I broke my own rules!

Ok, so there aren't really any "rules" to menu planning :)  Because it is time consuming to sit down and plan a menu, I normally only shop for my month of dinners at the beginning of the month. Since I got a jump start on my Feb calendar I had plenty of time to check out the ad's for the week. Lucky, for me, there were some GREAT sales going on this week! So maybe I'll take that as a lesson and change my strategy a bit; get that menu done with plenty of time to spare so I don't miss out on the deals. It does help that Feb is a short month AND we are planning a trip. I can pretty much guarantee it won't happen that way every month (getting the menu done early). But I did find a lot of success in it this month. I was able to get the WHOLE month taken care of all at once. That includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, pantry staples and toiletries all for about $290. I will be going back weekly for milk and produce. That will put me at about $350 for the month. Not too bad! I have mentioned bits and pieces in previous posts but I will try and get a post done in the near future for couponing and ad shopping...