Monday Menu Post 9/27 the Challenge

So instead of the weekly menu post that I have been regular doing for the past year, today I am going to review our "challenge" for October. I hope to update the challenge at least weekly on Monday from now until we finish in either October or November.

After not being able to really control our grocery budget at all, I really wanted a change for October. Matt and I tossed around the idea and decided to "eat out of our pantry" for the month of October based on a monthly list of meals instead of a weekly plan. So we developed a list of 30 meals that we knew we had the ingredients for and starting today are going to eat off this list for dinners and try to avoid shopping for grocery for most of the month. In the end, ideally I would like to make a monthly menu plan, shop for the ingredients and add stuff from sales as they come. I really don't think that will happen but at least for the next 2 months I can challenge myself to not spend as much on groceries and free up some space!

Today, Matt decided not to use the list but made Sweet and Sour chicken. He used some of the ingredient that we already had to it will just extended the list into November, ultimately my goal is to limit grocery shopping until after our Thanksgiving trip. We can do this by buying Angel Food in both months and really trying to free up the freezer space and save money all at the same time. We have recently purchased alot of cereal and pop tarts that were on sale so breakfast except for milk will be covered. Lunches are all over the place with me eating at home 3 days, we did not include these in the plan but will start eating some of the extra food that is sitting around such as mac and cheese and fish sticks. I hope this at least helps with our budget!