Budgeting - Grocery Shopping

So, like many of you, my husband and I are not made of money - much to our dismay. My husband has no college loan debt (thanks, ROTC!) but don't worry, I have enough for the both of us. But, we're very lucky that we're a DINK family - dual income, no kids. So, we have chosen to take a pretty aggressive repayment schedule for my loans, and at this point, we should have them all paid off by early 2018. (More on that later, if anyone is really interested in it.)

But, that aggressive schedule means that my ENTIRE paycheck each month goes to loan payments, leaving us to live off of his salary. We're lucky - military families really do get compensated well - so it works for us now. But, we have to stick to budget. We allot for $75 on groceries every week, which is $300/month.

It's just 2 of us, and even though my husband eats enough for 4, I try to portion all our meals for 2 people, even if that means he snacks a little before/after dinner. This month, being a short month with our trip to Virginia, I decided to try my hand at meal planning for an entire month. I spent $97.48 at our local Kroger, and have our meals 90% done until we head east on the 22. I did NOT clip coupons - I'm so not good at it - but I found some great deals today.

Major Deals I Found!

• 2.5 lbs of Salmon for $9.99 -- these filets are pretty thick, so they should last us 3 meals
• 2.5 lbs of Tilapia for $9.97 -- these filets are pretty small, so I'll have to make L two for each one I make for myself, but I think we can still get 4 meals out of them
• 3 lbs of ground beef for $7.77 -- we really don't need an entire pound per dinner, so I split this up into fours and put them each in their own sandwich bag and popped them in the freezer - we should be able to get 4 meals out of them
• 6 lbs of chicken for $13.18 -- theses breasts are HUGE and I split them up and bagged them in individual servings (2 breasts per bag) and we should still get 5 meals out of them

I have all the meals planned out, with the exception of 2 nights I'm in Atlanta for work, and my birthday. We'll need to pick up some little stuff here and there, but for the most part, I think we're set!

To see the recipes I'm planning on cooking this month, check out my December Meals Pin Board. How do you effectively pinch pennies? Any tips we should try out?

XO - C