Budget Redesign: Planning for June

June is just six days away and I want to be prepared for what's coming. We're $80 over our original grocery budget, but as I mentioned before, that number includes home supplies. I already know that I'll be splitting transactions in June so I should have more accurate numbers. To help curb my spending at the grocery store, I've decided to plan a menu for the entire month of June. SCARY! Usually I plan two weeks at a time, but I think I can handle a whole month! 

To start, I decided on some themes. Choosing 30 meals is more intimidating than it sounds (actually, it sounds pretty intimidating!), so it helps to have a general direction. The themes are as follows:

Mondays:         Crock Pot meal or casserole

Tuesdays:         Meatless meal or seafood

Wednesdays:    Leftovers or hot sandwiches

Thursdays:       Something New 

Fridays:            Pasta or Tacos

Weekend:         Anything Goes

I also know that not every day will go as planned. Some days we'll do something unexpected or we'll have more leftovers than we thought, so I won't cook that night. I plan to shop two weeks at a time, so what I can do in that case is edit the menu for the following two weeks and make the skipped meal instead of buying ingredients for a new one. I'm not completely finished with the entire month yet, but I'm close! Dinner's looking good for June!

But what about lunch & breakfast? Well, Blake doesn't really eat breakfast so... that's all on me! I usually have an apple with peanut butter, yogurt, cereal, eggs... whatever we have around. And for lunch, we usually eat leftovers. I try to make meals that will be good as leftovers so it makes preparing lunch easy! We'll also keep sandwich stuff as well as some tortillas and cheese on-hand for quick lunches if we don't have any leftovers.

So I guess you're wondering what's on the menu for June? Since I don't have the whole thing finished, I'll just give you a glimpse of the first two weeks: 

Friday, June 1: Cheese ravioli w/ spinach meat sauce, garlic bread, salad

Saturday, June 2: Grilled pork chops, grilled corn, mashed cauliflower, salad

Sunday, June 3: Leftovers

Monday, June 4: Poppyseed chicken, rice, English peas

Tuesday, June 5: Parmesan roasted zuchinni, tilapia, honey roasted potatoes

Wednesday, June 6: Leftovers or hot sandwiches

Thursday, June 7: New Recipe w/ Holly (Her pick)

Friday, June 8: Beef tacos w/ vegetables and black beans 

Sat & Sun, June 9-10: Not sure yet!

Monday, June 11: Crock Pot Chicken & Rice, saucepan carrots

Tuesday, June 12: Pancakes, scrambled eggs, and fruit

Wednesday, June 13: Leftovers or hot sandwiches

Thursday, June 14: New Recipe w/ Holly (Breaded pork chops, Susan's baked beans, corn casserole)

Friday, June 15: Spaghetti w/ sauce, garlic bread, salad 

Just typing that up made me hungry!!! On my actual menu, I list the ingredients needed so that I can see about how much I'll need of everything. This will help me as I shop, but it'll also help me use up things that will expire. 

I'm looking forward to a summer of cooking (I love to cook!!!!). I'll upload the entire month's menu once it's complete and, of course, I'll be updating on how the menu is working out during June AND how much it's costing!!