Snowed In Menu Planning and Weekly Budget Review

We are heading into our fourth snow day in a row. In Dallas this is unheard of. My kids are going stir crazy and, truth be told, so am I. I relish my time at home with my family, but I am one of those women that needs to work. Not just to contribute financially, but as in, I NEED to work.

Stephen and I have been taking turns going into our (closed) offices this week. We have to get stuff done. He goes in the morning, I go in the afternoon. I ran by the grocery store tonight on my way back home.

I didn't plan, but had some of my coupons with me. On the fly, I came up with this menu for the upcoming week, which I am sure will be tweaked. Part of it was the special deal Whole Foods was running which I will detail below:

Dinners

1. Beef Chili
2. Hamburgers, homemade french fries and sliced fruit
3. Vegetarian Sloppy Joes
4. Steak, fruit and vegetables
5. Tilapia, fruit/salad and vegetables
6. Quesadillas and Soup

Lunches

1. Turkey or salami sandwiches on homemade bread, organic potato chips, fruit
2. Wrap sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, hummus with carrot and celery sticks, fruit
3. Homemade pizza rolls, homemade apple chips
4. Spaghetti with butter and parmesan
5. Leftovers from dinner

I will be cooking slightly different meals for myself since I'm on Mellman, so I'll be eating more buffalo and fish.

We'll be getting a delivery from Texas Daily Harvest on Saturday. I spent $41.49 on a gallon of milk, 1 pint of cream, 8 oz of Colby, 8 oz of Mozzarella, one pound of pasture fed ground beef and one pound of pasture fed strip steak.

I spent $81.55 at Whole Foods. They were having a special: if you purchased their hamburger patties, you'd get hamburger buns, potato chips and smoked sausage for free. The free items were worth $10.98 and I had $6 in coupons. Here's what I got:

• Sloppy joe mix, $2.79
• 2 small containers of strawberry yogurt, $.79 each
• BBQ sauce, $2.50
• Rye crackers, $2.69
• Organic potato chips, $2.00
• Kashi cheddar crackers, $2.99
• 365 Peanut Butter cereal, $3.49
• 3 boxes of Arrowhead Mills Cereal, $4.39 each
• 2 boxes Kashi Cereal, $3.39 each
• 3 cans of organic beans (kidney, red and navy), $5.00
• Sweet german pork sausage, $5.99
• 365 Goat Cheese, $6.99
• Gourmet beef burgers, $14.14
• Tazo Chai Tea Concentrate, $4.49
• Applegate Farms Genoa Salami, $2.25
• Applegate Farms Oven Roasted Turkey, $4.18
• Hamburger Buns, $2.99
• WF Tortillas, $2.49
• Organic Cameo Apples (2.48 lb), $3.70
• Organic Lemon, $.79
• Clean Eating Magazine, $5.99 (technically not groceries, but included in the total)

We were out of cereal, so I used coupons and stocked up. I still need to get some more Soy milk and, likely, eggs. But I'm well within the budget this week.

I made a lemon cake treat that I'll be posting about later and I'll be whipping up some of my nut butter cookies. It's gonna be a great week.