Meal Planning

The other day I spent some time meal planning. Initially I was just going for this month but kept having more and more ideas (thanks Pinterest). So it turned into using all my pins over the next few months. I had been slowly using my pins but decided to just use all of them, no matter how many months it went into.

I have all through this next semester figured out. The 7 week break is spotty because we aren't sure on plans for trips after the Wedding and baptism trip. :) This is so very nice. I have decided each month I will sit down and plan out a shopping list based on the meals for that month. I even split the lists into weekly trips, so we have fresh produce to use for dinner and other meals.

I stopped meal planning when Tim had his old job with the late shift. But also because I hated the whole process of finding meals and then making the shopping list. Also I was busy with school and we only had two nights a week together. So unless a friend came for dinner, Kenneth and I survived off leftovers and whatever sounded good.

This new way thus far I really love already. Plus it will open us up to new meal ideas.

I already have a couple boards on pinterest for recipes we like and don't like. So hopefully after a while I'll be able to just go off the board we like. I also used a couple of our cookbooks we have. I think for the months that still have empty spots, I'll go through more of our cookbooks to figure out other meals to try and use.

I want to do all this so that eventually I can have it as a habit and maybe only have to put meals down on a calendar every couple months, then only plan shopping lists from there. I love planning meals, I feel like we save more money, since I know what we have to get for each meal and usually have lots of staples on hand. We tend to stock up on staples when they're on sale. :)