Meal Planning #1

As a newly married couple, we are attempting to save up for quite a few different things. We are trying to pay down my school debt, save for a new car (both of ours are on their last leg), and save towards purchasing a new home one day. All of this while paying the regular bills can seem overwhelming, but with our budget it has helped tremendously. I'm sure there are many others out there who are in a similar situation we are, so I thought I'd write out our weekly meal plans and our grocery list for each of these. We have found that it is possible to have healthy, fun meals for $40 on groceries a week. We don't buy organic or anything like that, we just can't afford it right now, and it isn't the easiest to find around here, anyway. So, we are on our second week of menus right now because we have been married for that long now ( and we didn't have a meal plan on the honeymoon) So, this week you will be getting two meal plans. Today I will post the one from last week and add this week's on Wednesday (hopefully). Also, I save these plans so that I can refer to them or use them again if I'm at a loss for ideas or time :)

Ok, here goes!

Monday:

                Breakfast: blueberry waffles and eggs

                Lunch: sandwiches/snack

                Dinner: Stuffed artichoke, potatoes, lemon brownies

Tuesday:

                Breakfast: cereal

                Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit

                Dinner: Cubs Game with parents

Wednesday:

                Breakfast: toast

                Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit

                Dinner: asparagus, potatoes; chicken

Thursday:

                Breakfast: oatmeal square

                Lunch: sandwiches/fruit/chips

                Dinner:  olive garden breadsticks, roasted red pepper pasta, asparagus

Friday:

                Breakfast: cereal

                Lunch: sandwiches, chips, fruit

                Dinner: orange chicken/rice (crock pot)

Saturday:

                Breakfast: blueberry/lemondonuts

                Lunch: both gone (use fun money for eating out)

                Dinner: leftovers

Sunday:

                Breakfast: donuts

                Lunch: frozen pizza

                Dinner: youth group, snacks

Groceries: dry yeast(2.00), corn starch(2.00), red peppers(1.50), half and half (2.00), feta (2.00), onion(1.00), asparagus(2.00), red potatoes(1.19), fruit (4.00), lunch meat (3.00), chicken (5.00), one lemon(.50), 2 artichokes (2.00), sundried tomatoes, canned (3.00)

This was my list, but since things were on sale and such we were also able to purchase a box of ramen noodles (Josh loves them as a snack if he is hungry, don't know how he doesn't gain weight haha), chips (for Josh's lunch), batteries, a strange type of mango to try for fun, slices of cheese, and a box of cereal.

We had some stuff at the house already because Josh's parents gave us some groceries for when we got home. We already had a loaf of bread, eggs, milk, orange juice, and a few frozen pizzas. However, if we didn't have those items we could have fit them in, instead of the extras we got.

Our grand total of 40.42. We went over 42 cents, but that just means we take it out of  our fun budget or another budget we didn't use. The meals were super yummy, and we have some stuff left over for this week! If you want any of the recipes, just let me know and I can get them for you :) 

Hope this helps! Happy Budgeting!