My mom was a master meal-planner when we were growing up. After I got married, I remember my parents mentioning that my dad got paid once a month when they were first married, so my mom didn't have any choice but to plan ahead. She did one big shopping trip once a month, filling in with the necessary milk run in between. When I was a kid, my mom had all of our meals planned out; I want to say a month at a time, but that might be an exaggeration. Point is, she had it all written down. Every dinner was accounted for.
I've always known the value of having a plan. For the past two years my meal planning has been taking place primarily in my head. Last Sunday, however, I actually sat down and wrote out a plan. Thanks to the beginning of football season, I now have a guaranteed three hours to sit and plan on Sundays. So, I looked through cookbooks and, with the help of an awesome magnetized "What's for Dinner" notepad I found in the dollar bin at Michael's, I made my very first real meal plan.
What a difference it made to have it all written out! I had no idea. I knew it was important and would help, but this was downright life changing. I can't tell you how many meals out we avoided by this simple written plan. It also helped me be more flexible. When I made my husband salmon and potatoes on Wednesday but cut one more potato than I needed, I was able to cook it up and make the potato salad that, though originally on the menu sometime the next week, was moved to the next night. After moving that dinner to Thursday night, I was able to make the potato salad and the cucumber salad for Thursday night on Wednesday, knowing I would have to work late Thursday night. My darling husband was then able to cook up the chicken and we ate when I got home. Without a plan, I would have been begging to go out and then a.) angry we spent the money to do so, or b.) bitter that we couldn't afford to and I had to whip up some crummy last minute dinner. Three cheers for sanity!!!
Now if I could only get motivated to sit down and make that financial plan that we so need!
3 comments:
a word of encouragement on the financial plan---it is 10 times more peace that you are experiencing with the meal planning--and i know what that peace feels like...financial peace is abundant!!!! so that nights when you do plan on going out--you know you can afford it!
First of all, I'm so glad you started your blog.
I'm commenting on this particular post because it made me smile. Last month I also started coming up with a weekly meal plan. I write it on my little white board with the days of the week on it on the fridge (Matt says it's like the hot lunch schedule for elementary school - in a loving way of course). Shopping is easier (and cheaper) and I'm not struggling with dinner every night.
Great minds think alike I guess. ;-)
We love our menu plan! :) John and Jonathan do the weekly shopping every Wednesday afternoon so on Tuesday nights that's our homework--menu plan and grocery list.
One fun thing I did--our meal plans get mundane fast, so I went through some of my newer cookbooks and wrote a long list of dishes I want to try w/page numbers, and that list is the front page of the notebook we use for grocery lists, etc, so we try to pick one new thing off of there every week, plus the ones we like go into rotation once we've tried them.
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