I am challenging myself to $380 for my household and grocery budget. I'm not counting a few incidentals that are part of household maintenance nor medications, but do count personal supplies and all cleaning. I spent $50 on Saturday, leaving myself with $39 through the end of the month. Completely doable when factoring in pantry and stock already in my kitchen. I had made an ample list of meal options last week, much of which can carry into this week, leaving me the funds for memorial day weekend. DH didn't get take out when I was out of town which surprised me, so kudo's to him.
- Sunday: Homemade pizza-pepperoni, onions, sliced tomato(picture is old-no spinach or ham this time)
- Monday: Tuna hotdish with peas and steamed carrots
- Tuesday: Jimmy John's
- Wednesday:frozen pizza
- Thursday:leftovers, but I'm not sure what
- Friday: Hot dogs (I at lunch very late, frozen burritos, and DH had met a friend for lunch. DD2 had Spaghettio's before going to work and then snacks at a friends)
- Saturday:Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed Vegetables
This leaves a whole lot of options. I made Sloppy Joe's, salad, coleslaw, and spinach dip for the lake on Sunday, with leftovers. The ingredients, buns, salad, and slaw was the bulk of my shop on Saturday along with breakfast cereals. We've got awards night tonight for DD2 and her last orchestra concert tomorrow so I'll throw chicken in the crock pot when I get home to use it for meals through the week.
Here's the rest of my ideas for the menu, carried over from last week.
- Leftovers-tonight we'll have the remaining Turkey meatloaf, Sloppy Joe's, and assorted stuff from weekend
- Boneless BBQ chicken thighs, baked sweet potatoes and broccoli
- Loaded baked potatoes, with homemade chicken nuggets, baked beans
- Chicken, rice, and broccoli hotdish-my favorite
- Rigatoni and sauce and salad
- Ham, hashbrowns, steamed vegetables
- Tacos with hamburger, cheese, lettuce, and tomatoes, refried beans, Spanish rice
- Veggie and chicken fried rice with Egg
- Rice crust ham, broccoli, and cheddar quiche with garden salad
I'm thinking ahead a bit to next weekend. While the $39 is doable, we will have a holiday weekend plus another three weekdays to stretch the month. I'm hoping chicken will go on sale, and will stretch the weekend budget with a crock pot pasta dish, which seems to go over with the guys and kids as a change from the abundance of salads. I'll bring my black bean and corn salsa and chips for snacking, which also is a budget stretcher. How are you all doing on your May budget? Has anyone else challenged themselves to stay below a certain dollar amount for the month? Thinking ahead to summer picnics, potlucks, and guests, what are your crowd pleasing budget dishes?
I use the cash envelope system, which is pretty easy as I'm on my own! But I realize that I still overspend on food because I like to have everything in the house "just in case" I want to cook something. Silly really because I will never be able to cook everything I want and even if I did I would then still have to eat it. I was good this weekend as I just went to the market and bought fruit and veg for a grand total of 15 euros. Next week I won't be supermarket shopping either as I'm off to Turin market - although I'm sure I'll go wild for the Italian fruit and veg which seems to be so much tastier than ours.
ReplyDeleteThat's what i should do with the $39-when gone, it's gone. I drove to Aldi's once and realized I forgot my wallet that had the credit card. I had something like $11 so I planned carefully exactly what I needed. It is a good system if discipline is wanted.
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