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Is Planning Your Meals Fun?

January 11th, 2015 at 12:09 am

It's back to work Monday for me. So, Wednesday and Thursday nights I went through the grocery ads to help plan my grocery lists and menus for the week. We normally shop at least two stores...one is Aldi and we get eggs, milk, dairy, fruit, and fresh vegetables there. In fact we buy the bulk of our groceries at Aldi. Then I shop at one of the bigger stores usually consulting the ad. Sometimes we hit all three, but that isn't normal. DH buys the Chicago Tribune on Sunday and they have far better coupons that our local paper so I scored $15 off in coupons for things we normally buy this week. We also went to an Amish bulk food store yesterday and stocked up on a few things we get there. So, for now, I'm pretty well stockpiled on a number of items.

For my birthday a friend shared some hamburger, sirloin, and chuck steak with us. She and her husband purchase a cow with a daughter in her family. So, I look forward to use this. For Christmas this same friend gave me some of her homegrown and home canned green beans. Nice friend, eh?

Some of the meals I have planned include:

- Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans
- Scrambled eggs, sausage, cheesy grits, toast
- Sloppy chicks and potato patties (made with left over mashed potatoes sauted in a little oil with Panko
- Oven baked chicken, cous cous, honey glazed carrots
- Italian vegetable soup (made with ground beef, vegetables, pasta)
-Pork tenderloin roast, roasted potatoes, carrots

The pleasure of cooking some of these things is I have leftovers. I peeled extra potatoes to cook and mash so I could make the patties. The extra meatloaf will make meatloaf sandwiches for lunches. The pork roast usually winds up being either pork stew or pork stir fry, or another pork supper as I heat the pork back up and then put barbecue sauce on it before serving. The sloppy chicks can also be lunches or I can add a little more tomato sauce and serve it over pasta. DH talks about how many ways I use leftovers. But he doesn't seem to mind; he says he eats like a king.

Each week I make a fruit salad and we have it at least for one meal.

Different couples we know complain how cooking is just too hard. Then they go out. Then they complain they are broke. One couple doesn't go to the store until they have nothing left in their pantry or fridge. So, that means multiple meals eaten out.

It takes planning. I know it does. But it is kind of fun too. What can I find that is on sale that we like? How can I save a few pennies here and a dollar or so there? Sometimes I try to figure up what a meal cost us and then compare it to what we would have spent if we had eaten out. I try to make it a game...how much money can I save us without compromising on healthy food? Or what did we save that can be spent on something else?

I do believe that people who don't bother to plan for their meals also don't plan for other things in their lives, like their retirement. Two people I know are always eating out and then complain how they can't make it on their pension and/or Social Security. I think most of the people at SA are planners. I read your blogs and the forums. I learn from them and I hope you learn from mine.

15 Responses to “Is Planning Your Meals Fun?”

  1. Bluebird Says:
    1420939790

    Your menu sounds wonderful! We plan all of our meals, too! Tonight we're having braised short ribs in a sauce with fennel, wine, etc., polenta and organic carrots (tri-colored). Yum!

  2. LuckyRobin Says:
    1420939805

    I enjoy meal planning. But I also enjoy cooking so that might have something to do with it.

  3. snafu Says:
    1420943736

    We too plan meals based on what's in season an grocery chain flyers. I prefer home made meals because of the amount of sugar, salt, fat and unpronounceable chemicals in convenience foods, restaurant foods and take-out. It's far more enjoyable to have friends in for Sunday dinner and linger over a glass of wine than to go to a pricey restaurant that's so noisy you can't hear the couple at the far end of the table. A glass of wine is ridiculously expensive and now even service is meh. By the time we've paid for appetizer, entree, dessert, wine, coffee, perhaps a liqueur, tip and parking, I could have made 5 dinners and enjoyed it more.

  4. ThriftoRama Says:
    1420943855

    Can I come eat at your house?

    Seriously, I don't enjoy cooking and meal planning is stressful. Mostly because I believed the feminist myth that education would free me from housework, then I spent many years single and living on my own, and cooking for one wasn't gourmet. Hah!

    Well, now I have two kids and a hungry hubby. I cook because the alternative is an less-healthy more spendy restaurant meal. That is the pay off. I don't enjoy it. I try to plan 4 to 10 days of menus at a time, but not because I enjoy that either. Mostly because it takes some of the stress out of making dinner for a bunch of picky eaters.

  5. ThriftoRama Says:
    1420943968

    Can I come eat at your house?

    Seriously, I don't enjoy cooking and meal planning is stressful. Mostly because I believed the feminist myth that education would free me from housework, then I spent many years single and living on my own, and cooking for one wasn't gourmet. Hah!

    Well, now I have two kids and a hungry hubby. I cook because the alternative is an less-healthy more spendy restaurant meal. That is the pay off. I don't enjoy it. I try to plan 4 to 10 days of menus at a time, but not because I enjoy that either. Mostly because it takes some of the stress out of making dinner for a bunch of picky eaters.

    We do love Aldi. We do our main shop there, then fill in with one other local chain for things Aldi doesn't have, like gallons of organic milk. We buy meat in bulk from a local free range farmer, and strangely, the meat costs about the same per pounds as the grocery store, but the quality is far and above. We also have a huge garden and never buy any produce from may to october because we're growing it ourselves, which is awesome.

  6. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1420946643

    I get around planning by pretty much eating the same thing every day for breakfast and lunch, and mostly for supper too ...

  7. creditcardfree Says:
    1420947320

    I have mixed feelings. Meal planning feels like a chore that I do over and over and over. I am doing a little better since I have changed my meal planning to at least two weeks at a time. In fact I have a plan through the end of January right now! Of course, this means I am NOT considering ads. I then shop at every 7-10 days. Breaking up the plan separate from my grocery list is much easier for me.

    The nice thing about planning longer periods of time is that I don't repeat the same meals quite as often, which is healthier and just more fun because of the variety.

  8. frugalredhead Says:
    1420948584

    I have come to enjoy meal planning. I love trying to use up what I already have and see how much I can lower our grocery bill. Tomorrow hubby is cooking a ham and I'm already thinking about ways I can use the leftovers. I've started cooking a lot more from scratch also, which isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I'm not the best cook, and I have tried some things that have been a bust (especially with the kids - they are not a fan of chicken and dumplings, which was tonight's attempt). I like to do the meal planning together with my kids. I make a list of possibilities for the week, and then let them pick 1 or 2 things off the list that they really want to have. I find they are more likely to eat it if they feel like they had some say in what they get to eat.

  9. LittleMissSplendid Says:
    1420949483

    I have been off track with cooking at home and meal planning, but a few years ago I fell in love with it. A lot of that love came with learning how to stock a pantry with very versatile and frequently used items so that I could just buy meat, produce, and dairy as needed. This last week I cooked the majority of my meals and started to remember how much I missed being in the kitchen while humming along to the radio. Now that I'm acquiring more recipes for various ethnic dishes I can further expand my meal plans and potentially dine out less.

    Also I love the idea of sloppy chicks! When I was a kid I was a huge fan of sloppy joes and haven't had them in years. I'll have to add that to my menu one of these nights.

  10. scottish girl Says:
    1420967989

    I need to start planning meals again. I used to be good. Your meal plan is good Smile

  11. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1420972624

    I definitely think there is a link between planning meals and planning for other financial events in life, I think you have a good point there.

  12. rob62521 Says:
    1421005636

    Thanks for the kind comments!

  13. CB in the City Says:
    1421074384

    I plan only a few days at a time, and in my head. But I am only cooking for myself, with the occasional meal for my grown kids. My strategy is more about keeping a practical pantry and freezer, so I always have the ingredients for a quick meal. I kid with others that my dinner plan is basically salad, sandwich, soup, omelet or the occasional frozen pizza. I do tend to make casseroles on the weekend, which I divide up and freeze for lunches.

  14. PatientSaver Says:
    1421453008

    I enjoy cooking and love having homemade food in the house even more. But meal planning, and the cooking itself, can lose its luster when you have to do it week in and week out. Especially when there are so many other things to be done in a day.

    So I can't say I enjoy the planning and the doing as much as I enjoy the results at the office, knowing I'm eating just as healthily at work as I do at home, and not caving in to the unhealthy choices they offer at the cafe at lobby level or the snack machine or the local deli with its nitrate meats. Ugh!

  15. rob62521 Says:
    1421618385

    I enjoy both the planning and the eating, but I think you bring up good points on how planning really helps.

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