Menu Planner for January 23-February 26

Here is the menu plan for the next 5 weeks. Hope you find this useful!


If you stumble onto my blog and want me to publish a recipe I use, or a link to a recipe I use that I found online, please leave a comment and I will add it!

$500 Challenge - Results

In April, I took on the challenge issued by Family Balance Sheet to find $500 around the house. I succeeded! Well, if you can count each of my "finds" below!

Here is what I did:

1. Reimbursement Check Found – forgot to cash previously $60.75, it's been sitting in a bag, just waiting to go to the bank - duh, that was a no brainer!

2. Submitted Lawnmower Class Action Settlement Claim. It says up to $35 is awarded. Easy enough!

3. Sold trailer $300 (Does it count if my husband sold it?)

4. Found $.75 in lunchbox that I almost never use.

5. Returned Cans at the store that have been cluttering the garage for $6.65. Killed two birds with one stone on that one! Cleaning and making money.

6. Saved $120 on my Internet bill, just by calling and renewing the contract for 1 year instead of paying month to month. We're not planning on moving in the next year anyway, so that was a pretty good deal for me.

7. Redeemed Reward points for a $50 gift card from credit card rewards program. The points were just sitting there accumulating.

So the grand total for the month was $573.15. Not bad. Wish I could do that Every Month!


In addition, I was dead-set on NOT going over on the grocery budget, which I have a small habit of doing. Not because we eat a lot, or eat extravagantly. It's because when I see a good price on things like whole wheat pasta and canned beans and tomatoes, I stock up. Oh, and I also found a great deal on cheese last month. But, in my experience, awareness is the key to budgeting, and knowing when it's OK to go the $30 over, and when it's not. I didn't spend a lot in some of the other categories, so I was able to make it work.

I hope one of my "finds" can help you too. If mine didn't help, maybe you can find some tips at one of the blogs linked to this page Family Balance Sheet.

Kitchen Adventure...

Last week I decided to make lasagna for dinner tonight. Then, when I went to the store, I forgot the lasagna noodles. Don't ask me how, they were on the list. So I thought all weekend about running to the store to buy some But, one $1 purchase just never justified going. Bright idea: why not make them from scratch?

I Googled "lasagna noodles whole wheat recipe." Guess what I found? Nothing. Interesting, because I had recently seen a recipe in a book I got from the library. After much pondering, I decided to take a recipe that called for all-purpose flour and use that, but sub in whole wheat flour. (Side note: I had a LOT of extra flour this week when I ground my wheat, so I figured that even if they failed, I could spare the expense...)

The recipe I decided to use was extremely simple:
2 1/4 C flour
3 whole eggs

I threw the ingredients in the Kitchenaid, and finished putting the granola into the oven. When I got back to the mixer, I noticed that I needed to add some water. Not a lot, maybe 1/8 C. The dough ball formed like it was supposed to (according to the recipe, remember, I had NEVER made any type of pasta before!). I let it get glossy, well, as glossy as I thought whole wheat pasta dough could get. And then I wrapped it in a damp towel and let it rest for 15 minutes (necessary, per the recipe).

Here is the adventurous part... Rolling! Goodness, I had no idea how much work it would be to roll, fold, roll, fold, roll, fold, roll! And, I had to do it 4 times (rolling the dough in quarters was actually a good thing, for lack of counter space). I think I will have sore muscles tomorrow! My arms were limp for an hour afterward.

In the end, I had some noodles left over, so I rolled them into a log sliced it into small pieces and boiled them like regular noodles. Man, were they tasty! I am extremely excited to taste the final product of the assembled lasagna.

After tasting my homemade noodles, I had the thought... It is really pretty sad that we consider these home-made whole-wheat noodles to be gourmet. 100 years or so ago, it would have been all you got! The things we take for granted.

Menu Planning Monday

This week was an easy one for us.

Sunday: We had 15 people over for a family Birthday dinner: Spaghetti, salad, homemade meatballs, and a Boston Cream Pie.

Monday: My husband's Birthday, and he got pizza as a present, so we baked that up.

Tuesday: Brown Jug Soup from fix-it-and-forget-it cookbook.

Wednesday: Mexican Dip, tortilla chips, and carrot sticks

Thursday: Baked Asian Chicken, rice, Green Beans (Asian Honey Chicken recipe from recipezaar)

Friday: Leftovers/MYO

Saturday: Grilled Cheese and Vegetable Soup

I subbed Tuesday and Wednesday meals. Tuesday was supposed to be tofu stir-fry, and Wednesday was supposed to be Hamburger Helper. The Brown Jug Soup was supposed to be on Monday, but the pizza pre-empted it. My husband loudly complained about the Hamburger Helper (I am honestly trying to use up what we have, but I might end up donating it to the food bank...), so we couldn't have that.

Find many more Meal Ideas on Menu-Planning-Monday here: Orgjunkie.com!

Menu Monday!

OK, Here is the dinner menu we had last week. (My weeks will always start on Sunday and end on Saturday. It's just how I do it. I will also be a week behind, because I do my meal planning on Tuesday in my routine.)

Sunday - Baked Turkey, Mashed potatoes, broccoli, cornbread (this is a very budget meal, since the turkey was bought for .22/lb LAST thanksgiving, and was in my freezer all year!)
Monday - Taco Night
Tuesday - Chickpea Cutlets (See the recipe at Recipezaar.com), green beans, rice
Wednesday - Turkey Tetrazzini (modified recipe from the miserly mom), corn
Thursday - Pizza at Papa's Pizza (Son's football party) Disclaimer: only my son ate the pizza there, the rest of us ate leftovers at home beforehand. The prices are crazy there!
Friday - leftovers/MYO
Saturday - Frozen Pizza (Was supposed to be homemade pizza, but got short on time...)


Check out more menus at Meal Planning Monday

Menu Planning "Frustration"

I'm always open for new meals. My kids like to try new things. Some are hot, others, not so much. We add things to "Make again" and the "well, the recipe sounded good" lists.

Here is my rant: I search online for budget-friendly meals, and recipes. I am exasperated by people who feed a family of four on "barely $200 per week." Am I crazy? I spend WAY less than that for our family of FIVE and we eat "like kings," as my husband puts it. I generally spend about $100/week, and that includes stocking up on things, not just what we are eating that week. If you count what I pull out of my pantry each week, we are eating for about $50/week.

So, here's what I plan to do about it. I will start posting what we eat. Starting with my generic meal plan, you'll see how people who really have a budget eat and eat well.

First, we have a strict breakfast menu. My kids follow it. It's posted on the fridge. We don't vary from it.

Rotating through 2 weeks (the weeks are governed by our chore chart system, but that will have to be saved for another day...), the menu is as follows.

Breakfast - Week 1			Breakfast - Week 2
Monday	Mom's Choice		Monday	Pancakes
Tuesday	Cereal		Tuesday	Oatmeal
Wednesday	Eggs and Toast		Wednesday	Cereal
Thursday	Oatmeal		Thursday	Peanut Butter Toast
Friday	Cereal		Friday	Cereal

Notice that the cereal is not as frequent as the kids would want. What kinds of cereal do I buy? 100% cheap-y cheap, whatever is in the bag and costs the least. Often, it's generic frosted mini-wheats. Kids don't want it? Too bad. They learn to eat what's there. And, this menu has a lot less sugar than grab-and-go snack-y breakfasts like poptarts, cereal bars, and toaster strudels.

Pancakes are made from pancake mix, and the toast is made from homemade bread (from wheat that I grind myself, that I buy for roughly $.26/pound). I allow oatmeal packets on oatmeal days, but they're only the store-brand (unless by some random chance I have a coupon and the name-brand is also on sale, causing the per-packet price to be less than the generic brand). They always have the option to use regular quick oats and add bananas, walnuts, and cinnamon to make "banana-bread oatmeal."

Lunches. EASY. They pack their own. EVERY DAY. The price of school "hot lunch" is way too much ($1.75 each!), especially when you look at the quality of the food (too much sugar, not enough whole grains, they always have the "option" of the hot-dog choice...). We have a chart on the fridge again. It says:

Lunch
Sandwich
Vegetable
Fruit
Snack
Drink

Sandwiches are usually peanut butter and jelly, again, homemade bread which they slice themselves, by choice. Not because we don't have lunch meat. Often they will ask if I can make chicken salad for their sandwiches. How great is that?! The vegetable is usually cut up carrots (I buy one 5-lb bag per week, and peel and cut them up into a container in the fridge, which is WAY cheaper than buying baby carrots). Sometimes they even take celery. For fruit, they can take canned fruit (to rotate through our food storage), or apples, pears, bananas, or whatever fruit I can buy that is on super-sale that week. The "snack" is something like animal crackers, goldfish crackers, pretzels, etc. For drinks, they often take water. Yes, water. In their own refillable water bottle. I refuse to buy kool-aid-y sugar drinks for these boys. They DON'T need the sugar.

My Dinner Menu Plan varies from week to week, but follows the same basic plan.

Sunday - Crockpot
Monday - Soup/Salad/Sandwiches
Tuesday - Vegetarian (NO Meat)
Wednesday - Casserole/One-Dish Meal
Thursday - Fancy Dinner
Friday - Leftovers/MYO (Make-your-0wn)
Saturday - Cook's Choice

Sunday-Wednesday are pretty self-explanatory. I like all of these to be easy, cheap, and fast, but still from scratch. Thursday can be anything, but it's served at the table with full place settings, and candles, and cloth napkins. This developed out of a need for my children to "practice fancy manners." It works. Now they are pointing out flaws in each-other's manners, as well as in other people's manners (not always such a good idea...). Friday is my "day off," meaning I don't want to plan a huge dinner which causes a lot of stress. It's also a great way to get rid of what's in the fridge, that my husband did not take to work for his own lunch.

We live by the standard of "eat meat sparingly," which means that it's not the main focus of the meal. That reduces our grocery bill by an awful lot. If I make a casserole, I put in half of the meat. One 12 oz can of chicken can feed the whole family.

I hope this helps out some others that must feel the same way I do about feeding a family on a budget. I will start posting what we eat each week as well. Then my work can benefit others!

On Teaching Kids the Value of a Dollar

I don't know how well it's working yet, but teaching my boys about personal finance, budgeting, and general money management seems to be working. We have a system where the boys can earn up to $5/week for good behavior. There are also additional chores that they can do to earn additional money.

One of my sons has taken to it pretty well, and generally finds ways to make more money, another one seems to simply whine when his brother can buy something and he cannot! I suppose that is a great life lesson, something that will haunt them for the rest of their lives if they don't learn it now.

Now, teaching them to not squander it all away with candy and junk food will be another lesson entirely!

Food Budget Maximization

Last week, my total grocery bill was $28.27. I fed my family of 5. Well, ok, ONE of them is still nursing…but the rest of us all ate well for that amount. I was asked by a few people how I did it, so I’m giving some advice. My only qualifications on this are experience, so take what you want from this and leave the rest!

1. Use Meal Planning to Organize Your Needs

Start with a Breakfast Menu. We have two weeks (M-F) of menu that we flip back and forth. There is no question of what’s for breakfast for the kids, and it takes stress out of the mornings.

Next, plan your dinners. Dinner is the most expensive meal (usually), so take that to heart when you’re looking at what you want to cook (or eat!). I usually plan mine a few weeks or months out, but you can do it week by week too.

2. Incorporate a Vegetarian Day Each Week

Beans are cheap! Learn to cook and eat them! I hated beans growing up, but now that I see the price of meat, I am broadening my horizons. Buy a pound of different kinds until you see which ones you can stomach (I can’t do pinto!). Buy them dry, since they are even cheaper than canned ones, and they don’t have the added salt and potential preservatives.

3. Make EVERYTHING from Scratch

Don’t buy pre-packaged anything. This includes Hamburger Helper, Uncle Ben’s, Bisquick, Pancake Mix, etc. All of these things can be made with the staples you probably already have in the cupboard, for pennies on the cost of their packaged and preservative-laden counterparts. Plus, buying ingredients instead of packages is better for the environment!

4. Buy Generic!

There are not many things that I buy that are name-brand. Does flour, sugar, and oil really need a brand name on it? I’m not saying that you have to give up everything that you like here, I mean, if you just have to have Kraft Singles, buy them. But when you can, buy the generic version of everything. You’ll find that couponing becomes impossible because stores don’t publish coupons for their own brands usually (Target is the exception here). I still look for coupons though, because there are some things that I like to have the “real thing” on, and if you can combine a sale with a coupon, then you can get the name brand for the price of the generic or less.

5. When Shopping, Use a List

This is easy when you have a meal plan in place! Make your list from your plan, and stick to it! Don’t buy anything that’s not on your list. If you want a candy bar, it better be written down.

6. Use Your Reusable Bags

It sounds piddly, but you get a refund at most stores! Even if you get $.50 back, hey, it’s better than nothing at all. And, you’re being “green” too.

Purpose of This Blog

The purpose of my Blog is to give out information that people request of me!

Some of the recent requests include recipes, budget tips, food storage, organization, Cub Scouts, and more!

If you want to know information on something that you think I can help with, leave a reply and I will get back to you!

Thanks,
Jessica