Menu Planning

Every once in a while it happens, I don't have my usual amount for grocery shopping available.  This has been a pretty brutal month for us financially between Sophie's bee debacle, school fees, tuition payments and book purchasing.  We've run out of cash and have $165 available for groceries and anything else that pops up between now and next Thursday when we'll get another paycheck.  As I've shared, I budget $200 a week for groceries so even though quite often we may only spend $150 - $175 not having my normal amount makes me a little fidgeting.  On top of that, my husband is kicking up his 'specialty' diet again which means he buys a lot of food specifically for him which adds to our grocery bill.  Luckily for us we have plenty of toilet paper, paper towels, cereal and laundry detergent so that's some expensive stuff we won't be needing. 

To help keep expenses down I've inventoried our fridge & pantry and have planned out meals based on what we have already available.  Here's my menu for the week;

Breakfast

• Zucchini Bread - I never did get around to making this last week so I'll be making it this evening
• Blueberry Muffins
• Blueberry Bagels
• Cereal

Lunch

• Hot dogs
• Bagel sandwiches
• Personal pizzas
• Quesadillas
• Frozen lunches
• Macaroni & Cheese

Dinner

• Grilled pizza - we still have left over dough, cheese, onions, mushrooms & garlic so I shouldn't need anything for this meal
• Hamburgers - we still have a pack of hamburgers in the freezer and some slightly stale buns left over from this week.  I'm going to throw the buns in the freezer until we make the hamburgers and then toast them in the oven with some butter before serving.  The kids will never know they're stale!
• Brats - will need to buy these this week
• Beef taco's/taco salad/quesadillas - Everyone likes their tacos a different way and I'm OK with this.  My daughter will take the taco fixings and make a quesadilla for herself, my husband will make himself a salad and my son and I will have plain taco's.  We will need to buy everything for this.
• Tuscan Chicken Stew - this is a new recipe and I will have to buy about half of the ingredients.  I'm not sure if the family is going to like this so I'll let you know next week how it goes.
• Dinner at Outback with friends
• Fend for yourself - we have a night where we're all kind of scattered so this will be leftovers or whatever.  I have a customer dinner so I'm taken care of :)

Update:  I made the Tuscan Chicken Stew Sunday night for dinner.  You can read my review of the recipe here

Not that I'm trying to wish summer away but I'm looking forward to pulling out my winter repertoire where I actually cook a little more.  It's been quite a while since we've had spaghetti & meatloaf!

What's on your plate for the week?

I'll be linking this up over at I'm an Organizing Junkie

You might also like:

Freezing Tomatoes
Cleaning out the Pantry
Meatloaf Recipe