Thrifty Thursday: Eat Mexican Food This Week

I find the two biggest ways to save money on my grocery shopping are to 1) meal plan and shop based on sales and 2) meal plan based on what I already have.  Ideally, much of what I've bought was purchased at the lowest price possible. 

Yesterday, I pored over the sale papers to find out what's on sale and then determine my meal plan.  Sometimes it is so overwhelming ot me to even begin to think of meal planning, and last night was one of those times.  I think I was just extra tired and frustrated from the day, so staring at sale papers made me want to just throw them away and meal plan based on what I felt like eating.  I took a break, put the baby to bed, and then tried again, this time with a much better attitude.

Cinco de Mayo is next Wednesday, so you can find anything you need for your own Mexican Fiesta on sale right now.  That was the inspiration for my meal plan.  I bought tortillas on sale (using a coupon), stocked up on cheese, diced tomatoes and chilis (AKA Rotel), refried beans, jalapenos, cilantro, and chicken.  All of these items were at very reduced prices.  I didn't take the store's word for it though; I double checked other store's prices and checked my handy dandy price book so that I could know for a fact that the items were truly at a deep discount.

Take jalapenos, for example.  Wal-Mart had them $1 per lb.  Sounds like a steal, right?  Albertsons had them $1 for 2 lbs.  Considering how small jalapenos are, the savings is probably negligible, but since I had to go anyway to get cheap chicken (49 cents per pound for a whole fryer), it was worth it to not purchase jalapenos at Wal-Mart. 

FYI, you can only get the cheap chicken with an additional purchase of $25, so I stocked up on other sales at Albertsons for things that I may or may not need this week, but we will eat at some point.  And I knew some things at Albertsons were on sale for the same "every day low price" as at Wal-Mart, so I just made it a point to purchase these at Albertsons to help bring my total to $25.  The store does limit you to purchasing four chickens, so I stocked up.  Those four chickens will feed us for quite some time.  This chicken sale seems to come up every month or two, but this is the first time I've needed to make use of it. 

My meal plan for the next 10-14 days includes fajitas, tostadas, and quesodillas, among many other things, including Asian Chicken Salad, to help unclog our arteries.  Cabbage is on sale for 88 cents for two pounds at Super 1, so I'll be stopping by Super 1 tomorrow on my way home from the gym, and that will be the basis for the chicken salads.  The recipe will be something like this one on All Recipes, with some tweaking, because I'll use only cabbage.  My mom made a similar salad growing up, so I'm trying to duplicate it.

Here's what's on the menu at our house:
Grilled Chicken Fajitas
Chicken Tostadas
Chicken Quesodillas
Asian Chicken Salad
Pepperoni Pizza Stuffed Bread
Chicken Parmesan (already in the freezer from last week)
Chicken Enchiladas (already in the freezer because I cooked one pan, froze 2 this week).
Red Beans and Rice (I'll freeze the oodles of leftovers next week)
Breakfast (thrown in once a week or every other week). 

Breakfast For Dinner (BFD) could include grits and eggs, blueberry Belgian waffles, omelets, or french toast (pain perdu, but you have to say it with a really frenchy accent).  We always have the ingredients for this stuff on hand.  BFD helps the budget and is something we both enjoy.  We usually go with oatmeal, fruit, or just coffee for breakfast during the week, so we love a chance to have a yummy, hot breakfast for dinner, especially at the end of the week, when we're both tired and just want to relax together.

Your Thrifty Thursday tip:  Shop sale papers and eat mexican food this next week.  Your taste buds will thank you.  You can apologize to your hips and arteries later.

Oh, and buy .49 cent/lb chicken.