A Week Of Shopping For Under $150.00

This week I tore apart the shopping ad for my local Price Chopper. I have come up with a menu for 7 dinners and breakfast and lunch ideas. Please note that this is regional where I reside in the KC Mo area. These meals are intended for the most part for a family of four. I have tried to make this fairly friendly for kids with plenty of protein in each dish. There should also be plenty of leftovers for lunches the next day for almost all these meals. Make sure you have plenty of storage containers for leftovers and lunches the next day. There is no need to buy anything fancy. I will reuse containers from sour cream, yogurts, butter containers, etc. They are perfect for this.

The 7 dinners:

Shrimp with brown rice and broccoli. Total Cost: $7.73

Pork Tenderloin with cauliflower and corn. Total Cost: $5.47

Frozen Meatballs with marina sauce and pasta. Total Cost: $5.27

Frozen Burritos with canned pinto beans. Total Cost: $4.68

Kraft Baked Tuna Cakes with canned green beans and applesauce. Total Cost: $8.07

I use the recipe online from Kraft that is for the tuna cakes to be baked. I also substituted the celery and used shredded carrots instead. Celery is fairly high these days.

Frozen Pizza. Total Cost $5.00

Canned Soup and grilled cheese. $5.19

Total Cost for 7 dinners around $41.41 before tax

With this cost above, there is a lot of wiggle room for breakfast and lunches. With this ad I would add the yogurt that was 2 for .88 cents and probably the bulk oatmeal that was 3.99. There should be plenty of leftovers from the dinners for lunches for the next day. However, there is room in this budget for additional lunch items if so desired. Below I will supply a shopping list.

1 lb. of shrimp, 2 lbs. of pork loin chops, 1 pkg. of Armour Frozen Meatballs, 3 cans of tuna, 1 pkg (8 count) of frozen burritos, one frozen pizza up to $5 your choice. 1 pkg of brown rice (not instant), 1 bunch of fresh broccoli, 1 bunch of fresh cauliflower, 1 can of corn, 1 pkg. of pasta (your choice) I found some for $1.19, 1 canned marina sauce (I found some for $1.19), 1 can of pinto beans, 1 box of stuffing (I found some for $1.59), 1 jar of applesauce $1.69, 1 can of green beans, 1 block of cheddar cheese 8 oz, 2 cans of soup (your choice), 1 loaf of bread, 1 pkg of fresh carrots (I get the cheapest which means you will need to cut these by hand), 1 head of cabbage.

The above items will be for mostly dinners and lunches. There are just a few items you should have on hand: mayonnaise or miracle whip, milk, oil for cooking, butter or margarine, sugar and possibly flour, salt and pepper of course.

I added the cabbage to the list because it has a long shelf life in the refrigerator. I use it like a salad and add it to most meals as a salad. It is also much more nutritious than regular salad. If you choose to use it this way make sure to have salad dressing on hand. You could also make a vinaigrette at home depending on what you have on hand like oil and vinegar.

Hopefully this will get you budgeting a little better and keep the high cost of groceries these days in check. Let me know what you might add or adjust. I would be interested to know your thoughts.