Menu Planning for February

Okay since I am doing 28 days of Nothing I thought I would menu plan the whole month. I planned, wrote out all ingredients, and then wrote a shopping list. I estimated the cost of each item and totaled it to make sure I could get everything on the list and be on budget. I was thinking to myself that someone needs to write a program that takes a recipe and convert it to a shopping list, what a great idea. I found one place. I spent over an hour typing out one recipe. I have never written it down and had to think of what I actually put in it. Only to have wasted that time because their website is lame and does not work. I emailed and told them of the problem and no one has got back to me and it still does not work as of 8:34 pm. So go there goes that idea. Instead I did it all by hand. I wrote down breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks and came out with over five pages of menu type stuff.

Here is what we will be dining on in the next month

Breakfast
Cereal with Soymilk and Banana
Eggs and toast
Oatmeal or Cream of Rice(homemade)

Morning Snack
Ants on a Log (Celery with Sunflower Seed Butter aka Sun Butter and Raisins) Kid's New favorite
Ants on a Canoe (Apple slices with Sun Butter and Raisins) Made that name up:)

Lunch

Kids
Bean Burritos w/ sour cream
Roll-up (Corn Tortillas with Sun Butter)
Grape Tomatoes and Cucumber slices

Eric
1 Tuna Sandwich and 1 PB&J Sandwich
Apple
Tortilla Chips

Keilah
I like eating salad and leftovers from the night before

Afternoon Snack
Popcorn
Raisins and Almonds

Dinner
I usually have theme for each night and modify each week a little
Monday-Asian/Stirfry
Tuesday-Mexican
Wednesday-Soup and Salad
Thursday-Baked Potatoes and Salad
Friday-Pasta
Saturday-Breakfast
Sunday-Leftovers

Here is the whole Month of February
Now I do not totally stick to I HAVE to have Stir fry on Mondays only, if it is easier to do Breakfast or Pasta I do, but I have an outline and stick to those meals.

M-Feb 1-Nutty Noodles and Veggies
T-Feb 2-Potato Flautas w/ Rice and Beans
W-Feb 3-Tomato Soup and Salad
R-Feb 4-Baked Potatoes and Salad
F-Feb 5-Pasta with Marinara Sauce and Salad
S-Feb 6-Poor Man's Meal with Eggs
S-Feb 7-Leftovers
M-Feb 8-Honey Glazed Veggies and Fried Rice
T-Feb 9-Arroz Con Pollo w/ beans
W-Feb 10-Corn Chowder and Salad
R-Feb 11-Baked Potatoes and Salad
F-Feb 12- Pasta with Butter Sauce and Salad
S-Feb 13-***Pizza***
S-Feb 14-Waffles
M-Feb 15-Nutty Noodles and Veggies
T-Feb 16-Tacos w/ Rice and Beans
W-Feb 17-Chili and Cornbread
R-Feb 18-Baked Potatoes and Salad
F-Feb 19-Pasta with Marinara and Salad
S-Feb 20-Pancakes
S-Feb 21-Leftovers
M-Feb 22-Garlic Veggies and Fried Rice
T-Feb 23-Enchiladas w/ Rice and Beans
W-Feb 24-Corn Chowder and Salad
R-Feb 25-Baked Potatoes and Salad
F-Feb 26-Pizza and Salad
S-Feb 27-Waffles
S-Feb 28-Leftovers

***Pizza*** Our church is having a Parents Night out and are watching the kids from 5:30-8:00 and they are feeding the kids pizza. So that Kira and Enzo will not feel left out I am making GF pizza for them. For $4 we have childcare for three hours. We can have a date. I am going to pack a picnic basket of something special. Details of that will come later :)

Whoa! I am tired just typing this out. But I did the grocery list and shopped for two of the four weeks today and I have to say I am under budget sweet.
I spent $59.05 at Costco
$10.95 at Trader Joe's
$ 8.91 at Food 4 Less
________________
Total $78.91
Budget $80.00 for two weeks
Diff $ 1.09


I am excited for this next month. My pantry is fairly stocked, Car is full of gas and we should get our deposit back too from the other house.

Here is my plan for the month.

-Avoid shopping as much as possible, and then only for essentials.

-Not eating out, this will not be hard for me, I am getting used to not eating out. We do eat at Costco occasionally for the yummy hot dogs w/o buns for $1.50 with a drink for the bubba and Kira and I usually share the Turkey Wrap w/o the wrap. Twice a month this happens. So I am going to try to go to Costco by myself and forgo any eating out, sneaky but I think it will work.

-Drive only when we have to, this should not be hard being walking distance from the store and a wonderful bus system.

–Sort through our excess unused stuff and put things on Ebay and Craigslist

-Main goal to save up our $1000 emergency fund through not spending and selling things too. I think it is a pretty big goal but I am aiming for the stars and will be happy if I hit the moon.

I will most definitely be praying through this too that it would change my attitude all together.