Low Spend January, Day 25

This has been a long month, I may have hurt myself by not figuring for a five week month as well as I thought I had. All of my line items are overspent so the only thing to do at this point is declare the next seven days No Spend Days. However I have a prior commitment on the 30th where I will have to spend money so the next five days will be No Spend days and I'll end this month at midnight on the 29th. I'm going to plan better for February and I'm hoping without sick kids and only four weeks in the month I can do a little better. Here's the damage:

Gas            $ 290,   -15 left
Spending    $290,      0 left
Eating Out  $30,     -14 left
Groceries    $300,   -100 left
misc            $40,      -95 left
                     
Over budget $224

Last Week's Menu, Only a Week Late

Sunday I made the Pasta e fagioli except I decided omit the meat the recipe called for because it had two kinds of beans as well. I was pretty good except I kept thinking of how much better it would taste if it had Italian Sausage in it. Next time I'll for sure be adding it, turkey Italian Sausage that is. I tossed a spinach Caesar salad together to go along side this warm soup which was perfect on a cold evening.

 My fresh basil didn't keep as long I had hoped it would, so the Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce on the menu for Monday night was a no-go. We had salad with some cut up chicken on top instead.

Tuesday for lunch, I tried the Chicken Roll-ups, this is not healthy I know, but oh-so-yummy! I did however use neufchatel cheese instead of regular cream cheese because, according to the package, has 1/3 less fat. Also I chose the reduced fat crescent rolls and cut back the amount of shredded cheese it called for, which was of course 2%. I took a little time to stuff and roll these but they are worth it! I did decide not to at the melted butter and bread crumbs just because I cut butter wherever and whenever I can. When it came time to cook supper I was suffering from a terrible headache so my husband gave me the night off and made some really yummy fajitas. He pulled my last bag of pinto beans from the freezer so this coming week has a big pot of beans on the menu.

Wednesday night held another menu change, since I had a sick kiddo and I was out of Mom's Chicken Noodle Soup in the freezer, which I always keep for lunches or sick family or friends. I made a big pot for supper; this will be reappearing on the coming week’s menu.

Now for this week’s menu……

Fortunately I’m able to carry some meals over from last week’s menu; this really helps since I’m on such a tight grocery budget this month. I’m trying to keep it at $300 for January and I’ve already spent $225… I know, yikes!

Well here‘s the plan:

Thursday

Breakfast- pancakes

Lunch- leftovers

Supper- Meatballs, Mashed Potatoes and green beans.

I normally make my meatballs with ground turkey but the store was out. I used ground sirloin instead and rinsed them after they were brown. I make my gravy with coconut oil, use a minimum amount of butter in my mashed potatoes (about 2 TB) and 2% milk. My green beans I cook in water until soft using only The Lady’s House Seasoning, coconut oil and some homemade vegetable stock.

Friday

Breakfast-pancakes

Lunch-leftovers

Supper-Baked Potatoes and Salad

Saturday

Breakfast-cereal

Lunch- leftovers

Supper- Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce, pasta and steamed broccoli

Sunday

Breakfast-cereal

Lunch-Sandwiches

Supper- Mom’s Chicken Noodle Soup,  Bread

Monday

Breakfast- cereal

Lunch-Sandwiches

Supper-Bean Burritos ( I’ll make a big pot of Pinto beans, use for burritos and freeze the rest)

Tuesday

Breakfast- Cereal

Lunch-Sandwiches

Supper-Sour Cream Enchiladas, Beans

Wednesday

Breakfast-cereal

Lunch- Grilled Cheese sandwiches

Supper- Spaghetti

 

 

 

Low Spend January Day 19

It's been a challenge to keep up with this while being cooped up in the house with two sick kids, but I tried. I did go over on my grocery budget by about $75 and my spending money I used up renting movies and getting treats for sick/sad kiddos. I had planned on keeping my spending down so I could buy some theatre tickets to a play we are going to later this month, but I ended up having to take that $24 outside of my spending money. Also I quickly discovered I had aimed too low with my misc. line item, I some how had forgotten that I was going to need more toilet paper, trash bags, dog food, ect. Needless to say, I over spent that line by $60. With only eleven more days left in the month I feel pretty good about things. Even though I overspent some places, trying to keep within a certain limit helped us save some money. Which came in handy when my car died and we needed to get it repaired. Here is what my budget looks like on day 19 of my Low Spend Challenge:

                    Allotted    Used     Left

Gas              $290        $250    $40

Spending      $290        $250    $40

Eating Out    $30           $30     $0

Groceries      $300        $375    -$75

Misc.             $40          $100    -$60

Low Spend January Update

Low Spend Update 1/10

We're ten days into our Low Spend January so it's time for an update. We started with a total of $950 to spend for the whole month broken down like this

                                                

Gas	290
Spending	290
eating out	30
Groceries	300
misc	40

 

Remaining Balance

Gas 230

Spending 160

Eating out 30

Groceries 75

Misc. 40

Total 600

Also I was on Beg, Barter, Buy, Sell and bought some things, but don't worry I didn't blow my budget, I sold some stuff as well along with the fact I made I made some extra money dog sitting. I had a total of $220 unbudgeted funds and spent $145 of that. The leftover money went to buying a part for my broken washing machine, bummer, but at least my budget was spared.

Menu Update

Friday I tried making Baked Cheese Sticks for lunch and it didn't turn out well. They were more like cheese patties, but don't worry, I ate them anyway. Then for Supper I made Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread and I did much better with that! I cooked the chicken in coconut oil instead of olive oil, used part skim cheese and light ranch ( we're not Blue Cheese people). There isn't much you can do about all the bread the chicken and cheese are wrapped in except not eat too much. My daughters LOVED it, I thought it was pretty good too. I served it along with some steamed broccoli from my neighbors garden, yum!

Saturday I made English Muffin Mini Pizzas, my kids and their friends LOVE these! I cut an English Muffin in half and lay it open face on a cookie sheet. I spread some tomato sauce on top and sprinkle with Italian Seasoning. Then sprinkle with part skim mozzerella and whatever toppings you like, we use Turkey pepperoni, black olives and mushrooms. I bake them on 425* until cheese is melted and edges of muffin are toasty. Right before I made lunch I put some Chicken Teriyaki in the crockpot and sprinkle some sesame seeds in with the mixture. I let that cook all afternoon while we were at a birthday party and then served it over some parboiled white rice. Unfortunately my kids didn't even try it because I was super nice mom and let them each get a $1 hamburger when we stopped at McDonald's on the way home from the party for a potty break. I felt bad because I knew they were starving and it was still going to be a couple of hours before supper. Well it was a mistake on my part because they claimed they were too full to eat their supper after that, lesson learned!

New Recipe Hailed a Success!

I made the Homemade Crunchwrap Supreme last night and it was really good, my family approved as well! I used ground turkey instead of ground beef, low sodium taco seasoning, whole grain chalupa shells, light sour cream and 2% milk shredded cheese. Another thing you could do that I did not is use light or low carb tortillas instead of regular tortillas. I have been using ground turkey to make taco meat for awhile now and really prefer it, it's much less greasy and has a better flavor.

This Week's Menu

I've been asked to post my weekly menus with recipes and how I altered some of them to be healthier. I plan my menus from Thursday to Thursday because it just works best for us and coordinates well with groceries shopping/pay days. I'm just posting the menu but please let me know if you want a recipe and I'll post it. Oh and one more thing, since I've been working on a lot of Pinterest projects, several of these recipes are from there and I haven't tried them yet. My family is going to love me...not!

This week's menu

THURBreakfast- cereal Lunch- leftover broccoli cheese soup Supper- Homemade Crunch Wrap Supreme FRI Breakfast-Pancakes Lunch- Baked Cheese Balls and leftover Lentil Soup Supper- Buffalo Garbage Bread, Steamed Broccoli         SAT Breakfast- Mini Frittatas Lunch- English Muffin mini pizzas Supper-Chicken Teriyaki and Rice              i     SUN Breakfast-cereal Lunch- Ruben Sandwiches, Fried Potatoes Supper- Fagioli Soup, Salad       MON Breakfast- cereal Lunch-Chicken Roll ups Supper-Chicken in Basil Cream Sauce, pasta, green beans       TUES Breakfast-cereal Lunch-Mac n Cheese Supper- Chicken Pot Pie, salad (Daughter's night to cook)         WED Breakfast-cereal Lunch-Grilled Cheese sandwiches Supper- Sour Cream Enchiladas