Travis and I have been budgeting our money since January. We are making some great changes in our financial lifestyle, thanks in large part to Dave Ramsey. We still have some debt that we are paying off, but living according to a budget has been an interesting challenge.
I have found that when I plan a menu for our week we save a lot more money on groceries. In May, I only spent $200 on groceries for the month! $216.84 exactly, and that included buying diapers for Arwen. So, how did I do that? Menu planning. I typically go through my recipe book and decide on what we will have for dinner each night, sometimes we don’t go exactly accordingly like I may say we will have Spaghetti on Monday but we will actually have it Thursday. After I plan out the meals for the week I go to the pantry and see what I already have then I make a list of what we need. I also go through any coupons I may have. I’m not great at clipping coupons especially because I don’t normally buy a paper and we don’t have a printer at home so a lot of times I buy the store brand of certain items. I don’t or won’t skimp on cereal and some things though. I discovered that if I buy the $0.98 Hunts Spaghetti sauce and then season it with spices it taste better than Prego and other jars of sauce. I don’t make my own. Keep in mind, I have really only been cooking for 10 years. I didn’t grow up in the kitchen because my Mom was always the cook for our family. Travis loves to cook and so he has taught me a lot and I call my Mom and Aunt Melba a lot to ask about how to cook various things. I digress.
Back to the menu…here’s an example of a weekly menu for us…
Monday…Spaghetti and Garlic Crescent Rolls
Tuesday…Chicken and potato foil packet dinners w/ purple hull peas
Wed…Pasta Tetrazinni w/ tuna
Thurs…Hamburgers w/ chips and baked beans
Fri…Asian salmon w/ rice and corn
Sat…Dinner out…
Sun…Chili w/ cornbread
And that’s it, a lot of times Travis has enough to take lunch for the next day. I only do this weekly, I found that if I made a menu for the month that I don’t stick to it and since I usually have to go back to the store anyway for milk or eggs or something like that I found that the weekly menu works best for us, but many people can do a monthly menu. When I plan really well and have all the staples already in my pantry I can get in out of the grocery store spending less than $50 a week sometimes. For 4 people I don’t consider that too shabby!