Shopping Trip! Part I

Hello there everybody! Well for today's dose of thriftiness I've decided to post about my recent shopping trip. I bought a whole month's worth of groceries for $147! That may not seem great to you but it was awesome for me. I ended up saving about $15 using price matches and coupons. Have you ever watched the show 'Extreme Couponers'? These folks are crazy about getting lots of stuff for practically nothing. I'm not one to coupon, price match, or play the drug store game but I thought I'd give it a go. Here's the first step in the master plan (I know that it's a lot like the last 'Money Monday but hang with me):

• Create a Meal Calendar for the whole month. At first this is really daunting. I thought "How in the world am I supposed to come up with 30 meals?" But you don't have to do that at all. I just came up with a few meals that are easy and that we like and just made the schedule off that. My meal calendar is this:

Sunday = Dinner at Parents House

(Need I explain?)

Monday = Brinner

( Breakfast for Dinner. I have muffins and eggs, french toast, omelets, and breakfast burritos)

Tuesday = Tastes like Chicken

(Just an easy chicken meal. There's chicken casserole, chicken rolls, BBQ chicken, and crockpot chicken.)

Wednesday = Hamburger Helper

(Select varieties of everybody's 30 minute meal.)

Thursday = Pasta Pleasers

(Had to have this somewhere saying as we are both Italian. There's shrimp salad w/ hamburgers, bowtie pasta with Italian Dressing, and classic Spaghetti.)

Friday = Leftover Clean-out

(Waste not, want not)

Saturday = Something New

(I left this day for something exciting to try. Recipes include porkchops with potatoes, pulled pork sandwiches, and yummy desserts!)

Pretty simple, eh? I pretty much did the same thing for lunches, I thought of 4 lunches that are easy (sandwiches, smoothies, etc.) and rotated them every four days. For breakfasts we pretty much only eat cereal so that was a sinch. Remember that you don't have to stick to a schedule when making the meals, this step is just to help you prepare your list. I go to the grocery store once a month for the big trip and then little trips for milk, bread, eggs, etc. I've found that it saves me money to do less trips but you should always do what works for you.

Next Thrify Thursday I will be talking about making 'the list'....you know the one.