budget meal plan {sept 22-27} + spending more on quality food

Hello and happy Monday!  I hear it’s officially fall as of yesterday.  It’s definitely fall weather here and was all weekend long.  We had another low key weekend and actually all did a bit of sleeping in (8am one day, then 8:30am the next – thank you Hunter!).  How was your weekend?

Here’s a look at what we’re eating this week.

Sunday: tacos with ground beef, beans, cheese, tomatoes, garden fresh lettuce and sour cream

Monday: quesadillas using leftovers from taco night + avocado I forgot to include with our tacos!

Tuesday: herb crusted beef roast + broccoli quinoa casserole

Wednesday: apple and potato dinner hash + eggs

Thursday: roast beef sandwiches + avocado, mango, pineapple quinoa salad

Friday: leftovers

I’ve been bad about taking pictures of my grocery loot, but I do have a breakdown of what I picked up yesterday.  And it was kid free shopping, gotta love that.

Chuck’s Produce

• cage free eggs x2
• apple chicken sausage
• corn tortillas
• 2lb bag of mini avocados
• tillamook individual yogurts x6
• shredded parmesan
• broccoli
• bartlett pears
• jonagold apples
• celery
• carrots
• sweet onion
• red grapes

Total spent at Chuck’s Produce: $30.53

Total saved (9 out of the 13 items were on sale) : 22%

Target

• seventh generation toilet bowl cleaner x2
• lindt hello chocolate bars x2
• wine

Total spent at Target: $12.06

Total saved (free chocolate and coupons for 7th generation): 44%

Walgreens

• AAA batteries, big packs x2
• tums x2
• maple syrup
• vanilla extract
• raisins x2
• lay’s chips x2 (very happy hubs)

Total spent at Walgreens: $22.28

Total saved (sales, BOGOs, coupons, register rewards and balance rewards used): 54%

Grand total spent so far: $64.87

I still have a little bit of produce to pick up later in the week, but I think the most I’ll be spending will be $10-15.  Keeping the weekly budget under $100!  Whoop!

Buying better quality, spending less money

Couponing has definitely allowed me to spend a little more on quality, since I’m saving on pretty much all of my toiletries and most pantry items.  I also haven’t shopped at Costco in quite some time (except for pet food and litter), so that’s a big money saver.

I’ve been buying pretty much all my meat at Chuck’s Produce (local to Vancouver, WA).  I’ll base what I buy either on their weekly specials, or meats they mark down that just need to be used/frozen within 1-2 days.  When it’s a good price, I’ve been stocking up and just keeping extra meat in my freezer.  This week’s beef roast was on sale a few weeks ago, but I didn’t have a plan for it.  Into the freezer it went, and now we’re going to have it all week long.

I’ve been investing in organic milk, sometimes organic yogurt and cage free, local eggs.  I’m not at the point where I’ll spend $4 a dozen on organic eggs (but when they go on sale, I’ll get them!).  We go through a lot of eggs.  I’m happy when the eggs I buy typically go on sale, like they did this week.  I already had 2 dozen eggs in the fridge, but since they were $1 less this week, I picked up 2 more dozen.  We’ll be down to just those 2 by the end of the week I’m sure.  We need chickens.

How do you allocate your food budget (if you have one)?  Will you spend a little more on quality?

I’m trying my best to make choices that fit into our food budget, and that I feel good about.  I’d love to buy all organic fruits/veggies, but right now it’s just not realistic.  I’d rather invest that money in meat and diary products.  However, with all of the savings I’ve been having with other items since I began couponing, maybe down the road that will happen too.  We shall see!

Two classes down, then BodyCombat to teach tonight.

Have a great rest of the day all!

Heather