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Monday, January 9, 2012

The monthly menu and the skinny food budget.

"...every member should be employed either in earning or saving money." 

The American Frugal Housewife
(free classic on Amazon Kindle)

It has been over four years since my car accident and the onset of my traumatic brain injury.  While I cannot work outside the home, and often times don't accomplish what I should in the home, I make every effort to run this house efficiently.  I began a monthly menu a few years back and developed it in two years of cognitive rehabilitation.  Its purpose is two fold, for ease of household flow and for trying to work within an ever-tightening budget.
I will be the first to admit I am a disaster without a menu.  Last month, there was no menu, there were a lot of train wrecks at dinner time and I ended up about 50% over budget for December.  Along with being chaotic, it just plain stresses me out.  I know, I know what you're saying "I could never plan a WHOLE month of meals at once."  Yes you can.  It's not that hard and doesn't need to be set in stone.  The best part is that I know what is in the house and know what isn't.  If I don't feel like Brocolli Cheddar Soup, or we're low on milk, we can switch to pasta that night and just mix it up.  However, I know that I have these things in the house.  It isn't just opening cabinets and staring blankly into them hoping for SOMETHING to fall into the pan.  Let's face it, by the time dinner comes around, any ounce of creativity I may have mustered up in the forenoon has been eaten up by peekaboo and science homework.  Even Wayne, who was once in the "we could never plan a whole month" camp has come to rely on the menus.  When he calls and says "what's for dinner" and I say "what do you feel like?" he just knows it's not gonna be pretty.  Do I usually end up making something yummy? sure.  Do I efficiently use the resources of the pantry, the food budget and my mental capacity, not so much.  
We don't have a big food budget.  I have the utmost compassion for those without food in this and other countries and donate whenever we are able to feed others.  I actually feel bad that I may wimper from time to time about our $2-250/month budget when there are those that would see this as an increase.  Also, I am blessed that I've stocked up on some things on sale and have a modest pantry (which was also far more extensive at one time), and I have two freezers that are not full, but do provide our beef which Wayne raises himself, and some leftover breakfast sausage that I had made for our wedding, along with a splattering of randomness.  The garden goodies are gone except for some chopped celery and a bag of snow peas.
So what does it look like?
Here's this month's menu.  We go food shopping the second week of the month, as budget allows.  So this is for the 8th of Jan-8th of Feb.

January
8 Cream Cheese Pancakes 
9 Mom Peg Chicken (oven BBQ'd)  and veggie
10 Pizza (my own) & Garlic Knots
11 Husband's Delight (An Amish Casserole)
12 C.O.R.N (Clean out the Fridge Night)
13 Broccoli Cheddar Soup and Biscuits
14 Ziti
15 French Toast & Sausage
16 Chicken & Rice
17 Pizza
18 Bacon Cheddar Chicken & Broccoli
19 CORN
20 Broccoli Cheddar Soup
21 Pasta & sauce w/spinach
22 PB Choc Chip Pancakes & Sausage
23 Mom Peg Chicken
24 Pizza
25 Steak, Baked Potatoes & Broccoli
26 CORN
27 Corn Chowder
28 Husband's Delight
29 Omlettes & Sausage
30 Chicken & Rice
31 Pizza
Feb 1 Cheeseburgers
2 CORN
3 Broccoli Cheddar Soup
4 *Event--not home for dinner*
5 Pancakes & Sausage
6 Mom Peg Chicken
7 Pizza

That's dinners.

Breakfast is another story.  Wayne often goes to Stewart's for breakfast, Joey will eat cereal or something and I tend to think about breakfast around 1pm:)  oops.  Well, I've finally mastered coffee that Wayne likes so no need for Stewarts any longer.  Tonight? I am making up some breakfast sandwiches ala Egg McMuffin that will be individually frozen and available for a 2 minute reheat.  It's not all that expensive.  The english muffins were BOG2...so about $2.50 for 18, eggs were $2/18...a sprinkle of cheddar, some freezer sausage, and Wayne requested some mushrooms from the pantry as well, maybe 50 cents a piece.  Can't go wrong there.  

Lunches---School days, Joey gets lunch at school.  Wayne sometimes does Stewarts (ouch) sometimes I deliver.  We're 12 miles from the farm.  Gas costs about $4 for me to run there, which is why he justifies Stewarts often.  We are looking to find an old microwave for the office in the barn though so he could heat up leftovers and make himself some coffee.  Sometimes he just needs to get warm so will go for a short drive to get some hot coffee.  However, we do like delivering lunch because then we get to see him:)  Sometimes he's gone the whole time George is awake, and on school days really only sees Joey when he wakes him up to get in the shower.  

Our monthly shopping occurred on Sunday...PLEASE NEVER let me go shopping on Sunday!  MOG!  Everyone and their lost hubbies and crazy toddlers were there.  I think those little shopping carts are adorable...on Tuesday morning when it's moms and old people....they should be locked up on the weekend!    
Vent over.

I spent $202.  I got everything but American Cheese and Butternut Squash.  The deli was filled with people and there wasn't any cubed frozen butternut.  We'll live without both.

Meat is not a big budget item, I spent $27 on chicken for 7 dinners--hopefully leftovers for lunch too:)
I may have spent $32 on coffee.  However, when compared to runs on Dunkin, this is a significant savings.

Is this a perfect menu?  Absolutely not.  Would I love fresh veggies and salads a few nights a week, sure thing.  With this budget though it's just not possible.  Before long though, the garden will be up and running again giving us all the veggies our hearts desire.  

I'm itching to spend my remaining $18 on a few cases of canned veggies ($4/12 this week) or another case of crushed tomatoes ($8/12...down from $27.)  but I'm on the fence.









3 comments:

  1. Would you mind sharing your recipes for the Mom Peg Chicken and the chicken and rice? I think I have the Husband's Delight in my Amish cookbook so I'll look that up. I need to find a way to decrease our food budget so I'm on the look out for cheaper recipes.

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  2. The MP Chicken isn't so much a recipe as a process:) (and full disclosure--Mom Peg says it's not MP chicken, but changing the name would require too many words) It's just chicken thighs coated in your favorite BBQ sauce and baked in a greased (sprayed) baking dish. Covered until the last 10 mins. (Takes about 45ish) Has been made with frozen chicken too:)
    I will locate the chicken and rice recipe, finally a yummy one that we all love!:)

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  3. That sounds simple enough! I'm assuming it would be okay with other cuts of chicken as well, right.

    ReplyDelete