Meal Planning Saved Me $$$ ....

... and saving $$$ makes me a very happy girl :)

So, last week you may recall that I made a commitment to myself and to my wallet to meal plan in an effort to (a) stick to my healthy eats; and (b) stick to my weekly grocery budget.

I am happy report that my first meal planning week was successful! Usually we I spend in excess of $100/wk on groceries, and yes there are only 2 of us in this house! I've decided to put us on a budget that allows for $75/wk which I think it pretty reasonable considering we do tend to eat out at least a couple of times. Last week, I managed to stick to the $75 (it was actually easier than I expected!) and I only went to the grocery store once after work. I went because we needed water (we have well water that is not good for drinking, so water is a necessity) and I did walk out with Tempeh bacon as my only other purchase.

This week, I went over the budget by $8. I would have been under, but there were lots of great sales and I stocked up on some frozen items that Derek likes to take with him when he's working back-to-back shifts. I probably have those meals covered now for the next 2 weeks, so I think my over-spending was justified.

...and really, when you think about it, I saved us about $37 in the past 2 weeks....I know, I know....I rock ;)

With respect to the actual meal planning, I stuck to that really well too. I wasn't sure how it'd go because I tend to give in to cravings and get a little obsessive about new recipes that I find online, but I didn't have any problems at all! I didn't make a rigid list of what we were eating each night, I just listed out what we'd have for the week, which still left me with a little flexibility. It was really, really nice to know what was on the menu each night and to have all the ingredients at home...it left me with more spare time than usual each night which was awesome.

So, now on to the fun stuff. This week's menu looks like this:

Breakfasts & lunches will be repeats of last week: green smoothies, oatmeal, fruit, salads, veggie soup, hard-boiled eggs, etc. I'm also planning to make a peanut butter/chocolate treat (recipe to be shared soon!)

Dinners are going to look a little like this -

• Barbecue - steak & potato (Derek)/portabello 'shrooms (Andrea) with grilled asaparagus
• Pasta with meat sauce (Derek)/Spaghetti squash with marinara (Andrea) 
• Veggie Stirfry with Tofu & Quinoa
• Toasted BLTs (tempeh for moi!) with roasted butternut squash
• Barbecued Burgers (Derek)/Chickpea Burgers (Andrea) with grilled veggies
• Stuffed Acorn Squash (I didn't get to this one last week)

My groceries are bought, my meals are planned and now I'm ready for a relaxing Sunday afternoon.

Being organized feels pretty awesome :)  

What are you up to today?

Do you have any of your meals planned for this coming week?

Enjoy the last few hours of your weekend,

Andrea

xoxo