My husband gets paid twice a month. Around each pay check (2-3 days out) I start thinking about our new "batch" of money. I always tweak our budgets with updates on monthly bills (since electric, gas, etc are always changing), note our cash flow, assess what we need (hair cuts? more diaper? new clothes?), how much we can save, etc. Then, I schedule all my bills and feel good about life for the next couple of weeks until I start the cycle again. And when that chore is done and I hang up my "CFO" of the family hat, I get to planning our grocery list because that one category in our budget gets the most money aside from bills but it can go quickly if I'm not careful and that requires organization! Not to mention my husband loves knowing what dinner will be and when he can see our menu for the next few weeks on our calendar he is one happy dude.
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| the 2 year old likes the draw in my planner with me. he's so helpful. ;) |
So here's what I do. It's SO basic, but if it can help you I'd be happy to help! :)
First I think about what I cooked the last week that my kids really gobbled up and that I'm not sick of eating and want to cook again. Lately that's been chili, pot roast, and chicken enchiladas. Then of course you have everyone's favorites which is chicken quesidillas and breakfast for dinner. The men in this family get so excited about these two meals and they're easy enough to make and shop for! THEN, I open the laptop and click into Pinterest. I resist the urge to repine every awesome thing my friends pinned and hit my "recipes" board. I scan through for things I've pinned that have stayed on my mind. This time after a particularly awful week of cooking dinners (even "under 30 minute dinners") because my newly-1-year-old was not happy at dinnertime to let me just cook, I clicked on everything crock pot. I selected 6 new recipes for us to try.
New recipes have always been challenging when it comes to organization because they require you to save the recipe and possibly get new ingredients you may not have. Lately I thought of a good system to organize my thoughts on new recipes. Basically, I e-mail myself/my husband. I took the 6 recipes and copied the title with a link to the original recipe and then copied the ingredients list under it. Today there was not enough time in naps to scan through each thing while my kids were sleeping to see what I had or didn't have and figure out how to clump things together on my list in an organized way but now I have that e-mail on my phone and when there's time here and there I can sit down with my phone or a printed copy and write up my list. Then, I'll also have that list I can stick on my fridge for the next few weeks so I can be aware of what I'll be using in the coming days if I decide to change anything up (which I do... we don't always stick to each day's dinner plan... sometimes we move meals around).
Another benefit of having the email in my phone with the links is that when it's time to make dinner I don't have to scroll through that pin board to find what I need, I can just click the link in my phone and have the recipe right there. It's how I'm saving trees. ;)
Yay, technology!
SO, now I have 14 meals listed for 15 days. This is perfect because I know we'll get dinner at least 1-2 times and we'll eat lunch out on the weekend about 2 times so I'll have a little left over if I need to make a lunch or if I can't hit the grocery store next pay day.
So there you have it! Menu planning! I also tend to write on my menu things I want to eat with the kids for lunch those weeks... Earth's Best chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, hot dogs, sandwiches... and I also write down if Josh has suggested we make something fun or unique like apple pie or apple cider or if I am hankering for pumpkin bread. Then I know I'll need to get those things too when it comes to making my list.
And for the record, I do menu plan two weeks but I can't ever buy groceries for just two weeks. I do one BIG trip where I get all my meat, grains, juice, etc and freeze the excess meat (buying in bulk saves me money!), but I have to go back at least once a week for more milk & produce because we go through these things too fast and they don't keep as long. I know some people freeze produce but I literally have no room in my freezer so I can't be that person. ;)
P.S. I posted on my good friend April's blog today about friendship! It's basically a follow up to this post from August and you can read it here! :)
2 comments:
Found your blog from April's twitter. I need to sit down and do menu planning like I used to. I would plan for what I had coupons for too so I could save $
That is awesome how ORGANIZED you are. I am trying to be but it's tough. Now that Brayden is in school 2 mornings a week, I have been meal planning on Sunday or Monday, and getting groceries on Tuesday when I just have Kenley. WAY less stressful. I have been trying to make a lot of meals with things already in my pantry so I can dwindle it down as well! :)
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