Weekly Meal Planners or Menus

I took this weekend to spend some time looking at recipes and figuring out what everyone will want to eat this weekend. This month has been a bad budget month since we are over on our monthly budget of $400 on food as well as spending on gas and restaurants. My hubby had to pay out of pocket for a business trip which he is supposed to be reimbursed for but right now, we are $450 out of money. The hotel was $230 for 2 nights and did not have a fridge. We couldn't stock up on groceries and save. We had to eat out which cost us another $150. And let's not mention the gas it took to get to his destination! I think we spent $70 every day on gas for 3 days. We drove 7 hours and over 300 miles. While the weekend event was enjoyable, our wallets are hurting now that rent is due on the 1st and we don't have enough. But hopefully the landlady will let us pay on the 3rd.

I have been checking out everyone's meal planners and while I do like the idea of pre-planning meals, my family does not all agree on one meal. The kids don't like the adult food and while we try to eat healthy, they sometimes just want to eat Ramen noodles or Waffles, even for dinner. Instead of creating one-meal choices per day, I did a restaurant style menu where people can choose what they want to eat based on the ingredients we have. When the item can not be made for the rest of the week, I'll cross it out or mark the Menu to let them know we are out and not running to the store for that until the following week.

I also made a section for Requests. Since this isn't a restaurant, I think it's a good idea that my family can request foods that they want to eat for the following week/weekend. If no requests are made, then I (who shops) gets to choose the menu items.

Here's what it looks like and what we eat on a regular basis.

I strongly believe in eating meat at dinner-time as it fills up everyone's bellies very quickly and the price of meat is pretty reasonable when bought in bulk. I like bulk items! That doesn't mean I like Costco. That's another ball-game. I just shop at my local Fry's (grocery store) and since it's less than a mile from my house, it's super convenient. If their cereal's are buy $5 and save $5, then I buy them. I tend to check out what their 5-for-5 or 10-for-10 deals are since I can stock up for two weeks on many items instead of one week. Things that are usually 10-for-10 are pastas and asian foods, such as Rice boxes. I tend to buy the bag in bulk instead.

All the summer foods (or poolside snacks) can be purchased at the Dollar Store too, such as chips, dips and sodas. I tend to stay away from those until it's 120 degrees outside in Arizona and only have them around when the kids are here (Friday after school to Sunday evening).

If you guys have any recommendations on kids meals besides Mac n Cheese since they are not big on that, leave a comment! It's hard to satisfy them being so picky but they do enjoy the fruits and yogurts. The youngest one won't eat until you put it in front of him; his "busy" schedule just makes him forget to eat. The older one though eats a lot! She is always snacking so I need to come up with affordable snacks, unlike the Fiber One bars or Oats N Honey crackers. Her favorites are now ridiculously expensive so I'm learning to substitute but she's not quite learning to accept the "unbranded" kind. We'll see. Kids are kids.