Hey Friends!

 I’m here bringing you some more things to help us wives and moms out! I wrote this post a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to test out a few things before I posted! It is so important to have a routine in your household! Whether you’re a stay at home mom, self-employed or working outside of your home, routine’s and schedules help us to keep our sanity! Check out my post I wrote back in March about routines here!

That being said, I wanted to help us solve a big problem and that is planning for meals! I touched on meal planning a little here, but I wanted to go a little more in-depth with you, you know because you’re my girls and girls share their success with one another!

When I began meal planning, I was a bit skeptical. I heard other people say oh it saves time and money. I would think how is it saving time? I’m purchasing everything at one time spending hours going to different stores?! How is it saving money, my hubs gets paid once a month?! Do you see my dilemma? So because I’m that person that doesn’t back down from challenges, you guessed it… I tried it and it was a success! One of the best decisions I ever made! Yes it really does save time and money!

I wanted to give you an inside look to my process from beginning to end. SO grab you a cup of coffee or tea a pencil and a cute notebook and lets talk this thing out!

Sunday evenings after church and dinner are my days that I sit down to plan for the entire week. You should really see me, I have Sundays paper, my menu planner, the grocery store ads and my coupon book all in one sitting. The hubs just shakes his head at me ha, but I love to save a little money where I can and menu planning does help! Here are my main go to essentials for this oh so serious, but fun planning session!

• Sunday’s paper that has coupons
• Recipe Books or A Recipe Binder
• Menu Planner or a notebook dedicated to meal planning
• Pencils or Pens
• Coupon Organizer
• Scissors

Where To Start:

The first thing I do is I began to search out different recipes that I may want to make. If your children are at an age they can help cook, get them involved in this process too by asking them the type of meals they’d like to prepare. I then check to see what may be on sale at my local stores. For instance, if I may want to make Turkey spaghetti, well I search to see if my store has ground turkey on sale that week. If they do great! If not, I have to decide whether I choose to go with that or choose and on sale item. Does that make sense? The real money-saving part really comes in when you actually plan your meals for the week based off of what your local stores have on sale. This works if they have what you want to make for the week on sale. Sometimes I find that I really don’t want what they have on sale that week, but I am still saving money by menu planning because I’m not running back and forth to the store 3-4 times a week. Once you get all the ideas of things you’d possibly like to make then you can began to organize your meal plan.

Coupons

The next thing once I have my menu plan I check to see if any of the items that im using have a coupon. Now I am not that chick that is about extreme couponing! I am not about that life!! However, wherever I can save a few coins here and there I will. I also keep the coupons from the grocery store also and just place them in my organizer.

My coupon organizer is nothing fancy. It’s just a sturdy notebook and some baseball card holders that I purchased from Staples! Put some dividers in it and there you go, cute and functional coupon organizer. I also have them organized of course into different categories so they’ll be easy to find. Be sure to remember to take them to the grocery store with you lol! I can’t tell you how many times I have forgotten my coupon book at home! Also be on the lookout for super double and triple coupon week at your local grocery store. If you have an items that you use for everyday in your household (toothpaste, soap, washing powder) and they are on sale at the store AND you have a coupon, it a win my friend ! You are so welcome for that little tip !

 

Meal Planning

I plan not only for dinner, but I make sure to add breakfast and lunch as well. My kids eat breakfast before they leave the house and they also take their lunch. So I add these meals along with snacks to the meal planning.

Here’s a little what my list looks like.

Now as I told you before I used to plan monthly but then I realized “Hey Nicole your hubs gets paid once a week now not once a month, so you need to adjust your life accordingly”! So that’s precisely what I did. So that’s why I keep talking about planning for the week. However, if your payday is bi-weekly plan for that or if its monthly plan for that. Whatever way fits for your household, do what works for your house! Once you have your meal ideas from your recipe books and grocery store papers, then you can began to make your meal planning for your family. Now you can choose things that are easy, but still wholesome for breakfast. Such as muffins, waffles or pancakes. Your meals don’t have to be fancy, but they do need to be nutritional, well balanced and  above all YUMMY ! In my house FRESH IS BEST ! In the words of one of my favorite chefs ” You don’t have to cook fancy or complicated masterpieces. Just good food from fresh ingredients” ~ Julia Child

What I do when I get back with groceries is put the majority of them up is,  I go ahead and make some breakfast meals and freeze them. I make waffles and sometimes pancakes and place them in freezer. My kids family kills muffins, so I don’t freeze them. These muffins generally get eaten within the first few days of me making them! Then in the morning my kids are able to pop them in the microwave and go on out the door. Even if you have little people this will save you a ton of time! Once I have everything out-of-the-way, I go ahead and place the menu options for Breakfast and Lunch on the board. I also place what dinner will be for the day as well simply because my children act as though sometimes THEY DONT KNOW WHAT THEIR OPTIONS ARE!! So I just help them along the way!

The key to this entire meal planning routine is to PLAN AHEAD! I have really saved so much time by just taking sometime out to handle this task. If you haven’t already started incorporating this for your family, I urge you to get started this week, today even!

I really want to hear from you! Let me know what are some meal planning routines that you have for your family?

Nicole