weekend getaway, food budget and meal plan {july 29-aug 2}

August 1st marks mine and Jacob’s 5 year wedding anniversary (9 years together though!).  We celebrated by having our first night away from Hunter.  He had lots of fun at grandma and grandpa’s house and did so well!

Every anniversary we get breakfast at Grey’s at the Park. It’s downtown Vancouver in the Hilton hotel where we stayed our wedding night.  I love this tradition.  We chowed down (it was a very late breakfast, we were starved!), then went and did something we never do.  We went to an estate sale and tons of garage sales – so much fun!  Jacob picked up an old barometer and old school Adidas gym bag, and I found a rotary cutter, 2 vintage sewing patterns, an old vintage looking meat cookbook and a new cheese slicer.  All for around $15 total. After that, we were Hood River bound!  Hood River is on the Columbia River and so beautiful. We love going there to wander through the shops, watch the kite boarding and enjoy the many breweries they have down there.

There was even a new brewery named Pfriem we checked out and both really liked.  We will definitely be going back there.

We stayed in an old hotel – the Hood River Hotel.  So cute and definitely our old house loving style.  Here’s a picture of the bar/restaurant.

It was a great weekend with my hubby.  I love when we get to spend time together, just the two of us, helping us reconnect again.  Life can get so busy so it’s nice to slow down every once and a while.

On the drive to Hood River (which is just an hour away) we meal planned.  We’ve been getting a bit more serious with our money spending, wanting to limit excess spending.  We both tend to spend money when we have it and need to get out of that habit.  So we set a food budget – $100 a week, max.  I’m going back to the cash in envelope system, but have a thought about how to help us spend even less.  I’ll only be pulling out $100 on Fridays to go grocery shopping (except Monday this week). My plan is that any extra money left over from the previous week will be rolled into the next week’s $100.  So, for example if I only spend $70 this week, the extra $30 will be carried into next week and I will only pull out $70 to bring it up to $100.  It’s my plan, we’ll see how it goes!

Meal planning always helps me shop better at the grocery store, so here’s the plan for this week.

Monday: carne asada + corn on the cob + black beans
[easy dinner, Jacob grilling]

Tuesday: chicken enchiladas + fruit salad

[no real recipe for the enchiladas, I’ll make this sauce for them, stuff the tortillas with shredded cooked chicken, green chilies, cream cheese, sautéd onion and cheese, smother with the sauce and more cheese on top]

Wednesday: Asian chicken salad [so good, we had this for my b-day in April]

Thursday: left over chicken enchiladas + fruit

Friday: homemade whole wheat Hawaiian pizza + green salad

[I have this pizza dough already made in my freezer.  Toppings: tomato sauce + Canadian bacon + pineapple + mozzarella]

While I was watering the garden last night I noticed a few tiny little green sprouts.  I planted spinach last week and it’s beginning to grow!  Tonight I am planting kale, romaine, sugar snap peas, green onions and golden beets.  I cannot wait for when we can actually begin eating from the garden!

Lastly, any owl lover like myself will want to check this out.  While I was looking through my daily email I get from Zulily (a site where you can get super cute items discounted), I saw these cute owl decor pieces.

Adorable right?  Just wanted to share!

What are you cooking this week?  If you’re married, do you have any fun traditions you do for your anniversary?

Heather