Meal Planning... Part 1

             So my hubby and I have been finding it hard to keep our grocery budget in check. I'm sure most new parents feel the shift in groceries when their little half pint stops eating pureed food and starts eating " grown up" food.   Obviously my little HP doesn't eat the same amount as us but he does have a healthy appetite. Add in my food intolerance's and the expenses that go with that ( yup if I want ketchup that has no sugar in it ... its 5.99$ a jar... yarg :S)

             There are so many ideas online and through Pinterest in regard to Monthly Meal planning that I thought I'd take a stab at it. So I made up a monthly meal plan. Something that helped us plan out our groceries for the week. I was tired of wandering through the grocery store trying to plan stuff for suppers, buying things we don't need and forgetting the things we do need.

Here is an example of my monthly meal plan.

A few things to note for this month: 

*I allowed us two nights out a month to eat out. I tried having a Left over night
*I don't make these meals ahead of time ( although that's my next adventure) Most of them were pretty easy and some are slow cooker meals ( recipes to follow)
* I tried the Left Over night in October and dropped it in November because I found we didn't normally have any left overs to save :)
* We try to do a couple suppers where its "Breakfast for supper". It tends to be cheaper and who doesn't like having pancakes for supper? hehe

As I'm looking over that month the meals don't sound particularly healthy but they are not bad. Almost everything is homemade ( pizza dough, sloppy joe mix, etc)


I'll try to post some of the recipes as I post each month and continually update our progress. If there are any recipes your interested in please comment and I'll get those posted first!