Meal Plan Tuesday

I've had great feedback on my Meal Planning post, so I thought I would do a small follow up.

Saturday morning Husband had to go into work, so the kiddos and I had a lazy day. We literally did not get out of our pajamas until 3pm. For Booger, that meant she spent the day in a t-shirt and her underwear...Chunk actually spent the entire day in his onesie, but he's a baby so who knows the difference, right? I put him in a fresh one before bed, so I can still call myself a good mama. Don't mind the fact that he hasn't had a bath in probably a week...

I let Booger watch TV or play her puzzle games on my iPad while I couponed and made lists. I wrote out all the meals (listed below) for the week and what ingredients go into each.

Here's a printable version for you! Meal Plan List

After that, I went and made another list separated into sections. I know my Target pretty well by now, so I tried to make the list in order of the store. Produce, then meats, then canned/boxed, etc.
Here's another printable for you!   
Grocery List

After plugging in the staples and extras not associated with dinners, I went back to my dinner list and added all the items from there. If there were multiple, aka avocados are in several dinners, I put tally marks next to the item. That way, in the store, I know how many of each item I need in order to have enough to cover all meals. We do tend to go back to the store after a week to stock back up on produce.

This week, I decided to switch things around. We're trying to get away from processed food like Goldfish, fruit snacks, etc and eat more real foods. We are by no means perfect, and still like our "junk", but we try to do better where we can. Especially with Booger. She loves fruits, and will eat some veggies, but also loves her graham crackers, fruit snacks, cookies, etc. A treat is a treat, but I'm attempting to do away with things in packages.

So this time, in addition to the dinners, I made ideas for breakfasts, lunches and snacks too. For breakfasts, I added items like English muffin breakfast sandwiches and breakfast burritos. Those I am planning on making today and freezing. That way, we can pop them into the microwave and have a nice healthy meal with minimal work.
Some other things I'm planning on making ahead:
** mac and cheese (freezing into smaller batches for Booger for lunch and dinners)
** trail mix (bought nuts and raisins, adding some popcorn, cheerios and maybe fruit at the time)
** cheese and crackers (bought block of cheese, going to cut into squares for snacks)
** meatballs (easy to add for pasta nights, or even for a lunch for Booger)
** pancakes (put into the freezer and popped into microwave for breakfast)
** popsicles (for snacks; made by blending fresh fruit; using a popsicle mold we bought from Ikea a few years back)

It'll be quite a bit of work, but will pay off in the end.
Here are some of the ideas I put together for Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks.

And here are the dinners I planned for the next few weeks:

Now, to go update my Menu chalkboard!

Meal Planning

We do a lot of things in order to save a few bucks here and there. Husband is constantly on the phone with our cable/internet provider to find the best rate possible. We do a lot of small repairs on our home and vehicles ourselves. I buy the kiddos clothes used from other moms in the area.

But one thing that also helps when it comes to one of the bigger expenses each month-- groceries-- is meal planning. We basically eat the same foods for breakfast and lunch each day, so dinner is where the plan comes in handy. So what exactly do I do when meal planning?

1. Pop out the planner. 

I take a look at two weeks at a time. I have a list of dinners we usually have, plus some that I might have pinned on Pinterest or saved from Facebook. By looking at my planner, I know which days I might have time to make a more extensive meal, or which days we have to have a quicker dinner. Sometimes I even go as far as looking at the weather forecast to see if its going to rain-- if not, maybe we could grill!
Once figured out, I pop the meal on the bottom of each day so I know what's coming up.

2. Write a list. 

I write two lists, actually. The first is everything off the top of my mind that we need from the store, basically the staples. Then I write down the dinners we are having, and what ingredients go into each dinner. Next, I cross off the ingredients we already have, and add the ones we don't to the list. Last, I make a whole separate list that is divided into categories-- produce, meats, breads, dairy, frozen, etc. (I don't always do the second list, but if I have time I try to. It makes glancing at the list in the store a whole lot easier!)

3. Coupon. 

We mostly grocery shop at Target, so I go onto the Cartwheel app first and add any coupons there. Then, I use the Grocery IQ app to print coupons at home. I'll usually star or highlight items on the list that I have coupons for, so I am doubly sure I am buying the correct brand or correct amount to use the coupon. I also paperclip the coupons to the list so they actually make it into the car with us!

4. Chalkboard

This is my favorite part! A year or two ago, I decided to jazz up the awkward wall in the kitchen with a chalkboard frame. It didn't fill up the space quite enough, though. And I was looking for a way to let Husband know what was for dinner each night, so I didn't get the "I didn't know we were having *that* tonight. I'm not in the mood for *that*" (Followed by evil glares from me-- don't worry, he ate it anyway). So off to the store we went to create a Menu board! We got the long chalkboard and small squares from Michaels. I spray painted the squares with chalkboard paint on one side, and hot glued some ribbon around the edges for a more finished look. Then we screwed some eye hooks into the frame and top of the squares so they can come on and off for easy writing. And voila! Our menu board was created.  Each week I try to get the menu up so everyone knows what's for dinner that week. Sometimes I'll put two weeks on there and divide each square into 2, but not always.

It seems like a rather lengthy process, right? I try to stay on top of it by writing down items we need from the store as we run out. I also try to keep a list of regular dinners we like, so I can glance at that and grab ideas rather quick.

Sometimes I don't do any of the above until the day we go shopping, and that always ends in disaster. We end up spending way more money than usual, and don't have enough dinner ideas to last the two weeks, which means extra trips to the store during the week.

Meal planning is just one thing that we do to save a few extra dollars here and there. What are some things that you do? Do you meal plan for the week?