Weekly Meal Plan for 6/11/18

One way that I save money is by "shopping" from our cabinets. There are weeks where we may not use all of something I bought, so I always try to come up with meal plans based off what we have first. Then after that, I'll look up meat prices that are on sale at Aldi and try to plan off those. There are definitely weeks that our cabinets are bare by the time I go to the store (since I try to only buy what's on my shopping list), and this method doesn't work, but sometimes it's a great way to save some $$.

This may seem pretty like a pretty obvious tip, but I was terrible at this kind of thing when I first started living on my own. I was incapable of looking at an item I had in my cabinets and planning a meal around it. So if that's hard for you too, know you're in good company. It gets easier! This week I'm using a lot of what we have already.

Monday: Chicken Spinach Bacon Alfredo with crescent rolls. Total for meal: $3.04

I've made this once before, but was not super impressed. This time I'm only kind of following the above recipe. I had some alfredo sauce leftover from a dish I made last week, so I'm going to use that instead of following the recipe for one. I'm also putting in some leftover rotisserie chicken from last week and splitting the bag of spinach with tomorrow's dish. I already had pasta and will toss in a bag of bacon pieces instead of cooking bacon.

Tuesday: White bean with spinach and sausage soup and peaches. Total for meal: $2.07

We had this meal not too long ago, but it's a good fit to split the sausage and spinach with other meals this week (I'll make a smaller portion of the soup). Clarence has a meeting tonight, so this will be good and easy for me and the kids to share. I had a can of diced tomatoes in the cabinet as well as some canned peaches. Using what we have! 

Wednesday: Fried Cabbage with potato and bacon, fruit. Total for meal: $1.56

Using up the rest of the bacon and some potatoes we had from last week, so all I had to buy was a cabbage and it was HUGE, so I'll just use half of it for this meal and save the rest for next week. Oh and the rest of the cost was the grapes.

Thursday: Chicken Bog and green beans. Total for meal: $2.11

The name of this dish leaves something to be desired, but the recipe sounds good! Thanks to my friend, Liza, for sharing this one. I'm halving this because it sounds like it makes a TON. I'm using some rotisserie chicken from last week and half of the kielbasa I'm splitting with Tuesday's meal. I had rice, onions, butter, a can of green beans, and Old Bay seasoning.

Friday: Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes, Zucchini. Total for meal: $4.67

I bought a 2 pound package of ground beef that was on sale for $2.69 a pound. I'll use half for this meal and save half for next week. I rarely do a meat-heavy dish like this, but we haven't had meatloaf in a long time and I was craving it (this is my mom's recipe). We'll use the rest of the potatoes we had leftover from last week.

1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup quaker rolled oats
1/2 cup ketchup
1 egg
1 diced onion
salt to taste 

Mix the ingredients together, shape into a loaf and bake at 350 for one hour or until browned.

Saturday Lunch: Leftovers

Saturday Dinner: Neighborhood cookout! Total for meal: $3.50

Every year, one of our neighbors hosts a cookout in their yard. Everyone brings their own meat and a dish to share. I bought us some burgers and buns and we already have hot dogs (which Abel will want). I will need to make a dish to share, but haven't figured out what yet.

Sunday Lunch: Pasta in a bag. Total for meal: $0

I bought this last week for lunch on Saturday when the boys were gone, but we ended up taking my mom to our favorite restaurant in Greenville (Adam's Bistro), so we'll eat it for lunch today instead.

Sunday Dinner: Church small group leader's meeting. Free dinner.

This was in the plan for last week, and the leaders suddenly had to go support a sibling who lost their full-term baby after trying to get pregnant for four years. It's absolutely heartbreaking and I can't imagine their range of emotions right now. Please pray for them! 

Total at the store this week: $37.27

Also bought kefir, fruit pouches, grapes, 6 yogurts, strawberries, mac and cheese (always good to have one hand just in case...), cantaloupe, and bread.

I love how using what's in the cabinet can drastically lower the grocery budget! And those individual meal totals make me feel so happy! What's on your meal plan this week?