It's August! How can it be August already? We are anxiously awaiting baby... Whose decided that teasing mommy with practice contractions is the way to go.. Hannah must have been coaching it. I'm utterly exhausted today.
I do have some freezer meals in the freezer just sitting and waiting.. This month I'm sticking with easy meals that I can just put together and then put in the oven.. Hubby is planning on cooking eggs and bacon the first few days, so we're getting the precooked bacon he can just throw in the toaster oven for a few minutes... or I can just throw in when I'm up and around.
So the meal plans for breakfast really isn't changing that much.. Still eggs, bacon, yogurt, cereal, juice... Coffee of course. Sundays we'll do cinnamon rolls or monkey bread with omelets or scrambled eggs. Saturdays we'll do waffles and eggs. Wednesday is cowboy hash. We are buying a case of pop tarts for something to go with eggs when baby comes.
Other than when the baby comes, we don't have any special meals planned except for a potluck with our church on labor day.. I have a dessert planned.
Dennis is switching up his work lunches.. He's going to try chicken sandwiches instead of salads for a month, along with a pickle, nutty bar and avocados are cheap right now so we're doing avocado with some salt and some lemon juice.
Our lunches are pretty much the same.. Pizza pockets, peanut butter and honey, peanut butter and jelly and mac & cheese. I eat leftovers most of the time.
Wednesdays will either be leftovers or chicken strips and homemade fries.
Saturdays we're doing hamburgers, hot dogs and fries or potatoes on the grill. .. Both of these are easy meals also if we need something easy for right after baby comes.
Sundays we have pita bread sandwiches and our homemade snack mix... It was pretty good last time, we'll see what we find at Aldi this time.
As for the other meals...
Pizza (Hawaiian, cheese, pepperoni and chicken alfredo)
Hawaiian Fajitas
Bacon Parmesan Garlic chicken and Potatoes
Pork Loin and potatoes and broccoli
Taco Bowls
Chicken Parmesan Bake (freezer meal!)
Teriyaki chicken and fries
Tator Tot Casserole
Caprese Chicken
Pork chops and evggies
Simple Mexican Chicken and rice
Cheesy Chicken Tortilla Casserole (freezer meal!)
Mexican Lasagna (freezer meal)
Five Spice Tilapia and Rice
Pineapple Chicken tenders with grilled pineapple and peppers
The chicken parmesan bake, cheesy chicken casserole and mexican lasagna all have shredded chicken.. And I found chicken in the bottom of the freezer-so that's being used up that way. I finally figured out how to premake the pizzas so I can have them in the freezer and ready to go... So I'm working on those as I get the chance. Hoping to have 3-4 of at least pepperoni, hawaaian and cheese in the freezer by the end of the week. But we'll see how that goes.
We are also trying shopping a different way this month-as long as baby isn't here anyway... For one, instead of having my shopping list by store, I'm going to have it by department (chip, produce, meat, dairy, baking etc).. We're starting at Aldi instead of Sam's and we're going to get what we can at Aldi, then move on to Sam's and Walmart.. I'll have a list of prices for things at Sam's and Walmart to make sure we are getting a good deal.. We've been noticing a lot that when go to Aldi, they have some things for cheaper than what we can get at Sam's... But we've already bought it at Sam's....
So... Shopping that way saved us money.. We started at Aldi where I was able to get pork chops and ground beef for half the price per pound of Sam's or Walmart. Filled in at Sam's and finished at Walmart..
At Aldi we picked up a few extras. They had kids' tennis shoes for $10-$15, but the only one with small enough feet was Hannah... We have her next size up, Paw Patrol tennis shoes for $13, I can handle that price!!! We had coupons for fruit roll ups and fruit snacks, but they were at Aldi and cheaper than with a coupon so we grabbed them there. The kids will love the treat. We also grabbed a 15 lb bag of charcoal for 5, I had priced it at $15 at Walmart. Oh, they also had hamburger and hot dog buns for $.75 a package! That's a win!! Total on food was $193.98, then $20.42 with the non food... Making a total of $214.40. I figured $220, so we saved $5.60
Sam's it didn't seem like we got as much-but most everything is about $10 an item because it's bulk. The only extra we grabbed was meatballs... It's not always a guarantee they have Italian meatballs in the frozen section and they make really good meatball subs.. So now, because I have leftover hoagie rolls from last month, we either have some easy lunches for when baby comes, or we have them for the next few months.. One bag lasts us about 6 Saturdays of lunches (8-9 subs with 5 meatballs each). Food was 295.64, non food was 33.22.. making a total of $328.86. I figured $380, so we saved $51.14.
Walmart we grabbed a few extras again along with supper.. So let's see if I can decipher the receipt. Dennis and I grabbed a couple smoothies (Bolthouse Farms), we also had to round out the last of our snack mix for Sundays as Aldi didn't have the coconut clusters this month. He found a coupon for candy bars and decided that would be a nice treat for everybody, so we grabbed some of those. Walking down the isle he saw one of those kindergarten workbooks they always have.. Grace is working through her lessons very quickly, so we grabbed one of those for when she's done with what I have. So.. Food was 140.85, non food was 23.53.. Making for a total of $163.38.
I figured $145, we went over by $18.38 (supper is usually not figured into groceries which is around $13 for 7 of us with grandma and our smoothies we picked up).
So we spent $706.64 this month, from my guess price we saved $32.76... No, not much saved, but a little. I'm just resigned that's the new normal. We did go back to Aldi on Sunday and grabbed a much needed step ladder for the kitchen.. Now I can actually use all of my kitchen cupboards. It was $18, and came with a 3 year warranty. So just on food we spent $630.47. Now I know some of that will be carried over into next month.. because I am doing some freezer meals (doubling recipes that I'm making and putting one in the freezer) and ladies at church are helping with some freezer meals for after baby. But I'm not counting those extra freezer meals into my meal plan, I'll just make a list of what meals we don't use and I have either those meals, or those ingredients to make different meals.
So.. $630.47 for 5 weeks.. That's $126 for 3 meals+1 snack (ish.. lol) a week or $105 a person a week.
A feature on the price tags at the stores I'm really loving is the price per unit they have already figured for you. It's great to have that math already done when comparing brands especially with 4 kids in tow. Having my list, I was quickly able to know that while the price of laundry soap per ounce was actually the same at Sam's vs Walmart, the container is bigger at Sam's, so we don't have to buy it as often. I was also surprised to find out that about a lot of things we buy, the price per unit was within a few pennies of each other, but containers are bigger at Sam's.
I think that's all I have for this post. (Hannah is currently throwing a fit because I gave her almond milk in a big girl cup-it's the end of the world. lol)
Have a great week!
~Tabitha
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