Save Money with Weekly Meal Plans

A few lessons I've learned while meal planning . . .

• Choose meals that have a lot of the same ingredients. It will reduce the amount of items you need to buy.  My weekly menu for the week of June 3 includes: Chicken Quesadillas, Grilled Pork Chop with Grilled Potatoes and Grilled Corn, Pizza Panini, Crockpot Chicken with Crockpot Mashed Potatoes and Green Beans, Pizza Rollups and Sweet Chicken Nuggets with Homemade Oven Fries. Be sure to stop back my blog on Monday for the recipes when they are linked up via Menu Plan Monday.
• Price shop before your actual shopping trip.  I can't tell you how many times I've went to the only grocery store in town and spent WAY too much money. I would only shop at one store, without a meal plan. I always ended up not having enough food for the week. I will never do that again!!!! Yesterday, I made my list of items needed for next week's recipes. I went to Dollar General, Family Dollar and Ingles with list in hand, ready to write down the prices for each of the items needed.  People were looking at me like I was crazy as I walked around the store with only a notebook and piece of paper in my hands. Circling the aisles with no purchases. Oh well, I'm saving money. STARE away! I learned that quite a few items were cheaper at the dollar stores while others were much higher than Ingles prices.  I decided to drive a few towns away to check the prices at Kroger this morning. I am glad I did. The majority of the items were cheaper!

So, how much did I pay? I budgeted for $49 + tax. I paid $48.73 (tax included). I only used one coupon and even ended up with two items that were not on the list. 31 items for $48.73. Roughly an average of $1.55 per product. Not too shabby!  

Shopping List:


(2) Pizza Sauce
(1) Can of Chicken Broth
(1) Parsley Flakes
(1) Paprika
(1) Bag Mini Marshmallows
(1) Loaf Bread
(1) Bag Powdered Sugar
(1) Loaf Italian Bread
(1) Dozen Eggs
(1) Can Crescent Rolls
(1) Canola Oil
(1) 4 pk Stick Butter
(4) Ears Corn
(1) Bag Chicken
(1) Gallon Milk
(1) Bag Mozz Cheese
(1) 4 ct Pork Chops
(1) 6 ct Bananas
(2) Canned Green Beans
(1) Sour Cream
(1) 10 lb bag Russet Potatoes
(1) Cream Cheese
(1) BBQ Sauce
(1) Mayo

Pin It