The End of the Month

I have come to the end of my first four-week period in which I withdrew all (or most) of our spending money in one lump sum. I think it has been a success: there was only one instance where I used the debit card to use money for which I hadn't budgeted (I bought a large pack of baby wipes for about $10 which I will subtract from next month's grocery allotment). I have $70 remaining for this week, which is not unexpected. I actually had the same amount set aside for last week, but used a few dollars of my spending money for a couple of luxury purchases (I fell for a limited edition peaberry coffee and some Turkish Delight).

Usually when I plan my menus, I begin by thinking about what we have that I can use up and then I look through cookbooks or my Menu-Mailers. Finally, I list all of the items I'd like to purchase and estimate what they will cost, making creative substitutions when something has to be scratched off of the list. This time, I think I listed the necessary items and things we have run out of first and estimated the prices of those items before researching menus and recipes. And my preliminary total (before crossing anything off determined unnecessary): $61.30. That leaves a grand total of $8.70 for the ingredients for our dinners for the week! Now I may go back and remove some items from the initial list, but this menu should be interesting!