3.22.2016

Weeknight Dinners & Cost of Groceries

We had another solid week of meals at home. 

Monday: Grilled Chili Lime Chicken Fajita Salad

We used jalapeno ranch as a dressing and it was perfect. This salad made for great lunches for the week too. 

Tuesday: Salmon Cakes
The recipe calls for diced peppers which I omit.  

Wednesday:  Wasabi Steak Salad
 
 
I couldn't find a good wasabi dressing, so I tried to make my own with wasabi sauce, greek yogurt, and olive oil. It wasn't horrible, but if you can find a wasabi dressing, it would be worth it to have it pre-made.

Thursday/St.Patrick's Day: Corned Beef and Cabbage

Saturday: Stuffed Meatballs

These never disappoint and I ended up making a double batch and freezing some for Joel while I'm in Chicago next week. 

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Ok.....so now that that's out of the way, let's chat about the cost of groceries. Below is my receipt for our week of groceries [excluding the Corned Beef night which ended up adding an additional $26 dollars to our week].


We came in this week at $130 which is actually a little on the low end for me. Most of the time I spend about $150 on groceries, which will make us about five dinners with leftovers. 

I have found that Trader Joe's is the cheapest store for us, but I'll often have to make a trip to a nicer store for seafood or random things that Trader's wont have....like sage or roasted red peppers.

We try to keep dining out to a minimum which I know helps keep our food budget on the lower side, but I still feel like we spend buckets of money on food. I would venture to guess between Trader Joe's, Target, and Bristol Farms (were we buy wine and specialty items), we spend at least $200 dollars a week. 

I try to cook as healthy as possible, and keep pre-packaged [aka cheaper food] out of our house, which as a result does end up driving our costs up, but yowza! I get major sticker shock week after week!

Is that about the same for where you live? Would love to know your thoughts on this - so dish ;)

23 comments:

  1. I meal plan 5-6 dinners a week (2-3 meat meals and the rest are vegetarian) and sometimes add a prep ahead breakfast or a baked treat. Like you, I try to keep pre-packaged foods to a minimum. I shop at Stop&Shop for the gas points, get good meats or specialty things at Whole Foods and buy the wine at Trader Joes. It is just my husband and I for now and we easily spend $200 a week. We are in the Boston area. Btw a night out for dinner could easily be another $100-$200 around here so we have tried to be very conscious about that and cook meals at home!

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  2. Can I come over for dinner?
    www.rsrue.blogspot.com

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  3. I love these posts! I am horrible at cooking dinners every night. I'm lucky if I have one meal planned for the week. My husband typically travels in the middle of the week, so that's my excuse for not cooking. But, I'd really like to get in the habit of planning meals nightly and eating in more often. Love Trader Joe's!

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  4. We have this awesome store near us called Stew Leonard's. It's regional to NY/CT and they sell the type of foods we eat - fresh is the focus. The biggest section of 'prepackaged' foods is Cheerios and canned tomatoes. Their whole store is akin to "shopping the perimeter" at a Stop & Shop. We do go to S&S if we need some of those packaged things, and sometimes for international things (if we're doing Mexican or Thai food, Stew's doesn't really have an international flavors area).

    Weekly I hover around $120 at Stew's. I don't go to S&S every week but that could be another $30 - $60 (though I'm also buying things like toilet paper there).

    I have also cut down costs by stocking up on meats ahead of time. This last weekend for example, chicken breasts at Stew's were $2.99/lb. I bought two big family packs (probably 5 - 6 lbs total) and prepped them for the freezer. When I next go to meal plan, I know that I have two bags of 3 whole breasts for us, one bag of chicken cut into strips (for fajitas or tenders), and two bags of chicken cut into "bites" (for stir fries and some of our other go-to stovetop chicken dinners). It takes a little more planning and preparation work, but it makes a huge difference when we get home from work at 6:30/7 and gotta get food on the table!

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    1. I am OBSESSED with the idea of cutting the chicken before freezing it. Thank you.

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  5. I do lots of meal planning for the week on Thursday nights and it keeps me sane (and keeps the costs down for sure). I make my breakfast each morning, my husband and I both take our lunch to work, and we eat at home 5-6 nights per week. So even when the grocery bill is high, I remind myself how much more we would spending in general if we were buying breakfast and lunch every day and don't feel quite as guilty.

    Weekly, I spend around $100 at Trader Joe's and buy the bulk of our items there (cheese/yogurt/milk, meat, most produce/herbs, majority of pantry items, frozen apps/fruit/veggies/sides) AND I ALWAYS plan for $10-15 of fresh flowers - if I have to battle the Saturday morning crowds, I'm going to bring home my own little reward. I hate going to our regular grocery store (Stop & Shop), so I scan the circulars ahead of time and stop-in if they're having any good deals (chicken breasts, produce we use quickly, etc.). We also have a Target RedCard and I use the Cartwheel app, so I tend to buy household items/paper products there (but not weekly).

    Mal, I'm loving that idea of full-on prepping chicken ahead of time. I usually wash/trim the breasts before I freeze but never thought to actually cut them down. I'm the same as you, especially now that Brian's studying in the evenings - when I walk in the door, dinner needs to come together pronto!

    Love this idea though - I'm so going to save my receipts this weekend and do a download of what I buy/spent on the blog next week.

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    1. Ok, so I'm going to need to go and stalk your blog next week. I feel like part of my problem is that I don't use points or coupons to my advantage enough. I never even bother to open circulars, but I feel like I'm probably missing out on really good deals.

      And you are spot on, whenever Joel asks me why groceries were so expensive this week, I pretty much tell him that it's equal to a week worth of lunches out for just himself! Dining out is truly the money suck.

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  6. I try to cook four nights a week, with at least one of those meals yielding leftovers. Depending what I cook, our bill ranges from $80-100. Our largest grocery chain, Kroger, has a points card and also offers BOGO, so I try to stock up when I can! Like you I try to keep pre-packaged stuff out of the house....but then again I can't make my own cheese haha! That chicken salad looks delish and I'm curious about the salmon patties!

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    1. Correct - I ain't making cheese around these parts any time soon either!

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  7. We do one expensive Costco run at least once a month for our Chicken, fish, and beef. Then we do weekly grocery store runs for our produce and other staples like bread or almond milk. Those weekly trips are usually between 60-80 dollars for a family of three. i thaw out some protein in the morning and just whip up a side from whatever produce I have in the fridge if I don't have a recipe planned. Having frozen protein is awesome because it's not as easy to run to the grocery store with my little one with me. I live in Chicago btw

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    1. You know you live in my favorite city!! We just recently dropped our Costco membership because we don't have the storage space for bulk items, but I really miss the fact that you can load up once a month and then do smaller trips week after week.

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  8. Well....I live in Oklahoma so my costs are definitely less. We also come from a farming family so I don't buy beef, chicken, or eggs at the store we get them from my parents. We also get lots of produce in the summer from gardening. I meal plan every two weeks and grocery shop every other Friday. We eat relatively clean so I'm not buying really anything boxed, processed, etc. I spend about $250 every two weeks. There are just three of us but my daughter is six. Also, her and I are home all day everyday so we eat three meals a day at home except Tuesday's we go to Chick Fil A after coop ;). So I imagine if I bought meat and eggs every two weeks my bill would be SIGNIFICANTLY higher...... Not that is much help but it still gives you ideas. I shop at Homeland which is the most expensive store in our small town but it has the best healthy options. Sometimes I will travel to the nearest Sprouts and/or Trader Joe's and stock up on some necessities!

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    1. I LOVE that you get all of your beef, chicken, and eggs from your family farm. That is like my dream! I can't even imagine how much better they are, as well.....And I really hope that I can get rid of my black thumb one of these days and try my hand at some small scale gardening.

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  9. Thank you for posting this! I just reworked our budget because I felt like I wanted us to save more so tried to figure out the biggest culprits were.. it was grocery store/Costco! I was spending over $200 a week, and it is just two of us! Now I have dropped our budget down to $125 per week on groceries/Costco and set aside extra $30 a week for household items (Tide, Charmin, air filters, plants at Lowes, etc - I buy this all at Costco whenever the item goes on sale). I buy all organic so while I know this is pricier, it also makes me feel better about what we eat (brownies made with organic butter and flour are healthy, right?). We live in Houston and we shop at Central Market (basically like Whole Foods) for all produce, milk, yogurt, and bacon from the meat counter and I buy all our organic meat, eggs, butter (best price on Kerrygold!), and pantry staples from Costco. I've also started to try to cut out or cut down our meat - if we have 1.3 lbs of ground beef I will be able to make 2 meals out of that (for example this week I am making 2 pans of lasagna - one for the freezer and one to eat). So far, no issue with the newer budget and I don't feel like we are sacrificing anything. The household fund also pays for the refill of the keg (we have a kegarator in our bar room - DINKs much??) and I don't drink a lot during the week so my wine costs are relatively low and can come from the grocery fund. We eat dinner at home 5-6 meals a week and I work from home so I eat almost all meals at home too! If we go out to eat it is usually only on the weekends since my husband is a corporate tax attorney and works long hours - it is really tempting when he offers to pick up tacos on nights I am not jazzed about what we are having for dinner but usually I resist and enjoy a much healthier meal at home! I am so fascinated by the people that have family farms and get fresh meat and eggs - so jealous!!

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    1. So random, but my husband and I are obsessed with Kerrygold butter, and I literally have to go a specific store (Sprouts), just for that dang butter. I'm sure the cashier thinks I'm nuts, but it's seriously the best.

      Also, I really want a keg now ;)

      I am so impressed that you were able to make such a dent in your budget. That is not an easy thing to do, and I look at my receipt each week and wonder where I could eliminate things and just don't see that many options - but one thing that you mentioned, cutting meat portions - is a solid call. I think I could really start stretching that a bit more than I do, so thank you for the tip.

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  10. Okay, this makes me feel way better about my grocery budget! Mine is about the same, and I always feel like I am doing something wrong. I think fresh food is just more expensive, and I also don't eat out except for a Saturday Chick Fila treat!

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    1. It does seem that $150-200 a week in groceries isn't that far off, no matter where you live, so that makes me feel a lot better too!

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  11. Hi Tess, I love your blog! I have a family of four - me, my husband, a 3 year old daughter, and a 6 month old son (it's been fun following your posts on Leo since my little Graham is the same age!). We're in Charlotte, NC and shop at a southern chain called Harris Teeter. I meal plan and generally make enough to give us 5 nights of dinners with leftovers, so very similar to your set up. That generally runs us around $150 per week.

    Thanks again for this post - I always love to see others' meal plans, especially in different areas of the country!

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    1. First of all - I love the name Graham! We have a cousin who named her son that, otherwise it would have been on my short list!

      I'm actually relieved to hear that most people are spending "about" $150 a week, give or take. Food is just expensive, and even if you try and cut corners to keep things cheap, its pretty tough to get your weekly trips under that $150 mark.

      Hope you guys are having a good week!

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    2. Thanks! It's really been fun seeing your blog evolve as Leo has come along!

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  12. Hey hey- I would say that's about what we spend here in the south too. I live about 20 min south of Memphis, TN. My complaint is I only have one big chain in my area to shop at for groceries. I have to hit up a local meat/seafood market for fresher items. And I'm planning to start hitting up the local farmer's market once it resumes.
    I was getting into an idea funk for dinners and subscribed to Blue Apron. For $60 a week we get 3 meals for 2 and sometimes have leftovers for lunch. Here lately, I've been skipping deliveries because the menu sounds bleh. Great post!

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  13. I am so impressed by all your cooking and definitely want to try that wasabi steak salad! With busy schedules lately, we haven't been as good at meal planning as we were earlier in the year! I loathe grocery shopping, but also feel super excited when we get several meals for the cost of 1-2 meals dining out!

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