Holy Moses it's Groceries!! 8/15

I thought it would be a good idea for me to post my grocery list, what I bought, how much I spent, and the meals I plan to make since I'm trying to be very good about saving money.

My husband and I have given ourselves no eating out money this month and if I can save enough money in groceries then we can use that. I mentioned this to some of my friends and they seemed surprised that I could make meals for an entire week in under $60 so I thought.. to keep myself accountable and to give ideas about how to save money and make things stretch... I'll put it up here, for everyone to see :) Thanks to all my Calorie Count girls, you've inspired me.

We shopped at the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. (yes I used the self checkout)

What we bought:
1 Dozen Eggs
1 Gallon of Orange Juice
1 lb Lean Ground Beef
2 Cube Steak patties
8oz Cream Cheese
1 Box generic Ritz Crackers
1 Loaf French Bread
1 Quaker Rice Cakes (caramel)
1 Two Liter of diet Ginger Ale
1.5 Quart Vegetable Oil
16 oz Mozzarella Cheese
1 Light Sausage Vienna Sausages... Jaime...
3 packets of Active Yeast
2 packets of Sugar Free Low Calorie Chocolate Pudding
2 Totino 3 Cheese Pizzas
1 Jar of Strawberry Jam
3 lbs Green Grapes
1.5 lbs Red Potatoes
1/5 lbs Green Beans
1 Bag of White Onions
2 Green Bell Pepers
Ol' Roy Dog Food

All of this goodness for just $56.53

Now for the amazing week's worth of meals... are you ready?

Ok so we should start with the Cinnamon Rolls... that is my treat for the weekend (and if I'm careful the rest of the week). That's what I needed the yeast and cream cheese for. The rest of the stuff I have already, I mean.. how hard is it to come by flour, sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon? Not very.
Jaime's treats are the Vienna Sausages and the Ginger Ale

Sunday: Meatloaf and some French Bread toasted or not with some EVOO or something fun

Monday: Ziti Pasta and Pasta Sauce with Stuffed Bell Peppers

My plan with this is to use some left over Meatloaf to stuff the peppers and to only use one Bell Pepper, I got two big ones, cut it in half and stuff the halves that way I have one left over.

Tuesday: Pizza! We love pizza night and since we both work late this is the ideal night for no fuss cooking. This one is self explanatory.

Wednesday: Cubed Steak on French Bread with Potatoes on the side.

I will cook the cubed steak with onions and green bell peppers, butter up the French Bread and lay it on the pan for a little while for some 'rustic' feel. I'd like to do The Pioneer Woman's basic breakfast potatoes with this one but might just throw it all together. I won't lie, this one is all the Pioneer Woman's meal 100%. Here's the link to the sandwich... yum!

Thursday: Frittata. This one I'm just making with left overs. Any Bell Pepper or onion, any cheese, tons of egg and milk, potatoes, whatever we have lying around here.

Friday: This one is still a bit up in the air but I'm sure we'll think of something. Left overs if there are any.

Lunches we always do our own thing but usually consists of a sandwich and some fruit or something, or any left overs we have lying around. This past week it was gumbo and for those of you who don't know me, I get hung up on gumbo like a fool, a complete train wreck. When I eat gumbo it's like I can't imagine eating anything else.

Snacks! Everyone needs snacks. These are for when we are just hungry for a bite or something to perk up our lunches.
Grapes
Chocolate Pudding
Ritz Crackers
Ritz Crackers with this kickin natural peanut butter flavored *naturally.. but I don't know how* to taste like chocolate chip cookie dough. Need I say more?
Plus I'm making Cinnamon Rolls... that's right, as we speak.

I also have lots of these in the cabinet just in case:
Rice
Noodles, Ziti, Spaghetti, Lasagna (you just never know)
Prego
Beans :) beans..
Oatmeal

All of that is pretty cheap to buy in bulk so when my grocery bill is not approaching $60 I'll stock up on it.

My one buy that I'm super excited about this week is the dog food. Huxley has been finishing off Churchill's food for quite some time now and since he's approaching the 4 month mark we figured we could feed him regular dog food as long as it was small enough. The Ol' Roy brand saved us as much as it cost us. $8.50. We were buying Purina and that stuff gets really expensive. Plus I think it's a scam that the animal food companies tell you that you need to feed them certain things at certain 'developemental' points in their puppy lives. If my 3 1/2 month old puppy is scarfing down the other dog's food and hasn't died yet or had a bad vet report then I think we're quite ready for grown up stuff. Besides, he has already started losing baby teeth. What a little man :)

I'll leave you with some visual cheese!