Hope you are all having a great weekend! I have a picture of a dining room above because this is pretty much what I want to do with our dining room. This is actually exactly what I wanted, so when I just stumbled across this picture I was floored because what is the chance of me finding the EXACT items that I want all in one picture?!
I have everything picked out and now I just need to go to Ikea badly. We plan on going sometime this month. The table is more of a brown color and not white like it looks in the picture. What do you think?
We are still doing GREAT with our eating at home goal. To refresh you, our goal is to eat in Monday through Friday. We went out to eat on Wednesday, but we decided that we would trade off and eat in on Sunday instead.
Let me know how your food budget is going as well. What is your monthly food budget? How much do you spend on restaurants? How about alcohol?
Here's what I plan on making as our main course for each dinner:
- Monday –White Cheddar Chicken Pasta
- Tuesday – Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Pasta w/Goat Cheese
- Wednesday – Tortellini and Garden Vegetable Bake
- Thursday – Steak
- Friday – Huevos Rancheros
- Saturday – Out to Eat
- Sunday – Out to Eat
What's on your menu? Share any recipes 🙂
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SP says
November 11, 2012 at 9:08 amI made this recipe yesterday: http://www.theppk.com/2011/01/black-beans-quinoa-…
It was easy and great! I also made butternut squash vegan mac & cheese (from Oh She Glows site), but topped it with TJ's chicken sausage since I'm not actually vegan. Yum. Now I have a few days of leftovers!
MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:53 amoooh I will definitely have to make that soon!
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Lance@MoneyLife&More says
November 11, 2012 at 9:51 amI need to start making menus again… maybe I'll use yours for inspiration!
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:53 amHaha yes you should.
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LenaAtOnMySide says
November 11, 2012 at 10:38 amThis is a really pretty dining room! It looks like an IKEA table. Our grocery budget is $280 for a family of 4 (it also includes HBA, necessities and diapers). And our eating out budget is $50 which is basically one restaurant trip and one take-out or fast food (Subway). But we drink alcohol at all, so it makes it a lot cheaper 🙂
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:54 amYup it's all ikea! I'm excited for it.
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SWR says
November 11, 2012 at 11:06 amIt looks lovely, but I would be worried that the chairs would be uncomfortable.
We don't have an 'average' restaurant bill (alcohol either). I'd say we spend about $30/month on alcohol, but it's more like $90 every three months.
Somewhere between 200 and 250 is our happy medium for groceries. Anything under $200 and we're probably eating out more than normal. If we don't plan, it's more like $350. We do lots of in-season produce and meat-lite meals to keep costs down.
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:53 amI looked into that, and I read that the chairs are actually extremely comfortable. Right now we have wood chairs that are not comfortable, so anything will be a step up!
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Lesley says
November 11, 2012 at 11:39 amyum, the chicken pasta looks good – i may have to make that this week.
unfortunately we are bad and don't have a food budget. we just spend what we do, which is about $100 a week at the store and then eat out maybe twice. it's bad.
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:54 amWe are way worse than you! Until last month, we ate out EVERY DAY. Horrible I know!
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In Budgets We Trust says
November 11, 2012 at 12:07 pmWe're still struggling with our food budget and saying no to outings. However, I stumbled across a blog called Budget Bytes (http://budgetbytes.blogspot.com) earlier this week that gave me a ton of great and quick recipes to work with. I don't know this blogger personally, and I like how she posts the cost per serving.
So far, I've made the "Dragon Noodles" recipe twice and a white bean and tuna dish that I can't remember the name of. Planning on using her tips to freeze some quesadillas to help the boy reign in his eating out spending! 😉
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:54 amI looooooooove Budget Bytes. The recipes are great.
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Holly@ClubThrifty says
November 11, 2012 at 12:57 pmI have chicken marinara with extra veggies in the crock pot. I'm going to put it on spaghetti….yum! I don't really have anything else planned for the rest of the week…..so hopefully the family will be ready for some leftovers!
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:55 amThat sounds yummy!
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Nichole Crews says
November 11, 2012 at 2:48 pmI have been so bad about eating out again! I need to start meal planning, again!
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:55 amYes you should!
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savvyscot.com says
November 11, 2012 at 4:14 pmI saw the iPad mini for the first time on Friday… had to come home and fill in more entries!! 🙂
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:55 amHaha good for you. Hope you win!
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Tanner says
November 11, 2012 at 5:10 pmThat roasted red pepper pasta sounds and looks delicious! Thanks for sharing. As for my budget… being on my own, I have a $120/mo food budget, which includes anything food related (ie; restaurants, though not alcohol, as I don't drink. If I did drink, it'd come out of there too). My menu is looking awfully uninteresting, since I don't see myself shopping for food until Wednesday or so. So salads and chicken stirfry it is!
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:55 amI need to go shopping today. Will probably go over my lunch break.
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KV Confessions says
November 11, 2012 at 5:23 pmThat's a really cute table set! Can't wait to do some decorating of my own once we buy a house next year!
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:56 amYes I'm excited to finally finish decorating.
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simplemittens says
November 11, 2012 at 7:34 pmGreat job. We usually try to eat out only once a week. I love seeing other families make it a priority to make their own meals and eat together 🙂
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:56 amI agree 🙂
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Glen @ MPB says
November 12, 2012 at 5:16 amI know this isn't exactly relevant to your post, but there is an ikea store being built within 1 mile of our house! To say i'm a little excited would be a massive understatement!
Food budget – We allocate $150 a week for all food items. Most weeks we stay under, but every once in a while we have a shocker and it will end up closer to $200. This last week we went out for dinner 4 nights (lots of birthdays) so we ended up blowing out badly 🙁
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MakingSenseofCents says
November 12, 2012 at 11:56 amI'm so jealous! There is no Ikea around here so we have to drive 5 hours to Chicago. I don't get why they don't have one here!
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Canadianbudgetbinder says
November 12, 2012 at 5:08 pmWe just got back from IKEA about 2 hours ago now, wow I forgot how crazy it is in there. We were looking at kitchens and decided on the one we want but decisions are the worst especially for Mrs.CBB.. lol. Personally we find most of IKEA not our style as it's very ultra modern to us. The kitchens on the other hand I don't mind as I put one in my old house and loved it. I post a recipe every Sunday on my blog and this week it was Cauliflower Cheese Bake.. YUM! Mr.CBB