I'm Back!!

Sorry for the unexpected leave of absence. I recently quit my job and became a stay at home mom. Let me just say how much I'm loving it. I thought I'd have more time on my hands , but it turns out I'm just as busy. Except now I'm doing things I love instead of things I hate. I highly recommend it to everyone if possible.

Of course me quitting means we get to go on a budget. We've worked it out so that I can stay at home , and we'll still be able to put money back into savings. I won't get to go out and buy stuff like I would love to do unless I get a job again , but at the same time , we won't go without doing stuff we like to do. I'm willing to give up on stuff I want for a while if it means I get to be home with my baby.

This month I'm really focusing on the Grocery budget. We've always spent more than I know we need to because honestly we kind of buy groceries per day depending on what we want and what we have. I would buy basics at the beginning of the week so we always had options , but if we weren't craving it , We'd go and get something we were craving. So our groceries were kind of ridiculous.

Now that I'm not working I looked on pinterest and saw something that said how to live on a $30 a week grocery budget. So we budgeted for that , but I go out and try to spend $25 or less. This week I managed to come in at $18.71. What helped me get that was not couponing , believe it or not. What I did , and what I'll continue to do is Meal plan and search for deals/sales at my local stores. I set aside a few hours on Fridays to do so.

 

So my Menu looks like the above picture. To make it easier to read I'll type it here for you. Every morning for Breakfast we eat Oatmeal. Which is fine. It's one of Zoe's favorites and it's pretty healthy and cheap. For our lunches we alternate between PB&J , Tuna Fish sandwiches , and Grilled Cheese Sandwiches. Except for Sundays when I decided we could have Quesadillas. Our dinners are where it got exciting.

• Monday: Rice and Beans with a side of Veggies
• Tuesday: Chicken , Rice , and Carrot soup. 
• Wednesday: Baked chicken on rice with Steamed Veggies
• Thursday: Rice, Chicken , and Veggies
• Friday: Refried beans , Baked Chicken , and Steamed Veggies
• Saturday: Breakfast 
• Sunday: Leftovers. 

 

Then I started my planning. I had already looked to see how much of my menu I had in my cabinets , and how much of it I could buy at the Dollar store. So I knew that those items were already taken care of. Then for the rest of them I looked to see where I could get the best deal. The chicken was on sale at Fresh Market so Instead of spending $7+ on chicken I spent $5. For what was leftover I looked at smiths for the best deal. I got our carrots Organic for $1.25 and it was cheaper than our non- organic carrots. The bread was $0.88.

So even though it feels kind of time consuming , you can see by the picture of the receipts , it's totally possible to do. There was even enough rice in the bag I got from the dollar store , to prep for a week and a half of meals. So I won't have to buy more rice next week. It's amazing. I'll try to keep you guys updated weekly on how I do , and hopefully next time I'll remember to grab a picture of all the stuff I got so you can see we're not really lacking or left wanting.