Menu Plan Monday: Once a Month Cooking Plan & May Goals

For the month of April we took on a “once a month grocery shopping budget plan”. Meaning, we spent the majority of our money the first week of the month and stocked up. Then, I was left with $16 per week to spend for the rest of the month. I planned each week’s menu week by week, looking at sales and what we had on hand. We did well! I only took $2 out of our cash general funds the last week.

This month, I want to try the “once a month menu planning” as well as the “once a month budget”. I will also be working on calculating the cost of every meal we make, so that in future months I can be even better prepared at planning!!

Next week, I’ll bring you a breakdown of what we spent money on for our first week of grocery shopping (we plan on spending $125, leaving $75 to split between the remaining weeks).

Favorite Meal last week: BBQ Yardbird Pizza!

I’ll be sure to include this recipe in my new recipe tab that will be coming soon!

Menu Plan

Butternut Squash and Parsnip Baked Pasta from Cooking Light

Monday

Lunch: leftover Braised Chicken Gumbo

Dinner: Soup & Sandwich with Amish White Bread

Tuesday/Wednesday

Lunch: Butternut Squash & Parsnip Baked Pasta with Crusty Baquettes

Dinner: leftover Braised Chicken Gumbo

Thursday/Friday

To make: Nutritious Muffins (recipe next week!)

Lunch: Stir-Fry

Dinner: Bacon, Tomato & Arugula Pizza

Saturday/Sunday

Lunch: Eggs & Bacon Pitas

Dinner: Tortilla Meatball Soup

What are you cooking this week? We’d love to hear about it!

For more recipe ideas,visit my other Menu Planning Monday posts or Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday Blog Hop!

10 Goals for this Week

I’ve decided to break down all my goals for 2012 into manageable bite size weekly goals. Each Monday I will plan on blogging about my 10 Weekly Goals – how I did and giving my new goals for the week. Last week I listed these goals:

Wife/Marriage Goals

1. Ask my husband daily: “Is there anything I can do for you today?” – I didn’t really do so well at this this week.

Home Management Goals

2. Declutter project week 4 – finish office & start basement – still not done…

3. Start creating photobook

4. Make homemade yogurt

5. Calculate cost for recipes (maybe calculate the cost of 3-5 recipes) - Yay! I finally started to see progress with this project this week!!

Personal Goals

6. Continue Couch to 5K with husband – Week 5!

7. Read 7-10 chapters of the Old Testament

8. Read 2 chapters in the Resolutions for Women study

Blogging/Business Goals

9. Set up a “recipes” section to my blog - I will work on this sometime soon!

10. Start filling out piano evaluations – The evaluations are all done!

Goals for the Month of May:

Since tomorrow is the beginning of May, I thought I would list my 15 main goals for the month instead of this weeks goals.

Wife/Marriage Goals

1. Weekly write a love note to Matt

2. Call my sisters on a semi-weekly basis

Home Management Goals

3. Finish the Declutter project

4. Organize the sewing/crafts supplies

5. Make a master list of favorite recipes and calculate cost for each recipe

6. Weekly freezer cooking

Personal Goals

7. Run a 5K with husband

8. Lose 5 pounds

9. Read at least 36 chapters of the Old Testament

10. Finish the Resolutions for Women study and start a new study

11. Complete 31 Days of No Complaining

Blogging/Business Goals

12. Set up a “recipes” section to my blog

13. Reach 8,000 pageviews for this month (or at least 40,000 total)

14. Meet with piano students and tutor students’ parents

15. Plan a piano recital for June

(I’m linking up to MoneySavingMom’s 10 Weekly Goals)

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