Every week, I share what we ate for the week on our budget. Our current monthly grocery budget for my family of 4 is $500.
A note about side dishes. For convenience, I frequently serve steamed vegetables and my homemade sugar-free applesauce as side dishes and you will see it often in our menu. And yes, we get bored with frozen vegetables at times, but it’s an easy way to get our vegetables. I often buy the frozen Birds Eye Baby Broccoli Florets. The broccoli is already cut up and it is just the florets, no thick stalks. It is usually $2 for a 14 oz bag and I can get 2 meals from the bag. If I am roasting dinner, then I might make Brussels spouts or green beans, two vegetables that we prefer roasted.
This Week’s Dinners:
Saturday: I grilled hamburgers and hot dogs and served fries and steamed veggies as sides.
Sunday: My oldest daughter had a YMCA district swim meet. Relatives from out of town came to watch so we all went out to dinner to celebrate her qualifying for the PA YMCA State meet at Penn State in a relay.
Monday: I was home with a sick child, so I had time to roast a chicken that I found marked down at the grocery store. I also made smashed potatoes and gravy, steamed broccoli, and homemade applesauce.
Tuesday: I used the leftover chicken from Monday night and made Chicken & Black Bean Enchiladas.
Wednesday: Spaghetti night, with garlic bread and steamed broccoli.
Thursday: Leftover night.
Friday: My 10 year old daughter qualified for YMCA PA State swim meet which will be held at Penn State’s pool. We are headed up there this afternoon and are meeting other teammates and their families for dinner. My daughter is super excited about this opportunity. And her father and I are so proud of this accomplishment. All of her hard work at practice has paid off and led up to this big meet.
This Week’s Breakfasts, Lunches, and Snacks:
For breakfast, we ate cereal, egg & bagel sandwiches. For lunches and snacks, we ate ham & cheese sandwiches, apples, oranges, cheese & crackers, yogurt sticks, cheese sticks, and popcorn.