Grocery Shopping and Meal Planning for November/December

I had my meal plan all made with some favorites.....then I looked at the sale ads. And one of the grocery stores had a fairly good meat bundle... Now, it is a sale for the meats they have in the bundle... but it's still the amount we spend on meat a month.. so it's just some different things. So.... I re-made my meal plan. 



Thanksgiving Dinner... we plan on ham with pineapple slices (because my hubby is weird), shrimp (because it's coming in the meat deal), sweet potatoes (because I can, and they will be candied), corn, broccoli, Hawaiian rolls, black beans and rice, pumpkin pie and pecan pie.   

We are also making a pan of sweet potatoes for a potluck... Needless to say, Thanksgiving week my hands will be orange. 

Lunches, breakfasts, kids' lunches... yeah.. we're boring there. Nothing is changing. Chicken Sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, chicken nuggets.  

For dinners.. To make sure I could make the amount of meat we'll be getting work for the entire month, I went on Pinterest...  We're getting 2 roasts....  so BBQ and tacos.. Not in the same meal lol.  That's AT LEAST 4 meals... along with leftovers for lunch-and I should be able to eat it all WOOHOO.  

Anyway.. It's pizzageddon this month at our house.. 
Pizza on Wednesdays and Sundays..  
Chicken fajitas 
Crunch wraps 
Chili
Ham and potato casserole (I make this every year when we get tired of ham leftovers.. super yummy)
Swedish Meatballs 
BBQ Pork
BBQ Beef
Tacos carnitas with pork and beef (I'll pull the meat out before I put the bbq seasoning on it) 
Chicken parmesan bake 
Pork chops


The Shopping (cue Jaws music... because that's what it feels like with 5 kids in grocery stores)

A friend told me about a wholesale grocery outlet about 90 minutes away from us.. so we took a drive and went to check them out.  I was not prepared. Not at all.  And I'm currently kicking myself repeatedly for not picking up more...  However, we spent $70 on stuff that would have cost us about $200 at Walmart.  
6 pounds of ground beef for $11.40
Tator Tots (looking at the receipt.. not a great price.. I remembered the Sam's price wrong)
Chicken nuggets $2.50 a bag (those bags at Walmart that are normally $10)
Cafe Bustelo K Cups $3.50 for an 8 pack
~Now, those were the most expensive thing we picked up~
Cocoa Rice krispie treats 2
fruit snacks
fiber one bars
fig bars
Lemonade (64 oz jugs for $.90)
zero bars
Hershey's Popped Snack Mix 2 (oh my goodness!! THE YUMMINESS)
Hershey's Baking Chips 2
Halls Breezers 2
Crispy Wheat Crackers 
Kraft Mayo (32 oz for 1.00!!)
Mayo 2
Texas BBQ Sauce (normally $4, paid $1.50)
Cream of Mushroom soup 2
Torani Caramel Syrup
refried beans 2
water flavor 2 
Cold brew coffee .25 each, we got 4
cold brew coffee (a different brand) .50 bought 2

Now, I fully know if I had my wits about me I would have been better prepared and had given Dennis a list of things to look for.... But I wasn't that prepared and I'm KICKING myself for it.  We are definitely going back next month... But after that it might be every other month simply because it's a long drive and an extra weekend. Also keep in mind if you're a stickler for expiration dates, stores like this are not for you.  
So... $70 for S&E Distributing..

Fareway
We were careful about what we picked up at Fareway because we always seem to go over...no matter what we do... So we only picked up what was on sale.  
$60 meat bundle
A 12 lb turkey we paid $4 for after the discount from spending the money on meat. 
Yogurt was only $.50 a container instead of $.65 
Steamable vegetables, 12 oz, were $.68. 
We had a coupon for the yogurt (YAY, they took store a printed at home coupon)...so we saved $14.36.  We spent $81.42.

Sam's
Kleenex was sale at Sam's, along with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls.. You know I can't pass up a chance to not make cinnamon rolls. lol We grabbed a bunch of tortilla shells and hoagie rolls to help eat all the roast.. Along with the Hawaiian Rolls to go with Thanksgiving Dinner.. because those are YUMMY.  Instant Savings saved us $6.75.  We spent $204.40

Aldi
Not much different at Aldi.  We grabbed our Thanksgiving pies there (because I have two shallow pie pans, neither one with a lid...) $5.99 for an 8 inch pumpkin and $4.99 for a 6 inch pecan.   Hamburger buns were $.85 for a 8 pack... I grabbed unsweetened almond milk to make maple lattes (SO GOOD).  We spent $148.98. 

And Walmart
Can't avoid Walmart can we? 
Now, to use the Savings Catcher you have to use Walmart pay... So.. kind of a pain, but the app does go through a lot faster than a card.. Also, you don't get a paper receipt... You can weight that on the pro/con scale yourself. 
Original Cool Whip-for the pies!! $1 
Ready Whip...One almond one coconut.. So I can have some. $3.38 each
We needed diapers and wipes (we usually use cloth, but the ladies in the nursery appreciate the disposable and it's nice to have a break from the cloth diaper laundry). We spent $188.73.

So complete total.. $693.53  We spent $134.01 on household goods.  So.. $559.52 on groceries for 5 weeks.  $111.90 per week.. or $18.65 per person in the house (6 of us eating food) per week. 

So.. Not too bad.  

Now. Ever wonder was $600 of groceries look like? 

Now you don't need to wonder.


Have a great week! 

~Tabitha