Food Spending July Week 2 & Meal Planning July Week 3

My keyboard seems possessed today.  Things are inadvertently getting "highlighted" and erased by some unseen force.  I have gotten up with disgust from the computer a time or two today and gone off to take care of other things here just to keep my sanity.

If I get this finished while it's still Monday AND I still have my wits about me, it will be a feat extraordinaire!

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And here is the "meal plan" that actually happened last week.....


SUNDAY--Smoked Chicken, Cornbread, mixed Veggies in Chinese Sauce
MONDAY--using up the leftover steak....steak sandwiches, steak salad-not sure yet

TUESDAY--Ribs, Beans, Macaroni Salad(yet again!lol)

WEDNESDAY--Squash Casserole, Grilled Salmon

THURSDAY--Subway Sandwiches

FRIDAY--Dinner Out (Chinese)

SATURDAY--Fajitas with smoked Chicken

We used up all the leftovers again.....yay us!   Hubs and I have been eating alone again this week due to Daughter's work schedule.  She either goes out for pizza or wings after work or she eats something at the mall if she is working at dinner time.  "Dinner" being a $1 soft pretzel and a $1 lemonade.  We'll see how long she goes like that until she gets tired of spending her own money and/or she needs real food again.

The weekly food spending was $91.05.  After only spending $7.62 last week, we needed more than usual this past week.  Plus ground beef was $1.99lb(rock bottom price!)at Weis, so I bought 7ish lbs.  We also made our monthly trip to the bread outlet last week and since it's summer we added some snacks(chips)to the shopping list.
The regular retail value for all was $172.32 so I had a 47.16% savings rate.  And this isn't counting what I hauled home from Rite-Aid for free last week...figure in another $49.25 worth of stuff at reg. retail and my savings rate shoot up to 58.90%!  ;-)

As I reset my July Food Budget to $300, I now have $201.33 left to spend on food/toiletries this month.  16 shopping days left in July.  I think I can make it! 8-)

Going into the new week I have the following leftovers to use up......fajita fixings, 1 piece of cornbread and about half of the squash casserole.

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This week's menu.....

SUNDAY--Leftover Chinese(from our Dinner Out)
MONDAY--Marin Joe's Special

TUESDAY--Lemon Pepper Chicken w/Zucchini

WEDNESDAY--Hamburger Helper type casserole, leftover Squash casserole

THURSDAY--Kielbasa on Rolls, homemade Pickles, Green Beans

FRIDAY--homemade Quiche, Tossed Salad

SATURDAY--Leftovers

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....
I bought most everything to make these dishes when I went to the store last week.  I will need to buy a pie crust for the quiche and salad greens.  Green beans might be purchased if our bean plants don't "give up the goods" by Thursday. lol  I see some milk and fruit being purchased as well.  As for stock-up opportunities this week?....I haven't even looked at the store ads yet.   I should be able to keep the food spending under $40 this week.

A note......it's been amazing to me to see how little we need to spend on food when it's just Hubs and I eating and we aren't feeding the ravenous offspring.  Unfortunately, while the amount of food prepared and bought goes down, the amount of time I have to spend on menu planning, shopping and preparing said food hasn't decreased.  If you are cooking 2 pork chops or 8 pork chops, you still spending the same amount of time doing all that stuff.  8-(

So what's on deck for your menu this week?

Sluggy