- It is saving money because I'm only going twice a month (trying anyway!). One huge trip on the first Saturday of the month. Another trip on week three to stock up on more milk, bread, fresh fruits/veggies and any misc. stuff I forgot.
- When I'm planning my menu for the month I use the recipes that call for the fresh stuff first. Stuff like stir fry and fajitas that use veggies I can freeze are saved for later in the week.
- It is hard work! I am worn out from my 3 hour shopping trip today. I go to 2 stores. Kroger for my meat/produce/milk. Then Wal-Mart for the rest.
- Today I wore my walking shoes and yoga pants to be comfy, I remembered how tiring it was last month. Not my best fashion statement, but hey!
- Shopping once a month has caused me to get organized and it feels great because I am not naturally organized. Clean yes. Organized with paper-no.
- We are eating out a lot less and sticking to our monthly budget a lot better. Most days we have left overs for lunch.
- Friday nights have turned into Coffee and Dessert nights. If we have a free Friday night, we'll call a family and see if they can join us for Coffee and Dessert. We've only got to do this a couple of times, but what a fun way to spend a Friday night. Friday nights are also Family Fun Night and the kids get to sleep with us. (like they don't sneak in every other night anyway, but Friday's they start out with us.)
- Right now I have 6 gallons of milk in my fridge, 6 bags of cheese, 5 bags of frozen chicken in the freezer, 5 pounds of ground chuck, and 1 lb of flank steak. I have a bag of frozen stir fry, frozen brocolli, frozen peas/carrots, frozen blackberries. Canned mandarin oranges (kids love them), we use lots of canned diced tomatoes/Rotel. I do not like canned veggies though, only corn. So for veggies I use fresh or frozen. Then the fresh fruit/veggies are lettuce, bananas, apples, strawberries, grapes, tomato, potato, onion.
Today I went $6.65 over my budget and had to write a check for that part. I bought a little food processer for $10.00 to blend stuff like Rotel, Chopped Green Chilies, onion, basically anything healthy so my la familia will not know it is there. I am excited to see how it works. Oh, and here are a few things I'm making for dinner the next couple weeks.
- Pancakes, Bacon, Fresh Fruit, Orange Spritzers
- Chicken con Queso/Salsa (thanks leslie!)
- Bandito Chili Dogs
- Nacho Salad
- Flank Steak Fajitas (thanks heather!)
- Spaghetti, Bread
- Chicken Chili, topped with Tortilla chips and Cheddar
- Chicken Pot Pie
- Chicken Fried Rice
- Steakhouse Shepherd's Pie (Rachel Ray)
- Sloppy Joes/Garlic Fries (Ellie Krieger)
3 comments:
So will you be sipping wine while you prepare your bandito chili dogs? :)
I went over budget BIG time my second month too! I think it's from excitement! Glad it's working for you and your family too! Oh, and we liked the desserts and coffee thing so much that we did it this past Friday.=)
I love this!! I have started shopping every other week instead of every week and it is saving us a ton of money, too. We do have to run in sometime between trips to get more milk, because we are some milk drinkers, but I do love how a little planning helps the budget out.
I'm just amazed how you fit 6 gallons of milk in your fridge. I think a photo is called for.
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