Meal Planning For The Week

For a little over a year now, T and I have been on a strict budget.  We've got student loans and a car payment to knock out, and we're trying to get both paid off as soon as possible.  In hopes to throw the maximum amount of money that we can towards our debt each month, we budget every single dollar that we spend.  It's exhausting and really frustrating at times, but we've made some serious headway over the last year and we're already ahead of schedule with getting it all paid off. 

So with that said, meal planning is a must in our house.  I have $80 to spend on groceries each week, which includes food for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and alcohol.  I try to shop the sales, make use of things that we already have in our pantry or freezer each week, and we always eat leftovers.  I usually spend every last dollar of the $80 each week, and pay with cash so I don't have the option of going over.

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By T's request, we had tomato soup on Sunday and Monday nights of this week.  This is my mom's recipe and it's the best tomato soup I've ever tasted; brie makes everything better.  On Tuesday we tried a crock pot Barbacoa Beef recipe that was incredible on tacos.  I usually shy away from slow cooker recipes. Every recipe I try seems to taste the same to me.  The flavors in this beef were so tasty, and it didn't have the typical pot-roasty taste that I feel so many slow cooker recipes have.  So here's what's on the menu for this week.  The Barbacoa Beef made a lot, so we'll be munching on those leftovers through the weekend.

Sunday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheeses with Bacon & Avocado
Monday: Tomato Soup and Grilled Cheeses with Bacon& Avocado
Tuesday: Barbacoa Beef Tacos and salad with Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette
Wednesday: Out to eat
Thursday: Dinner with T's company
Friday: Out to eat