Meal Planning?!?

      I just found out the children where Mark works have a $17 budget for their food each week. That means if a cottage has 3 kids and 2 houseparents they get $85 a week for 5 people.  I don't know about you but we spend about $300 every 2 weeks on groceries.  That is about $600 a month and so about $200 per person a month and $50 a week per person. For a family of 3 that is ridiculous! I decided something needs to be done about our grocery bill.

I have a friend who is a meal planner and said she has learned to cut her grocery bill in half. I have tried and it normally lasts a week :) SO... I have decided to start AGAIN and hopefully this time keep it up. I found out that if you try to eat more natural foods you won't buy a lot of junk food that is actually expensive. I'm not saying I am about to become a health nut because PIZZA and chocolate milk are amazing, but I am saying I have decided to buy plain vanilla yogurt instead of the go-gurt. I am not buying poptarts and granola bars but learning to make most things from scratch. SO... kitchen adventures here I come.

I am trying to go to the grocery on the same day every week and spend NO MORE than $100. By deciding ahead of time what the exact breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack will be for each day I can figure out what I need and stay away from everything else.  I have started planning for next week and plan to go to the grocery on MONDAY because it is Oct. 1! We are going to have leftovers on Sunday nights, Meatfree Mondays, Temptation Tuesdays (the only night we will have desserts), and make an easy recipe on Fridays, like a pizza, hamburgers, breakfast for dinner, or something else that doesn't take much time or thought. :)
 I am also going to try to stick to buying more produce and staying away from the middle aisles because they have the expensive, unhealthy goodies that I love so much....tee-hee.   Here is the weekly planner I am using   and I just printed a big calendar to write notes on and kind of have an idea of what I already made or want to make for the month.

I got a great idea from a fellow blogger on how to organize recipes.  I know I print recipes off of pinterest and I even get the Rachael Ray Magazine and this is great way to declutter everything and actually USE the recipes.  You can find that link

HERE!!!

Thanks Becky Bakes! :)

Well... Off we go to a full Oct. of menu planning! Wish me luck