Meal Planning

So when Alex and I were dating and when we were first married, we'd go out to eat all the time. I kid you not - sometimes 6 sometimes 7 times a week. Luckily, during that time we both had full-time jobs and lots of time to exercise. Nowadays, that's not the case. So meal planning has saved us and helped us prioritize things a lot more.

Create a Menu

Get inputs - We basically stick to a week long meal plan which only consists of meals for dinner - breakfast and lunch are almost always done on the fly. If Alex isn't available to give me inputs for what meals we want to have, I always have him approve the list when I'm done - although I am sometimes married to a garbage disposal I would rather him be ok with the menu than grimmace and eat.

Get Kitchen Inventory - While I'm making the list, I survey the the cabinets (we don't have a pantry - Argh!) and the fridge for items we already have and items we need (i.e. milk, cheese, eggs, etc.). From there I start to get ideas of what kind of meals we can make.

Create Schedule - I order the meals according to who likes what best so that that person can eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. This works so well for us and our work schedules. The meal of the day is also determined by what's in the fridge and what will go bad first. This is probably a no brainer.

Get Weekly Groceries

Make a list according to you kitchen inventory - The menu for the week should give you an idea of what you'll need from the store. By only going to the grocery store with the items you know you'll need has saved us a lot of money.

Plan on using extras - Sometimes you can only get certain things at the store that are too much for one meal (i.e. vegetables, a whole baguette). If I need only half of an ingredient for a meal, rather than making the meal bigger, I just plan another meal with the same ingredient.

Shop the ads - We try to only go shopping one day a week and I typically try to wait until the weekly grocery ads have been mailed to us. This also helps in deciding what we'll have on the menu. We make sure we get the best deals by comparing what's available at different stores.

Coupons - Use them if you have the time to clip them. We frequently use Costco coupons.

Change it up

Be flexible - Sometimes we get lazy so we don't follow the meal plan exactly.

Try a new recipe - Cooking the same meals gets boring so we try to make something new once a week or so.

Treat yourself - Go out to eat once in a while. Cooking at home can be a drag. And who wants to do dishes all the time? Not me. That is my least favorite chore. Lately we've been going to Taco Tues. at a local place here. Yum!

More Tips

Fit your meals into your budget - Sometimes during the month we have to make some pretty hefty purchases like plane tickets, and this month, a car seat. So many of our meals have been on the cheap side - like spam and rice, corn beef on rice, mac and cheese (with spam :), spaghetti). We don't eat like this all the time, but it's nice to know we can adjust our weekly spending easily with choosing the right meals.

Easy Meal Prep - If you have to cut veggies for one meal and more for another meal, just cut them all at the same time and save them in the fridge. You can do this for most veggies. I like to cut veggies and meat when Annie is napping. It never fails that she wants to be held right when your in the middle of chopping up raw chicken.