Meal Planning
When I first heard of meal planning a couple years ago, I thought it was genius. I'd never heard of it or thought of it on my own (I know, I know...how is that possible?? I don't know either), but it made all the sense in the world to me....plan your meals out ahead of time to save time and money.
Its something I've tried over and over to make a habit since I first heard about it. I believe it can help maintain peace in our homes during the dinner rush, because we are prepared. We're also not scrambling to run to the grocery store for one last thing and and it saves money. All really good things! If anyone wants to help keep me accountable, I'm all for it. :)
Menu planning with a binder
Menu planning with categories
Menu planning done for you
(Project 365 coming later...)
I keep an Excel file. The first tab is a list of all the meals in our rotation, organized by type. And then I do subsequent tabs for each month, in calendar format. Each week I plot out what we're going to have that week and then make my grocery list. Sometimes I do more than a week in advance but usually weekly works best for me. Saves money and I'm not scratching my head each night trying to come up with something to cook! I like the article with the binder idea...but then it's another "thing" I have to put somewhere!
ReplyDeleteI am a meal planner too. Check out the cookbooks on Thursday, get my list and early Saturday morning with my husband. We kinda have a date set every week. Head to the farmers market, coffee veggies etc...
ReplyDeleteAnd you are right, it really saves money and no stres at dinner time because it is done.