My $200 menu

I wrote about spending $400 per month, but I really broke it into 15 days each at $200 cash for my goal.

So far so good!

Breakfast:
Oatmeal, cereal, Eggs, muffins, french toast, waffles

Lunch:
Leftovers mostly with PBJ, noodle soup, buttered pasta, grilled cheese, rice bowls

Dinner:
Sunday, Spinach/chicken soup with baguette
Monday, Chicken pot pie with dumplings on top
Tuesday, Potato pancakes, apple chicken sausage and applesauce with a salad
Wednesday, BLT's (forgot the tomatoes, but no one missed them!) with Chips and salad
Thursday, Baked Penne pasta with homemade garlic bread and salad
Friday, Homemade pizza with homemade sauce.  I doctored up the leftover spaghetti sauce from the night before and everyone said this sauce was the best they'd ever had.  Go frugal me! Salad
Saturday, Chicken tacos with homemade tortillas.  Huge favorite!
Sunday, White chicken chili with crackers
Monday, Roast chicken, roasted cauliflower/carrots and buttered penne

Earlier today I made a broccoli/potato cheese soup with leftover chicken sausage from the Friday pizza.

Tuesday, Chicken sausage, bell peppers, fried potatoes
Wednesday, Chicken Stir fry from leftover roasted chicken and bell peppers from Tuesday
Thursday, Must go, everything in the fridge is a must go
Friday, Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and broccoli
Saturday, Chicken/rice soup with homemade bread
Sunday, Fried chicken, cheesy rice casserole with salad
Monday, Pasta, salad, homemade garlic bread
Tuesday, Grilled cheese sandwiches, glazed carrots and salad

This should get me before next pay day.  I haven't had too many surprises, but I will say, the pace is kind of killing me.  I'm devoting so much time to cooking and prep that I think I'm going to have to take that into consideration for the next 15 day segment.  Oh and breakfast for dinner is probably going to get swapped soon because I have a crappy head cold.  Let me know if you want me to post any recipes.

November Challenge: $400 groceries/6 people

This has nothing to do with cloth diapering, but I have set myself up for a challenge to spend no more than $400 for the entire month of November.  I have 4 growing boys and a hungry husband.  My oldest has sensory issues with textures and flavors and a fairly flexible 9yo.  I have a 3 yo that turns his nose up at anything and a 2 yo that will eat mostly meat and anything on my plate.

I've been stockpiling for almost 6 months now and I've found that with stockpiling, I'm getting very good deals, but I'm still spending about $800 per month.  I live in a fairly medium to high COL area, but as a frugal woman, I'm just appalled at the third mortgage we have created.

I am also a woman who prefers organic and fair trade, I have Celiac (gluten free) and have to stay away from anything with food dyes because of my oldest who is allergic to food dyes.

I inventoried my pantry and fridge and compiled a menu for the next 15 days.

I wrote out my menu and checked my coupons and local sales ads for the local grocery stores.  I made my list for what I was going to purchase and where and gathered my coupons.  I went to Safeway first and spent $44 ouch!  Undeterred, I went to King Soopers where I spent $55.  I was hoping to spend $30 at Safeway and $28 at King Soopers, but there were things on my list that I didn't have prices for and I was really off!  Oh well, the point was to spend $200 for the 15 days and I was still way under.  I went to Sprouts to get all my veggies and fruits and spent $34.  now I have about $50+ to spend on milk, bread, eggs or any other essential item until Nov 15th.

Kids are in need of my company right now, but next time I'll post my menu...