My Adventures In Couponing

One thing you can do to help save money is to write out a menu according to the food you already have in your house. This will help you only eat what is in your house and it will be less temping to go out. Also you will already have the ingredients or can at least substitute, saving you even more since you won’t be running to the store to buy last minute items. (Believe it or not these small trips add up.) People rarely go into a store and only purchase the 1 or 2 ingredients they need for that night. Plus you are probably going to pay full price if the items aren’t on sale. Not to mention the gas you’ll use.

Your menu can be weekly, bi-weekly or monthly depending on your shopping habits. I like to do mine bi-weekly. I have enough stockpiled to stretch this far and a little further if I need to. Plus I have 2 weeks to pick up great sales for the following 2 weeks.

We had also  changed our eating habits. We now rarely eat beef. I’ve replaced it with ground turkey. It’s cheaper and healthier.  Surprisingly there’s not much of a difference in taste, just a lot less grease! However we usually take one night a week off and indulge ourselves either in dining out mexican or having pizza. Even though they aren’t the best option we still go for the healthier end of the choices. (IE - Cheese vs All Meat pizza…go for just cheese.)

Here’s our menu for the next 2 weeks:

Week 1 -
Monday: Rigatoni (made with ground turkey), Garlic Bread
Tuesday: Spinach Stuffed Chicken Parmesan, Broccoli & Salad (This is a new recipe I
came across…I’ll let you know how it turns out!)
Wednesday: Grilled Turkey Burgers, Baked Fries (A day off from the kitchen for me!)
Thursday: Crockpot Chicken, Cornbread, Corn
Friday: Homemade or Frozen Pizza (I will have to see how much time I have and if I will
be able to make dough in my new bread machine!)
Saturday: Homemade Chicken Nuggets, Macaroni & Cheese w/Tuna (I will post this
recipe soon…it’s yummy!)
Sunday: Grilled Pork Chops, Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans and/or Corn

Week 2 -
Monday: Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad, Baked Potatoes
Tuesday: Date Night (Probably go to Ruby Tuesday’s and take
over the salad bar!)
Wednesday: Leftovers from the restaurant. (We have another B1G1 Free entree so I
know we’ll have plenty of leftovers!)
Thursday: Baked Chicken, Carrots, Red Potatoes
Friday: Stuffed Shells, Garlic Bread (These aren’t with ground
turkey…it’s ones I already made and froze.)
Saturday: Tacos (made with ground turkey)
Sunday: Breakfast for dinner - Pancakes and Bacon

Hopefully this will help you start to plan your meals better according to what you already have. Take a few minutes to evaluate your freezer and cabinets. Try starting out with only 1 week to see how it goes. Then plan to what suits your lifestyle.