How our month looks

I've been adding my menus as well as my recipes that we like and try to use every now and again.  As you may have noticed most of my menus and recipes are simple and inexpensive.  We have a growing family of 5 and everyone likes to eat so I have to make sure we have enough to get us through the month and still stay within my budget.  My budget consists of $550 a month, we live 25 minutes from the nearest town and this budget has to account for groceries, household essentials (Toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc.) as well as my gas for the month.  In order to have enough money left for gas, I have to keep my grocery and households under $350 a month.  It is doable!  I shop at Sam's club and get only items that it makes sense to buy in bulk: frozen chicken breasts (daily chef brand), flour, fresh fruit (usually bananas and grapes-everything else I buy elsewhere), tea bags (Lipton cold brew), once every few months I buy a large bag of shredded cheese either mozzarella or Colby jack and that's it!  That's a typical $40 trip.  Then I move along to the Commissary where I only buy fresh produce that's on sale- it's not always a better deal so I compare prices, I also buy meat here.  There meat is pretty cheap depending on what is the butchers special.  Checkout at under $70 and move along to King Soopers- this is my main shopping place and it takes me FOREVER as I add up everything I spend so I have a grand total before checkout.  I shop ONCE A MONTH and do NOT take kids!  My love watches the kids for me usually a weekday around the 28th.  I refuse to shop on a Saturday or Sunday and will even resort to a late night trip- i.e. after 7pm if I have to.  I usually aim for a total of $200-$225.  That leaves me with $200 in all for gas per month and anything extra I would like to do, usually a McDonald's play date once a month or paying childcare for my MOPS group.  I also make my own snacks and we do simple breakfasts throughout the week.  Weekends we splurge and do muffins, egg breakfast, biscuits and gravy, pancakes, etc.  I buy 6 gallons of whole milk per month and dilute it down, giving me 12 gallons of 2% milk and I freeze it so I'm not running to town to grab milk.  We make our own bread and are getting our garden started this year so this should help as well.  We have wonderful neighbors down the road that sell eggs and I typically buy 4 dozen a month at $2.50/dozen, it's not necessarily cheaper but it's convenient and you can't beat farm fresh eggs.  We also have a wonderful father who butchers a cow for us once a year and so I can save by not buying ground beef which is huge as we use it a lot, however, before he started doing this, I still only spend $30 on beef a month and just divided it up to last us a month.  I have tried to do a sort of couponing but I typically buy generic brands of everything and am not one of those ladies who can spend $40 and come home with a pantry full...maybe someday soon.