Menus

When Jim and I first began Dave Ramsey, we agreed to cut our expenses as much as possible to pay off our debt. Besides losing my closing allowance, we cut our weekly grocery budget down. I've made our grocery budget work for us through strategic planning involving menus. Each week, I planned out our weekly menu and inventoried our pantry to determine what items I needed from the store. At the store, I only bought those items that made the list. This allowed us to eat well and stay within our grocery budget, plus I began to enjoy cooking. As far as Jim is concerned, this is a win-win situation!

And then, right before the holidays, I began to work full-time. I found I didn't have as much time to plan weekly menus and do the grocery shopping. We began to shop as needed and strayed away from menus. I also used my Yoke's coupons to spend our grocery budget stocking up our pantry in December. Fortunately, after months of careful planning and shopping, I had enough practice sticking to our budget that we were able to keep to it without menus.

Now here we are, three weeks away from moving again. With a fully-stocked pantry from four wild trips to Yokes. The thought of moving again is overwhelming to me, and I definitely do not want to pack up our pantry if I can help it. So Jim and I agreed to not buy groceries for the next few weeks and eat up what we have on hand. I wrote down everything we have on hand and planned out meal ideas from that list. Here's my list of what we'll be eating for the next three weeks (or until the food runs out, which ever comes first!):

-Corn chowder with Cheddar-garlic biscuits
-Macaroni and cheese with tuna
-Breaded Parmasean tilapia filets with fettuccine Alfredo
-Lasagna with garlic bread
-Marinated steak with rice and mashed potatoes
-Chicken chili with cornbread
-Waffles with the Eslinger's Homemade Syrup
-Spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic bread

Looking at that list, I'm wondering if we will be able to stretch that out over the next three weeks. I guess we'll see!