Day 2 - Grocery Shopping Day

Today's trip to the grocery store went really well. We did something a little different today and went really early. We were out the door by 7:45 because Eric had to be at a 9:30 appointment. Since we have started doing the monthly shopping trip, I need Eric there with me because we fill up two carts. The store was not crowded at all, which was very nice. Also, I think I learned that early morning is the best time to go to find the marked down meat. I was able to get 11 pounds of ground beef for the amount that I had budgeted to spend on 8 pounds! (It was marked down to $1.64/lb.)

Here is my master menu plan for the month. (Click images to make full size.)

As I mentioned yesterday, once I go through my menu plan and decide what we will eat for the month, making out my grocery list is pretty easy. I know everything that I need to make each of the recipes on there. Sometimes it can tricky to figure out exactly how much of something I will need so that I'll have enough for the recipes where it is used, but I've got that down pretty well. It did take quite a bit of trial and error at first though. (The first month I ended up with 10 cans of tomato sauce/paste left, but no pasta and no meat.)

Here is my grocery list (sorry about the coffee stain, I guess that's one drawback to going early). You can see where I did all of my figuring to get my estimated total. I'm pretty pleased with this month's total, although it definitely wasn't as good as last months. My estimate was $256.24, and the actual total was $245.57. I did forget one bag of carrots, but we also bought batteries that I hadn't budgeted in. All in all, I was pretty pleased.

With all of those groceries, we were able to go from this:

To this:

We are all set for the month now, with the exception of milk, yogurt, eggs, and fresh fruits and veggies. The $54 still left in our budget should be plenty to cover what we will need.

Please don't forget to check out the adventures going on in Toni and Joy's kitchens today!