Monthly Menu, Monthly Shopping and Food Budget

Whew, that title is a mouth full!

Our grocery budget for the month is $400. Here's our menu:

1st Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, toast & fruit
Lunch: PB&J's
Dinner: Steak, potatoes baked with olive oil and herbs, salad

2nd Breakfast: Peanut butter toast
Lunch: Burritos
Dinner: Baked Chicken, potatoes, salad & bread

3rd Breakfast: Sausage gravy over biscuits w/ fruit smoothies
Lunch: Baked ziti in crockpot for church potluck
Dinner: Crockpot BBQ pintos, salad, cornbread

4th Breakfast: Breakfast casserole bake, toast & fruit
Lunch: Peanut butter and apple slice sandwiches
Dinner: Homemade mac n cheese, mixed veggies, salad

5th Breakfast: Baked, stuffed french toast with apple toppping (Double batch to send to work with my husband for his buddies.)
Lunch: Baked potatoes, salad, sliced fruit & kombucha
Dinner: Baked enchiladas, salad & cornbread

6th Breakfast: Eggs, toast, & smoothies
Lunch: Baked potatoes, salad and kombucha
Dinner: BBQ pork chops, baked potatoes, salad and bread

7th Breakfast: Baked pancakes, yogurt and fruit
Lunch: popcorn, cheese and fruit slices, salad & kombucha
Dinner: hamburger gravy, mashed potatoes, salad

8th Breakfast: Baked, apple & cinnamon oatmeal with yogurt & fruit
Lunch: PB&J's w/ sliced fruit & kombucha
Dinner: Homemade pizza or calzones, & salad

9th Breakfast: Apple fritters, scrambled eggs, & smoothies
Lunch: Egg or Tuna salad sandwiches, sliced fruit & kombucha
Dinner: Spaghetti with Italian sausage, salad and bread

10th Breakfast: Sausage gravy over biscuits, sliced fruit & yogurt (Double batch to send to work with my husband for his buddies)
Lunch: Biscuits, deviled eggs, & sliced fruit
Dinner: Parm. & garlic baked chicken, potatoes, and salad

11th Breakfast: Breakfast casserole bake, toast, yogurt and fruit
Lunch: Peanut butter & apple slice sandwiches w/ kombucha
Dinner: Beef & beef burritos, salad & cornbread

12th Breakfast: Baked, stuffed french toast with apple topping & smoothies
Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches, fruit slices, & kombucha
Dinner: Baked pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas & apple sauce

13th Breakfast: Eggs, toast & smoothies
Lunch: Baked potatoes, sliced veggies, & kombucha
Dinner: BBQ chicken legs, coleslaw, & pasta salad

14th Breakfast: Baked oatmeal, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: popcorn, sliced cheese & veggies w/ kombucha
Dinner: Mexican bake with nachos, raw veggies & dip

15th Breakfast: Pumpkin pancakes, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: PB&J's w sliced fruit & kombucha
Dinner: Homemade pizza or calzones

16th Breakfast: Apple fritters, scrambled eggs, & smoothies
Lunch: egg or tuna salad sandwiches, fruit slices and kombucha
Dinner: Spaghetti with Italian sausage, peas & garlic bread

17th Breakfast: Apple fritters to bring for the church breakfast potluck
Lunch: popcorn, cheese & fruit slices w/ kombucha
Dinner: Bean bake, cole slaw & fresh bread

18th Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, biscuits, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: Peanut butter and apple slice sandwiches, with kombucha
Dinner: BBQ pork chops, garlic mashed potatoes and corn

19th Breakfast: Baked, stuffed, french toast with apple topping and smoothies
Lunch: Deviled eggs, biscuits, sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Beef pot pie

20th Breakfast: Fried egg sandwiches, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: Baked potatoes, sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Beef pot pie

21st Breakfast: Baked apple, cinnamon oatmeal, with yogurt & fruit
Lunch: Buttered pasta, with garlic & parm., sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Taco beans, cole slaw and corn bread

22nd Breakfast: Baked pancakes, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: PB&J's, sliced fruit, & kombucha
Dinner: Homemade pizza or calzones with raw veggies

23rd Breakfast: Waffles, sausage, yogurt and fruit
Lunch: Egg or Tuna salad sandwiches, sliced fruit, & kombucha
Dinner: Turkey dinner with all the trimmings

24th Breakfast: Sausage gravy over biscuits, with smoothies
Lunch: Biscuits, deviled eggs, sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Leftovers

25th Breakfast: Breakfast baked casserole, toast, & smoothies
Lunch: Peanut butter and apple slice sandwiches, with kombucha
Dinner: Turkey wraps with herbed cream cheese, veggies and pasta salad

26th Breakfast: Baked, stuffed french toast, with apple topping & smoothies
Lunch: Egg salad sandwiches, sliced fruit & kombucha
Dinner: Enchiladas, salsa & tortillas, with raw veggies

27th Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, toast, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: Baked potatoes, sliced fruit, & kombucha
Dinner: Turkey pot pie

28th Breakfast: Baked oatmeal, with yogurt and fruit
Lunch: Popcorn with sliced cheese & fruit, with kombucha
Dinner: Mexican bake with nachos, salsa and raw veggies

29th Breakfast: Baked pancakes, yogurt & fruit
Lunch: PB&J's with sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Homemade pizza or calzones, with raw veggies

30th Breakfast: Waffles, sausage, & smoothies
Lunch: egg or tuna salad sandwiches, sliced fruit and kombucha
Dinner: Beef stew in the crockpot with french bread

Whew! I also wanted to add that we get 2 lbs of sprouts every week (alfalfa & clover at the moment) and often make sprout salads instead of the sliced fruit or veggies. This will really round out the end of the month when the fresh fruits/veggies are a little more scarce.

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I'm trying monthly grocery shopping this month, and here's how that ended up.

5 x chicken leg quarter packages at .69 cents a lb
7 x breakfast sausage lbs
4 x brown n serve lite sausage
3 x bags of navel oranges
2 x 5lb bags of carrots
3 x celery
4 x iceberg lettuce
6 x loose leaf lettuce
1 x Broccoli crowns
2 x green cabbage
1 x bananas
4 x tropicana frozen OJ
4 x Cheddar cheese (2lbs total)
3 x lb bags of shredded mozzarella
1 x lb bag of shredded mexican cheese
1 x 1/2 gallon of half & half
1 x quart of half & half
2 x lbs of butter
2 x margarine
2 x whole milk
4 x 18 packs of cage free eggs
6 x cream cheese
1 x sour cream
3 x 2lb bags of frozen strawberries
1 x 1lb bag of frozen blueberries
2 x 2lb bags of frozen mixed veggies
2 x 2lb bags of frozen corn
1 x 1.5lb bag of frozen green beans
1 x 30 pack of corn tortillas
6 x flour tortlillas
2 x gallons of Wesson canola oil
2 x 12pck of toilet paper
1 x peanut butter
3 x Hunts spaghetti sauce
1 x Parmesan cheese
1 x tortilla chips
1 x decaf coffee
3 x salad dressing
2 x BBQ sauce
1 x Salada black tea 100 ct
1 x bell seasoning
1 x gravymaster
1 x B&M vegetarian baked beans
2 x grape jelly
2 x 28 oz tomato sauce
10 x contadina crushed tomatoes
1 x ziti
6 x thin spaghetti
2 x elbow pasta
1 x q-tips
2 x colgate toothpaste
4 x cream of potato soup
1 x old spice deodorant
1 x suave deodorant
3 x greenworks dish soap
1 x v05 hair mousse
1 x oil of olay facial moisturizer with sunscreen


Total of 270.60



Starting amount
$400
- $40 Hannafords (10 lbs of beef roast, and 10 x 3-4lb bags of apples)
--------
$360.00
-$270.60 Market Basket
--------
$ 89.40
- 22.00 our standing order for sprouts
---------
$ 67.40
- 10.00 Big Y russet potatoes ( .99 cents for 5 lbs, 10 bags purchased)
----------
$ 57.40



So $57.40 left for the month.


However, my husband made the executive decision to separate our milk from the grocery budget. We usually buy 4 gallons of raw milk a week and that ends up being $24.

(I'm not going to use raw milk for yogurt, or baking.)

Being Real About Our Food Budget, Menu's and Grocery Receipts.

Buying food for our family is the second highest allotment in our families budget...right behind our house payments and followed closely by fuel for our vehicles :P We can't do anything about the house payment at the moment, and my husband has to commute for work, so that won't be changing any time soon (if anything, it seems to be going up! )

Our food budget is something that I have decided to tackle and I want to "be real" about it here. We have $400 a month to spend for food...I'd like to trim that down to $350 (or lower.) For now, I'm going with the $400, and any excess will be going towards our food storage. I'm going to write out our menu plans, and the grocery lists for them. I'll even report back after shopping to write out my grocery receipt. If I have the poor judgement to buy Twinkies (yuck!) I'll "be real" and write it out here. I'm also going to write out a post (and have it linked to my sidebar) that will be a running tally of my stored dried/canned goods. And I'll make sure to mention if some item from our menu will be coming from our stored foods.

I want to pause for one moment and just say that nutrition is very important to me. I would love to buy nothing but all organic, natural, whole foods for our family. Unfortunately at this time we can't. I'm going to do the best I can, within the budget that we have and I'm going to trust God to take care of the rest. I go with the "good, better, best" theory.

"Good" would be homemade bread, made with white flour. "Better" would be homemade bread, made from store-bought whole grain flour. "Best" would be homemade bread, made from fresh milled whole grain (rye, wheat, spelt etc.)

Making homemade bread with white flour is still better, and cheaper, than store-bought bread.

Here's an example:

I have $5 left of my grocery budget. I need to get the most food value for the money. Am I going to buy 5lbs of wheat flour, or am I going to buy 5lbs of white flour, 1 gallon of milk and a cabbage. Obviously the wheat flour is better nutritionally, but by buying white flour, I would also be able to buy a gallon of milk and a cabbage.

God knows our circumstances and He honors our attempts to live according to His word. Do you really think white flour is going to stop God? If we are doing the best we can with the blessings He has given us, we need to trust God to take care of the rest!