I’m sorry I don’t have a scan of my receipts.  We’ve moved the computer and haven’t hooked the printer/scanner up yet.

My goal: $600 a month for a family 10, plus WIC.  I’ve been trying to think of how to parse everything out with the WIC, but frankly, it’s just too complicated.  WIC gives us milk, eggs, and some cheese, but also gives us juice, cereal, and baby food.  It’s too hard to say what we’d spend not counting WIC – I probably wouldn’t get Cheerios, which would lower our bill, but I would buy oatmeal, which would add to it.  Anyway, I’m not going to mess with it so I’ll report our Out of Pocket (OOP) expenses.  And I’ll separate our WIC purchases in the tally.

Also, I have a stock of food in the freezer and pantry, so what I bought may not be eaten this week.  We do eventually eat everything, and I’ll have to replenish the stock, so over the course of a couple of months it will be an accurate reflection of our weekly spending.  This week just happened to be a light spending week.

Spent on food this week:

HEB: $136.10, out of pocket after coupons and WIC: $78.68

Kroger: $22.47

Total spent OOP: $101.15

We got:

MEAT/DELI
5.25# natural hormone free London Broil, 1# Boar’s Head chicken deli meat, 3/4# BH liverwurst, 1/2# muenster, 1/2# gouda (husband is still on Atkins and he takes meat roll ups for lunch.)  Also, 1 box of corndogs and 1 box of all-natural hormone free frozen hamburgers, because I am a poor planner who didn’t put anything in the crockpot for dinner and our oven is broken.

DAIRY
1# sliced cheddar, 1# colby jack, 1# sharp cheddar, 1# mozzarella, 1# shredded sharp cheddar, 3 gallons 2% milk (hormone free, but not organic), 4 dozen eggs (vegetarian fed, hormone and antibiotic free – and WIC approved!), 1 quart Promised Land half-and-half

DRY GOODS
36 oz. Cheerios, 36 oz. Kix, 18 oz. Grape Nut Flakes, 1 pkg. whole grain saltines,  2 jars salsa, 2 quarts pickle spears, 1 bottle Kikkoman soy sauce (it’s the brand that’s all natural, MSG free), 16 oz. whole wheat tortillas, 1 pkg. of bagel thin sandwich rounds (Thomas brand), and a Sobe green tea (for me.)  Also a 24 pk of bottled water for when we participate in park days and so on.

PRODUCE
6 BIG organic Braeburn apples, 20 navel oranges, 4 lemons, 1.5# Napa cabbage, 6# organic red delicious apples, .8# zucchini, 3 1/4# bananas, 16 oz. organic spring mix (salad), 1# strawberries

WIC paid for the produce except for the strawberries, all of the milk, eggs, 4# of cheese, and the cereal.

Now, because of our oven situation, I have some leftover veg from last week that we must eat.  We didn’t follow the meal plan because three days in a row things just “came up”.  So, I have artichokes, kale, and red cabbage that needs to be used up.  And I forgot that I bought rice noodles and just made rice.

Sunday: Corn dogs, corn, strawberries

Monday: Crockpot gingered beef, artichokes, salad greens w/ buttermilk dressing

Tuesday: crock pot pork chops, sweet and sour red cabbage, fried potatoes

Wednesday: Peanut coconut chicken stir fry w/ Napa cabbage, shredded carrots, and zucchini over rice noodles.

Thursday: Pork tenderloin, braised kale, brown and red rice pilaf, frozen green beans

Friday: Black bean chalupas, spanish rice, hominy, guacamole maybe if I go back to the store.

So, I’ve also tentatively worked out a lunch plan, of sorts.  I’ll have a general ingredient in mind, but can tailor specifics to keep things from getting too dull.

Pasta (pasta marinara, pasta salad, mac n cheese)

Leftovers

Egg (egg salad, omelettes, Peasant’s Purse which is my romantic name for hard boiled eggs, cheese, and bread, just like fiction novels, puffed pancake w/leftovers, egg sandwich, etc.)

Meat (tuna salad, chicken salad,salmon croquettes, lunch meat if we happen to have some, liverwurst which the kids love, and so on, either on bread or with crackers, probably.)

Meatless (bean burritos, tostadas, chickpeas/hummus, etc.)

and Sandwiches (pb&j or grilled cheese.)

We don’t really have lunch per se on Sundays, because Mass is at 12:15.  Husband usually doesn’t have to work, so we’re pretty laid back without a schedule afterwards adn everyone just gets something to eat when they feel like it  throughout the afternoon and then we have dinner.