Today I decided to give myself a little challenge for this upcoming week. Normally I would be making my grocery list and heading out to the store but looking at our budget for this month I think a no spend/small spend challenge is in order. Currently we are already at $231 for the month out of our $400 grocery budget and it is only April 8th! Not sure how that happened, but it did.
On top of that, Hubby and I ate out at a buffet for Easter which we had not originally budgeted. We also ate out at Chilis when my parents came for a visit, another expense not budgeted in. Now neither of these expenses were much, combined they were only around $100 and spending money on them did not and will not affect us much financially however, that being said, I would like to keep our grocery budget on check and we do currently have food in our home.
So with that being said, I am allowing myself $25 for the week opposed to $100. I would like this week to be a no spend, but there are a couple items we do need: cat food, garbage bags, and possibly some toilet paper. These are necessary items and I feel OK with spending money on them for this week. I may buy 1lb of ground beef as it is on sale, and possibly some fruit, but we will see how much money I have after buying the other items. Things like gluten free ice cream sandwiches which I have been craving..and are $6 for a box of 4, however, are not a necessary expense and do not need to be bought this week.
So, you are probably wondering what the heck we are going to eat for the week. Here is what I have come up with in order to use what we have on hand and use up those leftovers.
1. Pulled Pork w/ roasted red potatoes, and green beans
-I made pulled pork this past week and even after already eating some for leftovers, there is prob enough still for another two meals)
2. Hot Dogs w/ homemade fries and baked mac n cheese
-hot dogs need to be used up. Purchased on our last shopping trip and we still have some, these need to go.
3. Breakfast (homemade cinnamon sugar french toast sticks, bacon, and eggs)
-simple, easy, and we have everything on hand
4. Cheesy Chicken Casserole w/ broccoli and salad
-leftover chicken that needs to be used up...everything else we have on hand
5. Baked Pasta w/ salad and homemade bread sticks
-hubby hates pasta w/o meat but we have everything for it, so he will have to be OK with one meatless meal
SO, this is what our menu looks like for the week and I have $25 to spend. Hoping this works out, but either way it will be a fun little experiment to try out and I will def. keep all of you updated!
How do you menu plan for a no spend week???
Blueberry, Strawberry, Grape, Lime, Lemon, 
