I did an inventory of both our freezers, our dry goods/ canned goods in the kitchen and in our pantry. It took quite a bit of work, then with the weekly flyers of what was on sale and a list of items that we need for the next month, I finally worked out a *hopefully* successful monthly meal plan.
Most of our budget expenses were spent over the weekend, with visits to 5 stores. I saved some money for a small run in two weeks time for more dog food and the basics such as milk and eggs (I am making bread at home for now as I have all the ingredients).
My biggest challenge was that I was out of some big expense items that had to be purchased. We buy our larger bulk items at Costco, for convenience, and I find that in most instances it is cheaper than I would spend at the store with coupons.
These were the items we HAD to purchase this week.
Flour-25 Lbs, Granular Sugar-25 Lbs, Dish Soap-100 loads, Laundry detergent-64 loads, & Dryer sheets-144 loads.
Flour & sugar normally last 9-11 months, dish soap approx. 6 months, detergent 4 months, & dryer sheets 8 months. So, here is what our monthly meal plan is scheduled for, with our first meals starting today.
Weekday Breakfast (work days)
Choice of:
Muffins
Fruit Cups
Pop tarts/ Toast
Cereal
Weekend Breakfast
Omelets & hashbrowns
French toast
Egg in Bread
Crepes with fruit
Weekday Lunch (work days)
Leftovers
Sandwich & chips
Noodle cups & cookies
Leftovers
Soup & bread
Weekend Lunch
Tomato soup & cheese sandwiches
Leftovers
Chili cheese on toasted bread
Coldcut sandwiches
Dinners
8 Leftovers
2 To-Go, Dine out
Corned beef & cabbage
Cabbage bundles & rice
Pulled pork sandwich & cabbage
Pork chops & sauerkraut
Ham & Bean soup
Beef stroganoff
Meatballs & rice
Meatball sandwiches
Taco soup
Lumpia & brown rice
Chicken fried steak & potato skins
Beef & barley soup
Sweet n Sour chicken & rice
Chicken, spinach, & mushroom pizza
Salmon patties & brown rice
Reindeer sausage & rice
Shrimp scampi & broccoli cheese rice
Chili & corn bread
So I will need to explain it a bit to make sense.
During the work week, there is a choice of breakfast items to have, i'll make muffins or quick bread every weekend to last through the week.
The lunches during the work days is standard, which makes it easier for me :-) On the weekends, we have only 2 meals a day, with typically sunday reserved for our breakfasts, so the lunches would only be for saturdays.
When planning out our dinners, I tried to use multiple items in different dishes as much as possible as well as relying on what we already have. I had to purchase eggs, milk, cabbage, pork chops, sour cream, cheese, hamburger, easy mac n cheese (lunch), ramen cups (lunch), hoagie rolls, lunch meat (lunch & weekends), & potatoes in order to make all of the above meals.
Posts
