Project Food Budget: Week 1

Tip of the Week: Meal plan! By planning your menu ahead of time, you only buy the food that you need. This saves money, reduces waste, cuts down on the number of trips you make to the grocery store each week, which means less impulse buys!

Week 1 Dinner Menu

Smoky BBQ Chili + Quinoa Cornmeal Skillet Bread

Chickpea Plov + Green Salad

(Loaded) Vegetable Pizza

Maple Baked Lentils + Roasted Root Vegetables

Corn and Quinoa Fritters + Raw Veggies and Dip

Pesto Pasta

Black Bean Taco Salad

Our breakfast menu is consistently consistent: oatmeal and smoothie. Sunday through Thursday I make enough at dinner to have left overs for lunch the next day.

Week 1 Spending:

Ouch! This week didn’t go as planned, considering we are budgeting $200/month. To tell you the truth I forgot I was participating in Project Food Budget until after I sent DH to Costco for the ‘usual’. In the future, I plan to go to Costco once every 2 weeks and to cut out a few convenience purchases. This should make a difference in our spending next week.

Check out the others that are participating for menus, recipes and budget shopping tips.

 Participating Blogs:

• That’s Just Me
• Eat Whole Be Vital
• Four Happy Violets
• Naturally {Un}refined
• Pgh Dad

5 Comments

1. 

   debbie T

   Posted on: 1-5-2012

   Welcome to the budget challenge. Don’t be too hard on yourself, it’ll take you a month or two to get into the swing of it. Good luck, next week!

   Reply
   • 

     JaydaSiggers

     Posted on: 1-6-2012

     Thanks Debbie!

     Reply
2. 

   Maranda

   Posted on: 1-16-2012

   I found after the holidays I was out of a lot of staples. We didn’t shop or eat routinely for a few weeks, bought some ‘extras’, etc. My first real grocery trip this year was about $75 more than usual. And I’m usually very consistent week to week.

   Looking forward to checking out some of the other blogs, thanks for the list!

   Reply