It's menu planning/budgeting time!

I know I still have to get weekly ad reviews for Safeway and King Soopers up, but I wanted to start our weekly menu planning and budgeting post (which I skipped last week because of the holiday). I haven’t even planned my menus yet, but I know it’s going to include lots of potatoes from Rancho Liborio!

I was really excited last week because I only spent $80 on groceries, which brought my average down to $96 for August 5th through September 1st.   I run my grocery budget Wednesday through Tuesday because that’s how the sales cycles run!

Of course, as you see in the pic of my frig to the left, it was packed with food from the week before so I didn’t have to spend much.   (Actually, I take that back, I think that pic was after a trip to King Soopers.)

If you’ve been to a workshop you know that I know that numbers are just that – numbers. They can be interpreted to mean whatever you want depending on what statistics you want to use!   So, I currently try to keep my budget to $100 per week for everything I buy at the grocery store.   Some of you can do it on way, way less.   Some of you need to spend more.

I don’t really care how much you spend – I just want to help you get the most for your money!   Just quoting a random number about how much you spend at the grocery store doesn’t tell me how much you eat out, how much you don’t eat out, if you eat all organic, if you have a special diet, if you have a high-school football player in your family, etc.

So, just an encouragement to those of you who feel like you just can’t get your grocery budget down to the ideal no matter how hard you try!

Let’s move on to menu planning and recipe sharing in the comments!   There were a lot of requests on Facebook for recipes for potatoes, so if you’ve got some good ones, please share!