Monday Madness and Meal Planning

Mondays are always a mad dash around this part. I have decided that part of saving money is to plan meals and try to go as cheap as possible. I am not good at this shopping stuff and especially coupon cutting but vow to work on it.
We do a huge amount of grocery shopping every 4 weeks and the other weeks is little trips for misc things. We are really trying to keep our monthly (or 4 wk) grocery bill at about $250. (Including bath/toiletries cleaning etc..) This is hard work, for we are feeding ourselves and 4 kiddos. Not only do I have to plan dinner I have 2 home for lunch. I have to really try and change things up. We are no longer going thru the drive-thru so it has made me more creative. Along with 2 home for lunch I must make sure I get lunch for the older two and daddy made. I will blog on healthy, simple lunch ideas another time since my kids only get hot lunch once a week.

For the next week our main dinners will be as planned. Tentative of course:

Monday- Pulled Pork Sandwiches and carrots ($12 max total, leftovers for 6+) This made at least 17 sandwich rolls. Rolls were about the size of the palm of my hand.

Tuesday- Dino nuggets/mini corndogs for the kids, apples with PB and baby carrots & Leftovers for us. (Daddy has class so we are on our own) ($2-3, only fed 3 kids)

Wednesday- Vegetarian Baked Spaghetti, french bread and fruit salad (apples/banana's w/cinnamon) ($6 total and have so much leftovers I'm trying to give to family)

Thursday- Leftovers for sure. MIL and FIL will help eat the baked spaghetti (DH has meeting/dinner we are going to) . (free) ;)

Friday- Bagel Pizza's ($4 total for all of us)

Sat/Sun- up in the air due to schedules and Bdays coming up. Leftovers it is though for sure!

You may be wondering "why all the leftovers?" Well, we have bird eaters here and I cook enough for about 2 meals worth when using the crock pot or making cassarole dishes. I will either freeze unused portion when using crock pot or we eat another night that week. (sometimes I even give my family leftovers when I'm not feeling selfish) :) When we are very busy we do "quick" like dino nuggets or mini corndogs. This is a huge treat now for the kids.

So this is my menu for this week. It helps tremendously to have it and have my shopping done for it. It keeps us from not having anything and going "out". (Which we all know how much that costs). And if you don't realize how much it costs go thru your receipts and bank staements to see where and how much of that money has gone. We were in complete SHOCK when we realized how much we blew on eating out. (nickle and diming might I remind you).

If you are interested in any of the meals I am making let me know and I will post the recipe's. When I get a little more organized I plan on getting the costs up here too for each meal/serving. I will learn right along with you which is cost effective and what is not.