I bulk bought 3 weeks of groceries for the first time. After researching and also seeing the various menus people plan, I thought I would attempt it...or at least see how many weeks I can go with decent meals. I spent $275.99. It's over my goal of $75 per week. However, I am proud that I passed up buying a box of cereal for a huge bag of grits. The kids loved it for breakfast with milk and honey! Anyway, I'm hoping that making bread, waffles, muffins, loaf cake, and other items will save a huge amount. I also had to spend $49.73 at Rite Aid for one kid with the flu. I ended up spending $100 at the thrift shop. It included much needed larger clothes due to pregnancy weight gain and a bread maker. Thanks to Snafu's suggestion, the break maker is awesome and is now on the 4th loaf after experimenting! My family is stunned at how yummy the warm bread is. It's a huge change from what I remember (my parents had one for a month. No one ate the rock hard bread when I was younger, but a couple of decades later and the bread machine is half the size with double the fluffiness on the bread!). Also, I have made it a week making all homemade meals! Last night we had snow peas made with sesame oil, garlic, a little soy sauce, and fresh lemon juice with some salt along with rice and fruit salad. All around $1-1.50 per person Today, I made chicken noodle soup for lunch. It was a huge hit. Right now the smell of fresh baking bread from the bread maker is filling the home, yummy! I am seriously blown away at how much a week can change a few things like the budget, outlook, and meals. My husband is even asking what I'm making for the next meal, which is a first! lol. Anyway, the pantry is filled with pasta, rice, flour, grits, 2 cups of left over quinoa that only I seem to eat, and left over black beans. I'm hoping that these will pair nicely with my produce and frozen items for the later weeks.
Bulk bought groceries and made fresh bread
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Only include ideas your family will eat. If food looks attractive in the plate, set in a lettuce leaf or inside a rice, potato or pasta ring everyone believes it's special. Seems we do eat with our eyes. My guys refuse to eat anything with curry the spice or any entree with curry in the name ... I just name it something else - lol.
For future thought... the huge variety of dried beans and lentils are very inexpensive high nutrition items used in lots of ethnic dishes. The extra step is to cook overnight in a crockpot/slo cooker. From that point I rinse carefully and fill sandwich baggies flat & freeze. From that point a packet combines to s-t-r-e-t-c-h or make TexMex, any Chili, Vegetarian, Ethnic, soup, stew combination you like.
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