I like making lists and I have shared that love many a time here. I am now trying to make those lists actually turn into action. The key ingredient I usually forget in my massive list making. Lists I am working on in 2011 include: house cleaning, grocery lists, and menus. I am finding that it is making my house cleaner, cupboards lighter and the garbage man super happy. And we are only 9 days into the year!!
I have already de-cluttered so much junk from my house and donated 2 large garbage bags full of my clothes. I've dusted in places that haven't been dusted in many moons and I've washed walls that probably haven't been washed since we moved in. My aim for all of this, is to get into a routine that is manageable and makes our lives easier. Especially since we are soon to be adding an addition to our fam and my time for coupon clipping/grocery shopping/cleaning will be diminished. And hopefully, I make a system so easy that it will be a snap for my hubby or a mom or aunt to pick up a grocery list or do a quick clean up of the house in late May when I am preoccupied. Oh and the little person comes with a lot of stuff, so we need to get rid of ours. Since I live with a hoarder and I may be a tad bit lazy myself. ;)
To help keep myself accountable I will be sharing my lists or products of my lists throughout the year. Today I am going to share my menu plan for the next week. I am only including Monday-Friday in my menu as of right now because our weekends are soo unpredictable and I know it would save us more money on food if I planned those too, and I may after I get into a good routine but our weekends are usually spent at someone elses place, out to eat or we just snack around or I make a big pot of chili for the weekend.
My goal with the menu plan / grocery list is that when I go to the grocery store I only buy the things we need to cook with for that week or the next 2 weeks. When I go to the grocery store tomorrow, I will be purchasing ingredients for the next two weeks. I have with me coupons and specific amounts written out so as not to be deterred. As it stands now, I go to the grocery store like once every 3 weeks and then randomly through the that time to pick up extras. My hope with this is that we only have to run out for milk occasionally.
Here is our menu (lunches for my husband may or may not be the same as mine, he either has sandwiches/cans of soups/leftovers or goes out to lunch)
Monday
B – oatmeal
L – tomato sandwich
D – Homemade Tomato Soup w/ Grilled Cheese
Tuesday
B – oatmeal
L – leftovers
D – Italian Mini Meat Loaves w/ mac and cheese
Wednesday
B – toast w/ peanut butter and apple
L – soup
D – American Chop Suey
Thursday
B – toast w/ peanut butter and apple
L – leftovers
D – leftovers
Friday
B – oatmeal
L – leftovers
D- out to eat
I made sure to include an out to eat on Friday because we normally do go out on Friday's. However, the last 3 Thursday's we have gone out but I also determined that we have leftovers on Thursday or Friday. I am trying to do crock pot meals on Wednesday's because I tutor on those nights and it makes it easier.
I also plan to occasionally share recipes I make, like the Baked Potato Soup and coming up I have a Veggie Chili recipe with Cracked Corn and Cheese Squares that I will post.
Do you menu plan? How do you make sure you don't waste money on food?
