1st day results:)

OK, my first day was mediocre. I went out (my first mistake) by myself. I had to get wet wipes and milk from CVS. Of course, I didn't just go there. Most all my purchases were in the budget, EXCEPT for lunch. I love Sonny's. Eating out is probably my worst habit of all. However, as I'm eating my lunch in the parking lot (I didn't feel like getting out of the car), I realized that my pulled pork is just as good! So I got to figurin' just what a meal identical to Sonny's would cost if I had been smart and made it at home. Eating out w/family---$45 w/tip. Cooking at home---about $15 for entire family. Not to mention, less stress around the "Little Diner" table which my kids love to visit. While still an expensive meal for home, a considerable difference to eating out. And except for pulling the pork, the meal is very easy to fix (Yeah, crockpot!)
I'm currently working on my food budget. I did decent this last time( I shopped for 2 1/2 weeks for 240 which included $40 in diapers), and probably would have had enough to last all thru this week, but I made some errors, mostly due to not freezing some of my meats immediately. If I had, then the chicken and the remainder of pot roast would have been good for this week to eat off of. So my goal is to use my shopping money that I set aside for this week and use it for the next several weeks. If I have any left that will go to our newly formed savings fund.
Can't we all use a little help with our budget? Check out http://www.angelfoodministries.com/. For any of you that are not familiar with this there is enough food in each box to feed a family of 4 for about a week, all for $30, there are no restrictions based on your income. Each month's menu is different than the previous month and consists of both fresh and frozen items with an average retail value of approximately $60. Keep checking back as I put together a couple of menu ideas to help stretch our food budget with the help of Febuary's Angel Food box.