Grocery Games?

It’s nearly the end of the month… meaning it’s nearly the end of my monthly budget, and my grocery budget is down to the wire!

Some months I am good about looking for coupons and sales – but sometimes I’m just not. Sometimes I am motivated to really enjoy cooking and try new recipes with expensive ingredients I don’t normally keep on hand, and sometimes I’m lazy and buy expensive frozen meals instead … and sometimes I do both. Sometimes I convince Eduardo that it’s ok to have a meatless meal once in a while – but not usually. Sometimes I follow my meal plan to the letter – and sometimes life gets crazy and food expires before we can eat it. It seems that we had “some” of those times a lot this month!

I am thankful to have plenty of wiggle room in my budget for these types of months, but I don’t want to give up just because I know I’ll fail to stay on budget. So even though there’s a week left and I have only $7 left in my grocery budget, I’m just going to do my best.

I need to make 10 meals before the end of the month – 8 dinners (today through next Tuesday, excluding date night on Friday) and 2 lunches (Saturday and Sunday). I will also need staples like milk and bread, and some snacks to supplement the leftovers I will have for lunch all week (crackers, fruit, dessert, etc).

I know one of the best ways to save money is to shop your pantry, fridge, and freezer. I often look around my kitchen and feel that I have literally nothing to cook. I was surprised to realize how many meals I can make by buying only 1 or 2 ingredients! In many cases I only needed to add a fresh veggie to round out a meal. I wonder how often this is the case?

I also know that meat is almost always the most expensive part of a meal, so during my kitchen-shopping I looked for meat first.

Here’s what I found:

4 chicken breasts

1 lb ground beef

2 tilapia fillets

1 lb leftover BBQ pulled pork

1 can of tuna

That’s enough for 6 meaty meals to please Eduardo!

Next I tried to find recipes and sides to go with those meats that either require very few ingredients, or require only ingredients that we already have. I already had everything for 2 recipes because I meant to cook them last week and had to change plans at the last minute.

I chose:

Balsamic Bruschetta Chicken with pasta and a veggie

Crock Pot Teriyaki Chicken & Veggies with rice

BBQ Pork Nachos

Tuna Melts with chips and fruit

Meatloaf with mac & cheese and a veggie

Lemon Butter Tilapia with rice and a veggie

Once I had done that, I still had a few gaps, so I racked my brain for a few meatless meals that Eduardo and I both enjoy:

Pancakes and Eggs

Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup

Thankfully we usually have everything for those on hand too.

Finally I only needed to plan 2 more meals. I’m confident that we will have some leftovers by the end of the week, so those can cover 1 meal. And since I’m feeling so good about my progress so far, I went ahead and planned 1 “reward” meal for all the scrimping we will do all week – meaning I will actually have to buy meat and several other ingredients for it. I chose Raspberry Cream Chicken with potatoes and a veggie because it’s a favorite and it doesn’t require too many ingredients that I don’t have on hand.

Here’s my shopping list along with which meal each item will go with:

Milk

Bread

Fruit

Chocolate chips to make cookies for lunches

4 veggies (sides for 4 meals that don’t have veggies in them)

Cilantro (BBQ pork nachos)

Canned Corn (BBQ pork nachos)

Pickle Relish (Tuna Melts)

2 Chicken Breasts (Raspberry Cream Chicken)

Heavy Cream (Raspberry Cream Chicken)

Potatoes (Raspberry Cream Chicken)

What do you think of my plan? How much do you think I will spend? Certainly more than $7 but I don’t think I’ll do too badly. I’ll be sure to give an update after I go shopping!