Menu Planning

Here's the deal...we are a typical busy family. We are a family that lives on a pretty tight budget. Much less tight than it used to be, but still pretty tight. If we didn't menu plan, we would never know what we were eating and we would eat out more and have less money for the other things that we need. 

We grocery shop every two weeks. Now, we usually end up having to get milk at least once during those two weeks but for the most part, we only grocery shop every two weeks. We typically eat out once every two weeks. Sometimes, when life has us way too busy, we will have to stop and grab something but typically speaking, it's once every two weeks.

The ads come in our mail on Wed. Steve goes through the ads and circles the meat, and other bigger ticket items, that are on sale. I build the menu from that, and our schedules. 

Mondays - usually not a busy night for us so I like to try new recipes, or just family favorites that take a little longer to make. Usually a chicken dish because a) there is almost always some type of chicken on sale and b) chicken takes a little longer to make so unless I do it in the crock pot, there isn't a lot of time for chicken other times. 

Tuesdays - "Taco Tuesday"...this means that we will have some kind of Mexican dish. Apparently 'taco' is a pretty general term in our house and I have interpreted this to be some type of Mexican meal. We do try to have regular tacos at least once a  month because that's something that EVERYONE in our house enjoys (and that's pretty tough to come by). Also, I've learned that most of the Mexican-style dishes that I make don't take a lot of time and Rey has dance so I start dinner, run her to dance, finish dinner, pick her up, eat. Right now we also have Mourning Hope group so some of us will eat before dance pick up so that we can get to that.  

Wednesdays - The girls have Youth Group and Steve has Scouts so this day is when we will have something quick like soup and sandwiches or chef salads, 'Subway' night (which means we make our own subs) and individual bags of chips. Crock pot meals happen most often on this night because then people can eat as they are here

Thursdays - We typically have something more 'classic' on Thursdays. I don't know why that is but I just realized it is. We do spaghetti (although now we have different versions - spaghetti squash, shrimp hot naked, etc...), tater tot casserole, sloppy joes, stir fry, new casseroles I'm constantly finding on Pinterest...things like that. It all pretty much revolves around what proteins were on sale that week. 

Fridays - Steve does not work his regular job on Fridays so that means he's usually in charge of the dinner that day. (I say his regular job because trust me, between appts., JA, teaching CLC clubs...he's still really working.) This means we often times have fish or grill. 

Saturdays - depends on what we have planned. Most of the time we grill on Saturdays. Brats, chicken, hamburgers...whatever proteins we have stocked up on. Or we do soup in the crock pot - chili, chicken and noodles...you get it. 

Sundays - I will SOMETIMES, very rarely, make a menu for Sunday brunch. The tradition is that I am willing to make you eggs, maybe bacon, and toast after church but dinner is pretty exclusively "free choice". That means leftovers. I found out that my kids will eat it more happily if I call it free choice than when I call it leftovers. That's when we clean out the fridge or eat Ramen. Honestly, by Sunday afternoon, I'm pooped. Actually much sooner than that but Steve works on Sundays so I use that as an excuse to not cook. 

So that's it. There's no secret. The menu directly revolves around kid activities and grocery ads. We have an app called Cozi that we use to keep track of everyone's schedules. If you have a phone in our house, you have Cozi and you are expected to put your activities on it. We also include the menu. That way Steve is never asking me what we're having for dinner and I always know what needs to be taken out, or prepped, the night before. Steve will grocery shop for the sale items (meats and veggies) on Friday and I will online grocery shop for the rest of the items and pick them up on Saturdays. About once a month we go to Sam's Club for toilet paper, paper plates, napkins, paper plates...stuff like that. 

It's a little time consuming but I have noticed that when I don't menu plan, it's insane. I am a schedule person. I am a planner. If it's not planned, then I'm worrying about it getting done. Also, preparing dinner and sitting with as many family members as we can each night, truly fills my bucket.