This week was really rough for us. Our chicken stockpile has finally run out, but we haven’t seen any good sales on chicken breasts for the past several weeks. We’re still waiting, but that means we’ve been spending a little extra money every week buying meats that are on sale.

We also ran out of several staples this week, so we had to stock up on some things. We ended up spending $75 on groceries (yikes!) and $14 on household items like toilet paper and a prescription.

We’d just barely purchased all of the items we needed this week — we even reduced our purchases to make sure we’d stay within our cash budget. Then we remembered we’d forgotten to pick up lettuce, a necessity for me because most days I bring salad to work for lunch. We ended up breaking down and charging the $4 package of 6 heads of romaine on our debit card. :(

We’ll try to reduce our spending next week by $4 to make up the difference, but if we don’t do it, I’m still not beating myself up over it. The whole point of this experiment was to reduce our spending as much as possible. Even if we make mistakes sometimes and overspend, we’re still better off than we would have been without living on a cash budget. So no biggie, right? :)

Here’s our menu plan for the week:

Saturday: Chicken kebabs with roasted corn on the cob
Sunday: French onion soup
Monday: Carne asada steak with pinto beans and rice
Tuesday: Taco salad
Wednesday: Broccoli cheddar soup
Thursday: BLT salad
Friday: Eggs and bacon

For more menu plans, visit Organizing Junkie.

Have a great week!