12 months of budgeting

I am super excited. I started a budget for my family in January of 2015 this budget was set into place to see where our money is going. How much we are spending yearly on bills and food. I have one more month to complete it and I am super excited!
As I have stated before I have been really focusing on our food budget, and it's coming along great. Although I stopped monthly grocery shopping and have been shopping weekly I am hoping to go back into the monthly grocery shopping again. over the month of December I'm going to do a 2 week grocery shopping haul and then in January start the monthly shopping haul.
I have been meal planning for a while and I love to sit down and write out my meals. There have been times when it was tough and finding the time was difficult but I stuck through it. My hubby tells me that he has never eaten so good since I started meal planning. The secret to meal planning is to make a plan and stick to it. Even when you cook something only half of your family likes stick to it. You cannot please everyone.

This is how I start my meal planning for my grocery hauls.

I start with writing out lunches and dinners for Saturday thru Friday.  I try to make easy lunches that can be made on a Sunday morning and heated up thru the week. I do use left-overs days in both the lunches and dinners.I have found that not having left-over days/nights is just throw money away. I hate wasting food.  I also write up 4 breakfast ideas to make thru the week along with different snacks. The fruit for our snack does depend on what fruit will be on sale.

These 2 pieces of paper is my rough draft of meals for the week to make it my final draft I add it to my day planner.

 Hubby and I have been trying to eat smaller portions and when it comes to snacking we have been eating healthier.

From there I go through each recipe and write down everything that is needed to cook this meal.

 After I finish writing everything down I go grocery shopping in my kitchen and mark off everything I have. If I am running low on something I keep it on my list.

I write up my final grocery list after I look at the sale ads.If I have coupons I attach them to my grocery list.

My grocery list has saved me so much money at the grocery store. This week I shopped at Aldi, Krogers and Sprouts. 

When it comes to meal planning start off slow. do one week at a time and if you like work your way up to bi-weekly and monthly.