The Saga of May Meal Planning

Happy Mother's Day to all celebrating being a mom, having a mom, or having or being  someone in your life that is special  in a mom like way. I took out the old church cookbook for some homey meal planning inspiration and I can't help thinking of all the mom like folks in the book. We're going for brunch later this morning. DD2 actually will be our hostess, so her grandma will see her for a bit.No gifts for me-I was adamant to all, though I would not be opposed to someone waking me up with the coffee pod already set and a cup  brewed and ready. 

I'm doing well in the household and grocery (H&G) department this month. I'm trying t keep my annual spending to $5,000, which gives me on average $400 per month, plus a couple hundred for overages. January I was self challenged to use up all the extras from Christmas and February if I recall was on target. March and April both had significant overages, but then March shopping went towards hosting Easter and in April I stock piled some paper goods, paper towels or Kleenex not needed for the rest of the year, and a two month supply of TP. I'm hoping therefore to keep May and potentially June to $380, but won't stress myself to do so.

Meals will be humble, but we have several cabin Sundays/weekends, so I tend to make extra food as additional folks could turn up. Leftovers can always be brought home for eating in the week. We have a lot of gift giving in both months with oodles of graduation parties and Mother's Day so tweaking the H&G to a more austere spending pattern will help the overall plan. I have to give Kudos to DH this past week. He only spent $26 picking up fish, tator tots, and sandwich rolls, lemonades, milk, and a couple pizzas. He did pretty darn well with controlling his rogue shop. I mean, he is an adult and if he felt like making fish and tots for supper last Thursday, who am I to always be slapping his hands? Plus, there are a couple pizza's to use if we  end up with a busier week, keeping us from take out. I'm not always an evil grocery  miser.

I picked up breakfast and lunch items yesterday at Aldi's as we were pretty low on both.We needed a supply of fruit and snacking vegetables, and those ate up a significant amount of my estimate for my Aldi shop, but I have an unopened container of hummus plus peanut butter that me and DD2 like for snacking. DH requested trail mix, also a pricey item. Building off what we already have in the pantry, fridge and freezer and my new shop, here's the possible meal plan for suppers for the week and carrying into the following week potentially to have two final low spend weeks.My spending on Saturday was $6.09 at the bakery which included $4.00 for lemon bars for DD2's friend/ my friends daughter who has been unwell and has missed a lot of school, $66.72 at Aldi's and $21.98 at Target, but I used a coupon and received a $5.00 gift card for buying $20 in  beauty supplies. My Target funds went to restocking DD2 in make up remover wipes and micellular water, myself with SPF 15 face lotion and a drastically needed new mascara, and a coral nail polish for us to share. I don't anticipate needing anymore H items for the month. I now have $20 in Target cards, even after giving DD1 some when she was home last month in appreciation of all the help she gave her sister during the snowy weekend. 

Meal Options. Nothing fancy here folks, but should yield a night or two plus lunch leftovers.

• Homemade pepperoni pizza
• Turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, stuffing, steamed Vegetables
• Tuna hotdish with peas and steamed carrots
• 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, hasbrowns, 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
• Chili dogs with homemade fries
• leftovers
• frozen pizza

Status Of my H&G budget
Spending goal: $380
Spending as of May 13, 2018 $291 
$89 balance/2$45.50 per week for May 19th and May 26th
Pantry:Full