Meal Planning

Ever since I've lived on my own I've done weekly meal planning.  Actually, that's not true, there was a brief period where I didn't. Then my son's god mother introduced me to weekly meal planning and I haven't looked back since. As a matter of fact when I hear that people don't do it I think (no offense) surely there must be something wrong with their home keeping skills... and then I remember back to a day when I too was clueless.  For a long long time I've done this one way, but lately I've been changing it up a bit.

In this post I will show you a couple different ways I do meal planning and if you don't already do this, give it a try.

The original way or should I say the way I was taught was simple. I would sit down each week, and come up with a list of meals for each day and write them down.  I would write each night's dinner on the calendar for that week (i.e.  Monday- tacos, Tuesday- lasagna, etc, etc).  Then I would make my grocery shopping list according to what I needed for each meal. Then I was making just one weekly trip to the grocery store.  Easy. Peasy. This was nice because I knew exactly what I needed from the store and I knew what we were having for dinner each night.

This way works extremely well don't get me wrong but when you have an adorable 2 year old little boy who's not real fond of grocery shopping you have to find a way to make something easy even easier.  So I came up with this:

This way takes a little more prep time but so worth it in the long run specially if you have little ones who don't exactly make grocery shopping a fun time.

I now make menus out for 2 or 3 week stretches.  You could probably go for a whole month, but you will need to go again in about 2 weeks for fresh produce and such. So 2 weeks is what really works best for me.

So if I'm planning meals for 2 weeks I write down 14 different dinner ideas, complete with sides. Then I write down 2 weeks worth of breakfasts and lunch ideas.  I then go through my meals and make my grocery list based on what I just wrote down (checking my list against what I already have  my pantry so I don't end up with 10 boxes of spaghetti noodles!)

I keep this list in my file I have on my counter top and each day I look at the list and pick out what I feel like making from the list.  After I make a dinner I check the meal off the list so I know it's been made. (yes you could forget you made something over a two week period and I keep the list so I don't forget what all I had planned to make)

I also keep all my recipes for the dishes I'm making for that week or 2 in that file folder so I'm not trying to hunt them down each night before making dinner.  Once I make a dish the recipe comes out of the folder and goes back into my recipe box, folder, or book.

Now sometimes I do get lazy because planning 2 or 3 weeks worth of meals isn't always easy or my idea of a fun time so I'll only do a menu for one week. I do it exactly the same as for my 2 weeks only instead of coming up with 14 dinners I'll come up with 7. 

Also if you notice I have letters under breakfast and lunch. These are our initials.  Since we all tend to eat different things for breakfast and lunch it's just easier for me to list those out this way.  I also have a spot at the bottom where I list any dessert or special snacky type thing I might wanna make that week.

If you don't already do menu planning give it a try.  I'm sure one of these ways could work for you.  It will save you time, money, and your sanity at the grocery store and help end the "What am I gonna make for dinner?!" panic.

I Did It!

To save a little money, I decided at the start of the month I would put myself on a little shopping ban.  I couldn't buy anything that wasn't an absolute necessity. And, as hard as it was, no, I didn't try to convince myself that really I couldn't get on without another pair of jeans, or the new Urban Decay Naked 2 palette.

In the beginning, it was a piece of cake. I thought, no biggie, it's just a month.  We even made a special Target shopping trip at the start of the month and made sure to buy enough "Target stuff" we usually buy to last us the month so I wouldn't have to go back and be tempted. And let me tell you that really ended up being a good idea because I don't know about you but when I make my weekly trip to Target lots of stuff not on the list always ends up in my cart, because well I need it, duh! So the less trips the less impulse buys!! Smart hey?? And if you're lucky enough not to give into impulse buys good for you, I am not always that fortunate.

So, back to the shopping ban, it all started out great, but, by mid month things were starting to get a little bit nuts in my head. It wasn't so much of me not buying anything but just for the simple fact that me and the little guy like to walk the stores and we haven't done that lately since I didn't want to tempt myself.

By the end of the month I had simply gone downright MAD I tell you MAD! For anyone who knows me I like need to shop. Plain and simple. I felt as I was going through what I would imagine a smoker would go through after quitting cold turkey.  Well maybe not that bad, but it was bad.

However, now that it's done and over with, I'm pretty proud of myself and I may just do it again this month.  And then again maybe not. I may do it and give myself a couple of free passes.

Want Cash?

Got your attention?? I know I'm late jumping on the Ebates band wagon, but better late than never right?!  Ebates is a website that you go through to earn cash back for your online purchases.  I signed up just before the holiday season and got a nice little check in the mail just for Christmas shopping. Not to shabby for sitting at my home computer ordering Christmas presents hey?

What you do:
Sign up on the Ebates website. It takes like 5 minutes, if that.
Then, when you are doing your online shopping go to Ebates. Log into your account, pick the store you are going to shop at, (it will bring up the store's website) then you just shop as usual. It's that simple. So simple in fact, I thought I did it wrong the first time I used it haha.

It keeps track of how much money you earn and every so often they will mail you a check. There are tons of stores and yes, stores you would normally shop at, not off the wall places. They also tend to have a list of coupon codes each store is currently offering. And, if that's not enough money saving goodness, every so often different stores will offer double cash back!

Just for signing up, they sent me a Target gift card! Who couldn't use a Target gift card? (I think you can pick from a few other places too)





Have you signed up for Ebates yet?

*Disclaimer: I have not been paid or compensated otherwise by Ebates to write this.  These are my honest thoughts and opinions about the website and wanted to share this money saving tip!