March Meal Menu

Hello to all again. Life has been a little crazy and I have not had the time to sit down and blog. I decided that I would post my March meal menu up and talk a little about what I do every month.  I got really tired of going grocery shopping once a week or once every two weeks, so I decided that I was going to go at the beginning of the month and do all of my grocery shopping for a solid month. (now I still have to get milk about once a week and bread, but I go to my local grocery store for that) I sit down and print out a calendar  http://www.printfree.com/Calendars.htm and I write down on each day what I'm going to fix. Now I try to only spend $150 a month for groceries and $50 a month for neccesities (toilet paper, laundry soap, toothpaste, etc., you get my drift) Now, we get wic so I understand that milk and bread are not coming out of my pocket so if that was the case I would add an extra $40 to my $150 budget. It has worked out wonderful and I love doing our meals this way. I believe if you go to the grocery store with a list of food that you are going to fix and all of your little extra stuff then you don't over spend. The other key is to go with cash. If you have a check or credit card, you say to yourself - oh, it's okay if I go over. I also buy in this budget snacks for my kids to have one a day. I place those snacks in a tote that says DO NOT TOUCH. In our house, it doesn't matter how much you want something sweet, you don't get in the snack tote because then there won't be enough snacks for later. And if you have priced snacks lately, they are expensive. Just because you are doing well financially doesn't mean you just buy and buy. God wants us to use our resources wisely. So here it is- our menu for the month of march.

-chili spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
-tacos
-tuna casserole, salad
-pancakes, sausage, eggs
-4-pasta beef bake, salad, garlic bread
-homemade hamburger helper, steamed mixed vegetables
-pizza, salad, garlic bread
-chicken pot pie, salad
-sandwiches, fruit
-stir fry, bread
-scalloped potatoes w/ham casserole, steamed mixed vegetables
-tater-tot casserole, steamed broccoli
-carnitas soft tacos
-sloppy joes, fries
-baked chicken, garlic potatoes, green beans
-out to eat  :-)
-spaghetti, salad, garlic bread
-leftovers a few times also (which we love)

Now for the first few days, we had some stuff in our freezer and pantry that we used for the first part of march and we are going to be out of town a couple of days this week. I had to get quite a few staples this month and I went over my $150 budget. So my total for the month of march was $190. And all of my household neccesities came to the total of $50. I wasn't thrilled with the overage of my budget, but it wasn't too bad. The most wonderful thing is- I'm DONE shopping for groceries until APRIL!!!

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week and weekend!