Day 1! Meal Plan and Our Budget Amounts for Frugal February
Happy first day of our no-spend challenge, Frugal February! I think it’s going to be so much fun to see what adventures this month holds and to see the fun we create along the way. Today is a Wednesday and so much is happening around here as we continue to get our house back in order after having Nick's grandma live with us, along with work, homeschooling, home projects, and chores.
I was thrilled to go to our local grocery store yesterday where I found eggs marked down on clearance for only $2.89. Since this expense was not made in February I will not be including it in my expenses, but it was so exciting that I just had to share it with you. The funny thing was that I was totally out of eggs and I was really grumbling about having to go to store to buy eggs for the $8,000 dollars or however much they cost but lo-and behold there they were on clearance. Hot dog! I purchased 3 dozen so hopefully that will last for quite some time.
Today I want to share with you our grocery and gas budgets for the month.
We are budgeting $600 for food expenses and $600 for gas.
It will be interesting to see how we do on this budget, hopefully we can stay on budget and maybe, even squeak in below. Wouldn't that be incredible?
One of the quintessential things I will be doing this Frugal February is meal planning. Planning out what we will be eating and using up what we have will be how we will save so much money.
Planning meals for the week will help us to not want to eat out by ensuring that we have meals ready to prepare each day. When you are staring down the barrel of an empty pantry is when it becomes so tempting to get take-out or go out to eat.
Using up what we have is the best way to save money. When you have money in the cupboard those are staples that you already own. You already paid the money for them. They are yours. So you might as well use them up before they need to be thrown away. Makes sense, right?
With those two ideas in mind, I’ve taken to planning meals for this week consisting of foods that we already have in the house. For each day I plan BLDS…Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, and a Snack. The snack is sometimes a sweet treat I plan on making and sometimes it’s something simple I plan on giving to the kids in the afternoon to tide them over before supper. Granted you should know that my kids eat a lot more snacks than just one. Sometimes they eat me out of house and home but the snack I mention is something I intentionally give them or make them so I can be a bigger part of their day.
Here is what I have scheduled for the rest of the week:
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B: Pumpkin Bread with Chocolate Chips
L: Mac & Cheese
D: Fish, Couscous, and Steamed Veggies
S: Orange Slices & Pumpkin Bread
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B: Cereal…very exciting
L: PB & J, veggie straws, oranges
D: Chicken Drumsticks, Steamed Veggies, and Stuffing
S: Applesauce
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B: Cinnamon Rolls from Saturday
L: Popcorn
S: Ice-cream Sandwiches made with monster cookies from Saturday
Now a little more about my day…I worked today but we also had to take Emma to the doctor. As it turned out she has a head injury and a concussion which definitely was unexpected for us. She hurt her head over the weekend and has proceeded to get worse as time went on, the poor thing. With going to the doctor’s appointment I found myself close to Costco so when Nick took Emma home I decided to run for gas and groceries.
At Costco I purchased 2 cans of whipped cream, a case of Diet Dr. Pepper, and a case of water. It is so hard to not buy all of the sale items at Costco. I know things are cheaper to make food at home but I get there, see things on huge sales and have to keep telling myself that things are cheaper at home over and over.
I normally do not buy sodas and water. However, Nick keeps telling me we need more drinks around the house and I guess in a weakness I decided to treat him to soda. Our water filter has been down for a month and the kids are NOT drinking water on account of them saying that it tastes funny…hence the water. Also, I am proud to say that I have kicked the habit of creamer in my coffee and now like black coffee with a little bit of whipped cream on top. So yummy!
I ran to Aldi to purchase lemons and tomatoes. I try not to buy very much produce at Costco because it seems to be very expensive and we can never finish it before it goes bad.
I also purchased melatonin for $11.76 and toilet paper for $21.39. Those were two things that were needed but we do not include household products or medicines in our grocery budget.
That being said, here are my totals:
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$600
-66.84 thank you to the engine that requires premium gas :/
=$533.16 remaining
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$600
-29.96 Costco
-$5.48 Aldi
=564.56 remaining
If you are joining me for this frugal February challenge, here are some things you can do to join in on the fun:
Comment below and let us all know that you have made the decision to participate.
Share with everyone on social media your fun activities, tips, tricks, hacks, and victories. Tag them the hashtag #frugal February and I'll be reposting what you share with everyone.
Join the “Super Busy at Home Moms” Facebook group where you we can all share tips, at-home hacks, recipes, and cheer one another on when things get difficult. Lets celebrate community by coming together and helping each other out.
Each day I will share with you how much is left in our budget for the month at the end of the day. If I’ve made any new food or gas purchases I will share them with you. Also, if we have to make any unexpected purchases I’ll let you in on those too.
I need to go check on Emma so I will get going. I hope you are enjoying Frugal February so far!
Loves!
