UPDATE!!! Money Saving Mom has free printable menu planners on her blog today!! Go get them for yourself if you think menu planning could help your family budget, your sanity, and your time management!
I mentioned a couple weeks ago that we brought quite a pile of books home with us from the homeschooling convention.
This is my current read. Money Saving Mom (Crystal Paine) is changing my life.
I recently decluttered as she instructed.
This is my pile from all the decluttering.
And from the other side. Plus a huge pile of clothes from my closet.
I have also started planning my meals for the week like Crystal suggested. I got to meet her in person and ask her some questions while visiting their booth at the convention.
This is the 3rd week I have planned out our meals ahead of time. Here is this weeks menu:
- Monday – Sicilian burgers, potato chips, leftover corn, homemade ice cream
- Tuesday – Salisbury Steak (from freezer), riced potatoes, corn, cooked carrots, strawberries
- Wednesday – Chimichanga (from freezer), leftover corn, ice cream
- Thursday – Meatloaf, Mac-n-cheese(homemade), salad
- Friday – Chicken salad, Bread, Roulade(from my new cookbook)
- Saturday – leftovers
- Sunday – Grilled Chicken in crockpot (from freezer), baked potatoes, clean out the leftover veggies, ice cream and brownies
So far so good! I’m loving getting it planned out ahead of time. I try to do the planning on Sunday, last week I ended up not getting to it till Monday morning. Having the meals planned and written out reminds me to get stuff out of the freezer in time for it to thaw. And the days I am making it all from scratch I know ahead of time instead of thinking about it at 5 o’clock and having no clue what’s for dinner. It also means that I have a grocery list made out for my husband and he gets all the supplies so I have them on hand.
And speaking of groceries. How much do you spend a week? We have 5 people in this household. I am finding we are definitely not spending an over amount on food. I thought we were doing pretty well with it but I haven’t been keeping close tabs on it. I am working on that!! But we are coming in under $100 per week even including my food swap stuff.
I plan to use more of Money Saving Mom’s tips, tricks, and hints as time goes on. I love how she doesn’t recommend jumping in over your head with the budgeting but instead to start with one thing and get it under control and flowing smoothly and then add another. She and her blog are truly an inspiration. I highly recommend you check it out if you never have.
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Just recently I was reading the comments on one of msm’s posts about grocery budgets and I decided that being able to do a lot of shopping at Aldi’s probably makes a big difference.
I want to keep tweeking my grocery budget. I have reduced it a good bit, since reading msm, but it is still higher than I like.
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It does. I’m sure of it! My groceries this week all came from aldi after I made my list for our weekly menus. I did get some things at Gordon Foods but only because I needed styrofoam cups to put ice cream in for food swap.
Aldi’s carries way more than they used to and their produce is really fresh and good. You should lobby for one to be built in Pratt!!
Jill Flory recently posted..Reading, Decluttering, Planning, Budgeting
Just checking to see if my plugin is working now.
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Good for you! I know our life would flow so much more smoothly if I would be consistent with this. I struggle to keep our groceries under control. Seems like with company and 3 kids who are BIG eaters…I struggle to stay around $125-$150 a week. I also struggle with Aldi’s bc you don’t have the options for things like lower sodium broths/soups etc. But I probably should make the effort. I would really like to get our bill to around $100 a month. I think the menu planning and less grocery trips would help that out alot
You have two boys – your grocery bill should be higher than mine! LOL! My girls are rather picky and don’t really eat that much.
Jill Flory recently posted..Reading, Decluttering, Planning, Budgeting
Groceries is one thing that is always over on our budget. For a long time it was entertainment/ eating out but we finally got that under control and even consistently under budget and we were amazed… so I know we can with groceries too… Perhaps I could borrow the book sometime. I know I’ll have PLENTY to do in the next couple months with moving and Baby Girl’s arrival and shouldn’t even commit to reading a book, but I’d like to sometime…
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Would love your recipe for grilled chicken in the crockpot. Did you just grill extra and freeze it? Does it get dried out?
We typically spend around $100 a week if I shop by myself with coupons and stick to sale items. But when we are trying to eat healthier and I don’t feel like only buying whatever fruit is $0.99/pound it tends to go up. Recently we tried Jen Hatmaker’s “7″ and ate the same 7 meals every week for about 3 months. It was great for our budget because when angel hair pasta went on sale, I knew I’d need 8 boxes for the next two months, etc. And it was great for avoiding those “oh no, it’s 5:00 what’s for supper moments” because I knew it was Monday and that meant spaghetti and meatballs. My family enjoyed it but I got sick of it…and then got pregnant and it all went out the window
)
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Jessica did the grilled Chicken I think. Oh JESSICA!!! If you are reading please comment with the details!!
I think she grills it and then freezes – I might have to cover it with liquid in the crock pot but I can’t remember. Oh JESSICA!!! Can you share how it is supposed to be done??!!
Jill Flory recently posted..Reading, Decluttering, Planning, Budgeting
I don’t know where I’d be without menu planning each week. If I don’t, its like homework that still isn’t done…hanging over my head, taking all the joy and flexibility out of my day. I have major eaters at my house, so I can’t just pull out pb&J or cold cereal if I didn’t plan dinner. Seth and I made some food decisions a couple years ago, which resulted in my buying almost all organic and free-range and very little pre-packaged food. My grocery bill is around $200 a week. I don’t really know how to lower it as I’m always rationing out food anyway. However, our health issues have decreased…and to balance out the household spending, I simply don’t got shopping. I do garage sales and Wal-mart, and only hit the name-brand stores for gifts (which is about once a year). I heard a phrase awhile back that really convicted me…”It’s not about how much of our money we are going to give to God, but how much of God’s money should we keep for ourselves?”. I think if we seek the Lord for direction on a budget that fits our family’s needs and personalities, He will answer give us direction and wisdom. I’m inspired by your de-cluttering spree. I love the idea of simple-living, free from the burden of clutter. Best wishes on your endevour!
So sorry we missed the homemade ice cream!!! LOL!!!
I love the idea of not thinking about what to have for dinner! Somehow that makes my feel so on top of things for the day! Recently I added up in our checkbook how much we spend on eating out for a couple months to get an average–yikes! I am definitely trying to be better about planning meals ahead. I am not as disciplined as most of you-yet. Making double of some things or of recipes that make huge amounts and freezing them helps a lot. Then you just have to remember to get it out and thaw it. Working on that, too.
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I love having food in the freezer, but I don’t always get it done! Then when I do have freezer food there’s a part of me that wants to “save” it so it will be there when I “really” need it! Crazy!!
deborah recently posted..Cinnamon Rolls and My Butter Dish
Wow…100 bucks…that’s great. I though I did pretty good at about $130.00 for 4 people…looks like I have room for improvement.