Menu Plan Monday

I thought I might take just a moment to share how Rick and I do our finances.

Several years ago I went to a cash-only basis. I had a child support amount that was direct deposited into my account and I immediately cashed it out. I set up a Dave Ramsey-ish system where I use an expandable coupon holder. I have categories of Groceries and Household, Lunches (school lunches and in the summer, lunches out with the kids), Clothing, Activities, Hobbies. I developed a budget for each of those categories. My child support amount was used, and Rick wrote me a check for the difference which I cashed. Then I put the designated amounts into the categories in my expandable. When a certain category was dry, we didn't spend anymore in that category. It worked wonders for me.

Then several months ago the child support pretty much dried up because my ex-husband was unemployed. It has been a real hardship on me.

Now, we do have the money to make up the difference. But, Rick pays all of our other bills and he has things "planned" with that money, typically. Since he has had to make up the difference, he hasn't been able to do what he has planned to do with that extra money, which has set us back somewhat. And I've said, "no" a lot lately (which isn't totally a bad thing). The problem is that one of my children has grown about 6 inches since his school clothes were purchased and he needs new clothes badly!

But, God has provided as he always does and we have made it.

My ex-husband finally has a job and child support should start getting direct deposited again. It will be such a relief to be able to provide for the kids with clothing and activities without having to take it out of our grocery money to do it.

But, this next week is a week that is before getting any child support. We are out of everything when it comes to groceries ... down to the last of it all. So, I'm going to have to be creative. And, this weekend we will be eating out of what's left of our excess in the pantry and freezer. I'll have to be creative. (I could ask for more money from Rick, but I am extremely prideful when it comes to taking care of the parts of the budget I am responsible for, and I choose to take this on as an extreme challenge instead.)

So, here is what's planned for our menu this week ...

Monday ~ Baked chicken breasts with spinach, mushrooms, diced tomatoes and swiss cheese, veggie brown rice

Tuesday ~ Open faced turkey sandwiches with instant mashed potatoes and gravy

Wednesday ~ FFY

Thursday ~ Bacon, egg and cheese biscuits and fruit

Friday ~ Pantry purge (tba)

Saturday ~ Pantry purge (tba)

Sunday ~ Pantry purge (tba)

On next week's Menu Plan Monday, I'll post what I came up with this weekend on the Pantry Purge.

For other menu ideas, head over to The Org Junkie.