One of my favorite things about marriage is cooking for a great eater - Matt is not picky at all (well, except for raw onions and pickles - but I will take them gladly off his plate!) so I have had a lot of fun cooking for more than just myself.
When we took Financial Peace University, we learned about how to put together a grocery budget. I have been amazed that it is totally possible to eat healthy on about $50 a week in groceries. The only trade off is that you need to be able to put some time in the kitchen doing some prep on Sunday afternoons, and about 30 minutes each evening.
Many of you know that my mom is an amazing cook - she specializes in gourmet international cuisines. What few of you know is that before she retired in 2005 she mostly did baking and some occasional meals - but my dad did most of the cooking (since he did most of the grocery shopping too!). Mom found a great way to use her time by helping my dad battle pre-diabetic issues with helping in the kitchen - and now, she is a pro (and my dad is super healthy).
I found the best way for Matt and I to eat healthy and on a budget was to make a meal plan. It works with what is on sale, in season, and if any ingredients can be bought with a coupon :) When we go to the grocery store, these are the staples:
- Mixed greens (bagged spinach $1.68, head of romaine $1.48, head of cabbage $1)
- Apples (3 lbs a week, for lunches at .98 a pound)
- Avocados (two a week at .68 each - we love WinCo's prices...)
- Peppers (when on sale for less than a dollar - green ones for salads and pizza topping, reds and orange ones for salads and stir fries)
- cucumber (.58 each for salads)
- broccoli crowns (for salads, .88 per lb)
------------------------------> = about $13 for Produce
- Bulk section for rice, flours, powdered milk, oats, sugars, pastas, quinoa, falafel mix - it saves a bundle! About $2 worth of an item weekly
- raw almonds (bulk section, about $3/week for snacks in between meals)
- multigrain croutons for salads (bulk section, $1 worth - mom would tell me to make my own but these ones are cheap, and I save time and they are gooood on salads!)
- Other salad toppings (bulk section - craisins, chow mein noodles, nut bits - about $2 worth)
------------------------------> = about $8 for Bulk Section
- Pita flat bread (2.08 for 5 round pita's - we use them for pizza and paninis)
- Deli mozzerella cheese ($2.28 a lb - usually get a block for $4.00)
- Medium pitted olives, canned (.95 each - great on pizzas, salads - Matt's very favorite!)
- Can of tuna (.48 each at WinCo!)
- Almond milk ($2.68)
- Frozen chicken breast (5.99 for two weeks' worth)
-------------------------------> = about $14 for canned/packaged items
Other items that vary:
- Cereal (Matt loves to mix cereal for breakfast. We get it at less than $2 a box by using a coupon when it is on SALE. We stock up - 5+ boxes at a time if we get a good enough deal)
- Olive oil and balsalmic vinegar (for homemade vinegrette dressing)
- A special recipe ingredient if it is ON SALE: meat, seasonings, other produce, etc - we will fill up on these items until we reach our budgeted amount (we bring a calculator when we shop).
-------------------------------> = about $15 of planned miscellaneous extras
= $50 a week total in groceries
Some of our favorite coupon items are for cereal, yogurt, lunch meat, condiments, frozen extras, paper goods, and personal care items. We saved $50 by couponing in just the last month. That translates into some free food! It usually works out that we will spend $40 at WinCo and $10 "couponing" at Albertsons. I will use a coupon on an item that is on a super good deal sale.
As far as meals, here are some of our favorites:
- Salads. We have a million dressings, a little plastic tub full of fun toppings, and lots of chopped, prepped veggies handy so they are easy to throw together.
- Stir fry's. Peanut oil + sauce + a frozen bag of stir fry veggies + a protein + a grain + a nutty topping = YUM! You can mix it up with different sauces and meats.
- Panini's. They are like glorified grilled cheese sandwiches. Take bread and cheese and a protein and add grilled veggies, avocado, or spinach and grill on the Panini maker! Our favorite: tuna melts with tuna, mayo, cheese, and spinach!
- Haystacks - huge taco salads with a million toppings (greens, beans, taco meat, fajita-seasoned peppers, salsa, sour cream, avocado, tomato, tortilla chips, cheese, etc)
- Pita Pizzas - we have these every week without fail! So easy - the whole wheat flat pita bread serves as the crust, then you add pasta sauce, cheese, green pepper, chopped up spinach, and black olives. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 minutes. Easy and healthy with the light crust and tons of veggies in the toppings!
- Casseroles. These are often not terribly healthy, per se, but oh so good! Tater tot casserole, broccoli casserole, some chicken pasta ones...nom nom nom!
Some helpful tips:
- Prep veggies on Sunday afternoons. I wash and bag the greens, dice the peppers, wash fruit, and put together a salad for the evening. Prepping your own veggies saves money on pre-packaged items. I do love bagged baby spinach though. It is cheap here.
- Prep a dish to be oven ready for later in the week. I prepped a dish of chicken enchiladas to go in the oven so we could eat when we got home, hungry.
- Use the crock pot! I have had some tasty stews, soups, slow cooked meats and other goodies by using the slow cooker. Sometimes I will put all the ingredients in the night before and keep it in the fridge and then plug it in the next morning before I leave work.
- Make extra portions and freeze them for lunches. I put a frozen item in my lunchbox the night before and by meal time the next day it is nearly thawed - and it keeps my lunch cold in transit!
- Mix it up! Take a peak in cooking magazines and online recipe sites if you want to build a recipe around a specific ingredient. I love to cook with quinoa and falafel for example - so it is fun to find unique recipes.
How do you plan your meals? On the whim? Dine out?
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PS - Inkling - here was my stuffed shells recipe:
1 box cooked large pasta shells
1 jar pasta sauce
Stuffing:
1 container low fat ricotta cheese
2 cups of grated mozzarella cheese
1 cup Parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1 thawed package of diced cooked spinach
salt, parsley, basil
Mix up stuffing well and put a heaping spoonful into each shell. Layer marinara sauce on bottom of glass dish and then on top of all the shells. Top with a handful or two of grated cheese and bake at 375 until bubbly.
What are you cooking? ;)
7 comments:
We have the same budget in the winter and we also meal plan before shopping. In the summer we lower the budget to $40 because we get a CSA with local fruits and veggies each week. Our difference is, we are pretty much vegetarian at home. Bob says it took me 7 years to do it, but there usually isn't any meat in our fridge! I've nearly turned him vegetarian!
We meal plan for the whole month and then go grocery shopping twice a month. We eat a lot of Weight Watcher recipes. yummy!
Thanks for posting your recipe. Our current favorites are a chicken parmesan I made up after tasting Walden's entree at an Italian restaurant on our anniversary, spicy beans and rice in tortillas, curries of all types, homemade whole wheat pizza with veggie toppings and pineapple (black beans even! yum!), and steamed artichokes with a tangy yogurt and lemon herb dip. I'm in a rut currently, but am excited to order this Indian cookbook to help me get out of it. I've been wanting to make chicken dhahnsak (sp?), and fell in love with a cookbook on Amazon.
Tell your mom that one of these days she HAS to offer a cooking class (it could be income for her or a fun way to earn money to get Ruhiyyih and Matt home for visits!) and I will come all the way to her house and take the course.
We don't get to do couponing here much, so that's a bummer. But it's almost berry season, and pretty soon the blackberries will be growing like weeds on every roadside and they will soon end up in my freezer.
BTW, loved the cartoons. Thanks for making me laugh.
We do a monthly menu; I go at the beginning of each month and get all of our boxed and canned goods, meat & breads (we freeze it) for the whole month and then I only have to buy my fresh items & milk each weekend. I am SUPER excited now because our garden is producing now so that is healthier for us, I don't have to worry about extra contaminants, and it is saving us $ in the lean summer months. We go to a cheap grocery store (Save-a-Lot), buy all generic, and use coupons for anything we need that is not generic. I agree with Inkling, if your momma did cooking classes, I'll bet she'd make some extra $. She is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! And thanks for the recipe! Can't wait to try it!
We're FINALLY getting a winco in Lacey... I'm excited to see how my grocery savings change.
I'm discovering couponing, too - and I love it. I was out of almost every staple imaginable the other day, plus some "other" grocery store items and ended up spending about $100 - but I was able to save FIFTY DOLLARS on that one trip alone by using coupons and buying things that were on sale.
We do our meal planning weekly. We plan at least one meatless meal, and plan for leftovers for at least two days with a smorgasboard meal one day a well.
I drop our budget in the summer because we can get such incredible--LOCAL and ORGANIC!!--produce at the farmers' market and things are far cheaper at the FM than at the grocery.
Great tips, Ru! :o)
Wow - this post was so helpful! I love hearing how others budget for the grocery store and yours is pretty incredible. Ryan and I shop with a calculator too - its the only way to rest assured that you can get in and out without spending a fortune. I'm looking at signing up for a CSA for next spring - I spend most the money on veggies and fruit. And we eat vegetarian once a week (if I had it my way, it'd be more since I hate touching raw meat and I don't anything besides chicken). Maybe one day...
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