All Things Alicia

Menu Plan Monday - The End of the Month Budget

Is it just me, or is January a financially long month this year?  It feels like it's taking forever for the new month to start!  What do you do when you still have a week left and you're almost out of your grocery budget? 

Normally I'd try to shift from other areas, but this month I decided to do my best to stay in budget before pulling from other categories.  That's me being disciplined...my word of the year.  But seriously, I have $40 left in the grocery budget and a family of 5!  I had to get a lot of staples to get at the beginning of the month and that is hurting me now.

So here's my plan:

1- Scour the pantry and freezer to plan well...really well. 

After looking around I have spaghetti, sauce in the freezer, potatoes, leftover roasted chicken, leftover chili, and some other odds and ends. 

 

2-  Figure out what you can make with those things - duh! 

The chili needs to be used up now or frozen so chili baked potatoes will be tonight's meal.  We had cereal and milk on hand for breakfast this morning. 

Tomorrow  (Tuesday) I'll use eggs I have on hand and a partial package of English muffins for breakfast sammies.  The leftover roasted chicken will be mixed with bbq sauce and the cheese and tortillas in the fridge for bbq chicken quesadillas and fruit salad with the random bits of fruit I have in the fridge. 

Wednesday I'll make breakfast cookies - already have all that stuff.  Dinner will be spaghetti.  I have one box of noodles in the pantry and I have plenty of homemade sauce in the freezer.  I'll pick up one more box of noodles, which is cheap and budget friendly, for dinner.  Green salad too.  I make two boxes because my family now eats a crazy amount and my hubby and kids will like the leftovers in their lunches.

Thursday - I have waffles in the freezer from a batch I made a while ago.  Time to use them up!  This will be the one dinner that will cost a bit, but I'm out of meat at this point.  I'll get the chicken on sale, and buns too, for Cafe Rio Chicken Sandwiches.  It's a crock pot meal and I have all of the other ingredients that go into the chicken for it so I only need those two ingredients.  Since I'm eating Paleo, I'll have this chicken on a salad.  It's super on anything!

Friday- I got breakfast sausage this morning and I already have applesauce in the pantry.  For dinner we'll make homemade pizza.  I have everything I need except the pepperoni, ham, and some pineapple.  I need ham for lunches anyway so that one package of lunch meat will last us this week.

Saturday I'll make either eggs or pancakes for breakfast, whatever the mood is at the time.  There will be no bacon or sausage with it but I'll have some fruit still.  For dinner we eat out after church Saturday night. 

On Sunday the kids have cereal bars for breakfast, which we have enough of in the pantry, and I make random appetizers for dinner.  Looks like appetizers will be mini sandwiches, fruit, veggies and dip, maybe more quesadilla slices if I still have tortillas at that point, crackers with some spread I'll invent with the leftover cafe rio chicken.

3- Scour the ads to get what I need at the cheapest prices possible. 

This week I am making an extra trip to another grocery store to get chicken and strawberries that are on sale for a really great price.  So good I'd normally stock up, but I can't right now. ;) 

So I got a lot at my normal Trader Joes trip and spent $28.11.  That leaves me with a little more for the chicken and strawberries.  I'll hopefully remember to report back later this week with my final numbers. 

4- What I won't be doing

There are a few things I'll skip this week.  I have one gallon of milk so I won't buy more.  Normally I would but I don't have room for it and it'll be close to the end of the month when we'd start the new gallon anyway.  It won't hurt us to have water with breakfast for a few days if needed.  It won't hurt me to not have milk for cereal next Monday, my lazy school breakfast day.  I can make oatmeal or something instead.

I won't be getting crushers (or go go squeeze) for lunches.  I get lazy and do that a lot.  I'll be pulling from fruits and veggies in the fridge for lunches.  I usually put one crusher and one fresh fruit or veggie, not this week.  I'll find other stuff.

I won't grab extra fruits "just in case".  If we run out, we'll really only be without it for a day or two.  We'll live.  It's not the end of the world. 

Breathe!  I can do this.  Really. 

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Menu Plan Monday...On Tuesday ;)

Yep, I wrote out the meal plan on Sunday, but for some reason haven't posted it. 

Due to my kids cleaning out all the staples when they were home for Christmas break, we were out of a ton of stuff so I am already running low on this month's grocery budget.  As a result, I'm planning a lot that uses up the pantry (what's left of it), freezer items, and anything else we have on hand right now.  Also, I have potatoes on hand and arugula and kale in the garden this week.

As mentioned in my last post with a meal plan, I plan my meals to be similar to my family's but Paleo with my own allowances so I don't have to prepare different meals. 

A lot of my meal planning revolves around trying to not waste what we already have. 

So here goes:

Monday was:  Breakfast was breakfast bowls (note to self, share that recipe soon). 

                           Lunch- leftovers

                            Dinner- orange roasted chicken- it was a new recipe I wanted to try and was friendly to my eating habits too so we all ate that. I also had raw veggies with ranch on the side and served the chicken over brown rice for the rest of the family.

 

Tuesday:  Breakfast- cereal for kids, leftover cauliflower soup with prosciutto dippers for me

                    lunch for me - tuna on lettuce rolls

                    dinner - crock pot chili and corn bread - I'll have the chili without the cornbread

 

Wednesday- Breakfast - croissants with homemade pomegranate jelly, bacon, and fruit.  I'll just have the bacon and fruit

                    lunch for me- cinnamon broiled grapefruit and I'll probably throw some nuts or meat slices in too

                    dinner - egg rolls,  I'll have my filling on lettuce.

 

Thursday-  Breakfast: cherry muffins for the kids and hubby, leftovers for me

                    lunch for me- nuts, hard boiled eggs, veggie sticks

                    dinner- homemade creamy chicken taquitos, I'll have the chicken filling on a salad.

 

Friday: Breakfast - sausage and applesauce for kids and I

                lunch- arugula prosciutto salad rolls with arugula from the garden and leftover prosciutto

                dinner- Black bean lettuce wraps with mango avocado salsa for everyone

 

Saturday:  Breakfast- breakfast bowls

                lunch- leftovers

                dinner - out after church

 

Sunday:  cereal bars for kids, leftovers for me

            lunch- harvest Cobb salad with eggs and kale from the garden

            dinner- appetizers I make with leftovers

 

Are you getting into the habit of meal planning right now?  I have a few tips that I thought I'd share as several of my friends have asked me for help in this area lately. 

1- Look at your schedule for the week before you plan.  I have chili in the crock pot tonight because I know I have a meeting after school and there will be a time crunch for meal preparation.   Planning this way helps me know when I will and won't have time to put something in the crock pot, when I can just prepare a chunk at some point ahead during the day, or when I can cook at a leisurely pace.  Doing this has helped me eliminate fast food dinners!  This is especially helpful when we're in the middle of  a sport season and have practices and games that make dinner time hard.  I really sucks to take the time to meal plan and then realize that on Wednesday you have practice and if you make the casserole no one will be eating until bedtime!  Deep breath.

2-  Look at what needs to be used up and by when.  It doesn't help to know you need to use up lettuce if you put in on the end of the week and it's limp and gross by then.  Put it earlier in the week.

3-  Of course shop your fridge, freezer, and pantry first (and garden if you have one).  Don't know what to do with odds and end you need to use up?  Put it on a quesadilla or pizza, or in a burrito, salad or eggs.  One of those options usually ends up working out for me.

4-  Check out the grocery ads.  This doesn't help so much with meal planning, but totally helps with the budget!

5- This may not help you but it helps me.  Check the weather forecast!  I live in an area that doesn't get much soup/chili weather.  I plan it on one of the few days that are going to be cold!  Same for salad in the summer.  I plan things like Chinese chicken salad on the hottest day of the week.

 

Have any other meal planning tips?  Share them in the comments!

 

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This year is the first year I've ever had a weight loss goal for New Year's.  I still don't have a number, just a pile of clothes I need to fit by a certain date.  I took my weight and measurements, I bought a fitness planner, but the scale has not been a good guide for me in the past.  Because I am hypoglycemic I am going the Whole 30 type route  for weight loss. 

Since I'm trying to lose weight and continue my journey to less and less processed and more and more whole foods for the family, I am being very meticulous about meal planning.  I don't mind making myself something different for breakfast and lunch, but I don't want to make 2 dinners.  And really, since we've been eating increasingly more whole foods over the last few years, planning meals that I can eat with the rest of the family hasn't been as hard (so far) as I thought it would be. 

Because I'm trying to do this the whole year, not just 30 days, I have a few concessions.  I'm allowing myself Paleo style desserts, 1 brown rice or dry bean serving a week, cream in my coffee, homemade ranch, 1 other dairy serving a week (cheese addict here), and up to 2 all natural tortillas a week.  Other than that, it's pretty much protein veggies and fruits.

To keep track of how well I'm sticking to things, I'm writing my menu plan in my fitness planner in pencil, and going over in pen when I eat it.  That way I know at a glance how many things I planned to eat but didn't, and how many things I ate that I didn't plan to.  Not that it's good or bad, just for reference. 

Side note- Anyone else's kids go through a ton of food while off for Christmas break?  Seriously, I try not to complain because my cart is at least half produce, but wow! 

So here's what my menu plan looks like for the week:

 

Those bottom 4 columns would be the grocery list.  Seriously.  I've had problems keeping up lately.  I used to able to go to the grocery store one time per week.  It's hard to stick to that now.   Even with the extra fridge in the garage.

Now here's that plan in print that's not too tiny to read ;) : (lunches are just for me since kids and hubby have packed lunches for school and work that consist of sandwiches, leftovers, and bento style lunches).

Monday: Breakfast - kids cereal, me sausage and applesauce

                lunch - me - salmon with grapefruit avocado salsa (I'll be reviewing that on here and my Daily Ration FB page)

                Dinner - Hamburger chili dish- haven't decided yet if this will be my 1 rice this week or if I will pull mine out before I add rice to it.

                Snacks: juice (hubby got me a juicer for Christmas), hard boiled egg, nuts

 

Tuesday:  breakfast- kids breakfast cookies, me vegetable soup

                lunch- smoothie and lettuce wraps

                dinner- Chicken Prosciutto Involtini from Nom Nom Paleo for the whole family with salad

                snacks: smoothie, nuts, fruit

 

Wedenesday: breakfast- kids yogurt, me sausage and applesauce

                lunch: leftovers

                dinner: meatball sammies for the family with fruit salad, just meatballs/veggie sticks/fruit salad for me

                snacks: juice, hard boiled egg, nuts

 

Thursday:  breakfast - kids cinnamon rolls, me vegetable soup

                lunch: wrap on a tortilla

                dinner: crock pot taco bowls for the family, taco salad for me (this is an easy substitution, I just leave out the rice and put a bed of lettuce down under the toppings. 

                snacks: avocado mousse

 

Friday:  breakfast- kids- cinnamon toast, fruit and bacon, me- fruit and bacon

                lunch: leftovers

                dinner: spaghetti and salad for the family, spaghetti sauce (homemade meat sauce) over steamed broccoli for me

                snacks: nuts, juice

 

Saturday:  breakfast- kids pancakes, me eggs or Paleo breakfast bars if I feel up to making them

                lunch:  vegetable soup with chicken

                dinner:  out after church - I allow myself to pick a healthier menu choice and don't obsess over every ingredient. 

                snacks:  undecided

 

Sunday:  breakfast- kids cereal bars (Sundays I try to rest), veg omelet for me (at least one of my kids usually end up wanting this too)

                lunch: leftovers

                dinner: appetizers - we do this every Sunday night with either a football game or family movie.  I will have fruits and veggies on a tray as part of the appetizers but usually make the rest based on what needs to get used up in the fridge.  Not sure yet what I'll be eating this night other than the fruits and veggies.  I might get back to you on that on Sunday. 

 

And on to the winter garden!

I've wanted to do a winter garden forever.  I just keep getting lazy.  This year I was determined.  It probably helped that my Back to Eden style garden has little to no weeds so it has become a matter of just sticking plants in the ground.  But I was still late getting it in.  I should have planted in September but here we're still getting summer veggies in September and I couldn't bear to pull them out.  We didn't plant this until December 4th so we'll wait and see if things actually grow.  We planted arugula, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, beets and carrots. 

 

What are your New Year goals?  Share them in the comments!

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