Meal Plan Monday

Welcome to my NEW weekly feature! A lot of my friends have been asking me about how I am saving so much money on groceries. And love when I post my weekly menu. We all have a hard time once a week when trying to decide what to feed our families. I think it’s probably one of the most stressful things to tackle as a wife/mom.  So in response to all of that, I have decided to share my weekly meal planning, and hope that you all will offer up some of your own meal ideas! I love hearing what other people feed their families (and then stealing the ideas for my own!) This is a busy week for us, as we are going to 3 different games this week. The good news? That means I won’t be making dinner every night! lol… I highly suggest this method of avoidance! lol

This week:

Monday – it’s just me and Kev, and he requested burgers on the grill.

Tuesday – Mexican night: Tacos and spanish rice

Weds – Pizza night

Thursday – Fishercat GAME! Woot woot! Dogs at the field

Friday – Grilled Chicken and veggie pouches

Saturday – mop up day

Sunday – Meatloaf and twice baked new potatoes

Here’s how things work around here – I usually don’t plan a meal for 2 nights because, let’s be really honest, Sometimes McDonalds just sings to my heart, and other times I am just too done in by the day to make dinner and we fend for ourselves. It has taken me a while to realize that no matter how well-intentioned my life is, I am human, and I am *gasp* lazy. I like to have at least one meal that is simple enough that the kids can make it themselves with little to no guidance from me. I think this is important, and they like to do it. We generally have pizza every Wednesday night. That is the night of our church’s’ youth group, and we leave here at 5:15 so that we can pick up a van load of friends and get there on time. Pizza… quick and easy… 18 minutes on the pizza pizzaz… perfect every time.

Shopping: Some people shop weekly, some shop bi-weekly, some monthly. I would love to make my shopping monthly, so now that I have mastered weekly, I am going to try bi-weekly shopping. All that means is better front end planning. To this end, this weekend the while family brainstormed meal ideas. We came up with a truckload of menu ideas. I will be sharing them with you as the weeks go by.

Coupons: I am a HUGGGGEEE fan of coupons, even more than that, I am a fan of matching coupons with sales. Stores that DOUBLE coupons? Let’s just say we love each other.

Store Loyalty: You won’t find it here! I am a bargain heat seeking missile! After shopping around for a while, I have my favorites, but I am always checking around, reading sales flyers and coupon blogs for the best deals. Now, just to clear things up, I do NOT spend hours shopping or couponing. Generally I go to Sam’s Club for my milk, eggs, butter, half and half and breads/bagels. I also buy my DiGiorno pizzas there. Experience tells me that these items are WAAY cheaper at Sams. The remainder of my items I buy at either Market Basket, Stop and Shop or Walmart. I generally pick just one for the week. I make my decision based on sales and what we want to eat or need to stock up on.

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Whew… With all that said, I HAVE to share with you… I love shopping on Mondays. Mondays are when most stores put their meat on sale with those “manager special” stickers. Well, today I hit the motherload! All of the beef had $2.00 off stickers on them. Even the packages with less than a pound in them! I picked up 5 packages. Paid less than $6.00 total. The best part is that the burger was already on sale if you had a store card! I also picked up a package of rib-eye steaks for the WHOLE family (5 of us) for a little over $7.00. Is it on my menu this week? NO, but I can freeze it, and with all of my careful grocery budgeting I have extra money in the grocery envelope for when things like this come up.

AnyWHOOOOO…. That’s it, my meals for the week.  Rather long-winded, but o-well. Next week I will share about how school lunches are working in my house. My kids have always been school-lunchers, but when we went on our budget-living quest we quickly realized we were spending about $45 a week JUST for the kids’ school lunches! GAK! I will also share one of my favorite crock pot recipes with you.

What do you feed your families??????