After 14 hours in the car, we returned home last night at 11 p.m. We cleared our refrigerator and pantry before leaving, so there is absolutely no food in the house, not even the most basic staples like milk and bread. Luckily, our 14-hour car ride came in handy. We had plenty of time for menu planning and list making. All that’s left is to head to the grocery store tonight after work to replenish our stock.

We’re absolutely exhausted, and we had no time last weekend to relax or run any of our usual weekend errands, so we want to keep this week’s meal plan as simple and frugal as possible. Here’s what we’re cooking:

Monday: Beef tacos and refried beans
Tuesday: BLT salad
Wednesday: Breakfast for dinner (eggs and bacon)
Thursday: Cauliflower mac & cheese
Friday: Turkey wraps

I’m remembering now why we usually plan a day at the end of our vacations to catch up at home and get some rest. But we had such a great time last weekend that I’m glad we stayed the extra day, even if it means we’ll spend the rest of the week playing catch up.

For more menu plans, check out OrgJunkie. Happy Monday! I’m already looking forward to the weekend!

Still no sales on chicken, but pork tenderloin was buy one, get one, so we’re eating pork this week!

We came in right on budget at the grocery story: $60 almost on the dot. If there’s one thing I’ve gotten out of this summer of cash budgeting, it’s estimating grocery costs based on a shopping list and cutting expenses down to fit our budget. We’ve only been at this for about 6 weeks, but it’s already so much easier for me to look at the list, estimate the cost of each item, and whittle it down until we’re without our budget.

We ended the week with $5 in our pockets, but we started with only $80 this week (the ATM where we happened to stop only allowed withdrawals in $20 denominations, so we decided to try to get through the week with $10 less).

Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Balsamic chicken with baby spinach
Sunday: Pork kebabs and corn on the cob
Monday: Roasted pork tenderloin with steamed veggies
Tuesday: Pork enchiladas with refried beans
Wednesday: Pork taco salad
Thursday: Vegetarian three-bean chili
Friday: Pork wonton wraps and stir fried veggies

For more menu plans, visit OrgJunkie. Have a great Monday! Hope you’re not too bummed to see the weekend go.

What a fabulous, relaxing holiday weekend! We used our entertainment budget to catch the new Johnny Depp movie, “Public Enemies” on Friday. Then we spent the rest of the weekend barbecuing and relaxing with friends.

It was also a great week at the grocery store. We kept it simple, and ended the week with money in our pockets for the first time in several weeks. $15 to be exact!

Here’s our $50 menu for the week:

Sunday: Tomato basil chicken with side salad
Monday: BBQ pork and corn on the cob
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Pork tacos
Thursday: BLT salad
Friday: Bean burritos

For more menu plans visit Organization Junkie. Have a great Monday!

This week was really rough for us. Our chicken stockpile has finally run out, but we haven’t seen any good sales on chicken breasts for the past several weeks. We’re still waiting, but that means we’ve been spending a little extra money every week buying meats that are on sale.

We also ran out of several staples this week, so we had to stock up on some things. We ended up spending $75 on groceries (yikes!) and $14 on household items like toilet paper and a prescription.

We’d just barely purchased all of the items we needed this week — we even reduced our purchases to make sure we’d stay within our cash budget. Then we remembered we’d forgotten to pick up lettuce, a necessity for me because most days I bring salad to work for lunch. We ended up breaking down and charging the $4 package of 6 heads of romaine on our debit card. :(

We’ll try to reduce our spending next week by $4 to make up the difference, but if we don’t do it, I’m still not beating myself up over it. The whole point of this experiment was to reduce our spending as much as possible. Even if we make mistakes sometimes and overspend, we’re still better off than we would have been without living on a cash budget. So no biggie, right? :)

Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Chicken kebabs with roasted corn on the cob
Sunday: French onion soup
Monday: Carne asada steak with pinto beans and rice
Tuesday: Taco salad
Wednesday: Broccoli cheddar soup
Thursday: BLT salad
Friday: Eggs and bacon

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.

Have a great week!

This was a very expensive week at the grocery store. Our chicken stockpile ran out, and chicken breasts weren’t on sale at either of our grocery stores. So we opted to buy a whole chicken, which was on sale for $1 a pound. We’ll use the leftover chicken for two meals and make a nice chicken stock out of the leftovers. We freeze the chicken stock in 1 quart containers to use in soups.

Our total would have been $70 (whoops), but we used some loyalty points to take $5 off our order. So in the end, we were $5 over our grocery budget for the week. We spent about $10 on household expenses (toilet paper, shaving cream, etc.)

We decided to stay in and save our entertainment money to make up for our expensive grocery trip. Friday night we played Scrabble, and Saturday we watched a movie that we got through our Netflix account.

We ended the week with $27 in our pockets. Not too bad. :)

Here’s our menu plan:

Saturday: Grilled haddock with rice pilaf
Sunday: Roasted chicken with roasted corn
Monday: Chicken quesadillas and refried beans
Tuesday: Bean and cheese burritos
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Chef’s salad
Friday: Chicken kabobs with succotash

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.