Meal Planning

Let's face it. I have always been completely food illiterate.

Until now.

Thanks to Kaylene, I was able to feed my family and stay within our budget for the entire month of July. This is such a huge accomplishment for me and I have quickly become passionate about teaching other women to feed their families within their budget.

I still have lots to learn, but shopping on a budget isn't half as hard as I had always assumed it was. Kaylene was a super teacher. She showed me her recipe binder and she even let me accompany her to Wal-Mart to learn how she puts all of her tricks into practice. Best of all, she didn't make me feel like a total idiot for being so clueless about food.

Basically, the main thing she taught me was how to meal plan. I may know nothing about cooking, but I do know how to organize! So when I realized that eating within a small budget is simply all about organization, I knew I could do it.

The first thing I did was go through my pantry and refrigerator/freezer to create an inventory of everything I already had. I discovered four jars of peanut butter and tons of frozen meat that I had forgotten about. Obviously, knowing what you already have and what you still need is a big key to saving money.

Then I bought a new planner and filled it in with all of our July activities. Kaylene explained that by looking at your schedule, you'll know which days you'll need a quick meal and which days you'll have a lot of time to cook. And sometimes you won't need to plan any meal, like if you're going to a wedding (the Carter's wedding was beautiful)!

Next, I started going through coupons. The idea is to see what's on sale that week and then pick recipes that utilize those items. Since my recipe binder is pretty small, I'm not quite there. But I'm working on it.

Once you pick all your recipes and you know which items you need, you can make your grocery list. Making this list is essential because it keeps you from buying on impulse. Another thing that is helpful for me is to divide the list into sections, such as produce, canned goods, frozen food, etc. That way you aren't going back and forth in the store looking for all the items on your list. It will save you a lot of time and frustration.

Without a doubt, the key to my success last month was learning to use my crock pot. I am now obsessed with my slow cooker. Since I'm not much of a cook and since cooking was something I dreaded all day, I found that I was a much happier person if I just did all the preparation in the morning. I now make breakfast, sack lunches, and a crock pot dinner all at the same time before I go to work.

I've found that you can make almost anything with the crock pot. Just look it up online. There are a gazillion websites with recipes, but you can start with www.allrecipes.com. Kaylene also told me that if the recipe calls for cooking something on low for eight hours, you can just cook it on high for half the time (four hours). That trick may help those of you who enjoy cooking in the afternoons.

Some other little tips for those of you beginning the adventure of meal planning:

1. Go to Wal-Mart! Seriously, they accept ALL coupons and if you're like me, you prefer to get all of your shopping done in one place.

2. Take a calculator with you to the store. I now keep one in my purse. Don't be embarrassed to take it out and do all those calculations to make sure you're getting the best deal. It's worth it! (But don't waste your time with calculations if the sticker already says the price per pound/package/whatever.) I even write the costs of everything on my grocery list as I put them in my basket. Then I can keep a running total and I'll know when I've reached my budget.

3. Stores will greatly mark down items right before they expire, so if you have the luxury of running to the store often and you know you will eat the food immediately, you can save a lot of money. (I've used this trick for salads and it has helped a lot. But once the baby comes, I'm not sure if I'll want to run to the store just to pick up salad.)

4. My mom told me that sometimes stores will have days where they double coupons. I haven't seen this happen yet, so if anyone knows anymore about this, please fill me in!

5. Read Kyle's blog. She's the pro!

Okay, now that I've written this post, I don't want you to expect amazing meals from me. I am in no way a good cook! The point of this blog is that if I can learn to meal plan, then anyone can. Truly, if you are as lost as I was, and you want to learn how to meal plan, please let me know. Sometimes all you need is a little encouragement to get you going, and then it's smooth sailing. Happy meal planning!