Budget Menu Planning with President’s Choice and Zehrs Flyer
With food prices on the rise the last couple of years, some grocery products especially vegetables and dairy products have seen a marked 11 percent increase this past year. It has been predicted that grocery prices will feel less pressure to increase prices when input costs such as fuel, fertilizer and crop protection products level out for farmers. However, with dramatic changes in weather, constraints have been placed on farming which in turn affect the scope of production and consumer prices. Canadian food shoppers by trait are stereotypically frugal and having to cook meals in an atmosphere of escalating food prices places a significant challenge for most families to meet their budgets.How do you do budget menu planning? The burdens increase when it is time to entertain guests or celebrate special occasions on a limited budget. How can one continue the spirit of sharing and cooking food while entertaining during hard economic times? What is budget menu planning?
Budget Menu Planning
One simple principle to follow which may seem like an obvious solution is to plan a weekly or special event menus based onlyon buying sale items from your local groccery store flyers. The main rule being “buy only whats on sale” and especially those items where savings on each item is more than a dollar.Comparison of the various local food flyers’ sale items will give you the best available prices in your geoghrapical area. For instance if you were celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8 by having a few girls over or those important women in your life who are close to you, here is a sample menu. My favourite food shopping experience in Guelph is at the Loblaws grocery chain store, Zehrs. One reason for enjoying shopping at Zehrs is the availability of President’s Choice products and President’s Choice Blue Menu. Looking through this week’s Zehrs sales flyer here is a suggested budget menu planned based on sale items only. These items are on sale with prices effective only until March 8. So if I plan an International Women’s Day celebration March 8 for 3 or 4 friends, here is what jumps out at me from the local Zehrs flyer.
A Budget Menu Event Plan under 50 dollars at Zehrs (prices effective until March 8. 2012)
President’s Choice(PC)Lean Italian Meatballs President’s Choice(PC) Blue Menu $5.99
President’s Choice(PC) air chilled boneless,skinless chicken thighs $4.99/pound
Campbell’s Tomatoe Soup .59 cents
Campbell’s Mushroom soup .59 cents
Jake’s Bake House Bread, 2 for $3.00
Lactantia Butter $2.99
Greenhouse Tomatoes $1.99 /pound
Eggplant and Zucchini $1.49/pound
Onion Leaves 3 for $1.98
President’s Choice(PC)Organic Celery Hearts $2.99
President’s Choice(PC) 900ml.Mango Peach Smoothie $3.49
A Budget Menu Plan Utilizing a Zehrs Flyer:
President’s Choice(PC)Lean Italian meatballs in a tomatoe soup base with stewed, fresh greenhouse tomatoes and oven roasted, eggplant, celery, zucchini and chopped onion leaves
President’s Choice(PC) air chilled boneless chicken thighs oven baked lightly seasoned with garlic, pepper in a butter and milk Mushroom Soup base .
Jake’s Bake House Bread oven warmed or buttered and toasted
PC Mango Peach Smoothie served on ice (pour tbsp of Peach Schnapps Liqueur as an optional alcohol beverage)
This menu is based on budget menu planning which means planning and cooking a menu with only items that are on sale at your local supermarket for that particular week. By adhering to this shopping principle you not only develop a creative and practical outlook to cooking but one that enables your wallet to also stay “fuller” for longer. Trying to find other nutritional recipe ideas becomes simpler for the consumer with President’s Choice Blue Menu Products at Zehrs