budgeting : groceries

As I mentioned on Friday's post, Todd and I were really going to sit down and discuss our spending and monthly budgeting.  A BIG part of our budget is how to spend money on groceries.  We very rarely make a list or menu.  Most of the time we'd just walk up and down the aisle and pick up what we thought we might want that week.  This shopping trip was different.

Todd is kind of awesome.  The night before, he looked was browsing on the Kraft Foods website.  Have you checked it out before? If not, you should.  SO HELPFUL.  After looking through many of the recipes they have to offer, we settled on one of the "1 Bag, 5 Dinners".  We chose a healthier version.  Here's what the 1 bag includes:

Monday: Spaghetti with Zesty Bolognese

Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken & Veggie Mac

Wednesday: Easy Slow-Cooker Beef Stew

Thursday: Skillet Chicken & Vegetables Parmesan

Friday: Thin Crust Pizza (we got a Supreme)

We have never tried any of these before but they are healthy(ish) and look fairly easy for weeknights so I'm looking forward to trying it out!

The best part about all of this is that your grocery list is already spelled out. You can see what all of the recipes call for here.  The list is actually pretty minimal.  And honestly this "1 bag" will probably provide more than 5 meals for us.  It will provide dinners, leftovers and probably stuff for lunches too.  I'm really excited to give it a try!

We then made our way to WalMart.  After shopping (with everyone and their brother) we were out of there.  Our grocery bill total was only $80.  That includes many items that are not a part of our menu but things we needed anyway since we've been out of the house so much.  We were really starting to run low on all groceries! That means, our weekly grocery bill was actually well under $80 and we're pretty happy about that.

And look at all that good stuff!!  Who's hungry?!  Not bad for a Saturday morning!

I am so excited that January is off to such a good and productive start!  We are watching our budget (we finally settled on using Mint!) and making good choices all around.  Financially and food-related.  Even though it can be stressful, I know that in the end this is so good for us.  

And like Todd said, as long as we keep this up (forever) we'll be good to go. ;)

Let the happy new year continue!