to be a better steward of the blessings that God has given me. I have (with the wonderful help of Big Daddy) taken careful inventory of our food from our deep freeze, fridge/freezer and pantries. I want to be able to use what I have, which saves me money because I don’t buy “extras” and I don’t buy things that I already have. I have been known to do that because things get shoved….in looking through everything, we have about 15 packages of hotdogs….who really needs all those hotdogs LOL.
I have also been using an app that my friend suggested called Out Of Milk. It allows me to separate my stores, it keeps up with my pantry list and it allows me to have a detailed grocery list that I can message Big Daddy since he likes pictures and aisle numbers instead of my chicken scratch list. You can scan (like they do at the stores), the items in your pantry and mark how many you have. Once you get to the store, you can input the prices to see when you are getting the best deal. The beginning is a pain in the butt, but the everyday help it will be (ie keeping my sanity) helpful in the end. Plus, I got to clean out my kitchen, really well.
Also, to help curb the grocery spending, I have seasons. Sometimes, I cook for a month; sometimes, every night; sometimes, once a week…..I am now trying the menu planning for 2 weeks, with no shopping in between (buy and freeze milk and bread….I do, however, buy fruit/fresh veggies when I run out)
Here is my menu….if you would like any of the recipes, please leave a comment and I will be happy to pass them on. I have a large (8), so I make about 10 servings and we rarely have leftovers.
Aug. 6: Stir fry/rice
Aug. 7: Ham pockets/corn/green beans/rolls
Aug. 8: eat at church
Aug. 9: pizza night
Aug. 10: Penne and Bread for the kids/Steak and potatoes for us
Aug. 11: Alice’s Chicken/Mashed potatoes/ corn/rolls
Aug. 12: Don’t cook
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Aug. 13: Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo/Bread
Aug. 14: Breakfast
Aug. 15: Eat at church
Aug. 16: pizza night
Aug. 17: Roast/potatoes/peas/mac and cheese/rolls
Aug. 18: Ham and Hashbrown casserole/peas/cream corn/rolls
Aug. 19: don’t cook