Ah, menu planning, how I love thee.
But seriously. I find great joy in taking my weekly grocery budget allotment, figuring out what the Firefighter and I feel like eating for the next week, surfing the grocery store sales flyers, and meshing it all together to get a menu plan that fits in that week's budget. I'm still trying to get the hang of remembering to read the sales flyers and then planning my meals around them BEFORE I go grocery shopping. Most of the time I just figure out what would be good to eat and make it fit the budget.
Someone asked recently which grocery store I went to for my regular shopping. I must say I have no grocery store loyalty. I will hit up which ever store has the best sales that week. Most of the time I stick with trusty Hannaford; their prices really are lower than the more elite Shaws. BUT Shaws has some super sales! Why, just 2 weeks ago, they had Breyers ice cream BOGO! (In case you don't know, BOGO stands for Buy One Get One free. You should hear the Firefighter yell BOGO- it's a hoot.) So we stocked up on the ole ice cream- a staple in the Nichols' household. Their 10 for $10 sales are pretty good too, but you have to know your grocery prices in order to really make sure you're getting the best price. And as Mom says- ALWAYS check the store brand price against a name brand price- just because it's store brand does NOT mean it's cheaper!
Right now I'm trying to figure out what our menu will be for this next week. I'm having a bit of trouble, because I don't know when we'll be home to eat, with everything going on with the family right now. A request has been put in for BCC (yes I know, more lingo- Broccoli Cheddar Chowder), and that sounds pretty good and simple, so that'll show up at some point I'm sure. I'm also thinking it's time for skillet lasagna- can't link to the recipe because I don't remember where it came from.
The nice thing about menu planning is that after grocery shopping with a list based on the meals I'm planning to fix that week, I know that I have every ingredient I need in the house for any meal on my list (which is posted on the side of the fridge, right beside the weekly budget list). Then, if on, say, Tuesday night, we don't feel like eating what I scheduled for Tuesday- no big deal! I know I have the stuff for, say, what's on Thursday's agenda and we feel like eating on Tuesday. It's kind of like eating at a restaurant every night- we get to pick what we want to eat!
