Our $20 Weekly Menu

We are currently budgeting $20 per week for food & household items, while we work to 'eat down' our pantry and chest freezer.

I was happy to see milk for $1 per half gallon this week, because we are not big milk drinkers.  I was also somewhat giddy to see leaf lettuces for .88 a head and apples for .88 a pound. Albertsons has asparagus for .99 a pound and Safeway had the 'cheap bread' for .88 a loaf.  I use it to make croutons.

Safeway also has 80-20 ground beef for 1.99 a pound.  That's a price that I'd normally stock up, but Husband and I talked it over, and the goal right now is not to stock up, but to eat down.  We have ground beef.  We don't need it, but it feels weird to skip the sale.  Still, I did.  Hello, trust issues, hee hee.

We have a fair amount of produce on hand from previous weeks that I will integrate into this week's menu:  oranges, carrots, cabbage, celery, onions, a lemon, a tomato.  We even have nearly a pound of strawberries left, and they are still in great shape.  The silkies have really started laying too, so we have plenty of eggs on hand. They are small - about half the size of a standard egg - but that just makes them cute.

I didn't want to run all over so I price matched at Walmart.  I picked up some apples, red leaf lettuce, asparagus, a pound of ham, crouton bread, a few cans of tuna and a pack of fig bars.  We also got some frozen french fries (turns out Daughter doesn't like tater tots), but they're not pictured because I put them in the deep freeze on the way into the house.  Later in the week when we were out and about, we also got some bar soap and oreos ($1.50 after coupon on sale - oreos are a treat!), chips for Husband's lunches, plus that half gallon of milk.  We have everything on hand for the week along with a few extras.  With sales, special offers from Safeway and coupons we ended up with three 2-liters of soda, completely free.  That's enough for quite a while.

With those items, plus the things we already had on hand, here's the menu plan for this week:

Breakfasts: 
(some will repeat)
cereal, fresh fruit, milk

eggs, toast, oranges

breakfast tacos, oranges

oatmeal with raisins and cinnamon, apples, milk

Lunches:
leftovers from supper when available
ham and asparagus stir fry (for me - I'm the only one here who likes asparagus)

big salad bowl with ham, cheese, steamed asparagus (for me), apples, croutons, dressing, etc.

pbj, carrots and celery, fresh fruit

Snacks:

hard-boiled eggs with sea salt

peanut butter crackers

popcorn, chex mix or pretzels and fresh fruit

yogurt with granola

Suppers:

(in no particular order)

black bean burgers on buns, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, french fries, carrot sticks, fresh fruit

nachos with cheese, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, sour cream, etc., sliced oranges

tomato soup, grilled ham & cheese sandwiches, green salad w/Italian dressing, apples

fried chicken, slaw, biscuits, fruit salad

biscuits and gravy, green beans, oranges

beef curry, rice, apples

Papa John's pizza (freebie from superbowl), salad or veggie sticks, fruit plate

Dessert of the Week:
This week I'm baking a red velvet cake mix that I got for .29 with coupons a while back.  I'll bake it in two 8x8 pans, frost them both with cream cheese frosting and then freeze one for another week. 

What's the plan at your home this week?

Shared at Menu Plan Monday