It’s been 4 weeks since my attempt at monthly BJs shopping and I didn’t quite make it.  I went last week.  It turns out that I desperately underestimated the amount of baby cheeses and shrimp my guys will eat.  And, I have to go again in 3 weeks to pick up fruit for soccer snack.  Six weeks is just too long to shop for so I’m doing two 3 week chunks this time.  I didn’t realize that when I set my original goal.  And, I am due for the occasional Target run.  I put those together because they’re near each other and not so much my house.  Here’s what I got food-wise at those two stops.

Beforehand, I sorted our pantry.  Here are the before pictures.

I took out all the paper party stuff that is rarely used and put it in a box elsewhere which freed up an additional shelf so I could spread out a bit.  I also reorganized and regrouped, especially on the lower two shelves.  In so doing I realized that I overbought white sugar and turkey gravy during the last holiday periods.  But, I underbought flour (one of the reasons to go to Target).  I’ll try to guesstimate better this year.  I also have way more cumin than I’ll use anytime soon.  Here are the after pictures.

Here’s the plan for this week.  We still have some lasagna and will have a lot of chicken pot pie, so leftovers twice this week.

Saturday:
Chicken pot pie
Green beans

Sunday:
Leftovers

Monday:
BBQ chicken
Deviled eggs
Coleslaw
Wax beans
Corn on the cob

Tuesday:
Macaroni & cheese

Wednesday:
Leftovers

Thursday:
Shrimp
Broccoli
Sweet Potato
Salad

Friday:
Kids: poached eggs
Adults: homemade pizza

I mentioned earlier that Stop & Shop has a lot of coupons right now.  This often happens in the fall.  And, the Market Basket fiasco just ended so I’m sure they’d like to hold onto any Market Basket customers who may have visited for the past few months.

My score of the week (really past two weeks) is ice cream.  I know its fall and ice cream consumption goes down.  But, I have five kids so somebody will eat it.  Last week Friendly’s ice cream was free (see post from Sept 22, 2014).  From that purchase I got a register coupon for $1.50 my next ice cream purchase.  This week I got an email coupon for $0.75 off the store brand ice cream.  Since it comes off my card automatically it works with regular store coupons.  Net result is 2 tubs (didn’t we used to call them gallons?) of ice cream for $0.24!

Here’s the plan for this week.

Saturday (Dad and older boys are out):
Hot dogs

Sunday:
Beef chili
Corn muffins

Monday:
Kids:  shrimp & broccoli
Adults:  lasagna

Tuesday:
Bertucci’s preschool fundraiser so pizza

Wednesday:
Leftovers

Thursday:
Fajitas

Friday:
Kids: poached eggs
Adults: homemade pizza