52 Hungry for some Meal Planning?

As I sat down on Sunday morning, with my coffee, newspaper, scissors and clipboard in hand, I thought to myself, "What a big part of my day {life} this is!"  

To me, meal planning is somewhat of a dreaded subject.  It does consume a chunk of each Sunday, however, I keep telling myself that it is so absolutely worth the small time investment, because my weeks run smooth and I save a ton of pennies.  So, I thought I would share it all with you, to see if there are a couple of ideas you could borrow, however, in return, I ask that you share some with me to borrow as well.  I am always looking for ways to cut down on the time it takes to do the dirty work, in order to spend time with my beloved munchkins.

Food.  For some, it's a survival thing, for others, it's the yummness factor.  Whichever reason you go for the food thing, the matter of the fact is that it's a HUGE part of our everyday lives.  And when you are a stay at home daycare mommy, it becomes even that much more of a big deal.

So in order for me to keep some fund management and sanity in the food department, I have come up with a pretty solid system.

 1.  Prepare:

The first step to my weekly meal planning, is to actually be prepared ahead of time.  I pre-print out a stack of meal planning grocery lists, clip them into a bulletin board and hang it inside the pantry door:

This is great for having a quick place to jot down items that are running low or out, at the time, vs, having to scour the cupboards right before grocery day to look for missing items.

2.  Find a Happy Zone:

That's right, I roll back my table runner and cop a squat right at the kitchen table.  It's the perfect space for spending my Sunday morning, listening to my little men giggle and play together while the amazing chef hubster prepares a nice Sunday brunch:

My happy zone requires a few necessities.  First on the all important list of musts, my coffee:

 

With that in tow, I can conquer anything really.  Everything else is secondary for this task {OK, completely necessary}!

 3:  Snipity Snip:

Nope, I don't mean going under the knife here, nothing that major for this easy task.  I just snag some scissors and start clipping away.  Coupons that is!  Yep, I am a coupon saver.

I actually snag coupons from a couple of different locations.  Of course, I see them randomly throughout magazines I read, but I also go to a couple of reliable websites to print off only the ones I will use {it's great when you can just browse and select}.  Websites I currently go to are: SmartSource, RedPlum, Coupons.com, Target.com and Money Saving Mom.  The best part of finding coupons online, is that it's free of charge, actually, it's like they pay you since you are actually saving money when you shop and didn't have to buy a magazine or newspaper to gain the money saving coupons.  Win, win and an extra win!  Lastly, I do splurge on a Sunday paper, because I do find that I am still able to gain on the investment with all the coupons I snag from there as well.

And once they are all clipped:

 

They get tucked into this uber handy coupon file:

4. Plan the Meals:

 When I am planning my meals, I actually have a section built right into my grocery list template {click to enlarge}:

It lists out each day of the week, and gives me a line to fill in a Breakfast, Lunch, Snack and Dinner.

So, with clipboard in hand, I start the process:

This is the most time consuming part of the morning.  But it's good, and here is why:

a.  Using the coupons I just clipped or already had in stock and using the local sales flyer for my local grocery hut, I pick meals that will offer me the most discount.  Money in the pocket = good!

b.  We try to always find at least one new recipe to try each week.  New foods to try = good!

c.  Using the recipe binder we use to corral our favorite recipes, we plan the remainder of our meals.  Planned meals = less eating out = being more green = at home family time = good!

d.  We also plan meals according to our weekly schedule, to ensure we give ourselves the appropriate amount of time to prepare the meals on our list.  Nights where we have cubby scouts or soccer practice, require quicker meals than our at home family nights do.  Being prepared for each night of the week = good!

Then, once all of the meals are planned and listed out on the grocery list:

 

I look at all the meals, and fill in the grocery list side with all the items I need to purchase during my weekly shopping trip:

 
I also mark each item that I have a coupon for, so I can make sure I snag the right one.  And when possible, I try to list them in order of the isles at the grocery store, making it easier to grab things in order and not forget things until the end of the trip.

5.  Transfer:

This is another sanity saver for myself and my family.  I created this weekly meal plan calendar {click to enlarge}:

And then I matted with scrapbook paper and laminated it:

Then, with a dry erase marker, I fill in each meal for the whole week:

 

This way, I can hang it on the fridge {on a not so visible side}, and can see easily at a glance what each days meals will consist of.

Seem a little silly and redundant?  Maybe, but it's not so silly when I can see on Monday, that on Tuesday I am making chicken breast sammy's, so I remember to take them out of the freezer a day in advance to make sure they are all thawed and ready for our Tuesday evening feast.  Plus, it's great for the hubs because he does a lot of our cooking, so he can also be prepared ahead of time.  No need to have open communication in this relationship, nopers, just look at the fridge for your answers to what we are doing each day, and what will be filling our tummy holes.

So there you have it.  Again, I am home all day every day and have lots of hungry little childrens to feed, so this really becomes a little more of a process for me than it would have to for many of you.  Planning out one meal per day vs. four, would take much less time and could be done less frequently than weekly.  Probably even monthly would work?!  

Like I said at the beginning, I am hoping you savvy meal planners have some other tips and tricks in your grocery bags, that you can share with me!  Anyone else know of other good places to snag money saving coupons?  Are you one of those amazing individuals that can go to the grocery store and leave with a cart full-o-groceries for $4.12?  If so, spill your secrets!