Rather than posting again tomorrow (because we're probably just going to have salad or a sandwich) I decided to post the menu for Oct 9-15th along with the shopping list and the ultimate goal
Sunday
Ricotta Gnocchi with Homemade Alfredo Sauce & Garlic Bread
Monday
Pepperoni Stuffed Chicken & Mashed Potatoes
Tuesday
Pesto Stuffed Jumbo Shells & Garlic Bread
Wednesday
Asian Sticky "Wings" (though I'm going to use breasts) and Scalloped Potatoes
Thursday
Out to eat at BJ's Restaurant for our anniversary!
Friday
Taco Night
Saturday
Lasagna Roll Ups & Garlic Bread
With this menu our shopping list consists of:
- ricotta D?
- cream cheese D?
- nutmeg
- chicken breasts (4)
- pepperoni D
- sesame oil
- ginger D?
- green onions
- tomato sauce D
- lasagna noodles D
- ground beef
- jumbo shells
- garlic bread D
The master plan is to save as much money as possible, especially since we'll be spending $20 on our anniversary dinner at BJ's. I would love to only spend about $20-30 on the shopping trip and hoping it works...
Those with D? are things I think the dollar store might have and those with a D are those I know the dollar store has. Each item we find at the dollar store is like a little win for me...it's spending $1 on something that would otherwise cost $2-5...HUGE money saver. Best case scenario is the dollar store has most of what we want...they won't have the meats, I know that. But they still have a massive amount of food.
For the meats we're going to go check out Winco...Garry's cousin clued us in on where to go shopping for the cheapest grocery items. He said Winco has the cheapest meats. Granted, if we go over our budget this week we'll cut out meat entirely from our diet until we can afford it. Hoping that doesn't happen but we'll see what kind of deals Winco has.
For produce we're going to go to Food 4 Less...like I mentioned before, we went walking around one out of curiosity and found the prices several dollars lower than at safeway. Hopefully by shopping here as opposed to safeway, we'll save more money.
Many people have mentioned couponing to me and while I'd love to say I'm on board, I just can't manage to find coupons on anything worth buying. I don't need cereal and soup...I need coupons on chicken and tuna and lettuce...so...until I can really figure that out, coupons aren't going to happen...unfortunately :(
I'll post more on Sunday about the shopping trip, how it went, the plan from there, along with the gnocchi I'll be making.
