6. Why Meal Plan? & Planning NOT to plan!

Countless times we hear the words "Whats for dinner?" As much as we may want to, feeding our families can't be ignored. We have nearly 1100 meals each year to shop for, prepare and eat. 11 thousand!

Too many times I found myself staring at the pantry or fridge just hoping that a meal idea would jump out and magically show up for dinner. Too many times we have ran through a drive through after a busy day because I had no idea what we could make that was fast and easy at home. Am I the only one who's been there and done that?

With life so busy, we need all the help we can get! We need every trick in the book (what book, right?) to win us back time, and make life easier! I don't know about you, but my life is crazy. Six kids keep me pretty busy that's for sure, but in all honesty, as I look back, life was always busy. My hat is off to all of you amazing ladies, in every circumstance and in every stage in life, but especially to you young moms, with little ones running after you, undoing everything you just made right. I remembered those hard day well. Keep at it my friend, it doesn't last forever, I promise!

Over the years, as I have settled this whole family food thing, I have realized that I am weird. I both menu plan and NOT plan. I like to have some order and planning, so that I don't waste food and make unneeded trips to the store, but at the same time I am not a great list person. I like to have flexibility and daily choice in what I make for dinner each day. I also hate having to list each and every thing we will need in a given week. Who wants to calculate how much mayo or toilet paper we will use each week... not me!

When I make a weekly meal plan it is only for dinner meals and their side dishes.  It has variety in the type of dinner and also in how it is cooked. I don't assign meals to a particular day. The night before, I choose from what we have planned the meal eating the next day, depending on whats going on and how crazy our day will be.

The NOT planning plan:
Another aspect of my planning is NOT TO PLAN. Much of our families needs is the same, month after month and even week after week. I generally buy these things at a monthly shopping trip to Sam's Club and a weekly shopping trip to the grocery store. My Sam's shopping trips include bulk meat and shredded cheese, which I repackage into 1 pound packages. It also includes big bags of frozen veggies and fruit, lunch meat and items, corn chips, tortillas, apples and oranges, spices, # 10 cans of tomato sauce and whole tomatoes (for spaghetti sauce and salsa), a big Ketchup which I re-bottle, flour, sugar, dry beans, pasta and household products such at TP, paper towels, laundry soap, trash bags, etc. I don't always buy everything, every trip, but if we need it, it gets piled on my shopping cart. Other items that we don't need in bulk such as fruit and veggies gets picked up at the store along with my weekly menu shopping trip to the regular store

By shopping this way there are many things that I only think about but once a month or two on my "big shop trips" freeing my mind in a major way! This allows me to only have to plan weekly menu dinners and side dishes. By multiplying these meals, it makes it even easier! Making planning to not plan that much more amazing!

Menu planning:
Menu planning is one of those necessary evils! It doesn't scream at me, cry, demand my attention or force me to do it. It's often something we just "wing". Planning out what we are going to eat for dinners is something we have to decide and make a conscious effort to do.

Saves time and sanity!
Menu planning is so beyond worth it because it is something that actually SAVES us time, and it saves stress and repeated trips to the store. Hmm, spend a little time to save all that? No more wondering and worry over what to feed our family, no hunting for what to make for dinner.

Saves money!
Menu planning saves extra gas trips, extra impulse buying and helps us to eliminating the last minute drive through because you don't know what's waiting at home for dinner or needing to grab missing ingredients.

Reduces waste!
An added benefit to meal planning is that we eat the food we purchase. If we have less waste then consequently we save money too. :)

Eat healthier!
I think the thing that I love the very most is that we eat healthier as a family when I meal plan. I can consciously choose what I want my family to eat verses relying on what is easy to grab in a drive threw or frozen section of the store on those hard crazy days. When we plan healthy meals they generally cost much less than what we can easily grab, also saving us a ton of money.

Why do we NOT meal plan?
We can see that meal planning is good, that it saves money and time, reduces waste and helps us eat better. We know we should meal plan, but why don't we?

• Is it daunting to do week after week? 
• Is it the time involved to plan? Are we just that busy?
• Have we not learned how to cook?
• Do we not like to cook?
• Is our family picky? 
• Are we bored with our recipes? 
• Do we not have recipes?
• Is easy and simple required? 
• Do we understand that "freezer meals" don't have to be casseroles or unappetizing?

Why is the reason you don't menu plan? Take a few minutes to really think why, once you figure that out, you make a plan to change that!

There are tricks to make 1100 meals manageable! I know you have heard of how to eat a elephant right? NOT in one big bite, that's for sure! So we break it up!

Tips for meal planning:

• Commit to shopping only once a week!  Why? The more we are in the store, the more we spend. Come on... tell me I'm the only one that adds unplanned junk in to my cart? Its a fact, at least for me, that I spend more, the more often I'm in the store. By committing to NOT stepping foot in the store except for on my weekly shopping day, I start to build menus with real shopping lists of what we need and use. If you know you will bot be in the store, we plan a bit better, and get use to thinking about things like bread and eggs and milk that are not in the calculations sometimes. I have a blank spot on this shopping grid for weird stuff, things like TP and shampoo that we may or may not need.
• Choose a consistent shopping day! It doesn't matter which day it is, it could be Wednesday evenings or Saturday morning at 3 am (yeah right). Having a consistent day, where you set the time on your calendar to go weekly shopping in stone is a must. This allows you to plan, to be ready. and be able to get everything you need in your given week.
• Have a target budget. In the beginning, making your menus are a bit tricky. when you haven't build up a "unplanned" amount of food that you have stored away, you will need to slowly build it up. Start with buying just a little more than you need in the beginning. Also by actually following your meal plans you will you will find that you save a bunch to allow you to put towards your store as well. In an up coming post in this getting started series I will be talking talking more about budgets.

Menu planning also does not have to be a weekly thing to do, year after year. We can win back even more time spent planning by saving our meal plans and shopping lists. We start small, plan one meal plan for a week. But instead of it being on a sticky note on the fridge, write it down where it wont get lost. When we make a list for that shopping list, instead of it getting left in the cart or at the bottom of our purse, make a copy and put it with your menu. Small efforts to give big payoffs. Can you imaging never meal planning again? As with budgets, I will be talking much more on this soon.

Ponder well if my non-planning and meal planning ideas will work for you.Take some time to figure out your unique plan for what you think would be best for you and your family.  You can do it :) Lets get started!