New Budget

What an exhausting process!  But we have cobbled together a budget and a system for tracking all our money/bills/etc.  This is the beginning of the first week, and so once I have it completely figured out I will document the process, in case anyone else needs help and stumbles across my humble blog :)

In the meantime, its grocery day again.  This week we budgeted an extra $10 because we are contributing to the Lenten Study dinner on Wednesday with salad and bread.  So we start with:
Grocery budget (includes $40 food and $10 non food necessities) of $50
Extra for church event:  $10
Total will be $60.00

This week I went to Kroger for the bulk of my shopping.  I did a little at the Dollar Tree. Honestly, its the cheapest place I can buy pepperoni!!
Dollar Tree:
1.00  Swiss Cheese singles
1.00  American Cheese Singles
1.00  Pizza sauce
1.00  Sharpie pen
1.00 Pepperoni
1.00  Wheat Thins
1.00   Lunchable (because I committed the sin of shopping prior to having taken the time to eat anything!)
Total with tax:  7.06  (I threw in the .06 from my existing change)

Kroger
5.88  Pork Loin (actually thin cut pork steaks with bone in)
6.94  Beef Roast
3.00  Grape Tomatoes
1.29  Head of Lettuce
1.70 cucumbers (2)
1.00  Avocado
2.09 fresh mushrooms
6.00  Quaker Instant Oatmeal
0.00   Free Milk special with oatmeal purchase
1.79  Corn meal
2.19  Peach Tea mix
2.00  Individual Frozen pizza (2 for Hubby's lunches)
2.00  4 cans of soup (for Hubby's lunches)
1.00   mandarin oranges, canned
1.17   pineapple, canned
  .69   Pork and beans
3.00  Frozen fish filets
2.69   Vanilla ice cream
1.29  frozen CA vegetables
2.17  antipersperant
Total with tax : 49.50  (+ 7.00 =56.50 which just barely goes over the budget)

I was pretty pleased that we were able to do this.  Hubby went along and did the calculator part of the trip to help keep me on budget.  We did have a mishap with that and lost the total, so that is why we were over 1.50.  Fortunately there was a little money on the Kroger Gift Card, so that covered it.

So now...whats the menu?  This week its built off the shopping and the pantry/freezer:
Breakfast options:  oatmeal, eggs and toast
Lunch options:  Hubby has pizza, soup, we have lunchmeat in the fridge and cheese for sandwiches.  I have a couple of  Michaelinas and plenty of salad fixing.  Pasta salad (previously purchased pasta, italian dressing, CA veggies)

Dinners:
Monday:  Baked pork chops, boiled  potatoes, salad, and steamed asparagus (from a previous shopping trip)
Tuesday:  Banquet salsbury steak with gravy, mashed potatoes, broccoli
Wednesday: vegetarian chili (made by someone else), salad (lettuce, tomatoes, mushrooms, cucumber, avacado) and cornbread
Thursday:  pot roast, potatoes, carrots, green beans
Friday:  fish sandwiches, rice, mixed vegetables
Saturday:  burgers, tater tots (purchased this weekend), salad
Sunday:  Chicken casserole (hashbrown potatoes, carrots and peas, mushroom soup with chicken)  salad

The optional meal of the week:  Pizza night with salad

We do still have eggs, several dessert mixes, muffin mixes to add to the variety.  Also,  I have a hankering for fruit whip (1 can mandarin oranges, 1 can pineapple [save the juice], 1 box SF instant vanilla pudding, 1 container of whipped topping.  Mix the pudding with the pineapple juice until dissolved, add drained fruit and toss.  Add thawed whipped topping and mix well.  Keep refridgerated).

All in all, not a bad plan :)