Planning Our Menu - Week of July 2-6

I plan my menus based on a combination of what I have purchased on sale in the past (and are readily available in the house), along with what's on sale this week (extra bonus if I have coupons for the items, which I usually do!).  It makes meal planning a breeze.

This week's menu is fairly simple, and created from items on sale this week (and some items on sale a couple weeks ago):

Monday: Breakfast.  (Walgreen's has eggs and Butterball turkey bacon on sale for 99¢ this week!  Plus there's a coupon for 55¢ off Butterball turkey bacon, so I scored a pack for 44¢).  On the menu: Turkey,  Bacon, egg, and cheese omelets.  Turkey bacon.  Biscuits. Total cost for the meal for everyone: $3.00, and I still have 4 eggs left in the carton!

Tuesday: Salmon (on sale at Kroger for $4.99/lb. this week).  Lima beans.  Rice.  Savannah will be having Yakisoba noodles (which I got free with a 50¢ coupon at Kroger).  She doesn't eat seafood.  Poor girl.  Total cost for the meal for everyone: $7.50.  A little pricey for my tastes, but I consider this a "fancy" meal, considering we're eating something as sophisticated as seafood.

Wednesday: Pork roast (on sale at Meijer a couple weeks ago.  I froze it until today.).   I'll be putting it in the slow cooker with some BBQ sauce for a glorious pile of shredded BBQ pork for 4th of July and loading it onto King's Hawaiian buns (used a $1 coupon to get the pack of buns for $1).  Watermelon.  Ore Ida grilling potatoes (going to pick some up with Kroger's sale + coupon tomorrow morning).  Total cost of this meal will be about $6.50 (assuming we eat 1/3 of the watermelon.  Which I think I could do on my own.)


Thursday: Spaghetti with homemade sauce.  (I wish I could say I made the sauce from scratch because it's healthier, cheaper, and more flavorful (which it kind of is - all of these things), but truth be told, I ran out of sauce last time in the middle of my making pasta, so I had to make some from scratch with what I had on hand.  It made enough to use that night + enough to freeze for a couple more meals.  Salad.  Garlic Bread. Total cost of this meal: for pasta, ingredients for sauce, lettuce & veggies for salad, and bread $5.00 is a safe estimate.


Friday: "The Truly Awesome" frozen pizza (Kroger brand).  Kroger Tortilla Cupz (great for scooping up salsa) and Kroger Frozen Fruit Bars.  (I am doing a Bzz Campaign for these for Family Night.  While hubby is working late, I'll be family-ing it up with the kids and a RedBox movie.  Anyway, Kroger brand food is typically super duper tasty but costs only a fraction of what national brand foods cost.  I'll let you know what we think about all these goodies BzzAgent sent me to try out!)  Total cost for this: FREE!  Even if I add some salsa to the mix, I got the salsa for 25¢ for the jar, so feeding my family for a quarter on Friday night & using a promo code for the RedBox movie?  You betcha!

Remember - you can download my printable weekly meal planner here.

Planning Our Menu - Week of June 11-15

I make it a point on Sundays to plan my family's menu for the week.  I write it on a piece of paper like THIS, and hang it on the fridge.  This serves three purposes:

1. I can use what food we already have in the house.  I have a stockpile of food gathered from getting amazing deals on boxed or canned food, frozen food, and meat.  We are on a super strict budget, so I use what we have on hand to make dinner.  
2. It keeps us from eating out throughout the week because I am too lazy or inconvenienced to plan what to eat.  If the meat is already thawing in the fridge, or I already have a meal planned for the evening, I am far less likely to stray from what I have committed to.
3. My family is prepared to eat what I have written down.  They know what is coming!  Plus, on rare occasions, my daughter might even help prep for dinner before I get home.  (I did say rare occasions.  We're still working on that.)

This week on the menu:

• Monday: We cheated this week.  It's the kids' birthday weeks, so we used free meal coupons for them, followed by free ice cream.  Hubby and I splurged on hot wings.  
• Tuesday: Ravioli with pasta sauce, salad, and garlic bread.  (Leftover homemade ice cream from kids' weekend birthday parties for dessert.)
• Wednesday: Hubby works late.  I'll be cheating again by using two more "free meal" coupons for the kids' birthdays.  (Stay tuned for next week, when the menu is a little more normal.)
• Thursday: Grilled pork, steamed veggies & cheese, mashed potatoes.  Jell-o for dessert.
• Friday: Hubby works late again.  Pizza, popcorn & fruit.  We'll probably rent a DVD for some end-of-the-week down time.

Saturdays and Sundays are always up in the air.  We typically do things with friends and family, so I don't plan much on these days unless we have committed ourselves to a gathering that requires planning!