If you’re new here, I practice the Buy Ahead Principle — which means that what we buy each week is often for future weeks. We stock up on the best deals and markdowns each week and that means that we then have a variety of items from previous shopping trips to use to plan a menu from.
With the increase in grocery prices, I’ve decided to raise our grocery budget to $100 a week because I’ve not been having enough wiggle room to stock up like I’d want to. This amount will still challenge me to be creative while also giving me enough breathing room to stock up and continue to practice the Buy Ahead Principle.
In addition to practicing the Buy Ahead Principle, I Reverse Meal Plan. This means that I plan based upon what we have on hand plus what good sales/markdowns I found at the stores. (Read more about Reverse Meal-Planning here.)
{Follow me on Instagram stories for real-time videos on what I’m buying if you don’t want to have to wait for me to get the post written up for the blog!}
We’re having a sort of weird week menu-wise here. Jesse and I have multiple dinners this week + I held out shopping until Sunday when I usually go on Thursday or Fridays. In addition, there weren’t that many great deals. So I’m declaring it a partial use up the odds and ends week to help clear out some random items we’ve had lurking in the cupboards and fridge and freezer for awhile. It’s not a full-fledged Eat from the Pantry week, but we only spent half our grocery budget and I’m rolling the rest over to next shopping trip.
My favorite deal of this week was the 4-count bags of avocados for $1.99 each. The granola bars were $1.29/box with the digital coupon. The OJ was $1.29/half gallon.
The Cheerios were $1.79-$1.99 with the digital coupon. The grades were $1.29/lb.
The Palmolive was $1.69/bottle.
Here’s what I bought at Kroger for around $49 total.
And here’s the planned menu:
Breakfasts —Cereal, Scrambled Eggs, Oatmeal Packets, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Granola Bars
Lunches (the older kids have lunch at school) — Fried Eggs, Yogurt, Toast, Hard-Boiled Eggs, Fruit, Leftovers, Cheese, Smoothies
Snacks — Hot Cocoa with marshmallows, Granola Bars, Brownies, Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins, Popcorn, Random odds and ends in the pantry, fridge, freezer
Dinners
Sunday: Fend for yourself: Frozen Pizza, Popcorn, Cereal and other odds and ends
Monday: Chicken Stuffing Casserole — I had planned for us to have sides but it was a crazy afternoon and I never got any sides made. So we just had casserole and called it good!
Tuesday: Jesse and I have a foster care dinner, the kids are having Burgers, Carrots, and Grapes.
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner — Pancakes, Sausage Strips, Pears we bought weeks ago that need to be used up! (I have a dinner at church before youth group.)
Thursday: Ham & Cheese Open-Faced Sandwich, Grapefruit (Kathrynne is working & eating at work.)
Friday: Jesse and I have a dinner and there’s free childcare with dinner provided so Kierstyn and D are going to that. The girls are going to a movie night with friends and are likely buying fast food/snacks for dinner — something they often do now that they are older/have jobs/spend a lot of time hanging out with friends. Silas will probably have cereal and/or pancakes.
Saturday: Dinner out
With the rising cost of foods. I would love to see more of some economical meals that you have found that are not only rice and beans. We have decreased our meat by 1/2 and are trying to get creative but some days my brain is dead. My teens are sick of rice so I have been changing up and rotating through recipes. I also do the buy ahead principle but still find our grocery bill has doubled since summer and we are getting a lot less than we used to.
We rarely have rice and beans, but Breakfast for dinner is one of our faves (one we do pretty much every week!) and pasta meals are always good. I just posted a bunch of ideas recently here: https://moneysavingmom.com/15-more-cheap-and-easy-dinner-ideas/
Here are a bunch more: https://moneysavingmom.com/cheap-easy-family-dinner-ideas/
And here are even more ideas: https://moneysavingmom.com/easy-budget-friendly-eat-from-pantry-recipes/
That should hopefully give you ideas for a good long while! 🙂
Yes, my experience is that many grocery items have doubled in price in the last few months. I just keep tweaking and adjusting to account for it. I’m thankful for sites like this one for encouragement! 🙏
Prices here have gone up around 25-30% with things like eggs more than doubling. Gratefully, I’m still finding good deals most weeks but it’s challenging me to think outside the box and look for other options and alternatives.