$50 Groceries

It works best for my schedule to go grocery shopping on Wednesday or Thursday. So a week refers to Wednesday to Wednesday or Thursday to Thursday. Meal ideas use a combo of the week's groceries and ingredients I already have on hand.

I've been really impressed with myself and how natural it's becoming for me to only spend $50 at the grocery store. When I first started this venture, I didn't always get everything on my list, or I was putting stuff back before going up to the check out. Compare that to a couple weeks ago, when I was $11 under budget! Although, I still have some weeks, when I just want to load up my cart and forget about my grocery budget.

I would like to make a trip to Costco or GFS to buy some of our weekly/bi-weekly items in bulk. I'd love to get stocked up on a variety of cheeses, coffee, toilet paper, laundry detergent, flour and sugar. I thought about saving any left over grocery money and not going until I had enough saved up, but Stella and I really love our fries and McChickens. Plus that would take a long time, considering on the typical shopping trip I only come in one or two dollars under budget. So, what I'll probably end up doing is budgeting for it specifically in May.

This week I actually had $65 to spend. We needed diapers, and Meijer is offering a free $15 gift card with the purchase of 2 giant boxes of Pampers. So, I purchased those as a separate order before my groceries. 
 
Quick Facts:  

• Total Spent: $64.53, 7 cents under budget. 
• Total savings: $12.60 ($27.60 if you count the gift card)
• I didn't use any coupons or Mperks, so my $12.60 savings was completely from shopping the sale ad

My Must Haves: 

• milk
• eggs
• laundry detergent
• apples (Love Bean has asked for an apple almost everyday this week)

Meal Ideas for This Week:

•  Classic Mac n' Cheese
•  Jalapeno Cream Cheese Stuffed Chicken
• Santa Fe Stuffed Red Peppers   
• Breakfast Sandwiches