This is pretty much my Wednesday morning. Where we live, we receive circulars and coupons on Mondays and Tuesdays, so Wednesday mornings, I plan out the following week, starting the next Monday. I throw away all the store circulars I don’t need, like Menards or Lowe’s, because I don’t plan out any house projects – Ever! Home improvement jobs are all on James because he both enjoys planning them as well as doing them. I enjoy neither of the two 🙂
Next, I take my cup of coffee – disregard the coffee mug that says “40 isn’t old if you’re a tree” because I actually pay my children to tell people I’m 32 these days, so let’s just stick with that, ok? LOL. And then I spend a good 30 minutes perusing the circulars. Perusing here refers to the actual definition of reading carefully and in depth, btw. My Ex-MIL used to be an English teacher in NYC, so, in part, I have her to thank for making me aware of some of the fine nuances of the English language and that peruse is often incorrectly used to depict that written work was merely skimmed instead of read. Ok, I peruse the circulars and coupons.
I always start with the ALDI circular. This is where I suppose I channel my frugal mother. Having grown up poor and then having given up her cushy government job to raise my brother and me, there was never excess money to go around when I was a kid. Although my father made very good money and would certainly have been considered upper-middle class here. But in Germany, nobody makes as much as the rich do here; the more you earn, the more taxes you pay, with an income tax cap of 52% in the highest bracket. That’s not including healthcare, social security, solidarity tax for East Germany which everyone STILL has taken out of his paycheck, or a mandatory 8% church tax unless you claim you’re an atheist. By the same token, nobody is as poor as the poor here, either. And raising kids is never cheap anywhere and my parents decided early on that they would provide us with experiences rather than stuff. That included yearly vacations. Sometimes, those vacations were a little pricier like a USA-Trip when I was 9 or 2-week ski vacations in the Swiss Alps; other times, it was camping at the Atlantic Beach in France for 3 weeks. The money my parents saved on lodging was spent on taking us to fancy restaurants to give us the experience of expanding our palate.
So I basically grew up on LIDL and ALDI in Europe. To be fair, the items they sell there are usually even better than here, but our ALDI here is not too bad. My Ex-husband used to joke that “the mothership was calling me home” whenever I left for an ALDI-trip. In looking at the ALDI circular, I am excited to see 8-oz packages of mushrooms for 69 cents. Perfect; mushrooms are such a staple in our house because they are versatile and our littlest one really loves slicing them when she helps me cook. Cantaloupe for $1.19? Fantastic! That’ll be dessert, sliced with a thin layer of prosciutto (which comes in a lunch meat pack at ALDI for about $7), so, for around $3, all six of us will have dessert. Ahh, if only Cointreau were cheaper…
So, ok, my 2-3 course meals are not quite as European as I would like them to be; otherwise, James and I would definitely have Cointreau on our Cantaloupe 😉
This week, the meat on sale is 73% lean ground beef for $1.79/pound and boneless skinless chicken thighs for $1.69/pound. This gets tricky, because I would like to stick with leaner than that beef, so non, merci to that! The chicken thighs are cheaper at a local store this week ($1.29/pound), so I’ll plan those for later in the week and drive by that store tomorrow. Today, I’m only headed to ALDI. So far on my list:
*2 packets of mushrooms ($1.38), 1 cantaloupe ($1.19), 1 packet of lunchmeat, including prosciutto ($6.99), 1 cucumber ($0.49), 1 bag of baby spinach ($1.19), 2 cans of diced tomatoes ($0.70), 1 packet of Butterkäse ($3.49), 1 loaf of sliced wheat bread ($1.89), milk ($2.08), 2xPB crackers ($1.78), pears ($2.29/3 pounds), 2 baguettes ($3.38), 1 bag of mixed garden salad ($0.79), cereal (<$2.00). Total so far: <$29.64. Hmmmm, I still don’t have any protein for dinner and I don’t want to waste extra time and gas today to go to another store. I turn over the flyer and find the Never Any! Chicken Sausage on sale for $2.99. I think I’ll add 2 packages of that: 1 Italian and 1 Tomato Basil kind. And ground turkey is always only $2.99. So there’s another 10 Bucks. OK, I’m off to the store! See what’s on the menu in the next two days for about the same amount we would spend on one meal at a fast food place with six people here: http://shakenstirredandblended.com/2019/05/02/menu-for-wednesday-and-thursday/
Ashley@Shakenstirredandblended
Hi, I'm Ashley and I am a freelance writer and editor for one local and one national publication. In my spare time, I teach foreign languages and manage two households. Oh, and raise four children. It's a crazy life that I chose and I love every second of it :o)
Like!! Great article post.Really thank you! Really Cool.