Archive for August 28, 2008
The Meal Planning Game (Part Three) – Let the Games Begin
Successful meal planning requires some form of all three parts of The Meal Planning Game. Without an understanding of the meals and recipes you have available to you there is no way you can reach your goal of saving money, time and feeding your family better. This is the final installment of this (we hope) helpful toolset that should set you on the right path… it all becomes just so many words on a page if you don’t use it.
There are several ways to go about meal planning depending on your level of competence in the kitchen, general ability to plan and your desire to succeed. For the purpose of this exercise we will assume that you will use the tools we have provided… many of you do some or all of this from memory; just follow along and plug into the toolset wherever you need it.
Let’s start by getting out your calender and deciding the number of meals you need to plan; pick some of the meals you have on your meal spreadsheet and place them on your calender. You may wish to check out what is on sale at your grocery so that you can take advantage of any money savings. If you can’t decide, you may simply place numbers in a hat, these numbers will correspond to the numbers beside your meal plans on your spreadsheet. Pick a number and you have a meal plan. If you have young kids you may want to have them give you a number and this becomes the Meal Planning Game. Another way to get your kids involved is let them pick a favorite meal from the meal planning sheet… when kids get involved with the planning you will find them much more interested in the food.
So we have our meals scheduled; let’s bring out our recipes and write down what we need to shop for. We suggest you make your list based on how your grocery store is set up. Make a section on your paper for meats/seafood, one for veggies, one for frozen foods and another for dairy. Put down all the ingredients that you need; combine any “like” items; i.e. 2 chicken breasts, 2 chicken legs and 2 chicken thighs becomes 1 whole chicken. Also delete any items that you have in your pantry, frig or freezer. Finally put any other needs on your shopping list, print the list and it is off to the store.
Remember your goals: to save money, to save time and to feed your family better. When you go to the grocery only buy the items you need… these are the things you decided you needed to make the meals you have chosen. DON’T buy things you don’t need. DON’T give in to the urges to buy junk food at the grocery. DO give the method some time to work; chances are it may take a time or two to get the hang of it…when you do you will reach the goals you have set out and be happier and healthier, and your kids may look forward to family meals again.
P.S. Send us your comments of how this works for you and any suggestions you think might benefit others.
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