You guessed it, Meal Plan Monday

It's Sunday night. I am home from Auburn. Ada is in bed, and Scott is asleep on the couch. I have told him probably five times to go upstairs to bed, and every time he says okay, and goes right back to sleep on the couch. I have to tutor online at midnight tonight, so I am up for a while.

Yes, you read that correctly, midnight. I slept for two hours this afternoon in preparation. The online hours have been few and far between since the new semester began. I have a sneaking suspicion that it has a bit to do with the economy. I have been missing online hours for the past two weeks, so in an effort to be "gazelle intense," this week I just took what I could get, even if that meant midnight.

I plan to work my tail off until summer comes, and hopefully at that point our budget should be looking at some breathing room, and I will be ready to relax all summer since the kids will all be out of school. At least that is what I keep telling myself when I don't really feel like tutoring at, say, midnight on Sunday night. Yuck!

Anyway...back to the matter at hand. This weekend's grocery trip and the meal plan for the week. I shopped at Kroger and Publix, and I had some okay numbers. The savings were good, but I spent more than planned.

At Kroger I spent 47.00 (5 towards some highschoolers who were bagging groceries to raise money for their school), and I saved 62.53.

At Publix trip #1, I spent 18.40, and I saved 32.58. That was the trip that involved Ada standing up in the buggy, me playing tug of war with her for my grocery list and coupons, and the "car buggy" getting stuck on every single aisle. It was sort of a nightmare, so we cut the trip short.

At Publix trip #2, I spent 36.52, and I saved 54.86. Scott came with me this time, and he drove Ada in the car buggy in circles around the store while I shopped. On this trip, however, the cashier accused me of copying my Rite Aid coupon, wish really did a number on my pride.

So, that is 251.89 worth of groceries for 101.92. Not bad, right?

However, I wanted to stay under 50.00. I have a stocked freezer and pantry, though, so I am going to see how long I can go without going to the grocery store. It's to the point that I am running out of room to put things. It's hard for me to ignore the deals that are going on each week, but the whole point of stockpiling is to save money, so I am going to spend the next month relying heavily on the stockpile, and then I will begin to build it back up. I imagine there will be a few necessities that I need to buy each week, but I want to keep the grocery spending to a bare minimum. There are usually freebies each week, so I will take advantage of those. We'll call it the stockpile experiment. How long can I go without buying groceries?

Here's the plan for this week

Monday: 16 bean soup, cornbread
Tuesday: Chicken leg quarters, rice, and veggies in the crockpot
Wednesday: Chicken in vodka sauce over pasta
Thursday: leftovers or cereal--tutor/bible study night
Friday: frozen pizza
Saturday: pinto beans and sausage with rice
Sunday--most likely I am headed home for baby Andrew's birth!!!!!!!!! Woo-hoo...so exciting.

lunch--ham sandwiches, chips, fruit, leftovers
breakfast--fiber one bars, grits, waffles, fiber one pop-tarts

Our freezer is absolutely overflowing with chicken, so we are looking forward to when red meat of some kind goes on sale. We are becoming a bit chickened out, you could say.

Remember that you will find many more menus over at Organizing Junkie.