Space Meal Planning, Copy Cat Recipes, and Target

I don't have a chest freezer so my regular freezer needs to do all my hard work in planning ahead for Christmas. I have a second refrigerator in the garage, but we haven't used in awhile so I'm not trusting it. DD1 said she'll store some of the baked goods and treats which will be a help. No longer can I rely on weather outside (too many temperature fluctuations) to store baked goods and after the squirrel incident last year, I have critters to worry about. My plan this month, though probably not as thrifty, is to plan and shop only for the week, leaving precious freezer space for when I find a good deal on the ham, steaks, salmon, and beef roast and other treats just for Christmas. I'm already at $34 for December because I picked up snacks for the road and frozen pizza for Wednesday-don't ask why my meal preparations went south. I had reconciled November, counted that shop towards December, so am starting December behind. I,m already  a bit into the extra Christmas food budget for candy purchased after Thanksgiving. I still would like to hit $400 this month-need to start saving for that pricey college bill. 

We got a fair amount of snow yesterday so I didn't feel like shopping after all the driving around picking up the plant sale order for DD2 and her friend M, as her parents were out of town. DH stopped for hamburger buns and coleslaw, and got chicken breasts that were on special. We had hamburgers and coleslaw. I've got banana  oat muffins in the oven now. DD2 is meeting her vocal jazz group for lunch before they have a sound check for a 3:00 concert. I'll run and get groceries after church. Here's my plan:

Chicken breasts (now already in the house), tortillas, baking potatoes, spinach salad, long grain rice- chicken  breasts and rice, homemade chicken nuggets and baked potatoes, grilled chicken wraps. (3 meals)
Three pound of ground beef, penne pasta, hamburger buns (have some left), cottage cheese-Sloppy Joe's and homemade fries/wedges, penne pasta bake, meatballs, rice, and steamed vegetables (3 meals with some hamburger left)
Loaf of bread, crackers-bean soup from freezer with grilled cheese sandwiches (1 meal)

We also need fruit, milk, cereal, eggs, carrots and celery (my two a day veggies and fruit in my lunch), pancake mix, brown sugar, canned pumpkin, granola, and butter. I should be under $50 with this shop, keeping me on  target for the month. I'm using up some canned goods already in the pantry. I have two work events this week, one of which I need to bake pumpkin bread for, and the other I need to get paper goods, and the granola. I'm trying to keep those extras budgetarily lean. If I can get to next weekend with only $100 spent, I'll consider it a successful December start. 

I sometimes do a wander on the freebie site for items I am interested in, but haven't tried to see if there are samples. There was a downloadable restaurant copy cat  recipe book. I saved it as a PDF on my computer. It might be fun while trying to save some money to try a couple of these. 

I'll head to Target for the 10% off gift cards. I am not sure what increments you can buy in, but I want a supply of $10 and $20 ones for stockings and supplementing gifts and what I don't need for gifts, I'll use for our own shopping. Saving 10% right off the bat for my own household is a good leg up. Who else is trying to save precious freezer space? Is anyone else hitting Target today and if so, will the gift cards be gifts or for your own use?