Group Wedding Gift

One of my closest high school girlfriends is getting married in just under two months!! 

I've budgeted and saved about 75% so far for the wedding (shower gift, gas, one dinner out, and wedding gift), so that aspect of the planning is over.  The past two weddings I've been to I gave the bride and groom money - and told them to use it and do something fun on the honeymoon (with photos).

My friend and her new hubby will be buying their first house a week before the wedding (crazy, I know!) and they've registered at Leons -- who knew?!? 

The way that the Leons 'registry' works is that guests put the money they contribute into an account setup for the bride and groom and after the wedding they choose the furniture they like and guests' money/gifts go towards paying down the balance.

I'm a big gifts person -- not meaning expensive, meaning instead giving personalized gifts that are unique to the recipient.  Weddings are tough, I admit.

Knowing that nearly half of the rooms in the new house will need furniture and the couple would be buying the furniture they need regardless of the amount of money guests contributed, I thought that decorating a "room" they'd have never thought of would be special.

So, below you'll find the mood board I created for the backyard!

There are 7 of us from high school who will be attending the wedding (with likely husbands, but not boyfriends -- it's a super small venue).  The total for everything in the photo comes to just over $830 including taxes.  Likely there will be 10 of us in total attending the wedding, meaning $83/person to be able to give them the gift of a completed 'room' in the house and an entertaining area they can enjoy the entire summer - she's a teacher!

Hopefully having one 'room' complete in the house makes the move a bit less stressful and gives them an area to spend time with family and friends who come over to congratulate them on this great next step!

My Grocery Shopping Routine

Since the beginning of March I've had a new grocery shopping system in place.  My grocery list used to look like this before:

 

(photo source)

Now, my grocery list looks like this:

Groceries: April 30	Store	Price
Celery
Zucchini
Yogurt
Crushed Tomatoes
Pita Shells
Salad Mix
Spinach
Bananas
Apples
Frozen Fruit
Milk
Tilapia
Brussels Sprouts
Mushrooms
Baby Carrots
Hummus
Cheese Strings
Broccoli
Snow Peas or beans
Asparagus
Mushrooms
Fat Free Buttermilk
Fruit
Shredded Carrots
Eggs
Fajita Shells
Brown Sugar
Bread
1.3 lb Ground Turkey
1 Parsnip
1 Sweet Potato
2 Carrots
Unsweetened Applesauce

Before I put together my grocery list, I plan out what I'm going to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and evening snack for the month (crazy planner, I know!).  I'm finding that meal planning is not only great for my budget, but also for my waistline!  Instead of grabbing something quick and unhealthy when I'm hungry I am now incorporating healthy foods at all meals.

Prior to each grocery shop I look through the flyers of 5 grocery stores within a 5-10 minute drive of my house (Loblaws, FreshCo, Metro, Walmart Supercentre, and Food Basics) and write down any sale items.  I've also learned which stores are generally least expensive for the staples that appear on each grocery list -- Food Basics has the cheapest 1l skim milk $2.29!  I use Flyerland to streamline searching through each flyer. 

Here is an example of one weekly meal plan I've put together:

Weekly Meal Planner
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Sunday	Protein Smoothie	Turkey Bacon Sandwich, Poached Eggs	Mushroom/Onion Pizza	Whole Wheat Waffles
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Monday	Buttermilk Biscuit/Fruit	Pasta Fagioli	Tilapia Salad	Baked Eggs with Spinach
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Tuesday	Cereal	Egg Salad Sandwich, Salad	Carrot Cake Pancakes	Roasted Root Vegetables
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Wednesday	Buttermilk Biscuit/Fruit	Pasta Fagioli	Meatloaf & Veggies	Whole Wheat Waffles
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Thursday	Smoothie	Egg Salad Sandwich, Salad	Mushroom/Onion Pizza	Roasted Root Vegetables
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Friday	Buttermilk Biscuit/Fruit	Pasta Fagioli	Skinny Lasagna	Baked Eggs with Spinach
	Breakfast	Lunch	Dinner	Snack
Saturday	No-Cook Refrigerator Oatmeal	Carrot Cake Pancakes	Meatloaf & Veggies	Banana Bread Protein Muffins

All of my recipes were found from my favourite healthy cooking websites: Dashing Dish, PreventionRD, The Lunchbox Diaries, Skinny Taste, etc.  Sooooo, when you see Carrot Cake Pancakes that doesn't mean it's loaded with sugar and topped with heavy maple syrup! 

Since starting tracking my eating and exercise with Lose It! I'm down in weight 3%.

Now let's talk about the money savings!  I always keep cooking staples in my pantry: flour, spices, soup, noodles, evoo, baking products, etc. so my grocery list usually comes from the"outside" aisles of the grocery store.  Here's a look at my grocery shop from this weekend:

For $62.76 I got all of the supplies I need for meals the next 10 days or so -- the photo doesn't look like I got much, but I did buy $10 worth of tilapia and 1.6lb of ground turkey.  Each paycheck (twice per month) I buy the bulk of my groceries on the first day, then replenish veggies and fruit mid-pay.  I've been budgeting $110/pay or $220/month on groceries and thus far I'm stayed on budget and have  eaten healthy meals each day!

While I love having a meal plan in place, I don't follow it 100%.  If a friend asks me to meet her for lunch or I am invited somewhere for dinner (and there's room in the budget, of course), I will ditch that planned meal of the day and save it for another week -- this might happen only once per paycheck, so I haven't had to turn down plans yet.

How do you meal plan and grocery shop?