Eeek...this 200 Challenge is hard! We are still under budget for August, but we are doing a lot of eating things that might not be what we would pick if we could pick whatever we wanted. It makes us feel really thankful for what we have though. We are very blessed to have plenty of food to eat. Here's what our budget totals look like so far this month. With a few shopping trips, we've spent $27.11 this past week, plus $133.47 earlier this month, all out of our $200 budget, leaving $39.42 left for the rest of August.
I'm trying to stretch some meals too. Last week I made Homemade Pizza, but instead of just making one, I used the same recipe and made two pizzas with mostly the same amount of ingredients. I did add a little bit of extra tomato and basil. It was a thin crust {yummy!} which turned out great and we had a lot of pizza leftover to eat for lunches over the next few days.
Dinners -
Monday - Black Beans & Brown Rice Casserole, Salad
Tuesday - Chicken & Wild Rice Bake, Curried Potatoes, Broccoli
Wednesday - Easy Italian Pasta, Garlic Bread,
Thursday - Leftovers
Friday - Taco Salad, Fresh Fruit
Saturday - Lentil Rice Casserole, Tilapia, Biscuits
Sunday - Leftovers
Breakfasts -
Oatmeal {with honey, cinnamon, & coconut oil}
Orange Cranberry Muffins {from last week}
Malt O' Meal
Spice Cake
Cereal
Lunches -
Leftovers
Sandwiches
Bean, Rice, & Cheese Burritos
Fruit
Veggies
For more menu planning visit I'm an Organizing Junkie.
6 comments:
Looks delicious! I've been cooking for just my daughter and I the last few weeks while my husband works out of town. I thought it would be easy to slash the grocery budget, but it's harder than it looks. I admire you for the great job you're doing.
We are right in the same boat Sarah! We have spent $271.32 already this month. It is really challenging us to think of smaller, healthier meals. We are learning to buy what we need, not what we want. Very hard for us because we both grew up on southern meals and lots of processed stuff. This is QUITE the challenge!!! Teaching us so much more than just how to cut our grocery cost, ya know?
Katie, Thanks for your encouraging words! It IS hard! Good for you...keep at it! :-)
Amy, I know exactly what you're saying. I keep telling myself that I won't regret how hard it is now when one day we are debt free and have more wiggle room! I've been making my own "canned" beans for pretty much the first time instead of buying them in the can. It has been a little more work, but not that much really, and it does save a lot!
I would not have thought to can my own beans! I will have to look that up and try it! We love to make a pot of beans, but really don't like to eat them for 2 weeks. LOL Canning would be perfect! We have our debt free plan, and even though everything (except the house) will be paid off in roughly 3 years it seems soooo far away. It will be nice to have that wiggle room! So nice! Keep up the good work! I guess I need to blog about this.... I am so slack! haha!
I guess I should mention that I don't have any "canning equipment" so all I do is cook a big pot of beans, use jars that I save to reuse, and put them in the freezer in can sized portions {leaving a little head room for expanding as they freeze}. Super easy!
That's a whole lotta rice! Cutting back on the grocery budget is never easy to do to start, but it gets easier with practice.
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