Blessings From Home

Frugal Friday~Late Edition

I got caught up in the caring of my youngins' yesterday and wasn't able to make it back on here for my frugal Friday post. So here it goes....

I don't know how many of you ladies are able to go to the grocery store, however often you go, without a list or a menu of what you'll be making, but something I've learned through the years is I can't. For the first, oh, 3-4 years of my marriage, I would go to the store without so much as a thought of what I was actually going to get there. Yes, I knew I'd need some milk, maybe some  bread, ya know the basic stuff, but without a list, I'd usually forget at least one thing we really needed...not to mention, what were we going to eat every day. I would just head into the store, grab a shopping cart and start grabbing things that I thought we might eat and things I thought we would probably need. Now what happened with doing it this way is that I would...

1. Get one thing I thought we would eat for dinner, and then go home and have nothing else to make it. Ya know, hamburger helper and no hamburger, or 2. I would buy something I thought we needed only to come home and find we had 12 of the same thing, or 3. I would only get a few things to eat for the week and then ended up having to go to the store at least another 1-2 times during the week.

And I'm sure you all know what ended up happening...I spent way too much money. If I didn't have what I needed, I would end up going to the store again or worse, I would just go through a drive through and spend way too much for dinner.

So one day, I sat down and decided to write down every meal we would be having including things I would have to pack for lunches for hubby and myself, then I would get out all my cookbooks, write up some meals and make the shopping list to go with it and VOILA, I didn't have to guess what we'd be eating for the week. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? I mean, duh! I remember going to the store that week, only once mind you, and spending literally half of what I was spending without  a menu and a list. Can you imagine my elation?

So now that I've been menu planning for 4 years or so, I've gotten to be a pro at it. I'm even able to plan for 2 weeks or more sometimes.  So here's what I do now...

I go to my kitchen and take inventory of what I have. I also look at the previous week's menu to see if there is anything we didn't eat. I think about what is coming up in the next week or 2 weeks that I need to plan around...a birthday, company coming, etc, then I start filling in the blanks. My menu is pretty basic...

Sunday-

Breakfast-

Lunch-

Dinner-

Snack-

I can usually fill everything in without a cookbook, knowing what my family likes to eat, what they're tired of eating, etc. I do try to look for at least one new recipe to use every week.

I know everyone does something different to plan meals in their home, but this is what I've found that works for us. I will say that our menu doesn't always go as planned, just because I have meatloaf on Sunday doesn't mean we'll always eat that. I know on Sunday we have church, so I usually plan a bigger meal, and if I know we'll be busy, I'll do as much prep work as I can. Well, I guess that's about all I've got for today. I know most of you ladies are pros at planning meals for your family, I just wanted to share what has worked for us. Some great sites you can go to for more ideas on meal planning are....

The Family Homestead

Hillbilly Housewife-Menu Planning

Hillbilly Housewife-Blank Menu Form

$45 Dollar Menu and Shopping List

Thanks for stopping by!

Blessings,

Sara

Untitled Comment

{ 10:05, Saturday, August 25, 2007 } { Posted by HandsNHearts }

I'm getting much better at this. Once upon a time it's how we did our shopping. Then I slacked off terribly and boy did it show! I'm working toward getting back to that planning again. In fact, we spent some time yesterday writing out the favorite meals for a full month so we had plenty to work with. Today we will be checking amounts currently in stock here and making a 'list' for shopping.
Buying in bulk for everything I can certainly helps!
Deanna