This is the last week of Mom of 6’s Organize Your Life Bootcamp. This week’s focus is getting ahead of the game with menu planning.
In the past, I would usually only plan for a week’s worth of dinners, but then as we had children and I started to make my own baby food, I realized that I might have to do more planning than that. So as time went on, I started to plan for every meal for the week. At first, I was writing my list of meals down in a notebook with a my grocery list, but I thought it would be nice to have something I could display on the side of the fridge.
A few months ago, I found this great FREE printable on Jenny Collier’s blog.
As I mentioned last week, Brian and I sit down on talk about what we have going on for the week and sync up our calendars. Once this is done, I turn on another sitcom and plan out our weekly menu. With the help of my cook books, Pinterest, and Brian letting me know what he has a taste for, I plan for every single meal including snacks.
As I make the grocery list, I check the cabinets and fridge and make sure to jot down anything that we don’t already have. I typically try to go shopping when the boys are at school, and it is just me and Coco. Which usually ends up being in the middle of the week. I like this schedule as I don’t have to set foot in store on the weekends, and it is much quicker to only shop with one kid as opposed to three.
Some things worth mentioning:
- Planning out a week or two in advance helps save money as I only buy what we need.
- On the weekly menu planner, I plan which nights would be good for leftovers. I try to plan leftover nights for when Brian works late so that he can take extras with him for dinner.
- When making my grocery list, I make sure I paper clip any coupons I have and need to use for my shopping trip.
- Planning snacks helps to cut down on binge eating or eating unhealthy food.
- When planning for the week, I have one alternate plan for something unexpected. For example, I know having pasta and jarred sauce on hand is something that is quick, easy, and everyone likes. This helps me have some sort of plan for when we are running late or have a sudden change of plans.
- I know this seems a little time consuming, but honestly in the time it takes to watch a sitcom or one drama, Brian and I can go over the plan for the week, and I can plan out a menu.
