Quick, last minute sack lunches on a budget, Day 10

I didn't write a meal plan on Monday night, nor did we make our lunches as usual.  But we did buy some nice Sorel kids' pac-boots at Fred Meyer's last night, for next year.  Sorels and Kamiks are 70% off the clearance price this week, and there are tons of them.  Check it out!

Breakfast is always simple here, so, no surprises, except to say that when planning for a 10 dollar daily budget, a 69 cent increase in the cost of a gallon of milk can really make a dent into a day...

breakfast menu:  cold cereal, milk

Breakfast cost: $2.39

1 box cold cereal: 1.00

1/2 gallon milk: 1.39

     Rodger made lunches on the fly this morning.  Peanut butter and jelly is the fastest, so it was the best choice for today.  We were both blurry-eyed, because Noah couldn't sleep well with his sore mouth, and spent most of the night in our bed with us.  If you're a parent you know that nights with sick children make for tired parents.

    

     lunch menu:  PB andJ sandwiches, carrot sticks, oranges

 Lunch cost:  $3.78

1 loaf bread: .88

peanut butter: .48

jam: .25

5 carrots: .55

9 oranges@ .16 ea: 1.44

1 oz cheese: .13

Even though the oranges were cheap, they made up the single biggest cost of the meal, as you can see.  My goal of putting fresh fruits and vegetables into our diet at this price is difficult!

 Snack menu:  homemade french bread

Cost: about $.14

      

     Everybody was starving by suppertime.  One peanut butter sandwich is small when accompanied only by carrots and an orange.  We could have gone through 2 loaves of bread at snack without feeling too full to eat a good supper.

Supper menu:  boiled eggs, green salad, boiled garlic potatoes with a touch of basil, french bread, applesauce

Cost: $3.27

2 hearts of romaine: .95

12 eggs:  .99

2 french loaves, homemade: .30

dressing for those who wanted it: .18

4 lbs potatoes, boiled: .40

garlic powder, sprinkle of basil: .05

applesauce: .40

     We forgot to get out the Dr Pepper...but we did have a neighbor stop over and have fun eating with us and using the kids' tricky egg slicer on her boiled egg.  That egg slicer makes eating eggs more fun.  No doubt  about it.

Daily Total Cost:  $9.44

     The children are asking me if we have saved any money up.  I wasn't sure exactly what they meant.  What came to my mind, was, "Sure, that's why we are trying to eat so cheaply to save money."  That seemed obvious.  But the child-minds were thinking on a different plane...

     What they actually wanted to know was whether we have been below budget (the 10for10for10 budget) enough to have money in the budget to buy some ice cream.  They want to use their Dr. Pepper to make floats.  They're always thinking, those kids of mine!  I'll add up the week's totals and see what spare change is available. 

      Even a small treat is a motivation, isn't it.  It can make all that scrimping worthwhile.