Well we are headed to our old house this afternoon. We have to get some work done there. I have been working on a few things this morning though. I started looking at our budget last night. I decided we needed to cut back in a few areas such as gas and food. We tend to make a lot of trips to town and forget to pack any food. Then we get there and need to eat. So by eliminating trips to town we eliminate our fast food bill. They go hand in hand. Last week I planned a menu but only for dinner. Come lunch time I got the 12'o clock panic...you know the kind where you realize you don't have anything planned to eat. Well, this week I am adding in the breakfast, lunch, and snacks category.
The first thing I am working on is the $40 weekly meal plan. So my ultimate goal is to get under $250 for groceries per month. Now the $40 meal plan for one week is far under my budget but I thought if I can make $40 a week work, then I can add extra things. I got the meal plan from www.hillbillyhousewife.com. But I am changing bits of it to suit our tastes. I get to eliminate many things from the shopping list because I already have them. So I added a few things that I prefer over the suggested recipes.
Our menu plan this week includes making my own bread, (which really isn't that expensive but sounds like fun), corn bread, tortillas, muffins, pancake mix, etc. I think it's good to get back to the old way of doing things before everything came packaged in expensive little boxes. I get worried about what kinds of things are in my foods. You know those things you can't even pronounce. There is a lot of high fructose corn syrup in EVERYTHING!! Yogurt, maple syrup, drinks, I would just like to make things simple and healthy.
Our eating habits have changed over the last few weeks. I have been reading up on the sites in my Helpful Homemaking list. Some things I have changed so far include eliminating dry cereals, individualized servings of snacks. We have been eating less meat and substituting more beans...which the family LOVED!! We had a recipe that tasted like Nachos Bell Grande from Taco Bell. They loved it.
To help with these changes, we have been making muffins, oatmeal, french toast, pancakes, or smoothies. For lunches I have been taking the extra time to pack individual snacks for Peyton and Pierce. I have been packing Pierce leftovers and a few side snacks. Peyton usually gets the usually sandwich and snacks. The Hillbilly Housewife site has a great deal of information about packing lunches as well as a lot of ideas. I am excited to use those.
As soon as we get back from our trip tomorrow, I am going to get started on my frugal menu plan. I am excited to see if I can make it work.
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