Blog.EmealsForYou

Pre-plan Special Events and Save $$$ – A Semi-Rant

April 23, 2009 at 9:37 am Leave a comment

It makes no sense to me that the very same people who begin shopping for their kids’ school needs in July don’t think about pre-planning a special event or meal much before the middle of that week.  You know that birthday is coming; it’s really no surprise, yet when buying the food you wait until the very last minute.  Even our grandmother’s did a better job of planning, course they faced limited availability of product and had to purchase with forethought.

Let’s take your typical summer picnic / birthday.  It is 3 weeks away and you are not even thinking about what you want to prepare.  The way to save money and a little bit of your sanity is to sit down now and write out your menu.  Really, this doesn’t require anymore brain power now then 21/2 weeks from now.  Okay, so now we have a menu; start to watch for those ingredients you will need for the party NOW!  This gives you a couple of weeks to get the best price on the non-time sensitive items.  Buy the burgers and hot dogs when they are on sale not at the last minute.  How many times have you said to yourself, “I should have bought that meat last week when it was on sale”… opportunity lost.  That’s okay the grocery store chain needs the money more than you, right?

Let me give you an example of how you can save money and “steal” time each day leading up to an event to allow you to better enjoy the party yourself.  My regular readers know that we go back to NJ about once a quarter to see family.  These trips always involve huge family meals; meals that I gladly prepare and still manage to have a great time.  It all begins about 6 weeks out with planning the menu; myself and my mother-in-law go over the guest list for the meals and what we are thinking about preparing.  We develop the menu and agree to who does what.  Let me get a plug in here: I use my www.emealsforyou.com website to pick the recipes and build the shopping list.  I decide what I will buy here and transport to NJ and what my mother-in-law will purchase in NJ.  For example: one night is steaks on the grill night, I purchased the steaks last week and saved $4 per lb (times 6 lb =$24).  My mother-in-law will take the shopping list to her favorite store and get everything on the list.  Another way to save time is to start preparing some of the recipes in advance.  I am taking about 7 different desserts to last the whole week.  I started baking one each day, taking a very little amount of time off my day and having great desserts like Hazelnut Cheesecake frozen and ready for the trip.

Nobody said planning was going to be easy at first but you already do it in other phases of your life.  Take the time to plan; whether for that special event or more importantly, for your weekly meals.  You will be surprised at how much you save and maybe smile at the reduction in your stress level.

Entry filed under: Rants, Semi-Rants and Non-Rants. Tags: planning dinners, planning parties, special dinners, special event planning.