Meal Planning

I am pretty much addicted to facebook. As a single mom, I would not be able to keep up with most of my friends without it. Also, since I do not have cable, it also tends to serve as my news source. Don't worry. I do research any topics that I have interest in before deeming it credible. Another reason I love facebook: it allows me to filter out much of the main stream interest groups so I can focus on my own green-foodie-frugal sentiments. One of the granola paged that I "like", Whole New Mom occasionally posts free e-books, which cater to the lifestyle I try to live. Two of my favorite scores from her page were a guide to raised bed gardening and a guide to meal planning. Hopefully, I will be successful with a garden when the weather gets warmer. I will tell you all about it then, but right now meal planning has been the latest experiment in my home. Meal planning seemed to fit right in with my green-foodie-frugal ways. It eliminates food waste, while keeping me creative in the kitchen and finding ways to make all items count before I buy more. For the most part, my meals have been planned out for the past two months and I don't think I will ever go back to spending my days at work trying to put together that night's meal.

Having a meal plan takes so much stress off your day. I don't know about you, but I am a planner, always have been. I like having a schedule and knowing what is going to happen next. As much as I'd love to be a spontaneous, fly off the seat of my pants kind of gal, I'm not. If I have a plan, that means I have one less thing to think about. It is only natural that I would stumble upon planning out my meals.

Having a meal plan also takes stress off your wallet. By actively thinking about what is already in your home, you create less of a need for more stuff. No longer will you have to wander around a supermarket grabbing staples that you bring home and try to piece together into something appetizing. By meal planning, you create the puzzle at home and only need to go out and pick up the remaining pieces, if there are any. The first time I tried meal planning, I was sold when my grocery bill was only $28! Especially since I hadn't been shopping in over two weeks!

There are many ways to plan out your meal. The free guide I downloaded listed at least four methods: weekly, biweekly, monthly, and seasonal. My meal plans have mainly been on a weekly basis. Once I managed to do biweekly, because I was trying to make it through to my next CSA pick-up. It was pretty awesome having that much planned and out of the way. Right now, a biweekly schedule would work best for me because my winter CSA pick ups are every other week. Once the weather gets warmer, I will have to cut it back down to weekly since I wont be knowing what my fridge looks like until a day or two before the pick up.Weekly and biweekly plans can be run basically the same way. It all depends how often you want to go shopping.

It pretty much boils down to doing inventory and putting the pieces together. The whole process can take up to an hour. I started a simple binder filled with loose leaf paper and I work with two pages open in front of me. On the left page, I make three columns: Cabinets, fresh/fridge, freezer. Then, I list everything. EVERYTHING. The most emphasis will go towards what you have in your fresh/fridge column. The idea is to use up anything that may go bad first. When making my inventory list, I like to put stars next to the most perishable items. That way I can plan accordingly to eliminate waste.

Next I sit down and create a calendar with the right page. Usually three lines per day, so I can name the meal, list out what on hand ingredients I will use, and then list the ones I need. As the calendar comes together, I will also write down tasks for each day. This usually consists of prep work that can be done the night before, such as taking meat out of the freezer to thaw or chopping veggies.

Some meals come to mind almost instantly. Others not so much. Sometimes it helps to put themes into effect. I don't do this everyday, but it does help when you get stuck. Mondays are obviously meatless. Tuesdays are usually always crock pot dishes, because we need to be changed and fed within an hour to get Sophia to dance on time. Wednesdays will be a larger meal because it is a night home. Thursdays tends to be a leftovers day or I will cook a second meal on Wednesday to have Thursday, since Sophia has another night of dance and we go directly after school. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are always free days. I plan them out, but there is no rhyme or reason. I just follow where my ingredients lead.

Another useful tool is Google. I've said it before, Google is my favorite cookbook! You may have some odd and end ingredients that you have no idea what to do with...Google them together! A search of "steak beans mustard" may actually surprise you. I just came up with that combination off the top of my head, but I googled it and came up with a recipe for beef with black beans and rice. There are so many dishes out there using what is already in your kitchen if you just take the time to find them! Stop spending your money on things you don't even realize you already have.

After my calendar is all filled out, I create my shopping list of only what is needed for my meals. Maybe once a month I will do a big trip to replenish the staples, such as pasta and beans. It has been working out that my weekly grocery bill, if I even need to go at all, stays under $30. It is really helpful to my budget to be able to stay well under $150 in groceries per month. I suggest you give it a shot. An hour of planning may seem a lot, but time is worth money and you will be saving a lot of that!