My friend at the orangerie blog recently wrote about their food planning and budgeting ways, and it motivated me to do it also. I have been meaning to do this for eons, but never actually sat down to write it out. I recently had a motivating session at my house with 7 other ladies where we shared ideas and it was very encouraging. It seems like such a rut I get into, so keeping positive in that area was much needed and appreciated. I feel that what we are doing is working for now, although I'd like to expand in a few areas that will have to wait for later this year. So, here's what we do:
I make a menu plan, consisting of 5 meals (supper, double volume for 2 weeks). I then add our staples for breakfast and lunch and then shop accordingly. Our menu looks something like this at present:
Breakfast: weekdays- fried eggs and wholegrain toast, "warm" cereal (which could be cream of wheat, oatmeal, Mighty Tasty, etc), yogurt with granola and frozen berries. Greg eats pb&j sandwiches for breakfast every day, with a cup of yogurt for snack. Weekends- pancakes or pannukakku or boiled eggs. Muffins and scones occasionally.
Lunch: usually a sandwich (egg salad, tuna, pb&j, crackers & cheese) with raw veggies on the side, Greg takes leftovers from supper the night before
Supper: usually one dish casserole/soup that is either made in the Dutch oven or slow cooker. I only make 5 per week as we often have leftovers to use up or we do waffles Sunday evening.
Snacks: fruit, homemade trail mix, chips & salsa. We rarely make desserts 'cause (a) I eat it all (b) just more messes to clean up
I plan my meals out by looking through my cookbooks (I actually only use 2 these days, my own of cumulative recipes I've collected and my mom's family cookbook which is amazing) and this only takes a few minutes. I've tried going without recipes and winging it, but seem to either wreck what I'm making (burning and over-spicing seem to be the common thread of failure) or panic because I can't think of anything. (which results in pancakes or baked scrambled eggs again since we live too far to get takeout on a moment's notice) I am the kind of cook that thinks "if a little is good, alot will be better" which is rarely the case! We also experience different diet restrictions which makes some foods off limits at different times, and I run out of ideas regularly of things to eat, so it works better to see ingredient lists in front of me.
Since we're going on 9 years of marriage this year, I've tried many different plans. Each one has worked for different situations, but what we're doing has been working for us well right now. With baby #4, I've noticed that we actually have less dishes (big hand washing dishes) than we've ever had. This is because I've simplified menu planning even more by trying to cook everything in one pot. But...this required having a pot big enough. When my mom and mother-in-law came last fall when Isaac was born, they both encouraged me to cook bigger amounts and then reheat. I didn't have big enough pots to do that effectively (I still picture our family as Greg, me and a baby in my minds eye). So, I had to start thinking big. I bought a 11 qt. stock pot (stainless steel with heavy bottom) at IKEA for a steal (my dear husband found it in the As-Is section), and then he got me my 6 qt. Dutch oven for Christmas. These have been incredibly liberating in the food preparing aspect of my life!!
What I do is cook double of supper, then freeze 1/2 for supper the next week. I've found this works well for our family, because we (me mostly) tend to tire if we have to eat too many of the same meals in a row. Then I don't want to make it again for a year, thus running out of ideas to make for supper. If I do it this way, then I can make the same thing again in a month or so without too much boredom. I usually always then have something in the freezer for those days when I'm in town all day and don't have time to cook, or baby is fussy and I can't put him down.
As for budget, I think we're doing well. I made out a master grocery list on Excel last summer (when I was big and pregnant and couldn't do much else) that is categorized by aisles in WinCo (where 95% of my grocery shopping takes place). If I stick to that list (with occasional add ons), we don't overspend nor buy junk that we can't afford/don't need (except for ice cream once in a while!) I've bought the same things over and over so many times, the budget comes out pretty close every time, if I shop on the same day of the week. I am moving towards shopping every week, although am still doing a bigger trip every 2 weeks and a smaller trip on the other weeks these days. It seems we run out of the same things around the same time each time, so I haven't found a way to work it differently yet. Bringing Greg along for shopping is ideal, but this can't/doesn't always happen (rarely it does). I have trained the kids to put away the groceries though, and that is a huge help because usually I'm exhausted by the time we get home from town and also have a fussy baby to boot. We also buy 1/2 beef every couple years which is spendy, but we feel is worth the money to get a quality product and at the same time support our local farmers.
Before:
After shopping:
Menu from last week:
A few years ago we checked out going to Birch Community Services for food, which is down in Portland. They are a great service for anyone with a tight grocery budget that needs a bit of help. At that time (2006), the lady there said that $100 per person per month, budgetwise is a good goal. It's likely gone up a bit since then, but we try to keep it below there since our kids are pretty little yet. The Master's Diet says that the more nourishing food you eat, the less you have to spend on groceries. He says that what you lack in quality, you have to make up for in quantity, and I know that to be true. He says that our ancestors ate 2 meals per day, and worked much harder than most of us do now. The difference was they ate much (50%) lacto-fermented/sourdough/sprouted food, as well as quality oils, meats and raw veggies (full of digestive enzymes). Their food was maybe not of higher quality, but was better utilized by their body through the breaking down processes used to prepare the food due to lack of refrigeration mostly.
So there it is, in a typewritten nutshell.
I make a menu plan, consisting of 5 meals (supper, double volume for 2 weeks). I then add our staples for breakfast and lunch and then shop accordingly. Our menu looks something like this at present:
Breakfast: weekdays- fried eggs and wholegrain toast, "warm" cereal (which could be cream of wheat, oatmeal, Mighty Tasty, etc), yogurt with granola and frozen berries. Greg eats pb&j sandwiches for breakfast every day, with a cup of yogurt for snack. Weekends- pancakes or pannukakku or boiled eggs. Muffins and scones occasionally.
Lunch: usually a sandwich (egg salad, tuna, pb&j, crackers & cheese) with raw veggies on the side, Greg takes leftovers from supper the night before
Supper: usually one dish casserole/soup that is either made in the Dutch oven or slow cooker. I only make 5 per week as we often have leftovers to use up or we do waffles Sunday evening.
Snacks: fruit, homemade trail mix, chips & salsa. We rarely make desserts 'cause (a) I eat it all (b) just more messes to clean up
I plan my meals out by looking through my cookbooks (I actually only use 2 these days, my own of cumulative recipes I've collected and my mom's family cookbook which is amazing) and this only takes a few minutes. I've tried going without recipes and winging it, but seem to either wreck what I'm making (burning and over-spicing seem to be the common thread of failure) or panic because I can't think of anything. (which results in pancakes or baked scrambled eggs again since we live too far to get takeout on a moment's notice) I am the kind of cook that thinks "if a little is good, alot will be better" which is rarely the case! We also experience different diet restrictions which makes some foods off limits at different times, and I run out of ideas regularly of things to eat, so it works better to see ingredient lists in front of me.
Since we're going on 9 years of marriage this year, I've tried many different plans. Each one has worked for different situations, but what we're doing has been working for us well right now. With baby #4, I've noticed that we actually have less dishes (big hand washing dishes) than we've ever had. This is because I've simplified menu planning even more by trying to cook everything in one pot. But...this required having a pot big enough. When my mom and mother-in-law came last fall when Isaac was born, they both encouraged me to cook bigger amounts and then reheat. I didn't have big enough pots to do that effectively (I still picture our family as Greg, me and a baby in my minds eye). So, I had to start thinking big. I bought a 11 qt. stock pot (stainless steel with heavy bottom) at IKEA for a steal (my dear husband found it in the As-Is section), and then he got me my 6 qt. Dutch oven for Christmas. These have been incredibly liberating in the food preparing aspect of my life!!
What I do is cook double of supper, then freeze 1/2 for supper the next week. I've found this works well for our family, because we (me mostly) tend to tire if we have to eat too many of the same meals in a row. Then I don't want to make it again for a year, thus running out of ideas to make for supper. If I do it this way, then I can make the same thing again in a month or so without too much boredom. I usually always then have something in the freezer for those days when I'm in town all day and don't have time to cook, or baby is fussy and I can't put him down.
As for budget, I think we're doing well. I made out a master grocery list on Excel last summer (when I was big and pregnant and couldn't do much else) that is categorized by aisles in WinCo (where 95% of my grocery shopping takes place). If I stick to that list (with occasional add ons), we don't overspend nor buy junk that we can't afford/don't need (except for ice cream once in a while!) I've bought the same things over and over so many times, the budget comes out pretty close every time, if I shop on the same day of the week. I am moving towards shopping every week, although am still doing a bigger trip every 2 weeks and a smaller trip on the other weeks these days. It seems we run out of the same things around the same time each time, so I haven't found a way to work it differently yet. Bringing Greg along for shopping is ideal, but this can't/doesn't always happen (rarely it does). I have trained the kids to put away the groceries though, and that is a huge help because usually I'm exhausted by the time we get home from town and also have a fussy baby to boot. We also buy 1/2 beef every couple years which is spendy, but we feel is worth the money to get a quality product and at the same time support our local farmers.
Before:
After shopping:
Menu from last week:
A few years ago we checked out going to Birch Community Services for food, which is down in Portland. They are a great service for anyone with a tight grocery budget that needs a bit of help. At that time (2006), the lady there said that $100 per person per month, budgetwise is a good goal. It's likely gone up a bit since then, but we try to keep it below there since our kids are pretty little yet. The Master's Diet says that the more nourishing food you eat, the less you have to spend on groceries. He says that what you lack in quality, you have to make up for in quantity, and I know that to be true. He says that our ancestors ate 2 meals per day, and worked much harder than most of us do now. The difference was they ate much (50%) lacto-fermented/sourdough/sprouted food, as well as quality oils, meats and raw veggies (full of digestive enzymes). Their food was maybe not of higher quality, but was better utilized by their body through the breaking down processes used to prepare the food due to lack of refrigeration mostly.
So there it is, in a typewritten nutshell.
