Is it really the middle of October already? Wow.

We had a great week at the grocery store, which is good for us considering that this week has completely blown our food budget. We’re going to have to keep things tight at the grocery store for the rest of the month to reduce the impact.

This week we stayed within budget with a total of about $56. That includes five pounds of chicken bought at the lowest price I’ve seen per pound at any of our grocery stores ($1.99/lb). As I’ve said before, we use a lot of chicken, so we like to stock up with a few pounds when it’s on sale at that price. I was expecting the bulk chicken purchase to put us over $60 for the week. It didn’t. Yay!

I’m in the mood for some fall cooking this week, so we’re trying a couple of hearty meals. We’re combining these new fall recipes with some old, inexpensive standbys to keep our meals simple and our costs lower. Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Homemade pizza (We’re having it tonight instead of yesterday because we went out to eat for my birthday last night.)
Sunday: Turkey meatloaf and mashed potatoes
Monday: Pasta with butternut squash
Tuesday: Sandwiches/leftovers
Wednesday: BLTs with oven fries

Thursday: Herb roasted chicken breasts & roasted potatoes
Friday: Homemade pizza

I’m excited to try the turkey meatloaf and butternut squash pasta! I’ll let you know how it turns out!

Now head over to OrgJunkie for more meal plan inspiration!