Menu & Shopping List for the week of June 15

This is the first week of summer vacation!  No packing lunches!  I didn't have to put special lunch food on the shopping list!  Juice boxes make me mad...I don't know why really, but they do.  I am looking forward to not buying them for the next few months!

I am hitting the farmers market today and will probably buy more produce than is on my list but I fully intend on canning some stuff this week.  Strawberry stuff if I can and maybe some pickles and dilly beans.  I'll see what the tomato prices are and see if I can start doing small batch canning on them, but I think it might be too early in the year still.

We are leaving Father's Day open because I know the Daddy in this house will probably like to go out for pizza on his special day!  Yay Daddies!  You guys rock!

You can print your own blank Weekly Menu Planner by clicking here

Shopping Trip for the week of June 9

Ugh, welcome to my organized chaos!  After a peek into my fridge and cabinets and a little help from the girls we planned our menu for the week.  I don't always stick to the order these dinners are in, but at least I know what we will have for dinner this week and what we will need to pick up at the store.

Here is my receipt from WinCo this week.  I forgot a few things...but they really weren't necessary for any of my main dinners so we will just do without for another week.  My grand total was $69.37.  This leaves me a little wiggle room this week just incase I need to pick something up mid week.  

This was also the last week of buying "treat snacky things" for Ellie's lunch box!  I won't have to buy juice boxes or individual serving goodies for a few months!  On a side note about lunches, our local library is doing free lunch for kids under 18 this summer!  I plan on taking the kids down there a few times this summer.  Want to find a free lunch program in Oregon click here.  Do you live outside of Oregon?  Click here.

My Kitchen Cabinets

A few folks asked me how I know what I need for the week and how on earth I stay on budget.  So I thought a peek into my kitchen cabinets would help! (Don't you judge me!  My kitchen was built in 1946 and is a little wonky!)

If we really needed to we could probably survive a week or two just with the stuff in our kitchen already.  My trip to the store on a weekly basis is to fill my fridge with fresh foods and to pick up a can or two of whatever we may need or are running low on.

Our home canned goodness is almost gone and will soon be replenished when we start canning this summer!  Right now we only have a couple jars of dilly beans and some salsa left.

I know by looking at this photo I will need to buy flour, sugar and olives this week.  I can also look at what we have and base my meal plan on what we have a lot of in the cabinets.

It may not be the fanciest kitchen you have ever seen but this system works pretty well for us.  I do wish we had more room but having a small space forces us to stay organized and to only buy what we need and will eat.  On a side note, I didn't include photos of my spice or my coffee and tea cabinets.  They look just about the same but smaller.

Weekly Meal Planner

I try to stay as close to $80 per week as I can to feed our family of 4.  The most important part of staying on budget is to go to the store with a plan.  Now, I may not be super organized every week but I at least have an idea of what I want to make for dinner every night of the week.  I normally plan out 6 dinners and have a whatever night.  The whatever night may be leftovers, a night out or just something easy out of the fridge.

I sit down at the computer with a piece of paper (Do you want to print that handy dandy Weekly Meal Planner?  You can click here to download and print any of the printable sheets on this blog for free.) and open Pinterest or a cook book (My go to cook books are The Joy of Cooking and The New Better Homes & Garden Cook Book), I also ask Brad what sounds good to him for the upcoming week.  He is a pretty easy to please dude so he normally doesn't have too many requests.

I write down what we will have for dinner each night based on a few things; What sounds good, what we have left in the fridge and cabinets and what is in season.

I make a shopping list grab my 5 reusable shopping bags and hit the store.  I shop at Winco.  The prices there are unbeatable for most things and the produce is fairly good, they also have bulk bins which are a huge money saver when buying things like nuts and grains.  I know I could save more if I used coupons, but I have never found coupons for the things that I would buy anyway, I am not going to waste my money on things that may or may not get eaten, no matter how great of a deal I am getting.  We also don't eat that much junk food and I have never seen a coupon for fresh fruit and veggies.