Trust me when I tell you that my family doesn't always look this excited at dinner time. And neither, for that matter, do I. Mainly because my cooking has become boring and routine. I tend to make the same meals over and over, and either overstock at the market and have food spoil, or understock and make countless trips back to Walmart or Aldi to "pick up a few things." And since I lack organization, our monthly grocery bill has also gotten out of hand. This relative chaos has been my "system" for 15 years, but I feel a change in the air. The time has finally come for me to start......drum roll, please.....menu planning.
I've decided that it's worth it to take a little extra time each week or month to meal plan in order to hopefully accomplish three things:
1) Reduce my monthly grocery bill by preventing over-purchases and food wastage.
2) Cook healthier meals for my family.
3) Reduce the daily stress of last minute meal planning and the dreaded "What's for dinner?" query.
So I did some searching and found a couple of good sites that have free menu plans to download. You can go here to print blank weekly or monthly plans. Or if you want to save yourself even more time, go click on this link to find a website that does all the work of meal planning and making grocery lists for you. You can choose from regular or low-cost plans. betterbudgeting.com is a great site that has menu plans, recipes and all sorts of household budgeting tips and info. They also have a printable Pantry List that you can use to help you stock up on supplies that every household should have on hand.
Hopefully you are already more accomplished than I am at this particular task. And if you are, please leave a comment telling me what has worked for you. If you're like me, and this is an area of you life that is still....under construction, then join me in turning over a new grocery leaf.
Now if you'll excuse me...I have some planning to do.