Menu planning was never a part of our routine until the last couple of months. Once-a-month-cooking makes it almost too easy to just walk out to the big freezer every morning and pull out a bag or casserole pan of whatever sounds good at the moment. Once-a-month-shopping, however, necessitates a menu plan to cover all of the extra side items for dinners and little things that we make a quick trip to the store to pick up.
Until now, I have done weekly menu plans more for the sake of preserving my own sanity. A mom can only answer the “what are we having for _____” question so many times in a day. Plus, I discovered that a simple plan posted on the fridge takes the think work out of the day’s meals.
I am by no means an expert menu planner but here is what we are doing now in preparation for our big OAMS trip coming up in two weeks.
1. Keep a list hanging on the refrigerator or in another easy place to note items as you run out of them.
2. Inventory the items (with amounts) that you still have in your pantry, refrigerator and freezer.
3. Begin working your way backward from a simple menu plan. I like to use the weekly menu plan form from Money Saving Mom. Looking at the plan a week at a time makes it seem less overwhelming. Be sure to list everything you need for each meal in your menu plan including condiments, beverages and specific fruits and veggies.
4. Transfer items from the menu to a grocery list. I have a couple of drafts of this list. The first is messy with lots of tally marks as I add to the number of each item I need. The second is neat enough that I can actually read it in the grocery store.
Additional tips:
*Some moms keep a list of the family’s favorite or most common meals in their home management binder and fill in the menu plan with those meals and leave spaces for new recipes to try. (I’m still working on this one.)
*Plan even those meals that you don’t think you need to plan. This will eliminate the extra trips to the store and take the guess work out of the day.
*Plan your menu based on using as much as possible of what you already have in inventory to save money.
*Save your menu plan to reuse again for the weeks or months that you just don’t have time to plan.
Share your great menu planning ideas in the comments!
Showing posts with label OAMS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OAMS. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Weekly Menu
The goal of this week’s menu is to clean out the pantry, freezer and refrigerator in preparation for our once-a-month cooking (OAMC) on September 9th and once a month shopping (OAMS) on September 14th. This is the first week that we return to our homeschool co-op on Friday and we are working concessions for a college football game on Saturday to raise money for missions. I took those plans into consideration, took inventory of what we still have in the house and came up with the menu and grocery list based on those items. Here is what is on the menu this week:
Monday
Breakfast: Make Ahead French Toast (Recipe from the Raising Olives Blog here.)
Lunch: Burritos and Quesadillas, Fruit, Yogurt
Dinner: Mexican Chicken w/ Rice and veggies
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly on Homemade Tortillas
Dinner: Black Bean Soup w/ Cornbread
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Wednesday
Breakfast: Mini Banana Muffins/Yogurt
Lunch: Chicken Tenders/Veggies
Dinner: Waffles w/ syrup
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Thursday
Breakfast: Waffles w/ syrup
Lunch: Make Ahead Black Mexican Black Bean Dip w/ Tortillas
Dinner: White Chicken Chili w/ Mexican Cornbread
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Friday
Breakfast: Granola Bars/Yogurt
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Wraps/Applesauce/Veggie Sticks
Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken w/ fried Rice and Veggies
Snacks: Banana Muffins/ Fruit Leather/Peanut Butter Cookies
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal/Yogurt/Fruit
Lunch:
Dinner: The majority of this day will be spent working concessions for a missions fund raiser.
Snacks:
Sunday
Breakfast: Yogurt/Fruit
Lunch: Veggie Soup/ cornbread
Dinner: Leftovers
Many of the recipes for our homemade items will soon be included under the "On the Table" section above.
I print out our weekly menu and post it on the refigerator on Sunday afternoons. This eliminates the constant "what are we having for ______?" questions and also reminds me of what I need to thaw, put in the crockpot or prep for the next day.
Check back on Tuesday for more of the how and why of menu planning!
Monday
Breakfast: Make Ahead French Toast (Recipe from the Raising Olives Blog here.)
Lunch: Burritos and Quesadillas, Fruit, Yogurt
Dinner: Mexican Chicken w/ Rice and veggies
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Tuesday
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly on Homemade Tortillas
Dinner: Black Bean Soup w/ Cornbread
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Wednesday
Breakfast: Mini Banana Muffins/Yogurt
Lunch: Chicken Tenders/Veggies
Dinner: Waffles w/ syrup
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Thursday
Breakfast: Waffles w/ syrup
Lunch: Make Ahead Black Mexican Black Bean Dip w/ Tortillas
Dinner: White Chicken Chili w/ Mexican Cornbread
Snacks: Fruit/Yogurt/Homemade Granola/Homemade Granola Bars
Friday
Breakfast: Granola Bars/Yogurt
Lunch: Peanut Butter and Jelly Wraps/Applesauce/Veggie Sticks
Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken w/ fried Rice and Veggies
Snacks: Banana Muffins/ Fruit Leather/Peanut Butter Cookies
Saturday
Breakfast: Oatmeal/Yogurt/Fruit
Lunch:
Dinner: The majority of this day will be spent working concessions for a missions fund raiser.
Snacks:
Sunday
Breakfast: Yogurt/Fruit
Lunch: Veggie Soup/ cornbread
Dinner: Leftovers
Many of the recipes for our homemade items will soon be included under the "On the Table" section above.
I print out our weekly menu and post it on the refigerator on Sunday afternoons. This eliminates the constant "what are we having for ______?" questions and also reminds me of what I need to thaw, put in the crockpot or prep for the next day.
Check back on Tuesday for more of the how and why of menu planning!
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Frugal Friday ~ Steps 1 & 2 of Once a Month Shopping
Here we go! The once-a-month-shopping adventure begins. Sometimes I still can't believe we are trying this.
Step One should definitely be discussing the idea of only going into department and grocery stores on one day a month with your spouse. If your husband is not on board, it will never work because he will either (a) go to the store anyway and spend more money than budgeted or (b) he will be very grouchy when he does not get all of his needs on the list and you are not making the weekly or daily runs to the market.
This went fairly well for me. My husband is usually on board for anything that will save us money and he is always ready for something new and exciting. Personally, I think the thought of a complete months worth of groceries stacked in the back of our van was enough to win him over :) He will be blogging about his own frugal adventure in Healthy Home Fitness here.
Step Two is research. First you need a general list of the things you will be purchasing. We generated this list from the grocery list that was already hanging on our fridge and taking a complete inventory of our fridge, freezer, pantry, bathroom, and storage room. I also downloaded a couple of master grocery lists to help remind me of things that I might forget. I found the most useful ones here and here.
We have also begun Step Three which is price scouting. More on that next week.
Step One should definitely be discussing the idea of only going into department and grocery stores on one day a month with your spouse. If your husband is not on board, it will never work because he will either (a) go to the store anyway and spend more money than budgeted or (b) he will be very grouchy when he does not get all of his needs on the list and you are not making the weekly or daily runs to the market.
This went fairly well for me. My husband is usually on board for anything that will save us money and he is always ready for something new and exciting. Personally, I think the thought of a complete months worth of groceries stacked in the back of our van was enough to win him over :) He will be blogging about his own frugal adventure in Healthy Home Fitness here.
Step Two is research. First you need a general list of the things you will be purchasing. We generated this list from the grocery list that was already hanging on our fridge and taking a complete inventory of our fridge, freezer, pantry, bathroom, and storage room. I also downloaded a couple of master grocery lists to help remind me of things that I might forget. I found the most useful ones here and here.
We have also begun Step Three which is price scouting. More on that next week.
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Adventures in Frugality: Once a Month Shopping
A friend recently told me that, even though she is once-a-month-cooking, she is still spending hundreds of dollars a month at the grocery store. This caused me to do some investigation into the grocery spending in the Langford home.
I was hit in the face with several harsh pieces of reality:
1. My pantry is full of items that are pieces and parts of recipes that were purchased due to poor planning.
2. In reviewing my receipts I noticed that every trip to a store included some sort of impulse purchase.
(We save all of our reciepts in a basket to be reviewed and sorted at the end of the month. Of course, this sometimes piles up and we have a couple of months at a time.)
3. According to Steve and Annette Economides in their book America’s Cheapest Family, 6 of 10 grocery store purchases are unplanned.
4. In the last two weeks, I have darkened the doorway of a grocery store or department store 11 times! That is more than every other day!!
With all of these facts staring me in the face, I decided to take action! After tossing the idea around for a couple of days, I presented it to my husband. I proposed that we challenge ourselves to shop only one day for an entire month. It sounded much more reasonable in my mind than it did when I said it out loud. Now it sounded absolutely crazy but, having verbalized to my husband my preplanned list of pros and cons, I felt in some way committed to the idea.
After talking over some ins and outs for a few minutes we decided to jump off the deep end and give it a try.
For the month of August, we will be blogging all of our prep efforts, plans and lists and countdown to our big shopping day on September 3rd. For the month of September we will be blogging all of the daily issues that pop up, adjustments that need to be made, difficulties and successes as we move toward our next allowed shopping day of October 1st. Our goal is to not set foot in another grocery or department store after that date until the October 1st date. (Even now it sounds insane!)
We will be posting our list of detailed guidelines as we develop them. The ultimate goal of course, is to save money by avoiding the stores, sticking to our budget, planning our meals and eliminating restaurants all together for a month.
You are welcome to jump in on this challenge with us and link up your blog to our regular posts or just read along as we muddle our way through this latest and greatest adventure in frugality!
I was hit in the face with several harsh pieces of reality:
1. My pantry is full of items that are pieces and parts of recipes that were purchased due to poor planning.
2. In reviewing my receipts I noticed that every trip to a store included some sort of impulse purchase.
(We save all of our reciepts in a basket to be reviewed and sorted at the end of the month. Of course, this sometimes piles up and we have a couple of months at a time.)
3. According to Steve and Annette Economides in their book America’s Cheapest Family, 6 of 10 grocery store purchases are unplanned.
4. In the last two weeks, I have darkened the doorway of a grocery store or department store 11 times! That is more than every other day!!
With all of these facts staring me in the face, I decided to take action! After tossing the idea around for a couple of days, I presented it to my husband. I proposed that we challenge ourselves to shop only one day for an entire month. It sounded much more reasonable in my mind than it did when I said it out loud. Now it sounded absolutely crazy but, having verbalized to my husband my preplanned list of pros and cons, I felt in some way committed to the idea.
After talking over some ins and outs for a few minutes we decided to jump off the deep end and give it a try.
For the month of August, we will be blogging all of our prep efforts, plans and lists and countdown to our big shopping day on September 3rd. For the month of September we will be blogging all of the daily issues that pop up, adjustments that need to be made, difficulties and successes as we move toward our next allowed shopping day of October 1st. Our goal is to not set foot in another grocery or department store after that date until the October 1st date. (Even now it sounds insane!)
We will be posting our list of detailed guidelines as we develop them. The ultimate goal of course, is to save money by avoiding the stores, sticking to our budget, planning our meals and eliminating restaurants all together for a month.
You are welcome to jump in on this challenge with us and link up your blog to our regular posts or just read along as we muddle our way through this latest and greatest adventure in frugality!
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