Menu & groceries, week of Oct 6 (plus announcement!)

Oh dear, I've neglected this blog quite sadly. I'd like to offer as a partial excuse that I was struggling through the first trimester. That's right, I'm pregnant! The baby is due right around the end of March/beginning of April. We are thrilled and excited.

I'm still fighting with my food budget. I want it to be somewhere that's challenging but doesn't make us miserable. It seems to want to be around $225 for groceries with another $75-$100 for eating out. On the positive side, that's still well under the USDA cost of food at home's "thrifty plan" for a family of our size, which is $370/month and does not include eating out. I'm not exactly sure what food the plan includes (and they redesigned their website so I can't figure out where to look it up), but it has never been a difficult goal for me to beat. But on the negative side, I'll be honest and say that I'm not feeling a pinch. And when we have as much debt as we do, we probably should be feeling pinched!

Some thoughts on reducing the bill, in no particular order:

• I'm working on being more organized with meal planning, which I think will help cut our costs. (This week's menu below!)
• I'm still not shopping at Aldi. Jewel is currently running a promotion where you can get stickers that you can redeem for a free pot at the end of the year. We are pretty short on pots, and so this promotion (plus the convenience of Jewel combined with the inconvenience of pregnancy) is keeping me there. I suspect that our budget will drop once I start shopping nearly exclusively at Aldi, but that's a project for 2015.
• We're considering eating more meatless meals. We already eat meatless on Friday (we're Catholic), but other than that, I have to admit, to me a meal is a meat, a starch, and a vegetable. I came up with this idea when my aunt spent a weekend with us. She's a vegetarian and we had two dinners (bean sloppy joes and spinach quiche) which were yummy and didn't feel like "meals without meat".
• Track grocery spending in detail. What are we spending money on? I think the answer is produce and dairy, for the most part, but I'm wondering if there's a leak I'm not aware of.
• Eating out...I like to go on dates. And I like to take our visitors out for Chicago-style pizza. I have to think of a creative way to fulfill these desires without spending so much money!
• Other ideas? Comments welcome.

Ok, the menu. The spine of this week is a 4.5lb pork loin rib end roast that I got on sale.
Monday: Roast pork in the crockpot with rice and carrots.
Tuesday: Leftover pork as "tacos" over rice.
Wednesday: Pork strip stirfry with green beans and rice.
Thursday: Pork shepherd's pie.
Friday: Broccoli-cheddar soup.
Saturday: Last pork slices, fried, with potatoes and salad.
Sunday: Sausage slices with potatoes. (Might be something else if we still have leftover pork, but I'm guessing we won't.)