The biggest influence in the changes I'm making in my life right now is Stacey Flowers. If you've never heard of her or watched her videos, (or even if you have), I highly recommend you go visit her YouTube channel. She's so open and honest and shares her pain and struggles, but also victories and how she's making her life the way she wants it. She lives on a grocery budget of $50 a month, even when she makes enough that she doesn't *have* to. That blew my mind, and made me totally rethink everything. She also has a website, http://staceyflowers.com/ She also does a podcast which I haven't listened to yet, but I will start today.
The meal plan I have chosen has a lot of the recipes she's shared, as well as a few other things I wanted to do this time around. I will go grocery shopping on November 29th when my husband gets paid, with a budget of $138 to feed myself, my husband and our 16 yr old kid who is home-schooled online (so doesn't have breakfast or lunch at school), from 11/29 - 12/12.
For my own sake and simplicity, I am also adding in the meal plan for the last few days of the previous pay period we're still in. So the first few meals on here have some meat in them, because I got it on my last shopping trip when I found a few packs of ground beef marked way down on clearance.
This is just dinners:
Today 11/26: Mom's homemade veggie soup with ground beef and corn bread on the side
Tues 11/27: Mom's soup beans, mustard greens and corn bread
Wed 11/28: Sloppy Joes (with ground beef), hamburger buns, and potato wedges
Thurs 11/29: Sweet Potato Hash (from Stacey Flowers YT channel) and salad
Fri 11/30: Broccoli Alfredo and any leftover salad
Sat 12/01: Spinach and Beet Buddha Bowl (From Stacey Flowers)
Sun 12/02: 7 Ingredient black bean tacos
Mon 12/03: Mom's Veggie Soup with ground turkey (still have in freezer) and corn bread
Tue 12/04: Black Bean Burgers (Stacey Flowers)
Wed 12/05: Rice Buddha Bowl (Again from Stacey Flowers, seriously check out her channel)
Thurs 12/06: Omelettes with cheese, spinach, onions and green and red bell peppers
Fri 12/07: Red pasta with cream cheese (totally not healthy, but I wanted to change things up)
Sat 12/08: Soup beans, mustard greens, cornbread
Sun 12/09: Quinoa Buddha Bowl (from you guessed it, Stacey Flowers <3 nbsp="" p="">Mon 12/10: Crockpot Red Beans and rice - using this recipe base from Stacey Flowers :)
Tues 12/11: Thai peanut sauce over sweet potatoes and rice with salad
Wed 12/12: Omelettes with cheese, spinach, green peppers and onions
There's a lot of meal prep involved with these meals. The beans need to be picked and rinsed and soaked, then slow cooked for several hours. Of course I already do that with my pinto beans for soup beans about once a week, so not much different. There's some ingredients that will become staples, but I don't have them yet, so this initial shopping trip will cost a lot more than future trips when I already have a lot of the seasonings and such in my spice drawer.
I definitely think it will take some time before we're used to not having meat and occasional big comfort food meals, but I think I did okay with spacing some things out. I'm sure I'll get plenty of feedback from the hubby and kiddo.
I have a big canister of quick oats for oatmeal for breakfasts, and I'll probably still get the kiddo raisin bran since they love it, and we have milk left over in the fridge my my older daughter making Thanksgiving dinner here. That was pretty awesome.
As for lunches, that's tougher. We're on opposite schedules. My husband leaves for work right as I get off work. I work from home, so we do see each other long enough for a kiss goodbye and I can give him any reminders necessary. He packs his lunch and eats it at work around 10am, and he gets off work at 1pm. He also prefers a breakfast that's quick and he can eat on the go or really quickly. He also hates oatmeal. I'm hoping there will be leftovers for his lunches. I can certainly pack up the soup and corn bread, as well as several other meals. Things like Buddha bowls probably won't have leftovers. We'll see. I'm hoping I have money leftover in the budget to be able to tweak things and get stuff for his lunches and breakfasts as the weeks go on and we see what works and what doesn't.
The kiddo eats lunch around 1 or 2 when they remember. It's tough to keep any kind of schedule structure for them in this house. My husband is supposed to make sure they eat and do their school work. Their best friend is also homeschooled and they basically facetime each other 24/7, and keep each other accountable for stuff like hygeine, eating habits, sleep, taking their meds, doing their school work, etc.
I sleep from around 7-8am til 3-4pm, and start work at 5:15pm. My breakfast is usually their dinner. Then I have my actual lunch break at 10:30pm and "dinner" at 1:30-2am, or I'll wait til I get off work and eat at 4am. I only work Sun, Mon, Tues, and Fri. So the other 3 nights I have more leeway, but usually stick to the same schedule.
I'll try to do another post on what we figure out for lunches and breakfasts, if we get any sort of routine set anyway. I figure I'll mostly just eat baked sweet potatoes with leftover beans of some sort. Might keep lunch meat and ice berg lettuce and a loaf of bread for quick sandwiches. We'll see.
I think my biggest hurdle is going to be the meal prep. If I can do a bunch of the first couple of days while I'm off work, and can get it all pre-packaged and in jars and bags and labeled well, it should be okay. But with my sleep/work schedule, I can't always get up and make dinner in time before I go to work. (I've tried going to bed earlier, insomnia sucks.) So, a lot of the time, my husband or the kiddo will be making dinner, so it needs to be easy to make and everything easily found.
In the end, I am hoping to get this down to where I can really cut back on how much we spend on groceries, and also help my husband and I both to lose weight and get healthier. My doctor told me I didn't really have to lose weight, but I want to, for me. The doctor did tell Christopher he HAS to lose weight. It's pretty critical at this point.
I hope y'all have an excellent week. Find some great deals on Cyber Monday today! And go check out Stacey on You Tube!
Love you all!
Patty
The meal plan I have chosen has a lot of the recipes she's shared, as well as a few other things I wanted to do this time around. I will go grocery shopping on November 29th when my husband gets paid, with a budget of $138 to feed myself, my husband and our 16 yr old kid who is home-schooled online (so doesn't have breakfast or lunch at school), from 11/29 - 12/12.
For my own sake and simplicity, I am also adding in the meal plan for the last few days of the previous pay period we're still in. So the first few meals on here have some meat in them, because I got it on my last shopping trip when I found a few packs of ground beef marked way down on clearance.
This is just dinners:
Today 11/26: Mom's homemade veggie soup with ground beef and corn bread on the side
Tues 11/27: Mom's soup beans, mustard greens and corn bread
Wed 11/28: Sloppy Joes (with ground beef), hamburger buns, and potato wedges
Thurs 11/29: Sweet Potato Hash (from Stacey Flowers YT channel) and salad
Fri 11/30: Broccoli Alfredo and any leftover salad
Sat 12/01: Spinach and Beet Buddha Bowl (From Stacey Flowers)
Sun 12/02: 7 Ingredient black bean tacos
Mon 12/03: Mom's Veggie Soup with ground turkey (still have in freezer) and corn bread
Tue 12/04: Black Bean Burgers (Stacey Flowers)
Wed 12/05: Rice Buddha Bowl (Again from Stacey Flowers, seriously check out her channel)
Thurs 12/06: Omelettes with cheese, spinach, onions and green and red bell peppers
Fri 12/07: Red pasta with cream cheese (totally not healthy, but I wanted to change things up)
Sat 12/08: Soup beans, mustard greens, cornbread
Sun 12/09: Quinoa Buddha Bowl (from you guessed it, Stacey Flowers <3 nbsp="" p="">Mon 12/10: Crockpot Red Beans and rice - using this recipe base from Stacey Flowers :)
Tues 12/11: Thai peanut sauce over sweet potatoes and rice with salad
Wed 12/12: Omelettes with cheese, spinach, green peppers and onions
There's a lot of meal prep involved with these meals. The beans need to be picked and rinsed and soaked, then slow cooked for several hours. Of course I already do that with my pinto beans for soup beans about once a week, so not much different. There's some ingredients that will become staples, but I don't have them yet, so this initial shopping trip will cost a lot more than future trips when I already have a lot of the seasonings and such in my spice drawer.
I definitely think it will take some time before we're used to not having meat and occasional big comfort food meals, but I think I did okay with spacing some things out. I'm sure I'll get plenty of feedback from the hubby and kiddo.
I have a big canister of quick oats for oatmeal for breakfasts, and I'll probably still get the kiddo raisin bran since they love it, and we have milk left over in the fridge my my older daughter making Thanksgiving dinner here. That was pretty awesome.
As for lunches, that's tougher. We're on opposite schedules. My husband leaves for work right as I get off work. I work from home, so we do see each other long enough for a kiss goodbye and I can give him any reminders necessary. He packs his lunch and eats it at work around 10am, and he gets off work at 1pm. He also prefers a breakfast that's quick and he can eat on the go or really quickly. He also hates oatmeal. I'm hoping there will be leftovers for his lunches. I can certainly pack up the soup and corn bread, as well as several other meals. Things like Buddha bowls probably won't have leftovers. We'll see. I'm hoping I have money leftover in the budget to be able to tweak things and get stuff for his lunches and breakfasts as the weeks go on and we see what works and what doesn't.
The kiddo eats lunch around 1 or 2 when they remember. It's tough to keep any kind of schedule structure for them in this house. My husband is supposed to make sure they eat and do their school work. Their best friend is also homeschooled and they basically facetime each other 24/7, and keep each other accountable for stuff like hygeine, eating habits, sleep, taking their meds, doing their school work, etc.
I sleep from around 7-8am til 3-4pm, and start work at 5:15pm. My breakfast is usually their dinner. Then I have my actual lunch break at 10:30pm and "dinner" at 1:30-2am, or I'll wait til I get off work and eat at 4am. I only work Sun, Mon, Tues, and Fri. So the other 3 nights I have more leeway, but usually stick to the same schedule.
I'll try to do another post on what we figure out for lunches and breakfasts, if we get any sort of routine set anyway. I figure I'll mostly just eat baked sweet potatoes with leftover beans of some sort. Might keep lunch meat and ice berg lettuce and a loaf of bread for quick sandwiches. We'll see.
I think my biggest hurdle is going to be the meal prep. If I can do a bunch of the first couple of days while I'm off work, and can get it all pre-packaged and in jars and bags and labeled well, it should be okay. But with my sleep/work schedule, I can't always get up and make dinner in time before I go to work. (I've tried going to bed earlier, insomnia sucks.) So, a lot of the time, my husband or the kiddo will be making dinner, so it needs to be easy to make and everything easily found.
In the end, I am hoping to get this down to where I can really cut back on how much we spend on groceries, and also help my husband and I both to lose weight and get healthier. My doctor told me I didn't really have to lose weight, but I want to, for me. The doctor did tell Christopher he HAS to lose weight. It's pretty critical at this point.
I hope y'all have an excellent week. Find some great deals on Cyber Monday today! And go check out Stacey on You Tube!
Love you all!
Patty
Comments
Post a Comment
I love getting comments, and I read every one. Thanks for coming by my site and reading my ramblings. I hope you have a wonderful day! -Patty