Another week bites the dust

One more week down on our limited eating out/weekly cleaning routine. We rock. Tomorrow we reach the halfway point in our budget month (paydays are on the 8th and the 23rd), and we are well under the halfway point on our eating out budget. We did get fast food three times last week, but one of those times we talked ourselves out of Red Robin, spending $13 instead of $28, and another we used a buy a value meal, get a sandwich free coupon at Burger King and split the fries and pop, feeding both of us for $6 and change. I'm feeling like this month is a big success.

I've also almost completely stuck to my no-meat-buying strategy. I will admit that I broke down yesterday and bought a bag of chicken tenderloin, because there are a few things that I really want to make that require raw chicken, as opposed to the pre-cooked, shredded stuff I have in my freezer. It's going to be a bit of a stretch to stay in the grocery budget this month, as always, but I think I might make it if I'm careful and hubby doesn't decide he wants a bunch of special stuff.

Here's what we ate last week for dinners:

BBQ chicken pizza
roast pork tenderloin
pecan-crusted chicken tenders
creamed tuna on buttermilk biscuits (2 nights)

On the cleaning schedule, last week we cleaned the living room and hall bathroom. They were already in decent shape, because those are the areas that get spruced up when people come to visit. Still, it took a good part of a day to give them the deep cleaning they needed.

This week will be the last hellish week of cleaning, and with everything else going on we may need two weeks. This week we clean the bedroom and master bath. Now, in theory these should be neat, tidy rooms, respites from the craziness of the world and a warm and cozy place for us to relax. In reality, these are now the messiest. dirtiest rooms in the house and are desperately in need of a good scrubbing. Once they're done, we move on to the computer room and spare room, both of which have been recently cleaned and organized, so it won't be so bad. And then the cycle starts all over again, and if we've managed to stay on top of things as the weeks progress, the cleaning shouldn't take more than an hour or two.