The hubby and I decided that it was time to take another look at our budget since the old car payment was out and the new car payment is in - including increasing insurance, cable, etc.
After taking a look at last month and doing all those fun little calculations of income vs outcome, the number one thing I wanted to tackle was our food bill. We spend approximately $500 dollars a month on our grocery bill. This does not include any eating out we do.
$500!
With two adults, one half-time child, and one baby.
I blame Marlee. She is eating us out of house and home.
But seriously, something had to be done. And considering I am the main meal planning, grocery shopper, cooking lady - I needed to take a good look at the next couple weeks. I took a day to write down two weeks of meals, write the list of items I needed, and even collected a couple coupons for my shopping trip.
(Ok confession, Giant Eagle just sends me coupons. I do not go out and find them.)
My goal was to knock off approximately two hundred dollars from my shopping trips. I wanted to keep each trip close to $150 and with planning every two weeks, we could have a $300 grocery shopping bill. That extra $200 dollars we saved could go to savings - maybe. We are bad at saving too. Focusing on groceries though!
So my meal plan for the next two weeks is as follows:
Tuesday: Frozen Pizza
Wednesday: Chicken Tetrazinni
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Grilled Cheese
Saturday: Steak Carnitas with rice
Sunday: Honey Lime Tilapia with asparagus
Monday: BBQ Pulled Pork
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Spaghetti and Meatballs
Thursday: Leftovers
Friday: Sausage and Potatoes
Saturday: Leftovers
Sunday: Breakfast for Dinner
Monday: Grilled Cheese
Purple days are the days I work. I try to do something easy on those days since sleep is really my main priority. I provided links to all the recipes since I am a bit of a Pinterest addict and I get most of my recipes from there. If I do find that something is extra delicious and my family loved it, I will do a more detailed post on it.
Feel free to use some of these recipes! My other blog friends deserve all the credit for posting such delicious meals!
Update!: Nick and I went to the store and the bill came to $135! Fifteen dollars under budget! I used the Giant Eagle coupons and saved $16 which put us under the target $150. I was so excited and Nick was amazed with my skills. I actually did surprise myself too.
No comments:
Post a Comment