Monthly Meal Plan Report

Oops... I haven't blogged on here in almost a month?? Wow, time flies!

I did want to report on my "Monthly Meal Plan" trial period for the month of July.

I loved it. Absolutely loved it. It was so incredible to not EVER have to think of what I was going to do for dinner. I never thought at 6:00pm - "What in the world are we eating for dinner??" There was zero stress and zero thought process. Love, love, love!!

Now - I didn't stay under our $200 grocery budget for the month. But that wasn't because of the meal planning at all. Stephen and I went out of town from July 8 to July 13. My mother-in-law was OH SO KIND as to fly into town and keep our kids for that whole week. Which meant, on July 7, I did a MAJOR grocery shopping trip. There were no coupons involved and that trip included everything from chicken nuggets to french fries to produce to snack food to pop-tarts... everything I could think of that she might need during the week - trying to keep her from having to go grocery shopping with the kids! So I spent over $75 on that trip, and we spent around $210 on groceries for the month. So it was definitely worth it to do that grocery trip to make sure the family was equipped to eat while we were gone, but if I hadn't made that trip we would have been well under budget. That is good to know!

So what did we eat? Here's the list for the month to give you some ideas:

Monday, July 1 - Crockpot BBQ, some fresh vegetable (I can't remember now)
July 2 - friends came over for dinner and brought pizza
July 3 - Leftovers
July 4 - Baked teriyaki chicken, mashed potatoes
July 5 - Calzones, corn on the cob
July 6 - Stirfry, rice
July 7 - I cooked something this night but I didn't write it on the calendar and I've forgotten now!
July 8 - 13 we were out of town
July 14 - Leftovers/frozen pizza
Monday, July 15 - Cube steak, green beans
July 16 - Pancakes, bacon
July 17 - Leftovers
July 18 - Bourbon Street Chicken, some fresh vegetable (I can't remember now)
July 19 - Creamy garlic pasta (I haven't posted this recipe yet)
July 20 - Calzones, corn on the cob
July 21 - I think we did something for Stephen's birthday but I can't remember!
July 22 - Lasagna, green beans
July 23 - French toast, bacon
July 24 - Leftovers
July 25 - Brown Sugar Chicken, mashed potatoes
July 26 - Ate dinner at church for VBS party
July 27 - Steaks, potatoes
July 28 - Leftovers/frozen pizza
July 29 - Cube steak, some fresh vegetable (I can't remember now)
July 30 - Pancakes, bacon
July 31 - Leftovers/sandwiches/fried okra

Okay, so apparently I didn't take great notes when I switched things out. I had planned out vegetables for every meal, but as fresh veggies came in I was substituting those for the canned/frozen stuff. So we were eating lots of green beans, corn on the cob, okra, potatoes, broccoli, and peas, but I can't remember which nights! I also stocked up on bread and rolls so we could have bread with basically every meal.

I am DEFINITELY doing this again for the month of August. Working with what is already in the freezer and pantry means I am buying way less in the grocery store. Since we won't be out of town for a whole week in the month of August I shouldn't have any big shopping trips to make. I'll continue to update you on our progress with the August monthly meal plan!