When I say that ideas are constantly flowing through my brain I’m not exaggerating. I have A LOT of ideas. It’s probably too many but hey, I can’t do anything about it other than shut my brain off for about 7 hours every night. ???? One of my little ideas that popped into my noggin this week is this- If I spend time making a menu every week and planning out what we need to pick up at the store, why wouldn’t I just go ahead and share that on here to save some of you the extra hour+? It’s a pretty basic concept and I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner but what can ya do?! I’m going to do my best to keep up with this weekly so that you can spend your time doing what you love instead of deciding what the heck to make/shop for the week!

I spoke a little bit about my thoughts on diet here but just to put it simply – Stephen and I eat everything in moderation in our house, meat included. A lot of our meals you’ll find are meat free but that’s not because we don’t like meat (did I mention I work for one of the world’s largest meat companies? Haha!). It’s just because we just don’t think we need to be eating it every meal. We feel better when we don’t and an extra little bonus is that we save a good bit of money at the grocery store.

Our little “rule” is that we usually save the meat consumption for when (if) we go out to eat or we eat it at home 1-2 times per week. It’s not on our shopping list too often because I buy a lot of our meat in bulk from work or when it’s on sale and then I’ll freeze it until we need it. That saves us a bunch of money too!

Lastly, we’re Budget Bytes’ biggest fans! You’ll see quickly that most of the recipes we use are from that site/app. Beth is pure genius with her recipes and number crunching. Everything we’ve made has been delicious and of course, budget friendly which we love. The app isn’t free but I think it’s worth every penny. There’s even a video for every recipe that goes step by step through the recipe with timers and everything! It’s amazing.

The way we decide what to put on the menu is pretty simple…

1. We go through the fridge and pantry to see what we need to use up.
2. We answer the question, “What do you feel like having this week?”

That’s it! Here’s our dinner menu for the week:

• Monday: BBQ Beans and Coleslaw Sandwiches/Wraps
• Tuesday: Taco Tuesday
• Wednesday: Nacho Taters (use leftover meat from taco Tuesday if you want!) 
• Thursday: Spinach and Orzo Salad + Fruit Salad
• Friday: Pizza Night + Salad
• Saturday: Weekly dinner with our friends
• Sunday: Leftovers if available/TBD

Use this FREE PRINTABLE that I made to plan out the week and to write down what you need to pick up at the grocery store!

Here is the total shopping list for the week as if you had nothing in your pantry/fridge to begin with. It’s going to be different for everyone so just use this total list and make your personal shopping list based off of what you already have. For us, we only had to buy about $50 worth of groceries for the week because we already had most of the ingredients.

Vegetables:

• Green onions
• Jalapenos (if you like a little heat)
• Potatoes (russet but really any kind will do)
• Yellow onion
• Garlic
• Tomatoes for tacos
• Lettuce for tacos
• 1 bag Coleslaw mix (shredded cabbage)
• 1 bag baby spinach
• Sun dried tomatoes
• Vegetables for pizza toppings (if that’s something you want!)

Fruits:

• Whatever fruit you want/is on sale to make fruit salad with and put in lunches

Meat:

• 1-2 lb (depending on family size/how much leftovers you want) Ground beef/chicken depending on what kind of tacos you want
• Meat for pizza toppings (if you want meat)

Canned Goods:

• 2 cans Black beans
• 1 can pinto beans
• Pizza sauce (our favorite is this one simply because of the flavor!)
• Salsa for tacos

Dry Goods:

• All-purpose flour
• White sugar
• Yeast

Frozen Foods:

• Corn

Dairy:

• Shredded cheddar cheese
• Feta cheese
• Mozzarella cheese for pizza
• Sour cream/Greek yogurt for tacos

Condiments:

• Olive oil
• BBQ sauce
• Mayo
• Dijon mustard
• Red wine/apple cider vinegar
• Honey
• Balsamic vinegar

Spices:

• Chili powder
• Cumin
• Garlic powder
• Cayenne pepper
• Salt & pepper
• Taco seasoning

Grains:

• Large hamburger buns
• Orzo
• Taco shells/tortillas

A detailed post about how we budget for groceries and how we shop is coming soon!

All of the beautiful images you see above are from Budget Bytes!

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FREE SHOPPING LIST PRINTABLE

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