July's Menu

We decided to do things a little bit differently in July. Usually we make a menu for each week as it comes so we only buy things we need. This month I decided to make a menu for all of July. We made a list of all the things we cook and put a star by our "two-fers." These are the meals that provide leftovers or when we buy the ingredients we can get several meals out of it without having to buy more (ex. spaghetti).


Then I made a rough calendar for July and filled in my meals. I made sure that we had 2 "two-fer" meals a week and then the other three days picked the meals that we could only use once (ex. shake n bake chicken nuggets). The circled days are days when Eric will be home late from band camp so the meals need to be easily reheated or remade (ex. Shepherd's pie or pizza-dillas).



Then, on the back, I made a shopping list for each week. I know that if I buy spaghetti ingredients I can use them for at least 3 meals so I didn't have to put them on the list again once I bought them. Once I had my list of ingredients for the month I put stars by the ones I could buy that wouldn't go bad like my dry ingredients, canned food, and breads. Then I made a master list of ingredients and circled the meats, vegetables, and fruits that would spoil. Now my weekly WalMart trips will be small and only include the necessaries like cereal, milk, snacks, and meats. Hopefully this will cut down our WalMart bill. We'll see how it works.