix - $2.19
2 - 2# bricks cheddar - $3.49 each
BallPark Jumbo Franks - $1.29 clearance ($.75 MC) = $.54
English muffins - $.49 clearance
2 Sour Cream - $1.50 (BOGO MC) = $.75 each
Sour Cream - $1.50 ($.40 MC) = $1.10
Gallon Fat Free Milk - $1.99 sale ($1.00 markdown) = $.99
Gallon Whole Milk - $1.99 sale ($1.00 markdown) = $.99
3-20oz cans pineapple - $1.00 each
2-GoGurt - $2.00 sale ($1.00 markdown)($.75/2 MC) = $.63 each
Darigold creamer - $1.99 sale ($.50 MC) = $1.50
Jug Soy Sauce - $5.79 (25% off sale) = $4.34

In retrospect I should have bought a much smaller amount of soy sauce and skipped the angel food cake mix and whipping cream. Then I'd have stayed within my $45.

Heading into August I still need to buy a few things for the camping trip like tortillas, olives, & salsa, but overall I feel like I'm in pretty good shape for what's coming up!

Katie