Week 3 Complete and under budget again!!! Tackling Week 4

I'm breathing a sigh of relief!  I made it under budget again this week with the final total being $47.41.

I actually thought I wouldn't have to make a second run to the store for the week, but come Saturday night (when I began cooking dinner at 7:00pm), I realized I didn't have enough potatoes and had NO onion to make my last meal for the week.  Trent kindly ran to the store for me and was even more kind to handle eating dinner at 9:30 = )...guess when you're trying a new recipe, it's not a good idea to wait till dinner time to start looking at the instructions!

Here's a rundown of my total spending for the week:  Grocery List 8/22/11

Now for this week!

I'm trying to get better about shopping at multiple stores.  A good friend have me this great advice that I'm slowly trying to tackle:

"One of my tricks is to shop at different stores for different things.  It's more trouble, but I am pretty sure the savings were helpful.  I start at Sprouts because it has the best sales."

Thanks for the advice Christi!

So I checked the weekly ads and here's what's on sale at Sprouts:

• Tomatoes - $0.69 each Grape Tomatoes - 1 pint for $0.99
• Cantaloupe - 2/$1
• Celery @ Cucumbers - $0.69 each
• Dried Cranberries - $2.99/lb

I'm a bit stumped as to how to make recipes up from the sales, because I recognize that buying something only because it's on sale isn't really a savings.  But also buying something that's a great deal now and can be used down the road, will save me money in the long run.

Then I took a look at what I've got left in my cabinets and fridge...here's what I've got:

• Onion - 2/3rds of one
• Potatoes - 3 still from week 1 (how long to potatoes last anyway?!)
• Taco shells
• 1/2 tomato
• 3 apples
• Green Beans - frozen
• Rigatoni noodles - approx 1/2 lb
• Chicken breasts - 3 frozen
• Corn Tortillas - frozen
• Cheese - about 1/2 cup Mexican & 1/2 cup cheddar
• Lettuce
• 1/2 loaf bread - frozen

So here's what I think I've come up with for the week:

Breakfasts:

Cereal & Bran muffins...broken record I know, but I'm ok with boring and predictable breakfasts

Lunches:

Leftovers or PB&J

Dinners:

Monday: Leftover Tomato, Pasta, and Potato Bake

Tuesday: Mexican Pasta & Salad

Wednesday: leftovers

Thursday: Marzetti & Salad

Friday: Salmon Patties & Green Beans

Saturday: Wedding! So eating out =)

Sunday: Leftovers

Kinley meals: My cupboards are BARE for this little lady, so I'm going to have to do some serious baby food making/prep this week.  Cauliflower didn't go over well last week (you should have seen her face!).  I'm going to restock peas, applesauce, peaches/mango/pears (which ever is cheapest), Zucchini, Broccoli, and I'm going to try a couple new things: chicken & cantaloupe

I did my first round of grocery shopping today and have the breakdown of what I purchased: Grocery List 8/29/11.  I have spent $43.42 for the week so far and have just a few items left to get.

And here's my loot =) 

From Sprouts

From HEB