Redoing the budget

I know that I am not the only one, but the continuing dragging economy and high gas prices have really been a drain on our family's budget.  The prices of our heath insurance, our taxes and everything else has gone up in price, but our income hasn't really budged.  Now don't get me wrong, I thank the Lord every day that my husband hasn't lost his job, and that I have a good job in our school system, but we have not really been saving any money, and that has to change.

We are currently spending about $600-$700 a month on food which I don't think is too bad considering that we have five kids and two of them are teens.  We rarely go out, but we eat alot and the kids love snacks.  Add to it that now I work full time, we are eating alot more prepacked stuff than we did in the past.  I have been buying individual bags of chips, fruit snacks, packs of crackers, etc when I used to bake cookies, granola bars and homemade snack mix all of the time.  Well, I have decided to make some more time out in the weekends to make some more of this.  I often make a double batch of muffins on the weekends and we can eat that for a couple of mornings or for snacks.  I also like to make banana bread or other quick breads.  My goal for the next month is to get us under $400 for the month.  I hope it is doable.

In celebration of this I want to post what we will be eating.  On school days we either pack a sandwich or eat at school, so I am not posting those lunches on my menus/

Monday:  Breakfast:  Leftover biscuits, scrambled eggs, fruit\
                Dinner : Cream cheese chicken in crock pot over pasta, carrot sticks

Tuesday :  Breakfast:  Bagels or cereal, fruit
                 Dinner : Chili and Frito's

Wednesday:  Breakfast:  Oatmeal or cereal, fruit\
                     Dinner :  Pancakes and sausage for a crowd before church (the kids bring friends home for a ride to church)

Thursday :   Breakfast:  Cereal (teacher work day, kids are off.)
                    Lunch: Sandwiches, chips, fruit (I will be working)
                   Dinner:  Tacos

Friday and Saturday we are going camping and I have not bought the food for that.  We usually will roast hot dogs and cook some beans one night and then do grilled chicken and mac and cheese another night.  We will make PBJ sandwiches for lunch with chips. Breakfast will be eggs and bacon one morning and sweet rolls another.  We will bring apples, bananas, and trail mix to snack on and we will have marshmallows and smores at night.  We usually bring lots of coffee and hot chocolate and I will get some cases of bottled water, Gatorade and some individually bottled juices.  Yummy!

I have already been shopping this week, but I am starting my $400 for the month on Friday.  I will post how it goes.