Meal Planning

A long time ago, when I first became a wife and mother (and a long while after) I couldn't stomach the thought of meal planning.
It felt SO restrictive, such a waste of time and energy. I mean, who would want to do all that extra work?

But I finally came to realize that meal planning not only helps the pocket book but, it helps me to be more creative in the kitchen and it saves me time and, I always have the ingredients on hand.
The helping the pocket book thing tho, that is the big one.
I work very hard to keep my family food budget at 80 dollars a week for our family of six. This is VERY attainable...
We do not eat only hot dogs and eggs all week *as I have been asked before*. We eat yummy meals (at least to us).

I am pretty basic.
I sit down and think of the meals we would like to eat for the week. Usually I am on pinterest or some other recipe site to get new and creative things to eat.
I write down 7 meals and then, all the ingredients to them.
Somethings I have on hand, some I do not.
I write them under the store that I plan to buy them .. (I currently shop at Sams and Aldi for all of our food needs.)
Then I shop. While shopping we put what is in our list in the basket. I then write down the price in my notebook. I add up each thing as it goes in.
This keeps me on budget.
If I am near the end of my budget but need more things for our meals, I then will put back something that isn't important (ya know, like the pack of cookies :P)
I usually do 30 at Sams, and closer to 50 at Aldi.

As I said, this saves me a quite a bit of time and money .. and today I seen just how much.
Today I went grocery shopping no list. I had a mental list but, not a written  list.
I did not write down each thing as I put them into the cart and I did not have a meal plan in place.
Today, I spent $115.00 on this weeks groceries.
I will say that we do have a fellowship at church this week and I did buy for that as well so that was added expense but, I still spent WAY too much ... this is because I did not have my list.!
Never again..... I will not go with no list again, even a mental one!

What a bummer. I have made staying in budget a sort of game... when I go over, I lose.

On another note I love a good deal. I love the thrift store and garage sales.. But, what I love even more then finding a great deal at one of them is ... finding a great deal at a retail store.
I get the best deals at Walmart. I get my kids really cute clothes from a quarter to a dollar! I love when someone says "oh that shirt is so cute" to say "it was only a quarter (or a buck)"

Here is one of the lots I brought home one day

2 hat, scarf and glove sets, 4 shirts for Kaleb, 5 shirts for Gabe, 3 shirts for Abigial (one being strawberry shortcake), 3 shirts for Anna (one being an official Detroit Tigers shirt) 2 shirts for me, heavy duty

ski gloves  for my boys , a bunch of those Elmer Fud hats, some more gloves and such

.... ALL for 25 bucks! We added it all up and

at regular price, this was like 300 dollars worth of stuff!

Deals like this get me giddy and, I can see why one becomes a hoarder lol I mean, the rush 

can be addicting. Good thing I have a small house and little amounts of money to spare :)

Today my boys are wearing shirts they got for their birthdays.

They were a dollar a piece (from Walmart). They are long sleeved

and glow in the dark. I bought them in the summer 

and their birthdays are in the summer but, they worked perfectly for today.

Everywhere we went someone said something about them (they are BRIGHT) 

and I just giggled because they were a BUCK :)

Kaleb thought showing his candy was pretty hilarious ! 

When people ask me how I afford having four kids I tell them I work at it.

It isn't THAT hard. And, if you are like me, it is kind of fun!

Happy Shopping~