One of our tighter weeks - Meal Plan for April 11th - 17
We are blessed with being paid every Friday. I can't even remember what it was like when we both were paid every other week, or in my case the 15th and last day of every month. Every Friday starts out the same, the boys sleep in (Jon currently has Fridays off due to working four 10 hour shifts) while I come down to my desk and work on the weekly bills. The beginning of the month is always the tighter part since we have the mortgage payment to take care of. After taking care of the bills, I know how much we are working with for our Friday running.
If I haven't already, I decide what we will be eating for dinners for the following week. I never plan for breakfast or lunches because they are generally the same.
Breakfast consists of cereal or toast with milk or orange juice. Sometimes on the weekend we may have eggs, pancakes, or French toast. Much like breakfast, lunch is generally the same. This coming week, Jon's lunches will be garlic bologna sandwiches with the BBQ potato chips that his grandparents got for him. Michael will have a peanut butter sandwich, gold fish crackers, and fruit gummies. I will have leftovers, a sandwich, or some type of pasta.
Sometimes during the week, I'll start writing down the different things that we run out of that needs to be replenished. After working on the dinner meal plans, I will then look through the pantry, freezer, and fridge to see what items we already have on hand. Having an over stock of items can really come in handy for when times are tight, like the first two weeks of the month. Before heading out, I always have Jon look over the list to see if there's something that he might need that I don't know about. He packs his own lunch so he knows when he's running low on something for that.
As you will see below, there are some carry overs (like pretty much every week) and that we don't have enough for the entire week. One night will be leftovers and the in-laws will be visiting on Sunday. We are trying to be better at making sure we follow through with our meal planning and are a lot better than we were before. Here are the meals that we've planned for the week. I do not include what will be with the entrees because Jon is not big on eating vegetables and Michael, well he's a picky toddler.
- Spaghetti (carry over)
- Spanish Rice (didn't get enough onions last week - will do a post about this meal this week)
- Chicken Alfredo
- Tacos
- Pork Chops
With all that being said, after getting gas for Jon's car and eating lunch out, our total left was $37.00. As always, we went to our regular two stores of Walmart and Wegmans. As you can see below, we also started getting stuff for Michael's Easter basket. We always start out at Walmart since it's the farther store. Here's the list along with the prices of each item.
- Kraft mac-n-cheese 5 box package $4.50
- loaf of bread $1.48
- box of cereal $2.84
- Easter candy $1.98, $2.88, and $0.50 x 4 = $2.00
- Alfredo sauce $1.88
- small can of green beans $0.78
- small can of corn $0.78
- mustard $1.88
The total spent at Walmart was $20.53. We also used a coupon for a $1.00 off the 5 box pack of Kraft mac-n-cheese. We weren't completely out of mac-n-cheese, but the coupon was going to expire in a few days and it's one of the only things I can get Michael to eat. We also normally buy a big bag of cereal, but since we had such a small budget, we stuck with a smaller cheaper box.
I hate weeks like this and spending a little over half of the budget at Walmart. We still had a decent size list of items to get at Wegmans. Here's the list and the item's prices.
- Gallon of whole milk $3.59
- OJ $2.49
- 1lb of hamburger meat $3.87
- 1 onion $0.65
- 2 pork chops $4.29
- 1 pack of Grill Mates marinade $0.99
- taco shells $0.99
- dozen eggs $1.99
Total ended up being $19.33, making us $2.86 over. Not too bad, but still over. We didn't have that in our account, but we were fortunate enough to have some cash to help pay for the difference. When we were at Walmart, we returned a Cars car that we forgot we already had, but couldn't find the receipt. The cashier gave Jon cash for the car and that is what helped us out with our overage!
As always, I hope this gives you ideas on what to make for dinner this week. What was your budget this week? Better yet, what's your meal plan for the week? It's really not hard to do, just have to make sure to stick with it.
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