from-the-kitchen1

A big part of my keeping to a budget has been menu planning.  Each week I take a look at what’s in the cupboard and decide what to make for dinner each evening.  Breakfast is every man for himself and lunch is dependent on whether the husband is home or not.  Planning dinners has allowed me to shop sales and make sure the food we buy gets used and not thrown away.  Plus I love to find recipes and then ignore them when I cook, the menu plan gives me a starting point.  So let’s see what’s on for this week…

Saturday – OUT

Sunday – banana pancakes

Monday – spaghetti

Tuesday – black beans and biscuits

Wednesday – pizza

Thursday – garden burgers

Friday – tuna casserole

felix

We are using a system that is somewhat based on $80/week for grocery and non-edible and the $50 a week budget.  Each week we calculate how much we spent overall and I announce if we are under or over budget.

eating out – $114.39

grocery – $29.64

grocery non-edible – $0

Your votes were headed and the weakly accounts are here to stay.  After being waylayed by travel and poor health menus are again being planned and spending is being counted.  Last weeks spending is more a result of the latter although the fact that there was some sort of eating out almost every day would beg to differ.  Luckily we have been eating down our pantry so groceries were limited to the bare basics.  I’m hoping we can keep the same spending this week, without the abundant eating out of course.