Anyway...here is a copy of my meal plan:
As you can see, it's not gourmet, or 5-star, or anything like that. BUT it's mostly good-for-you-food that can be easily prepared. As for how I managed to get enough food for this plan for the 4 of us for under $300...that's a bit more difficult. I spent some time going through the weekly grocery ads, then spent several hours putting this plan together with the ads, my coupon stash and online comparing prices. I then put together a final list, broken down by store. It took the better part of Friday morning. We went to Tom Thumb, Kroger, Aldi, Target and Costco to get everything on the list. Costco and Target were the two trips with the largest total cost, but I got almost as much at Aldi as I did at Target for about half the price! Aldi is my new best friend!! LOL The grand total for everything was $279.66. I will have to get milk once or twice during the month and we already had some things in the freezer (a turkey, 2 pork butts and hot dogs, for example). But I should also have a good "base" left over for next month (I have tons of pasta, beans and rice).
That's pretty much it! Yes it takes some work to put together, yes I'll have to cook and clean up, but I figure we probably used to spend double (easily!) per month at the grocery store. Regarding going out to eat...we LOVE LOVE LOVE to eat out, but for the most part it's not very healthy (at least the places we go, LOL) and if I figure we spend ~$35 each time we eat out, that gets me a tick under 8 days of dinners for the same cost as groceries for 30 days of dinners! No brainer!
If anyone has any questions, please just let me know! I'll be more than happy to answer them if I can!
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