Meal plan and budget update

Alrighty, grocery shopping is now done! How busy has today been? Gym, weigh and measure, grocery shopping, budget update, blog update, then I have to go and pick up the orders for the Pie & Lamington Drive I've organised with DS#1's preschool.

Today I went to BigW, the fruit market, Aldi and Coles.

Bargains

• 1kg red capsicum for $2.99
• 4kg carrots for $2.58
• onions for 98c/kg
• potatoes for 97c/kg
• cherry tomatoes for 98c
• ricotta cheese for $4.98/kg
• 1/4 cabbage for 48c
• 375g peanut butter for 99c
• 500g beans for 99c
• punnet strawberries for $1.99
• sweet potato for 99c/kg
• 2kg bananas for $2.65

Menu Plan
Meals

• Spinach & ricotta cannelloni with salad (DS#2's favourite for his birthday!)
• Homemade pizzas (pumpkin, baby spinach, mushroom, capsicum, cheese, tomato/ham, pineapple, cheese, egg/BBQ chicken, mushroom, capsicum/mexican (leftover tortilla stack mixture) with tomato, egg, capsicum, mushroom and cheese)
• Homemade chicken burgers with salad (lunch over the weekend)
• Steak with homemade wedges and vegies or salad
• Red curry chicken with rice (half chicken and half vegies)
• Ovenbaked fish with wedges and vegies
• Chicken chops with spuds and vegies
• Homemade crumbed veal with sweet potato mash and vegies
• Homemade meatloaf with spuds and vegies (have a family favourite winner here!)

That's 8 meals that should get us through until Friday, but I'm pretty sure I can make it stretch, with leftovers, for two more meals until Monday.

Baking

• banana and carrot cakes (with walnuts, for DS#2 birthday) - one to eat, one to freeze
• wholemeal bread - for a decadent Sunday breakfast with lashings of peanut butter OR scrambled eggs
• banana cake (to freeze)
• Lemon and coconut self-saucing pudding for dessert over the weekend
• possibly buttermilk scones that I didn't get to the other month

How did I do with my budget?

Honestly, I went over. BUT - as we are paid monthly, as long at the monthly figure adds up, I'm not too bothered. I spent $170. What put me over? , which included $15 on toilet paper - which will last 6-7 weeks. Included buying 3 lots of cheese - I spent $14 on cheese that will last at least fortnight, when I thought I'd only spend about $5. I stocked up on peanut butter, as it was cheap, $2. I bought strawberries $2. I bought extra bananas $3. I bought skim milk powder $6, as it's a pantry staple and it was a good buy.

With $100 put aside in our "bulk meat" fund, that puts us at $290 spent for the month, which will put us through until 29th June. That leaves us with $500 to last us the following 2.5 weeks, or about $200 per shop, with some top-ups in between. Given that I tend to grocery shop every 8-9 days, including top ups for milk or fresh bread. Easy!