I have received a few emails and comments regarding the implementation of our new budget. It has been one full week since we started our cash/envelope system, meal plan menu, and overall radical spending changes.
I'm here to tell you that it has been a great week! Having every meal already planned has taken the guesswork and stress out of those last minute food fixing challenges.
As far as the grocery list goes, I am still working out the kinks. I ran out of eggs early- basically because we made some spontaneous brownies Friday night and that threw off the scrambled eggs breakfast Saturday a.m. No biggie- we can settle for cereal and toast as a backup. I'm officially out of butter as of this afternoon due to all the 'made from scratch' baking. I suppose I should have used more shortening, but was trying for a healthier option.
The juice and milk lasted up until this morning by rationing the portions to breakfast time only. I ran out of cheese Thursday night- basically because they were out of stock of all the sale cheese I had allotted for on my list and I had to buy less of the brand name because it was too expensive.
So, in retrospect, it's the dairy that's bogging us down. All in all everything was fabulous and I'm excited for this week! I look forward to your encouraging comments and ideas!
We are going to go out to eat with some friends tomorrow so my budget for the week will be at least $25 less than normal. Oh, the joy of a challenge! I'll post this week's meal plan soon!
3 comments:
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Good for you! We did the envelope system for a long time and it really does help! I count how many meal we need for the next two weeks (some nights Ryan and Dallas have games so that makes a good Mac and Cheese night for the other two and myself or we have a dinner invite, etc.) then make a list of meals I want to make (I try to use anything I already have first) then make my list from that. I can't say, Monday we will have *such-in-such* because I get moody with my cooking, or something happens during the day that makes me adjust, so I just keep the list of meals that I bought stuff for handy and choose from that on the days we will be eating at home all together. It is a good feeling to try to make it stretch...I like that challenge too.
This week, when you have $25 less than normal to spend, would not be a good week to try this, but watch for sales on juice concentrate, large bags of shredded cheese, butter, etc. They can be stashed in your freezer easily. I wouldn't try it with eggs though. HA!! One store here sells eggs in an 18-count package and that seems to help us. I'm not sure I'd want to buy any more than that at a time though. Seems like dairy prices are going up, and that's one area I think my family could certainly scale back on!
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