Here is the thing: when a mom works full time outside the house, she must make every minute at home count. One of the easiest ways I have found to make our evenings run more smoothly is meal planning.
The Problem
I recently ran into my friend at the grocery store. She was coming out with a small cart of groceries. I was on my way inside with my reusable bags and my meal planning/list sticking out of it. My friend asked about the list and then had to admit that meal planning is not something she is good at.
Truthfully, it’s not something I am good at it either, but when I don’t at least make an attempt, it costs me money. Meal planning is only something I’ve been doing for a little over a year. It was really out of necessity. Without a plan, I was stopping at the grocery store everyday where I would drop a minimum of $50, but maybe even $100. Everyday. Soon, I came to the realization that our budget couldn’t handle so many grocery store trips and my time management was being put to the test.
The Solution
At a local store, I found a pad that started me on my way. On the left hand side of the page, the pad had a table with the days of the weeks and then in columns on the right was list making space with check boxes in front of frequently purchased items and lines for you to add your own items. (It was something like this. <–affiliate link)
The problem with this was the pre-selected items were a lot of items not in our regular rotation of groceries. Once I had use this list for a while, it became clear that I needed something a little different. As a result: I designed my own list that looked like the original except with the items we typically buy. Then I redesigned it and even used an online map of the the store where I usually shop to make my shopping even more efficient. It still wasn’t quite right, so I redesigned it yet again.
So here is a free download of my meal planner and shopping list. Or sign up for my email list for a tutorial on how to make your own meal planner/ shopping list. For more help with meal planning, check out my Working Moms Page.
Other tips on Meal Planning are in my posts on Five Tips for Meal Planning, Meal Planning When You Don’t Have Time to Shop and The Five Item Challenge.
