Some of you are thinking, "Hellooooooo. How old are you? How long have you been married? How long have you had kids? Did you take Home Ec in high school?" I know, I know. It is really pathetic.
Kevin very lovingly pointed out that our grocery bill was out of control. For a family of four (one who still eats baby food and one who doesn't really count as a full person), we were way out of line with our budget.
So I'm trying to turn over a new leaf. First, we are planning our week of menus. Not just dinner, but Fletcher's breakfast, lunch and snack as well. I let Fletcher choose a dinner meal, Kevin picks a meal and then I add one or two more knowing that we'll have leftovers at least one of the nights. I'm also starting to go grocery shopping once a week for the entire week once our menu is planned and ONLY getting what is on my list. I've cut coupons before but I end up letting them expire before I use them. Now I am trying to match coupons with specials and match meals with what is on sale. I've gone shopping on the past two Sunday afternoons while the boys were napping. It is not my favorite time to go, but at least I can take my time. My goal is to plan things two weeks out and only go shopping in between for things like fresh produce or milk or bread if we run out.
My sister-in-law Stacie is doing the Grocery Game and is starting to save alot. I've heard you can get great deals at CVS with their Extra Care Bucks but I'm not there yet. Baby steps, right?
The menu is posted on the refrigerator so everyone can see it. So far Fletcher has really liked it. He told me the other day, "Mama, I like making lists with you." A boy after my own heart!
I'll let you know how things go. I also welcome any suggestions, ideas, tips, tricks, checks, cash, etc.
Here's a shout out for the cool calendar on the right on the refrigerator. The artist name is Kris-10. She sells other stuff too, but I really love her calendars. I don't know her personally. These make great inexpensive but very practical teacher gifts for Christmas. They are beautiful & very colorful. Each month has a Bible verse with it. I suppose if your kid's teacher is an atheist this wouldn't go over so well. But I love mine and plan to get more for 2009.
2 comments:
I have also started doing exactly that. One thing we are doing is on Cade's days off, he is in charge of dinner...it helps me out a lot.
So whats for dinner this week?? I need some ideas for my menu next week.
Love y'all!
We live 30 minutes from a grocery store (and in the winter it's a roll of the dice whether I can make it down our mountain without killing us all) so I've become pretty organized. I must say it is SO freeing to have menu plans.
For breakfast, even in the winter, we have smoothies 9 out of 10 days. The kids love them. Raw milk, vanilla whey powder, fresh ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, probiotic powder, frozen ripe bananas, and frozen blueberries or strawberries. Other days we have oatmeal.
Lunches are either homemade bread with whatever they want on it, whole wheat mac and cheese, or fruit and yogurt.
Dinners I've made real easy thanks to a very frugal husband. Sundays homemade pancakes made in the blender with wheat berries, oat groats, and other grains that I have on hand. Mondays is black beans and rice. I buy in bulk and it probably costs $3 to feed the family. Tuesday leftover beans and rice in whole wheat homemade tortillas made by Owen with some cheese. Wednesdays we usually do something with chicken in it - soup, chicken breasts, chicken sandwiches. Thursdays we usually have fresh eggs from the farmer's market, most likely an egg, potato and cheese burrito. Fridays is Italian, either spaghetti and meatballs, lasagna, or homemade pizza. Saturdays we like ot make hamburgers or some red meat dish.
So basically we have the "standard" meals and then "theme" - chicken dishes one day, Italian another. Life is so much easier!
Side note: something fun for Fletcher. Go to careerbuilder.com and scroll to the bottom under "Fun Stuff" and click on "Monk-e-Mail" and then on number 3 do "Text to Speech" and type in something funny. Jimmy and I have been typing in funny things that the chimp says to the kids. Fletcher will love it.
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