Meal planning the frugal way

As I was making dinner last night I was talking to my husband about how much my meal planning has changed over the years and especially in the past few months. We love to try new things so I have several food magazine subscriptions and close to 2 dozen cookbooks. If I had to guess I would say on average I used to make 3 or 4 new meals a week. If I saw something that sounded good it went on the list whether it had 5 ingredients or 20 and most of the time I didn't take into consideration what we already had in the kitchen or what ingredients could be rolled over and used in subsequent meals. Because of that, our grocery budget was quite high even when it was just the two of us.

As we have continued to grow our family and go from two incomes to one I had to really rethink the way I planned meals. I used to plan all the meals, write out the grocery list and then quickly glance through the inserts to see if there was a coupon for anything that I was already buying. Boy has that changed! Now I sit down every week and cut out a majority of the coupons I come across (with exceptions for things I absolutely have no need for and don't see myself buying to donate). I also search out coupons online for brands I love and buy often. Then I browse through my grocery store ads to see what is on sale for this particular week. I narrow this down even further by seeing what coupons I have that pair up with what is already on sale. Then I start making my list. As I do this I start brainstorming meal ideas based on what I can buy cheap and what I already have stockpiled from weeks before. My menu is the final part of this whole process. I usually write out a week's worth of meals on my Wipe Off Weekly Menu Board and then the subsequent week we eat off what is in our freezer and cupboards (hence the beauty of building a stockpile - I don't need 10 boxes of spaghetti now but they will come in handy in the weeks to come:).

Let me break down last night's meal which is a perfect example of what I am talking about. This weekend I had bought a 44 pack of Gordon's fish sticks for $4.99, a 10-pack of Mission tortillas for $.99, and iceberg lettuce for $.49/head. This inspired fish soft tacos. Two nights ago I had used 3/4 of a head of lettuce for a salad so I shredded the rest (this is part of rolling over one food item into multiple meals throughout the week) to put on the tortillas. I then cooked half the bag of fish sticks which left half a bag for another meal, and placed 3 of the cooked fish sticks in each taco with the lettuce. Finally I made a simple lime sauce to top it all off using 1/2 cup of mayo (this is always on hand), 1/4 cup of sour cream (I bought 1lb for $1.69 and will use the rest for enchiladas that I am making out of another pack of the Mission Tortillas), 1 Tbsp of lime juice (I always have the bottle kind in my fridge) and garlic salt, pepper and dried dill to taste. And there you have it, simple and cheap fish soft tacos that were actually quite delicious. I paired this with homemade oven fries (4 potatoes sliced and tossed in a little olive oil and then seasoned with black pepper and salt, cooked on a baking sheet covered in parchment paper for 35 minutes at 425 degrees) and some green beans that I got on sale for $.69 a can. A meal doesn't get much cheaper then that!

It takes some time to get used to cooking based on what you can get at a good price versus whatever tickles your fancy on that particular day but it in no way means you have to sacrifice what you like or even what is healthy for you. We work in the things we have cravings for and we use the money we save shopping this way to bulk up on fresh fruits and veggies from the Farmer's Market or through Bountiful Baskets. I am proud to say that on average I save 50% on my grocery list (sometimes as much as 80%!) and that makes me feel good because I know that I am helping make my husband's job easier. He works hard for the money he brings in and the further I can stretch it the less he has to stress about making ends meet.

I would love for you to share the things you do to keep costs low while still feeding your family nutritious and delicious meals. What are your top tips for frugal meal planning?

My Safeway Run 5/25/11

Before I break down today's Safeway run I wanted to start by sharing a little about my grocery budget. I mentioned at the end of my last post (here) that I had already spent $126.94 and saved $155.11 since 5/20/11. You may be wondering how I have any grocery money left to spend. We actually sit down and do our budget every two weeks when my husband gets paid so we break our spending into two week periods. Right now our grocery budget is $300 for two weeks. That may seem high considering the fact that I coupon. But that covers all of our groceries, toiletries, cat supplies (we have 2) and kid stuff (1 in diapers and weaning off formula, two in night time Pull-Ups). And it also gives us wiggle room to go to Starbucks and eat out once or twice. This is actually the first month I have gave up on one big shopping trip every two weeks with small stops for necessities along the way. I finally made the jump to more frequent, smaller trips to maximize my ability to match-up sales and coupons. I am hoping to take advantage of that strategy for a few weeks/months to build up my stockpile and then live off of that for another few weeks/months while siphoning a majority of the grocery budget into paying off debt.

Hope I didn't lose you in all of that...just thought I would share for those of you who are interested. I know that all this coupon/match-up stuff can be overwhelming and confusing when you are first starting out so I want to share what I know and what I continue to learn along the way to make it easier for you. So here we go - my Safeway run for today:

- There are a few non-deal items that I had to get. Bananas to tide the little one over until we get more with our Bountiful Basket on Saturday. 2 tubs of icing (I did have a $.75/2 coupon), a pkg of large and mini cupcake wrappers, hamburger patties (2 10 count pkgs at $5.99 each) and hamburger buns (3 Safeway brand at $1.19 each) for Isaiah's birthday BBQ this weekend.These are INCLUDED in my total so I wanted to account for them.
- My BIG score was the Viva 6 count paper towels. Remember how I had to get a raincheck for these after going to Safeway twice to find the shelves empty? They finally had them in stock so I got them for the previously advertised price of $4.99 each. I also had 2 $1/1 coupons making them $3.99 each. For buying 2 I got a Catalina good for $4 towards my next trip making the total for 2=$3.99. They are normally $8.99 each so that was a great deal!
- The John Frieda hair dye was FREE with a coupon I had scored (I think a promotion they were having on Facebook). That is normally $13.99:)
- Pepsi 2 Liters are on sale for today only for $.69 a piece, limit of 2 so I got 2=$1.38
- Johnsonville Brats and Italian Sausage are on sale for $3.99 and I had a $1/1 coupon making 1=$2.99.
- Oscar Mayer hot dogs with in ad coupon are $.99 each (limit 5). I only had 1 $1/2 coupon left since I bought some at Walgreens over the weekend so I got 5 pkgs=$3.95
- Safeway hot dog buns with in ad coupon are $.78 so I got 3=$2.34
- Vlasic pickles are B1G1 at $2.99 each. I had 2 $1/2 coupons so I got 4 jars=$3.98
- Bush's baked beans are 3/$5 (wish I had a coupon!). I bought 3=$5
- Heinz ketchup with in ad coupon is $1.69 plus a $.25 coupon got me 1=$1.44
- Wishbone dressing with in ad coupon $1.19 (limit 3) plus a coupon for $1.25/3 got me 3=$2.32


Total=$51.60 and I saved $72.56 which is 60%. Plus I got a $4 coupon towards my next trip!

You don't like it? You make it!

These past two weeks have been pretty rough for Nathan (our 4 year old). He has been full of attitude, defiant and complaining about everything. We think he is just really needing some one on one time. He is the most dependent of the 3 and this works against him as far as getting mommy and daddy's attention. This weekend Jeremy is planning an outing for just the two of them so he can get some of that attention he seems to be craving. Another thing we are doing is letting him get more involved in helping out. Not just "Grab Isaiah's binky, please" or "Can you go shut that door or turn off that light" but things that give him responsibility as well as time with one or both of us.

One of his big complaints this week has been dinner. He has not been pleased with what I have been serving and has made no effort to hide that. In this house we do not cater at mealtime, I take into consideration what everyone likes and dislikes but we have one meal and if you don't like it, you don't eat. I have followed through with this all week but have decided in an effort to give him some sense of control (as well as a taste of what I go through to put dinner on the table) I am going to let him start being in charge of one meal every so often. So I sat him down while I was doing the meal planning and told him what day he was in charge of. His responsibilities included planning a dinner menu, helping do the shopping for it and then helping me prepare it.

His dinner night is going to be Friday. What are we having you ask? Spaghetti and Meatballs with broccoli on the side. I thought that was a reasonable choice. And for dessert: his major requirement was that it had whipped cream and he finally settled on putting that on top of brownies.

 

On the menu!

So Friday came and Nathan was actually super excited about getting to help at the grocery store. I let him pick out the head of broccoli, which kind of pasta sauce, the brownie mix, etc. He had so much fun that he helped me with my entire list and did a great job at it. I think I found a new shopping buddy!

As soon as we got home and got the groceries put away we decided to get the brownies going. So he donned his new chef ware that he got as a Christmas present and jumped right into baking.

Doesn't he look so excited?

Who needs a Kitchen Aid when you have a 4 year old?

As soon as that came out of the oven it was time to start making the meatballs. This is where things took an interesting turn. First off, he didn't realize what I put in my meatballs. "Squash...I don't like squash!" he whined as I explained that he loves my meatballs and that is what has always been in them. Then when I told him we mix up the ingredients by putting our hands in he wasn't all too thrilled either. Ummm, this is a 4 year old boy we are talking about, right? I thought he would be thrilled to play with his food but not so much. So I talked him into putting his hands into it and that is when all heck broke loose. He was thoroughly disgusted and was begging to wash his hands. I told him I wanted him to make one meatball to see how it was done and I pretty much had to force him to do it. I think the pictures say it all:

Disgusting!

Mean old mommy made me make a meatball (try saying that 3 times fast!)

As this was going on he realized that one of his favorite shows was on tv and he wanted to quit all together to watch tv. This is where the lesson came in. I told him that being responsible for making dinner isn't always fun. That besides the planning and shopping, you also have to stop what you are doing and sometimes miss out on the fun stuff to get it done. This is why it hurts mommy's feelings when you complain about what I make. While I wanted this entire experience to be a fun bonding moment between us I am glad this life lesson was incorporated into it as well. This was the backbone to the whole idea and I am glad it came about naturally so that he could truly get the point. After some time in his room following a full on meltdown (and a mini mommy meltdown), we got back to cooking and everything turned out great. His favorite part was serving everyone and getting to choose how many meatballs went on his plate. I told him one of the perks of being the cook is deciding how much you put on your own plate. I then asked if he wanted two or three meatballs to which he replied, "I think I need four, I have a really big mouth!"  Four it is Nathan. Four it is.

Enjoying the fruits of his labor