2013 $50 Weekly Menu Plan Week #40

2013 $50 Weekly Menu Plan Week#40: Pumpkin, Pumpkin everywhere! Autumn is our favorite time of year, there’s a chill in the air and we get to finally bake scrumptious recipes that fill the house with the smells of apples, pumpkin and spices. This week we’re attempting to use up that giant pumpkin we purchased last week because we don’t quite have enough room in the freezer for more right now. Total spent this week $41.98

From the Store & Farmers Market: Steak, cantaloupe, artisan lettuce, celery, cucumber, fresh broccoli, spinach, coconut oil, cool whip, bell peppers, feta cheese, sweet potatoes

From the Garden: tomatoes, jalapenos, carrots
From our Backyard: Fresh Eggs

Breakfast Options for this week:

• Fruit Salad- bananas, apples, pears, canned peaches,
• Apple spice Baked Donuts
• Blueberry Pancakes
• Blueberry Ginger Smoothies
• Caramelized Pumpkin Sticky Buns
• Cinnamon Apple Raisin Oatmeal
• Pumpkin Waffles w/ Applesauce, drizzled in maple syrup
• Eggs- Scrambled, poached, over easy, fried, or Omelettes with toast
• Hard Cooked Eggs
• Toasted Apple Cider Bread, Scrambled Eggs

MondaySeptember 30th:

• Lunch: Grilled Cheese, Tomato Soup
• Dinner:Shrimp Fettuccine Alfredo (over Rosemary Pepper Pasta) , Texas Garlic Toast, Salad

TuesdayOctober 1st:

• Lunch: Garden Salad with shredded cheese, apple & pear chunks and diced hard boiled eggs
• Dinner:Eggplant Gateau, Rosemary Roasted Potato wedges

WednesdayOctober 2nd:

• Lunch: Spinach Bread Bowls & Salad
• Dinner: Sesame Chicken, Jasmine Rice, Steamed Broccoli

ThursdayOctober 3rd:

• Lunch: Leftover Sesame Chicken, salad
• Dinner: Panfried Catfish Nuggets, Baked Potato, Sweet Peas, Honey glazed Carrots

FridayOctober 4th:

• Lunch: Crabmeat Sandwiches/wraps
• Dinner:Grilled Montreal Steaks, Crispy Cilantro Sweet Potato Fries , salad

SaturdayOctober 5th : Get together with Friends, these usually take place in early afternoon and run into the very late evening, early morn

• Midday: Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip , Pumpkin Fluff Dip & Gingersnaps, Scrumptious 4-layer Pumpkin Cake

SundayOctober 6th:

• Lunch: Leftovers from yesterdays get-together
• Dinner:Tortilla Soup w/ Black Beans & Cornbread Muffins

Various Snacks & Desserts:

• Fresh Fruit Choices Available– Apples, Pears, Cantaloupe, Bananas

• Microwave Popcorn
• Homemade Chocolates
• Cinnamon Apple Cherry Cheeseball& Apple slices
• Honey Crunch Granola Bars
• Potato Chips & Vidalia Onion Dip

Drinks Available:* Iced Tea (Unsweetened or Sweet Tea)
* Coffee
* Hot Chocolate/Cocoa
* Iced Coffee Drinks
* Almond Milk
* Lemonade

Less Likely to be used, but still available:
* Copycat Gatorade
* CopyCat Arizona Green Tea

FYI:You’ll notice that we don’t often purchase milk in our menu plans. There isn’t any place nearby to purchase raw milk and milk is absolutely loaded with hormones, chemicals and frequently antibiotics. It’s not something that we regularly consume. We do keep dry milk on hand for baking and cooking though.

If this is the first menu plan you’ve seen you may be asking yourself why are there items on the menu that haven’t been “purchased”. There are meats or fruits, etc that are listed in the menu itself but not in the “items purchased this week”. To put it simply, not everything is purchased all at once, if it was, we’d be spending thousands of dollars on groceries instead of around $250 per month!

For complete details on how it all works we recommend you read past menu plans (there are nearly 3 full years of them here on the site!) to get an idea of how meats, fish, seafood and seasonal fruits and veggies are purchased and stored/prepared for later enjoyment! Or Simply download our eBook- which explains it all in detail.

For example- this week you’ll see crab on the menu plan, we caught these ourselves several weeks ago & froze them for later.

For Further reading/help we recommend the following:

• October Sales Trends- not sure what Should be on sale right now? Here is a list of the current Sales trends throughout the month of September, so you know what savings to expect and look forward to.

• The 2012 Family Guide to Groceries under $250 a Month– a guide of how and where to cut grocery expenses to get spending under control while providing an eye-opening view of the dirty manipulation tactics retailers use to keep you spending.

• $50 Weekly Menu Plan Help across the USA–Do you find yourself struggling to reduce your grocery bill each month? Check out our Menu plan help across the USA to see if your area has been featured for more 1-on-1 help, if not, feel free to add your request to have your city/state featured.

• Making Fruits & Veggies Last: At the beginning of each week we prepare the vegetables and fruits to make meal preparation easier during the week and to save money by preventing waste. You can read more about that here.

• How Spending $25 Now can save you Hundreds Later – if you gain nothing else from this site, don’t overlook this tip. It has been an EXTREME money-saver for our family.

• $50 Dollar Menu Frequently Asked Questions– There are certain questions that seem to pop up again and again, so rather than be redundant and repeat answers, we’ve put them all in one convenient place for you!

  • Basic Questions– Why we don’t provide a shopping list, Random ingredients that aren’t in the shopping list, are groceries cheaper , etc
  • More Questions– more in depth questions regarding dietary guidelines, dealing with picky eaters, junk food and more