Grocery Budget

Hi ya’ll!

I just got back from Zumba class. I love my Zumba Tuesdays. The instructor has such a high energy and gets the class so pumped up. Though since I upped my weights yesterday in Body Pump, my arms were feelin’ it!

Speaking of Zumba, I forgot to give you my weekly workouts & meals!

Workouts

• Sunday: Rest
• Monday: 20 min incline treadmill walk & Body Pump
• Tuesday: Zumba
• Wednesday: 20 min incline treadmill walk & Body Flow
• Thursday: Murphy walk & Zumba
• Friday: RPM
• Saturday: Body Flow

Meals

• Sunday: Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
• Monday: Chicken Gyros
• Tuesday: Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole
• Wednesday & Thursday: Leftovers
• Friday: Veggie Burger w/ Sweet Potato Fries
• Saturday: Up in the air!

Tonight for dinner we had Cheesy Chicken & Broccoli Casserole a la Lunchbox Diaries. Also known as Cheesy Chicken & Stir Fry Mix Casserole since it’s all I had on hand…whoops.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a side salad.

By the way, you should totally check out Colleen’s blog. She is punchy, fun & she makes me feel like I could run a race too! (No, Colleen didn’t ask me to promote her blog…I just like sharing the blog love every once in a while )

Moving on, Ryan  & I have revamped our spending habits a bit at the start of the new year. No, we aren’t out buying $1,000 watches or anything, we just wanted to be more mindful of our spending…especially of our groceries since that is my downfall.

Grocery Bill Limit

Not that Ryan & I have been outrageous with our spending, but since we are planning for a wedding and all, we figured it would be high time to really look at how much we spend on groceries and see if we can cut down anywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source

We set our budget at $300 a month for the both of us. Once you break it down, that works out to be $5 a day per person for breakfast, lunch & dinner which is pretty good.

We decided to make this budget strictly for groceries, therefore if we buy something like mouthwash & face wash (like we did on our recent Costco trip) we will subtract that out since it’s technically not groceries.

This also does not include if we go out to eat for a meal or if we use a Groupon. Our limit on eating out is once a week (this would include if one of us went out to eat for lunch at work- which rarely happens) and since we’ve already paid for a Groupon, I see no need in counting it under groceries.

So far for the month of January we have spent $216.55, leaving us with $83. 45 for the next 2 weeks, which we’ve already bought groceries for this week. I think this is easily doable. I was slightly nervous of not being able to buy our regular healthy foods, but most of what we buy are fruits & vegetables and we have plenty money to spare!

Hopefully we can keep up with this so we can keep saving for that honeymoon!

Question: Do you have a grocery budget? Give me your tips! 

Costco By Day, Date Night By Night

This past weekend we had an exciting trip in store…

COSTCO!

Yes, we got a Costco membership and yes we were super excited about this trip. Don’t hate.

We had a Sam’s Club membership last year and a new Costco opened up a few blocks down. We’d never really been to a Costco and wanted to see what’s different so we went with the Costco membership this year instead. Membership was $5 cheaper too!

Our goods:

All for $126! Okay, so it doesn’t look like a lot for $126, but some of these items will last us a while (at least I hope so).

More broken down:

Sushi (splurge item), spinach, gala apples, mini peppers, sunburst tomatoes.

Frozen berries, bananas, craisins (this huge package was $4!!!), kiwis, vegetable stir fry blend & protein powder.

Huuuge grapefruit.

Non-grocery items: Face wash (favorite facewash ever) & mouthwash.

Not bad for $126. The protein powder was the priciest which we won’t be buying every time.

PROTEIN!

After our trip, we did some stuff around the house and then it was off to date night (planned by Ryan this month).

Except…our first place was a bust. We have been wanting to go to the Milwaukee Public Market for a while (read: since we moved here a year ago) because everyone recommended that it was foodie heaven.

Uh yeah, it’s not a market. At least not how I picture a market. I picture vendors with food we could purchase to make at home (our initial plan) with a few vendors who served already made food.

Uh, it’s ALL vendors who served already made food. There was chocolates you could buy, a few cheeses & jams and that’s pretty much it. We were so disappointed.

Ryan came up with a new plan though…

Horny Goat Hideaway!

He had been there before with coworkers and decided we should go together.

We started with the hummus appetizer.

Fun presentation!

Then we decided on the BBQ Chicken Pizza. It’s a favorite of ours and we hadn’t had it in a while.

Cheesy & the barbeque sauce was delicious!

And then dessert popped up…

I couldn’t deny it!

After going into a chocolate coma, we came home to watch Contagion.

For some reason I love disease/epidemic movies. Not sure why. Maybe it’s because of the mystery of who will survive?

Anyways, I thought it was good, but not sure how I feel about the ending. I suppose it was alright but I was expecting something more intense. Either way, still a good film. And a great date night!

Question: Do you go on date nights with your significant other? What have you done in the past? I’d love to hear some ideas (since I have next month!)

Groupon Saturday

How’s the weekend going? Mine is going pretty great.

Friday night we stayed in, ordered Chinese food and relaxed.

Saturday, however, was busy!

Started with a workout, my first Cycling class on a weekend! For some reason I was struggling during the 45 minutes. My legs felt so heavy, no clue why. Maybe because I did hit the gym hard this week six days in a row (with harder classes than usual). Either way, I made it through and that’s all that matters.

After the class, we showered up, ate some lunch and headed out to our first Groupon place of purchase for the day…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get my hair(s) cut! I’m really bad about waiting too long to get my hair cut and I don’t have a set hair stylist here, so a Groupon was the way to go. Let’s get real though, I bought it because of the deep conditioning…my thick hair could use it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All done! I LOVE it. It’s so light and airy and LESS thick  and easier to handle.

Next up…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whole Foods! (I realize this isn’t actually a Groupon, but they are all the same…)

Our purchase included, Dark Chocolate PB, two different cheeses, tempeh (first time!), fresh salmon (on tap for dinner tonight, booyah), nutritional yeast (another first!) and 2 dark chocolate bars.

Our final destination…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Loaded Slate!

The Loaded Slate is unique because on all of the tables and the bar it has chalkboards. Of course, we had to play some hangman to get started.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mature. (By the way, Ryan totally forgot to put the “N” in the blank after I said it…)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m really liking trying veggie sandwiches/burgers at restaurants lately, so I went with the Slated Veggie sandwich, with a side of homemade chips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beers first, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excuse my squinty eyes. Dang flash.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sandwich was decent, but nothing to write home about. If the mushrooms would have been a large portabello, instead of smaller mushrooms, I think that would have worked better. And with a spicy mayo.

Today has been filled with church, the library, a trip to Sam’s (holy fruit & veggie overload!) and watching Gossip Girl. Yep…Gossip Girl. Don’t judge me, it’s on Netflix!

Question: What’s on your Netflix instant queue?