Hello, and happy Monday! We have had a soaker of a day so far. It poured and thundered all night and morning. If you like light shows, the lightning would have impressed you.
This is week 3 of my meal prep/plan series. This week I remembered to keep my receipt, plus have my Walmart app handy so I can give prices for each meal. We are also on a mission to spend only 100 dollars per week for food, for 3 adults, and company when we have it. The only things not included in that 100 dollars are dog food, non-food items, and coffee. Yes, coffee. It is a necessity and I buy it in bulk on Amazon.
Last week, I went over my budget by 20 dollars. This week I spent 104 dollars and that is close enough for me. Even making a meal plan, it is very easy to go over budget when you are in the store. If I was always happy with the fruit and veggies that were picked by store employees, I would just always do a pickup order. But, sadly, I am not. So, I have been using the app to add the items from my grocery list into the app, so I know how much I can anticipate spending. Then, I have to stick to it, lol.
I buy larger packs of meat and split them into different meals. So, you will note on the meal plan, hamburgers, but won’t see any in the weekly shop. That is because I bought it in bulk the previous week, so I got three meals out of it.
I only share dinner plans, and when I work they eat pizza or some other quick meal. Breakfast is not common in my house, and lunches are always leftovers, sandwiches, soup, salad, etc. I always have some kind of fresh fruit on hand and veggies for snacking. I try to buy some crackers, or pretzels as well.
My meal prep is basically just cleaning, chopping, and storing fresh veggies and fruit for easy, fast snacks, and work lunches. This week I even prepped the onions from last week. I also chopped up all the lettuce into bite-size pieces. It makes it much easier, and faster to throw together a salad when everything is prepped and ready. But, buying these items already chopped is expensive and a waste of money.
This current meal plan started on Friday the 10th and will end Friday the 17th. Any of these meals can have fresh fruit added, or other veggies. The prices may not be exact, just a reference to how much the meal could cost if you made the amounts stated. There are items that are on the menu that are not shown in the image. That is because I have items from other grocery hauls and stuff already on hand.
Saturday: They had pizza Dinner cost $4.98
Sunday: They had chicken alfredo leftovers. I don’t have the cost for this one because I didn’t save my receipt from the previous week’s shop. But, the chicken was about 3 dollars, and I made homemade alfredo sauce. I will be doing a Taste Test Tuesday post about this recipe and I will try to figure out the cost then.
Monday: Chicken and rice with either Teriyaki or Sweet Chile sauce, and broccoli. I can’t decide. I buy the bulk chicken and split it into 5 meals. Even at the higher end of 15 dollars that is 3 dollars per meal of chicken. The sauce comes out to about 26 cents a serving, and there are three of us. Brown rice is about 44 cents per serving. Broccoli is 98 cents a bag. So, this meal is only $6.08 for three adults and I am sure there will be leftovers.
Tuesday: Hamburgers on a bun with onion rings. I bought the burger meat in the grass-fed, organic, 3-pack for $19.32. So the burger meat is $5.83. The onion rings were $5.26 This meal costs $11.09 and is the least healthy, go figure. We will probably have a side salad or fruit.
Wednesday: Kielbasa, peppers, onions, and rice. I bought frozen peppers and onion this time, so the fresh peppers can be for snacking. The Kielbasa is $3.98, the rice 44 cents per person, the peppers and onions were $4.28 and I will use half the bag, so 2.14. But, I had my daughter pick these and they were not the most affordable. I will not make that mistake again. This meal comes out to $7.44 to feed three adults and there will probably be leftovers. We may add some of the sweet chili sauce as well.
Thursday: Pork chops with stuffing, and either broccoli or green beans. I bought the family-size of boneless pork chops for 9.51 and split it into 3 meals for $3.17 per meal. Everyone gets 1 pork chop. The stuffing was 88 cents, and a big can of green beans was $1.08. So, the cost of this meal as is, and will have leftovers, is $5.13.
Friday: Chicken Cesar salad. We buy the family size and it costs $4.98 and is a kit that comes with everything you need to make it.
So, for the week of meals, I added 10 dollars for the chicken alfredo as I didn’t do a cost breakdown, 50 dollars for a week of dinners is pretty good. That means we are spending 50 dollars, on lunches, and snack items.
There are other things that may mess up my budget for the next few months, namely hurricane season.
I hope you enjoy these posts and they give you some ideas. You can make them even more affordable by replacing meat with beans. But, at this point that will not work for my family. It doesn’t make sense to buy stuff no one will eat. I bought fresh strawberries this week and was very disappointed with them. So, I have to find a use for them, and I think I might try dehydrating them. They will last up to a year that way and they are sweet and delicious.
My disclaimer is short and sweet. None of the information on this blog is intended to be medical or nutritional advice. It is for informational purposes only and to spark a conversation.
Living Life With CKD 