2013 $50 Weekly Menu Plan Week #22

2013 $50 Weekly Menu Plan Week #22: Happy Memorial Day! Last week’s menu plan incorporated lots of fresh veggies (while camping on a budget!), this weeks menu plan takes advantage of the Typical Memorial Day weekend sales. . . . as such, we’ve made this a Meat Restocking week!
If you’re new to Menu planning, you’ll want to check out section on Sales cycles, particularly May Sales Cycles so you’ll know what to look for ahead of time. If you’ve been following our menu plans for a while you already know that we routinely restock meat based on sales cycles rather than purchasing it on a weekly basis. This allows us to use the majority of our weekly budget on fresh fruits and vegetables.

Our planned grocery budget is $250 per month, which breaks down to roughly $50 per week. We rarely spend the full $50 each week so the balance gets carried over into the next weeks budget to help cover meat restocking weeks, such as this one.

This week we purchased the following: raw almonds, 20#’s pork butt ($1.58lb), 25#’s Sirloin Pork Chops($1.27lb), 40# boneless Skinless chicken breast ($1.67lb case price), lettuce, celery, yogurt, apples, mango, blueberries, mustard, relish, bay scallops ($3.99 lb!), fresh strawberries, fresh snap green beans, grand total $186.28
While this trip puts us over our yearly budget by $53, within the next 2 weeks when the garden is abundantly producing more veggies, we’ll have another frugal fast, and be back on budget. Last year we managed a $500 surplus this way! You’ll notice that we didn’t purchase steaks this time around, we’re actually waiting until the 4th of July sales to restock on beef, it’s considerably cheaper then.

From our small garden we harvested: Fresh radishes, tomatoes, jalapenos, Zucchini, Summer Squash, cucumbers

MondayMay 27th: Happy Memorial Day!

• Breakfast:Blueberry Maple Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch: Fresh Cucumber Sandwiches
• Dinner:Honey Dijon Marinated Grilled Chicken, Grilled Zucchini, salad

Tuesday May 28th

• Breakfast: Waffles
• Lunch: Chipotle Egg Salad
• Dinner:Taco Burrito’s (Wraps with Taco Meat, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, jalapenos)

Wednesday May 29th:

• Breakfast:Apple Pecan Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch: leftover taco wraps
• Dinner:Tomato Pie & Grilled Zucchini/Summer Squash
  

Thursday May 30th:

• Breakfast:Scrambled Eggs, Toast
• Lunch: Grilled Zucchini Pizza
• Dinner:Crab Stuffed baked Halibut, baked potato, fresh snap green beans

Friday May 31st:

• Breakfast:Cinnamon Mango Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch: Tuna Salad Wrap
• Dinner:Grilled Steak marinated in Copycat A1, Italian grilled potatoes & sweet onions, salad

Saturday June 1st:

• Breakfast:Eggs over easy, toast
• Lunch: Cool Cucumber Soup
• Dinner:BBQ Chicken, Macaroni Salad

Sunday June 2nd:

• Breakfast:Raspberry Vanilla Swirl Refrigerator Oatmeal
• Lunch:BBQ Chicken wraps (made with leftover chix)
• Dinner:Meatloaf, Garlic Smashed Potatoes, Salad

Various Snacks:

• Fresh Fruit– Apples, Home-Canned Peaches, blueberries, mango, strawberries
• Double Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cake
• Cinnamon Apple cherry Cheeseball
• Pina Colada Popsicles
• Healthy Zucchini Brownies
• Strawberry Cheesecake Dip
• Carrot Cake Bites

Drinks Available:A note about our drink offerings, while we do always have coffee and tea in the house, coffee is usually with breakfast, hot tea is usually in the evening and for the most part our other drinks consist of Water. We don’t “drink milk” at all, it is usually used in making homemade yogurt, or in cereals, baking, etc.* Iced Tea (Unsweetened or Sweet Tea)
* Coffee
* Hot Chocolate/Cocoa
* Copycat Gatorade
* CopyCat Arizona Green Tea

FYI Section:

For Further reading/help we recommend the following:

• 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.