Our Sunday Dinner Traditions With 6 Recipe Inspirations: The Grocery Game Challenge 2018 #2 Apr 9-15
SUNDAY DINNER DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A ROAST
How do you celebrate Sunday? A roast beef for Sunday dinner every week could get extremely costly for today’s grocery budget but don’t let that stop you from creating new traditions for your family.
I’m sure almost everyone has heard of the Sunday dinner where your parents cook up a hearty full meal as if it were Christmas dinner. That’s what it was like in my house growing up in England and something I hope to continue with my family here in Canada.
The idea around Sunday dinner is that it was a time where family would come together for at least one full meal at the table. Even today families still prepare Sunday dinner as one of the few days of the week where time permits a full meal especially since life is far busier than it has ever been. Thank goodness for the crock-pot and now the Instant Pot
.
What’s for Sunday Dinner Mum?
Growing up family dinners were pretty standardized in our house as far as meals and times would go. My mum likes to cook but was never adventurous so my siblings and I would look forward to our Sunday dinner roast because it was what we called, “The Fancy Meal” which really was British tradition. Cheese toasties are nice but a full on roast dinner was even better.
I’m not kidding you when I say my mum and dad would cook up a Sunday roast with all the fixings and it was a requirement to attend unless excused for legitimate reasons. When I say roast dinner it doesn’t necessarily mean just beef either.
Sunday dinner meal planning depended on what my mum got at the grocery store. Sometimes it was roast chicken, lamb or turkey. Oddly enough there were no squabbles about Sunday dinner because it was a meal we loved. Bring out the fried liver and onions and my parents might find me hiding under my bed or in the closet.
Traditional Sunday Dinner
What does a British Sunday dinner menu plan look like?
Typically a Sunday dinner in our house was a roast beef unless it was too expensive then my parents would buy a meat that they could afford. Most often we had a small roast beef with plenty of easy side-dishes mostly vegetables and of course Yorkshire pudding.
Oh, and don’t forget lots of delicious gravy. I love gravy and can eat it like soup. Just kidding!
Other names you might here in place of Sunday dinner in Britain would be roast dinner or Sunday lunch. In our house it was always, Sunday dinner.
If a roast beef was not in the grocery budget for my parents it was less expensive to buy mince and make a cottage pie. A cottage pie is beef mince, seasonings, mashed potato topping and lots of beef gravy.
You can still have a hot Sunday dinner without the pricey roast.
Sometimes my mum would keep any left-over beef from a roast if she had a big one and turn it into a cottage pie the next day and freeze it for another meal.
Dessert would almost always be a cake of sorts since my mum was and still is famous for her cake in a tin which she leaves on the counter.
She still makes her cakes today, in fact when I posted her Magical 4-Ingredient Sponge Cake I didn’t expect the response I got on the blog.
The recipe is one of my top stops for food lovers visiting the blog looking for an easy dessert recipe.
Another dessert which offers lots of spice and fruity flavour is our British Apple Pie bars which are deep-dish and delicious. You don’t have to spend a fortune to create a Sunday dinner that fits your budget.
Other popular British dishes my parents would make for a family dinner would have been simple such as toad in the hole, chicken curry or sausage rolls.
- Roast Beef or other meat that is roasted such as chicken
- Roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes with lots of butter.
- Homemade stuffing
- Yorkshire pudding
- Homemade beef gravy
- Fresh Dinner buns or Baps
- Side dishes- Carrots, beans, cauliflower and cheese sauce, roasted parsnips or Brussel sprouts, roasted aubergine (eggplant), spinach
- Always a garden salad loaded with veg and bits of cheese
- Desserts as listed above although on occasion my mum would make an apple pie, cherry pie or blueberry pie topped with ice-cream.
Honestly, who would want to miss out on a Sunday dinner such as that? I never did.
In our house we do plan to have Sunday dinner on the table as a family when life doesn’t get in the way. Even though it’s easy to say that we should make time for family dinner there are occasions where we can’t and that’s fine.
A roast dinner would be nice every Sunday but it’s not financially realistic for many families today. A decent roast can cost anywhere from $15 and up. You don’t want to waste your money on a roast that is too fatty either.
Ideally finding meats you can roast and freezing them when on sale is the best option for those on a tight budget. We are big fans of reduced meats only because we can stretch our food budget further.
New Sunday Dinner Traditions
Although a traditional Sunday dinner roast remains a popular and well-known British meal many families today opt for something a bit different. What I love about stepping outside of traditional dinners is that you can serve just about anything as long as it is comparable to the Sunday dinner roast.
If you’re thinking about creating new Sunday Dinner family traditions opt for new recipes that include a variety of meats, fish and vegetarian options. The idea is to keep it hearty but not boring. You know how turkey is exciting once or twice a year? Well think about having a roast dinner every Sunday and how you would feel eating it week after week.
Culture also plays a huge role as to what a Sunday dinner meal look like because not everyone follows a traditional British Sunday meal. A friend of ours who is Japanese always has BBQ meat in the summer as part of their Sunday dinner meal plan along with other Asian inspired side-dishes. The meal is not heavy as it would be in Britain but this is how they celebrate Sunday.
Another friend who is Italian always has soup, meatballs and pasta or lasagna, roast chicken and a million other side-dishes. You never leave hungry, that’s for sure but again a typically heavy meal for a Sunday dinner.
I had a look on Pinterest for Sunday dinner recipes and picked new recipes that I think our family would enjoy. These are only meant to be ideas to help guide you into meal planning your next Sunday dinner without worry whether you have a roast in the freezer or not.
Notice how not all the dinners include a meat option and that’s because we don’t always have to eat meat at a meal, even Sunday dinner. Opt for no meat at all, fish, tofu or other meat alternatives.
Homesick Texan’s Sunday Brisket
Thick and Beefy Danish Goulash
Discussion: What does a Sunday Dinner meal plan look like at your house?
April Grocery Game Challenge
Join the 2018 Grocery Game Challenge (GGC) but before you do you must read The Grocery Game Challenge Rules and Print the 2018 Schedule which includes new prizes!
- Last shop March- The Most Expensive Canadian Grocery Stores
- The Ultimate Guide To Canadian Grocery Store Return Policies
Free Money Saving Tools 2018
Click, Save and Print. It’s that easy!
This is the budget that brought us to debt freedom back in 2013 and now I’m offering to all of you for FREE. We still use this budget every month as it helps us to see our overall financial picture.
Don’t pay someone for these services, I’ve done the work for you along with some help from other amazing bloggers.
You can download the FREE Canadian Budget Binder Budget Spreadsheet in Excel It’s FREE! We use it to budget and in large part a reason we could pay our mortgage off in 5 years, check it out!
Free Money Saving Downloads are awesome lists created to get us on track working towards reaching our budgeting goals and now we are sharing them with you.
Get organized with a FREE freezer inventory, meal plan, shopping list, price comparison list and much more all for FREE.
CLICK HERE to download all the free lists and even our family budget spreadsheet. So many free resources at your fingertips.
Ultimate Grocery Shopping Guide 2018
Everything you want to know about grocery shopping in Canada is packed into this amazing FREE grocery shopping guide that has taken 6 years to create.
The Ultimate Grocery Shopping guide is ongoing with new informative money-saving posts added every month.
Even if you don’t live in Canada there are some amazing budget saving tips that will help put you on the path to more savings at the supermarket.
Share this guide with your friends and tell them about Canadian Budget Binder especially if they are struggling with their grocery budget.
The time is NOW to get started saving money on groceries so please enjoy the many money-saving posts in the The Ultimate Grocery Shopping Guide.
2018 Grocery Shop Results
Yearly grocery budget for two + 1 Toddler 2018: $3600 or $300/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.
Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings or that you would like to track on your own)
- Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $300
- Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $300
- Total Gift Cards used to date: $0
- Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
- Total Rewards Points used to date: $0
- PC Optimum Points to Spend: 3,200,000
- Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)
- Zweet -$0.
- Checkout51- $1.50
Our Grocery Shop This Week
Costco
- 2 x Sealtest 2% Milk 4L $4.25
- 2 x Whipping Cream $4.15
Total Out-of-Pocket $16.80
Note: All totals below already have tax factored into them.
- Total to spend this month : $300
- Stockpile budget 2018 : $25.00/month
- Stockpile budget used this month: $15.50
- Christmas Reserve Fund : $35/month $140 Saved
- Total coupons used this week: $0
- Total coupons used to date: $1
- Total in-store discounts this week: $0
- Total in-store discounts to date: $67.25
- Total spent this week: $16.80
- Total spent so far this month: $206.00
- Total over/Under spend this shop: under
- Total left to spend for the month: $94.00
- Total Spent To Date 2018: (does not include stockpile budget) Jan $323.04+Feb $169.42+March $228.70 + April $+ May $ + June $+July $+August $+September $+ October $+ November $ + December $
Weekly Overview (your final thoughts)
After our big Costco shop last week we didn’t need much this week apart from milk and cream. I may run out and grab some bananas and apples and if I do I will add it to next weeks shop. We have plenty of food in the freezers to use up and that’s the plan so we can finally rid ourselves of the utility guzzler in our basement.
How was your week?
Mr.CBB
2018 Coupons and Coupon Apps
Here are some great places you can find Canadian Coupons! These are your latest Checkout 51 offers which you can use to help save money.
Related: Are coupon apps taking over the paper coupons?
If you notice I’m missing a valuable link please message me and I’ll add it below.
Sign up for the Nielsen Canada Home Scan Program and you can earn rewards points fast to redeem for awesome products or gift cards. I did this in the UK and loved it!!
Where can I find Canadian Coupons 2018?
Plus check out these other hidden areas online to get more coupons!!
If any of the links below don’t open properly please report them to my email address or use comment form.
- Healthy Essentials Printable Coupons (Johnson and Johnson)
- Danone Coupons Get up to $25 in coupons
- Clorox Coupons Sign up to print coupons in the Clorox family
- Kraft Canada Sign up and receive recipes and coupons by email
- MySavings.com Printable Smart Source Coupons
- Walmart Canada Printable Coupons
- Proctor and Gamble PandG Sign up for printable coupons
- Hidden Coupon Portals
Grocery Game Challenge 2018 FAQ’s
- Grocery Game Challenge RULES: Read the rules first and if you have any questions email me or comment on this post with your question and someone will answer you as soon as possible. The rules have been updated to reflect changes for the 2018 challenge year.
- Do I have to be Canadian to post my Grocery Shop?: No, you don’t have to be Canadian to post your shops. We have fans who post their grocery shop who live all over the world.
- What is prize payout?- I’ve changed the prize to yearly so I’ll be tracking everyone’s shop and draw accordingly for larger prize payouts.
- When does the Grocery Game close each month? Ideally you would want to have all your shops in by the end of the month for review in order to make improvements for the next.
- Does your Grocery Budget include health and beauty and laundry products?: No, our Grocery Budget does not include such items as shampoo, conditioner, laundry soap, fabric softener, dish soap etc. As of 2014 we no longer included such items in our grocery budget so we could see our actual food numbers at the end of the year in order to plan accordingly.
- Do you stockpile food? We don’t mind stockpiling items that won’t be affected by expiry dates or have long expiry dates but not so much food any longer as we found we weren’t eating it fast enough. Stockpiling is still great and just one way to help cut your budget to save money if you do find items that you can buy in bulk at a sale price.
- Canadian Coupons: Where can I find Canadian Coupons?: Here are your latest Checkout 51 offers that you can use to help you save money in the Grocery Game Challenge. There are many great Canadian Couponing websites online that share weekly coupon match-ups so you can plan your grocery list.
- Best Coupon Apps: Coupons are slowly fading with mobile coupon apps being the big rave these days. Just recently the popular coupon site Save.ca that mailed coupons to households has gotten involved with the addition of a new mobile Save.ca app joining forces with the many other coupon apps available. If you find an app that I don’t talk about please let me know as they are always being added and I’d like to review them.
- What is the Best Flyer App- We use Flipp on our Iphone so if you wan to have all your flyers in one spot download Flipp from the Apple Store or get it on Google Play.
- What is an FPC?: An FPC is a free product coupon which means you can get a free product as described on the coupon. Some of these coupons have an expiry date and others no expiry date so be sure to check.
- What is GGC?– The Grocery Game Challenge of course!
- How Do I Know what stores accept coupons?: If you are not sure it’s always best to call the store and ask.
- How Do I Grocery Shop?: I can tell you about grocery shopping and what we do in terms of shopping to save money and how it works for us. There are no wrong or right answers, just smart choices.
If you’ve just joined The Grocery Game Challenge 2018 get ready to look at your grocery budget by learning;
- Where you are spending money
- How much money you are spending
- How much money you are saving every month
If you want to learn everything I know about grocery shopping in Canada check out my Ultimate Grocery Shopping Guide! You’ve made a wise decision to take control of your grocery budget now show me your shops and let’s get saving!
Welcome to The Grocery Game Challenge 2018!
-Mr.CBB
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APRIL 9-15
Yearly Budget for 1 Adult $2400 or $200/mo
Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $200
POINTS OVERVIEW
Total Gift Cards used to date: $36.33
Total Rewards used to date: $42.61
PC Optimum Points Balance: 1355
PC Optimum Points Redeemed: 0
Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
COUPON APPS
Checkout51- $6.95
GROCERY SHOP THIS WEEK
Total to spend this month : $200
Total coupons used this week: $0
Total coupons used to date: $0
Total in-store discounts this week: $0
Total in-store discounts to date: $0
Total spent this week: $
Total spent so far this month: $26.03
Total over/Under spend this shop ($50/wk): Wk1 Under $23.97 + Wk2 under $50 = under $73.97
Total left to spend for the month: $173.97
Total Spent To Date 2018: Jan $217.46 + Feb $127.79 + Mar $124.18
WEEKLY OVERVIEW
No spend week! I had plenty of food to eat.
Yearly grocery budget for 4 adults -$7800 or $650/month (The above total does not include the stockpile budget of $300/year or $25/month.
Points Overview (add any other sections you need to show us your savings or that you would like to track on your own)
Total Grocery Budget for this Month: $650
Total Grocery Budget with any carry-overs $650
Total Gift Cards used to date: $65
Total Rewards Points redeemed this week: $0
Total Rewards Points used to date: $80, 760 AM
PC Optimum Points to Spend: 181401
Scanning Code of Practice (SCOP) to date $0
Coupon Apps (add any other apps you use to save money)
Zweet -$11.25
Checkout51- $11.50
Foodland
1 jug water -5.49
1 pasta -2.99
1 4l milk -4.27
1 bag frozen fries -2.79
Bananas -.73
1 bagels -2.99
1 raisin bread -2.99
Total out of Pocket -$24.39
No Frills
1 Folgers coffee -6.88
2 Dawn dish soap @1.97
1 bag raisins -4.97
1 jar gherkins -2.00
1 pack apple juice tetras -2.47
2 yogurt @3.33
2 4l milk @4.27
3 Stoeffers dinners @1.97
1 bag GG Japanese frozen veggies -1.97
10 lbs potatoes -1.99
2 packs sliced mushrooms @2.27, 50% stickers 2.28 off
3 lbs carrots -2.47
Bananas -.44
1 bunch celery -1.67
1 W/W bread -2.89, 50% sticker, 1.45 off
1 cinamon bagels -2.57, 50% sticker, 1.29 off
Total out of Pocket- $72.11, $5.02 discounts
Note: All totals below already have tax factored into them.
Total to spend this month : $650
Stockpile budget 2018 : $25.00/month
Stockpile budget used this month: $0
Total coupons used this week: $0
Total coupons used to date: $26.00
Total in-store discounts this week: $5.02
Total in-store discounts to date: $40.86
Total spent this week: $96.50
Total spent so far this month: $307.43
Total over/Under spend this shop: under
Total left to spend for the month: $342.57
Total Spent To Date 2018: (does not include stockpile budget) Jan $565.41+Feb $414.90+March $548.60 + April $+ May $ + June $+July $+August $+September $+ October $+ November $ + December $
Weekly Overview (your final thoughts)
Another week under and I’m still under for the month by a good amount. After the big shops last week things have settled down this week. I still won’t need much to get to the end of the month so things are still looking good. I have lots in the freezer in leftovers to make quick easy meals and I have that turkey in there, maybe soon as it would be nice to cook that up before things get too hot, hard to believe now but it will happen!! We don’t have AC so I try to not have the oven on during the summer if I can help it. Having lots of quick easy meals to whip up then is a big help!!
We loved bigger home cooked meals on weekends growing up. It was either Saturday or Sunday (mostly Sunday) and it was always a meal that took a lot of time. Roasted meat was common, so was Spaghetti with homemade sauce (that took many hours and we rarely had it during the week – canned sauce was not so common as now). We also had lasagna, seafood or Newfie boiled dinner (only about once a year – was hard to get the meat in Ontario many years ago). Another tradition for us was Sunday breakfast. A big breakfast of eggs, bacon and potato pancakes (like latkes) was a massive draw. While we don’t necessarily do a big meal every week, life is busier now than when I was growing up, we do take the time to usually do that when we can! Big dinner with lots of fixings also makes meals easy for the first couple of days during the work week!
Week 2 April 9 – 15
March Monthly budget $240 ($60 per week)
March Costco budget $80 ($20 per week)
Total Spent Grocery this week: 44.15
Total Spent this month: $95.80
Total Spent Costco this week: $0
Total Spent Costco this month: $0
Grocery left to spend: $144.20
Costco left to spend: $80
Coupons used: $0
Coupons to date: $0
PC Optimum Redemption: $0
PC Optimum Redemption to date: $0
Checkout 51 Opening Balance: $136.80
Checkout 51 weekly offers redeemed: $0
Checkout 51 Current balance: $136.80
Checkout 51 Cheque Redemption: $0
Checkout 51 Cheque Redeemed to date: $0
Grocery carry over: $37.45
Costco carry over: $0
Shoppers Drug Mart
Milk 2 x 4.27
Total Paid 8.55
Real Canadian Superstore
Apple Juice 1.98
Tartar Sauce 2.88
Gingerale 6.35
Coke Zero 6.35
Peanut Butter 3.77
Iceberg lettuce 2 x 1.00
Bananas 1.07
Red Grapes 2.99
English Cucumber .77
Pineapple 1.88
Whole Wheat bread 2 x 1.88
Pita bread clearance .54
Total Paid 35.60
Less on this week’s shop than planned. Sick kid equals changes in what we get and less food in the house so there isn’t waste. We don’t often have the shop timed with illness so we often waste. In this case, we have enough. A few price matches with grapes, cucumber and peanut butter. A lucky clearance on pita bread that I could pop right into the freezer. I could have gotten more, but 1 package was enough since we are trying to clean out the freezer in the long run. I found milk still at 4.27 at Shoppers even though everywhere else has gone up. I would normally only have bought 1, but we have been going through more recently and 20x points was incentive enough.
APRIL – Week #2 of 4- Apr 9-15, 2018
2018 GROCERY BUDGET / STOCKPILE BUDGET AND US RESERVE:
•Total Grocery Budgeted For Year: $190.00 x 12 = $2,280.00 for 2 adults
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REMARKS FOR THE MONTH:
This time of year is crazy busy work-wise for me & we’re making lots of soups so that we can cook once then eat 3-4 times.
REMARKS FOR THE WEEK:
This week’s shop was primarily about collecting Air Miles but it meant I went OVER BUDGET! Holy Toledo! I haven’t done that in a while!!
I’ll carry the overage into next month and straighten things out then. Fortunately I’ll hit up the re-stocking reserve to cover the bacon when it comes in & I can still get my other 80 Air Miles without increasing our overage any further.
I’m trying to get to the 1,000 Air Miles points for 2018 to guarantee my Gold status for another year & as soon as I have them…we’ll switch back to using our Starwood AMEX and collecting SPG Points for this year’s vacations.
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OUR “CANADIAN” SHOPPING:
No Frills – Maple Ridge –
1 x McCains Fries $1.93
1 x 2lb carrots $1.47
2 x 2kg Mushrooms $5.94
1 x 12 pack dinner rolls $1.99
1 x 12 pack WW Hot Dog Buns $2.47
Total OOP: $13.80
** Earned 0 PC.Plus Points on this shop **
** SAVED $0.00 in Rain Check Coupons **
** SAVED $0.00 Loyalty Savings on this shop **
—————————————————————–
Safeway – Maple Ridge –
1 Clamato $4.29 + 5 Air Miles
1 Compliments Blueberry Pie Filling $3.79 + 7 Air Miles
1 bunch celery $1.99 + 3 Air Miles
1 Compliments Bacon Cheddar Sausages $10.99 + 11 Air Miles
1 pkg imitation crab $2.99 + 8 Air Miles
2 Dagwood Sandwiches @ $9.99 ea + 20 Air Miles
Base Air Miles 2
Bonus Air Miles spend $25 get 25
•Total Grocery OOP: $45.27
** NOTE: Hubby got a rain check for 2 Harvest Thick Cut Bacon 2 Kg @ $15.99 + 80 Air Miles when you buy 2 packages **
** Earned 81 Air Miles on this shop **
** USED $0.00 in Rain Check Coupons **
** SAVED $4.20 Loyalty Savings on this shop **
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OUR “US RESERVE” SHOPPING:
OUR NEXT USA SHOP WILL BE IN MAY
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2018 Y-T-D GROCERY SAVINGS:
•Total Loyalty Card Price Reductions This Year: $133.14
•Total Coupons/Rain Checks Used This Year: $0.00
•Total Price Match Savings Used This Year: $0.00
•Total More Points Earned This Year: 88 Points
•Total Air Miles Earned This Year: 135 Air Miles
•Total PC Optimum Points Earned This Year: 0 Points
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• SUMMARY OF FUNDS Y-T-D:
$ 760.00 Grocery Budget JAN-APRIL
($211.08) NET RESERVE TRANSFERS
($ 532.99) Actual CASH SPENT
$ (15.01) AVAILABLE Y-T-D GGC SPENDING NOT INCL RESERVES
• RESERVES Y-T-D:
$ 326.42 Freezer Re-Stocking Fund
$ 222.59 Holiday Season Fund + $260 PC Optimum Points ($220 Mary + $40 Larry) + $10 Dream Air Miles + $50 Save On Foods More Rewards ($25 Mary + $25 Larry)+ $50 Loblaws Card ($25 Mary + $25 Larry) = $587.59
$ 699.59 Summer Season Fund
$ 606.87 US Shopping Reserve
$ 88.80 GGC Savings Reserve
$ 0.00 Points Redeemed Reserve
OUR CURRENT TOTAL UNUSED RESERVES ARE $1,944.27. This means the 1,761.30 that we carried forward from 2017 PLUS AN ADDITIONAL $507.28 that we have added in 2018, LESS $324.31 that we have drawn out for use in 2018.
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