It's the first day of September and my new, self-imposed budget has come into effect!!! 

Grocery shopping took a little more effort this afternoon, and some of our new meals will be more involved, but it's going to save us a lot of money!

I went to three grocery stores.  The first is a discount, mostly off-brand chain.  I got a lot of canned goods there (veggies, beans, and tomatoes) baking supplies, dairy, and a few other basics. 

The second is a major chain and I bought only things that were on a good sale.  I bought most of our meat there, as they were having a great sale on ground chuck, ham, and pork loin.  My best buys were a 10 pound bag of potatoes for 1.49, a box of fresh tomatoes for 99 cents, 8 Michigan-grown peppers for 1.00, and cabbage for 19 cents a pound. 

The last grocery store I went to only to buy the loss leaders.  I got country spare ribs for 1.29 a pound and GM cereal 3/5 and I had a $1 coupon.  The only other thing I bought there was cheese, as it was the cheapest of the three places.

Here is my menu for dinners for the week: (we don't normally eat this much pork, but it is what was on sale the most this week)

Friday:

Country bbq ribs with asian+coleslaw homeade peanut butter cookies

Saturday:
Pork loin and potatoes (in the crock pot) and green beans

(THE KIDS AND I EAT DINNER AT MY MOM'S ON SATURDAY)

Sunday:
Unstuffed cabbage and salad

Monday: (LABOR DAY COOKOUT FOR ME AT MOM'S HOUSE )
For Mike:  Red beans and rice with homeade tortillas

Tuesday:
Salisbury steak w/ mushroom gravy and egg noodles, salad

Wednesday:
Chicken_rice_and_ham_casserole

Thursday:
Homeade veggie soup with homeade bread

I tried to work around what we already had and what was on sale.  We have cereal and skim milk, eggs and turkey bacon, bagels, and yogurt for breakfasts.  Veggie soup, turkey or salami sandwiches on ww bread, leftovers, tuna, or egg salad for lunches.  We also have popcorn, pudding, jello for snacks.  I bought the makings for cookies, brownies, bread and tortillas.  I think they will be well fed enough!

I plan on taking pictures of a few of the meals and posting them. 

Now, I realize there are some places in my budget that I could have cut back this week.  I bought Pringles chips because they were 69 cents a can and 4-pack off brand fat free pudding for 69 cents and I bought TEN BOTTLES OF PEPSI FOR MY HUSBAND ------ and this will NOT last him a week.  But I can't change them all entirely overnight.  I did get the Pepsi for 88 cents a 2-liter.  This is about the long haul -- and this is my first week. 

I spent $110.00 for a family of 5 -- but I have enough pork loin, country ribs, ground chuck, and ham for a second week!  So I think that going over that 10 dollars wasn't so horrible.  I will try to only spend 95 the next 2 weeks and then I will be right on track for the month. 

I realize for some of you that 110 might even be a LOT.  For me it's pretty good.  I DO have to quit wasting so much. 

My assignment for this week:  Make my first loaf of breaf from scratch! 

Hope you have a wonderful September!

Sherry

ps  My Autumn cleaning plan will be posted tonight!

Posted by journeybackintime

I did really well on our food budget until tonight when I hit WalMart for the first time in 2 months and walked out with $180 of food and I still have to go to the store tomorrow ... but it was a "stock-up" month and most of the items will last the rest of the month. I hope that you do well with your budget for the rest of September.

Kris