A long time ago, I started keeping a notebook for meal planning. If I needed a recipe through the week, I'd jot it down in the notebook. I kept recipe notes, grocery list, cleaning recipes etc inside. Nothing organized, just random things that came up during the week. When my son got married I passed an old notebook to my daughter-in-law. I thought she might find having meal plans handy plus it had many of my son's favorite recipes, etc. I was worried she would think an old house keeping notebook was an odd hand me down but she accepted it graciously. When the next child got married, I was approached and asked if I had any more. It turns out my DIL loved that old hand me down and had not only used it consistently but had often told others what a great gift it was. I've gotten fancier and neater over the years because I know it is now a much anticipated gift in our circle. Not only does meal planning benefit your own family currently but it can become something to be treasured by others!
I absolutely love this!! I do pretty much the same thing! I try so hard to keep it super organized. But now, I'm going to try and do what you said. I call mine, my foodie book lol. I have one of all my stuff while I'm writing my cookbooks. I love pretty notebooks. Thank you so very much for your idea! You started an amazing tradition!💗💞😊💝
I love this! In my country, its tradition to pass along a recipe book to the oldest daughter. But not everyone enjoys baking and cooking. But a personal take on budgeting, meal planning, and generally managing a family is so practical and valuable. I think I might start this new tradition for my family!
Sarah from Our Tribe of Many has some great systems in place for keeping the food consumption under control. My favorite is that she has a rotating schedule of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. I starting implementing it with my 2 kids and it’s so nice that all of us know what the plan is for that day - no guessing or scrambling. I change a few snacks around depending on what they’re actually eating and the season. Good luck with everything.
Our tribe of many and Jordan Page got me on my grocery kick! We now have a set budget & have worked on becoming debt free with the money we save! We have been 6months of thoughtful, intentional shopping & will never go back!
A-men! Those two mamas helped me so so much! And Jordan's $100 per person per month worked in our currency and the amount we earn here in our country! We increased it to $120 person per month because of some dietary requirements but we are still very happy with how much we save. And for meal planning - we do it super easy - I just figure out 3-4 meals I can do for the week and when one is gone, I cook the next (we're just three people, we are slow to eat through stuff).
A couple things we do to help is: choose 1 breakfast idea for the week (ex: muffins. I make a big batch on the weekend, and we have with fruit all week. Frozen waffles and fruit, etc.) Then on Saturday I make a big breakfast. Most Sundays I have the kids by myself before church so we do super simple granola bars, fruit, milk. It helped us streamline our morning a little. Also we switched to a schedule for days of the week and types of meals. So, Monday is pasta, Tuesday tacos/Mexican, Wednesday slow cooker, etc. It helped me when I was in a rut and the week just looked like a big empty page and was overwhelming to fill.
Can i say something you are the best woman on TH-cam seriously thank you for your kindness I’m watching you everytime and sometimes i re watch your old video You makin me feel happy every time I watch you 😭💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
Prep your crock pot the night before and put it in your fridge. Then in the morning all you have to do is pop it in the slow cooker and turn it on in the morning. We try to stick to the $100 per person per month idea but I like to buy organic and natural food which is just more expensive. But I think that is a good place to start and then adjust it for your specific circumstances.
What helped me cut my grocery budget in half was to realize that overconsumption & too many choices applies to food the same as it does to an overstuffed closet. We wear 10% of our clothing 80% of the time. Is that the quote? We don't nearly the amnt of meal & snack options as we think we do. Pick your family's top 8-12 supper recipes. Put them on rotation. Turn leftovers into lunches. Pick 1-3 sweet & 1-3 savory snack options. Make a big batch of pancakes or waffles + boiled or scrambled eggs for 3 days worth of breakfasts every week. Then there's only 4 breakfasts to think of. Oatmeal 2× a week. Only 2 left. Every few weeks switch it up. But, keep it simple! Your family can eat well without it being expensive.👍
I should make my husband watch this. He has no idea what goes into mea planning ecery week!! Taking inventory of what we have, looking at the calendar for the week, trying to plan a mix of healthy meals and easy meals. It’s so much work!
Hi Angela. Meal planning is key to helping my family not only stop wasting food but also saves us sooo much money. I love meal planning & sharing tips! For someone who doesn’t meal plan often you did great! I’m so glad I found your channel & subscribed.
You know what I also would love to see in this serie - a week of your breakfasts / lunches / dinners. Oh and I love grocery hauls, esp as I dont live in the US. I find it so interesting to see what you guys have on offer
I have a selection of healthy basics that I keep on hand for help-yourself breakfasts and snacks. I will occasionally make something for breakfast or snacks, but if I dont have time or dont feel like it, we still have several healthy options to choose from. And with this system, we can each have what we feel like that day. For lunches I use a monthly lunch rotation of easy meals, so that we can keep our homeschool day rolling without lunch prep throwing us off. If my kids dont want to eat the option for the day, they can have leftovers or a snacky lunch that they make themselves. For three of the suppers of each week, we have the same kind of thing every week, so I dont have to plan those. They are things like 1)Something to grill 2)nachos or frozen pizza 3)snacky supper with movie night. So all I have to plan for dinners is 4 a week and I use a monthly template with meal "guideline suggestions" to help me know where to start (like soup/salad or skillet meals or oven meals or crockpot meals, etc.).
I really like the app Out of Milk for planning my grocery list and keeping track of what's in my pantry! I also like to keep separate Pinterest boards within "Food" for meals I've tried before and are go-to's, and another for meals I want to try. It helps so much to quick meal plan!
I love watching grocery hauls/ meal prep videos for inspiration and seeing how other moms of big families buy and budget.... Our Tribe of Many is a great channel for monthly budgeting/ meal preps and their family is just awesome to watch! Sarah actually monthly shops and breaks down pricing from the stores she shops and most of it she has on pick up service! Definitely a good one to check out💜💜💜
This is.pretty much how I meal plan. I see what I have, decide what I want to make and plug in the holes. I put my list on one side of paper and my plans on the other. Then when I at the store if i feel like I'm forgetting something i have my meals on the other side and I can glance and see if I can think of what I'm forgetting. Also keeping a running list on the fridge of things we run out of helps those mid week stops at the store
Homeschooling Mom of 4 here and I had come to the same realization with our grocery budget that you did in about Sept. of last year, and have been just doing weekly meal plans since. It has really made such a difference in our budget & my sanity around getting dinner ready in the middle of busy days. I always try to plan the weeks meals around what we already have on hand, and just by doing that we have cut our grocery budget down by 20% without even changing any other shopping habits! Jordan Page (she has a large family too!) on You Tube has given me lots of ideas and inspiration in this department. She recommends $100 per person/per month is at least a good baseline number of where to start for grocery budgets. We do spend a little more than that, but it was a helpful place to start when you’re trying to get things under control :) God speed in your efforts!
It will feel so good to get back to meal planning! I have been loving Jordan Page's ideas on her TH-cam channel if you haven't checked her out. Things that really help me plan: 1. Make a list of main dishes you regularly make, organized by meat, use this when planning. 2. Plan meals when you are hungry, everything sounds delicious! ☺️ 3. Try themed nights (soup, Mexican, pizza, Crock-Pot, etc.) 4. Make double (or triple) when you are cooking and stick one in the freezer for another night. It takes minimal effort to make extra, bit you get double bang for your time!
We are only a family of 4, but I've been working towards meal planning and budgeting more. I have been planning dinners for a few months now which has helped cut back unnecessary groceries. I am also planning on meal prepping my husband's and my lunches for the week and then my children will be cooked for. Breakfast...that's a free for all! I love seeing your meal planning and some good meal ideas. I'm very big on trying new recipes lately.
I think you shopping the pantry and your fridge/freezer is such a great way to us what you have in hand! I love this style video, please do more of these videos because it does help me as well as a mama of 5 come up with ideas and also stick to a budget.
I just revamped our budget/meal planning this month too! This is my goal: one month Costco haul at the beginning of the month with small weekly or every other week add ons for produce or whatever else we may need. I’m also going to pick out 12-14 meals at the beginning of the month that we will rotate twice during the month which should help grocery shopping be easier!
Mom of seven here. We have a set breakfast menu. It makes morning so much smoother and some of the older kids can pitch in and help if needed too. Monday - frog in the hole (toast w/a fried egg in it) Tuesday - muffins and smoothie (you can change the type of muffin and smoothie so there is always variation) Wednesday - hot cocoa, biscuits and scrambled eggs (this is the kids favorite day) Thursday - Oatmeal and hard boiled eggs Friday - toast and tea (herbal teas are the kids favorite) Saturday - pancakes and bacon (daddy is home for this bigger breakfast) Sunday - bagels and cream cheese
I am a seasoned meal planner, why am I watching this, lol :-D I think you're doing great! All the right things in the right order. Make an inventory. Figure out what you need. Look at your schedule. Find recipes to use up what you have. Make meals your family actually eats. My only tips would be to remind you that the period you plan for is unrelated to shopping schedule (either way, you plan to use items you haven't bought yet). I believe most countries publish a "national standard" of what is considered "reasonable" expenses in various categories, you could look it up and see how you fare. Meal planning in Google Calendar works even without any additional apps. Do you need three hot meals per day, or could either lunch or breakfast, or both, be simplified? And finally, have you looked into reusable alternatives, for diapers, paper towels, etc?
Anything with beans is delicious! And if they are the bulk of the meal, they are a great substitute for meat. Breakfast for dinner items make a great meatless meal ideas - muffins, pancakes, oatmeal.
I enjoyed your "preschool style" meal planning! TFS! ☺️ For your upcoming Q&A: How/where did you find a church for your family? I remember that on The Sister Show, you talked about how you were struggling to find a congregation where your family truly felt welcome. I'm glad you finally found one. 🤗
We do one week grocery meal plan. Same day every week is grocery shopping day, usually thursday so that we have tons of food in the fridge so that we're less likely to eat out over the weekend! And then to stay on top of our budget we write out each meal, then ingredients needed and then crucial last step (!) is to add an estimated price next to each item so that when you're at the grocery store you know what your budget is for every single item! It seems excessive but it works and it forces you not to go over board and over spend!
I’m so happy to see this! I’m a Mom of 2, but trying hard to get the grocery budget under control. I’ve been watching Our Tribe of Many’s channel and have gotten some great ideas as well. Thanks so much for the inspo!
Great Job Angie! We keep a budget bc we are a military family. I went through and further edited out normal purchases and established there were areas I could further remove. We love food and enjoy being liberal with purchases but it adds up so fast, especially when choosing organic and cleaner options. Wishing you a healing heart as you grieve you grandma! 💖
Meal planning is essential to keep a lower food budget. I think it's amazing to get 7 kids to eat the same thing at meals ! Enjoy your videos. Blessings to you and your family.
I love watching these types of videos to get inspiration for meals! It's just my husband and I but we always tend to eat the same things. I would love to see another video on how you will organize all your meal ideas!
I have been using the app AnyList for a few months now. It is a great way of recording your shopping list as you go along during the week and when you meal plan. As you go through the store you can knock the items off your List as you find them. It also organisés automatically your list into sections that generally reflect the store layout.
I love meal planning (especially when taking into account what's already in the house and the grocery store's weekly discounted items) - it's just SO satisfying!
I started meal planning 2 months before the yr ended its the best decision I have made. We are a family of 5 , only eat out sat. I go shopping Friday. I plan the menu according to the activities of the month. 1 day of the week I have the same thing, their favorite plate.Kids get a whole cooked breakfast sat only . During the week ,2 days are cereal the rest we alternate . For dinner if I have veggies to cut or meat to season I do it the night before when the kids are asleep. They eat breakfast at home, lunch at school dinner at home. After dinner you get hungry they get 1 type of veggie, granolia , fruit , yogurt, or a sandwich. Last important thing I changed we all have flask we only drink juice or a can soda at dinner the rest of the day is water except in the morning its milk , orange juice, or water . The hard part is sticking to your plan.
I started buying 1 for now, 2 for later, of certain things that last a long time and eventually I’ve built up a small stockpile and cut the cost of groceries weekly. And it’s only by adding $5-$10 every week, or every other week. And i typically only plan 4-5 meals, and eat leftovers the other days. It helps to cut the costs
Hooray for meal planning! I have been doing it since I got married 8 years ago & am actually terrified of the idea of shopping without a plan/list! Wild! Lol For me, having general structure to the week helps, e.g. soup on Sundays, meatfree Mondays, helps with ideas & variety, as well as nutrition. Always make one meal I can double for freezing (even if it is just freezing cooked mince that I can flavour differently next time - a head start ingredient of some kind), that way I slowly built up collection of useful frozen foods which I can rotate through regularly without taking up all my freezer space. Keeping an inventory of my freezer also helps keep tabs on what needs using, on top of the pantry & fridge. Look forward to seeing how your method evolves with time & what works for you guys!
YES KEEP DOING THESE VIDEOS!! I’ve noticed that when I started doing weekly grocery videos, it actually helps me with trying to stay on budget because it’s like accountability.
Thank you for showing your process, it has been difficult for me.....never been a meal planner and just buys more food...to understand the families that quickly and seemingly easily have all their meal plans set up, sometimes for a whole month! That is an overwhelming task for me to even think about tackling. I think seeing how you must wrote down what you had and your inventory items....looks doable for a week at a time. Thank you!
Good start! Another saving grace is BATCH COOKING.....might be more challenging with ten and the quantity already being cooked, but it is basically always cooking leftovers, or when in the kitchen cook another favorite Meal to be served later in week. I brown turkey meat in two pans and each pan has different seasoning: one spaghetti sauce one taco seasoning so there is both pasta night, taco night. I have huge containers of sliced peppers, carrots, celery for hummus. At least Costco pre roasted chicken are economical, and they can be turned into many meals. We make huge pots of chile and vegetarian baked casseroles. Hard with kids is the junk food at breakfast and snacks...but, one day ay a time!
I agree with Diana's comments re rotating meal plan - and do the same here in my family. I do know that things stay more under control when I designate at least one meal for leftovers - for us, it's Wednesday evening - with Sunday evening being a close second. For the other evenings - we have a couple of non-meat meals - one of which is Thursday evening - which somehow became our chili/soup/chowder meal. Friday we do a large meal - and a crockpot something on Saturday. This leaves only - 2-3 meals to go - which can be a fish something, a kids' choice - which is an easy peasy meal - hot dogs or some such, and a casserole something which may or may not involve pasta, rice, or some other grain. Lunches - we have a hot sandwich lunch, a hot soup and half a sandwich, a salad or salad sandwich, a cold sandwich - like a cheese sandwich meal, a leftover casserole - I freeze any leftovers after we portion up any leftovers and freeze those. If need be - those aare sandwiches/etc. that I can freeze. Breakfast - 2 cereal breakfast days - one hot, one cold, 2 egg something days, 2 homemade bread/waffle/pancake days, and 1 something special breakfast - like doughnuts/coffeecake. Snacks are usually fruit, but may be vegetable. Vegetables are added to lunches, dinner. Desserts are a once a week thing except for fruit which is w daily.
You DID hit 100K, yay!! CONGRATULATIONS! 🎉 I just commented the other day that I really wanted to see your channel hit 100K - I’m so super excited for you, and truly think you deserve every single subscriber! 😊
Stews and casseroles always stretch your dollars and are a good way to clean out the fridge. When my kids were small I always had a pot of soup on the go so when they wanted a snack or came in from school they could just warm up a bowl. Also surf the weekly grocery flyers to see what the deals are and base your meal plan accordingly.
To take the guess work out of monthly meal planning, we have a themed supper every week: freezer meal day, Mexican day, Italian day, breakfast supper day, new recipe day, pizza day, soup day. It also helps with our budget because i know what i can buy in bulk of because every week we'll have some kind of pasta so i stock up on it when it's on an awesome sale. Or same with mozzarella cheese because we have pizza every week.
I also hate cooking on Sundays and so meal planning helps me avoid that. I always keep a stash of freezer meals in the freezer for this day or if days go wonky. That keeps the temptation of eating out away thus saving money
Amanda from The Fundamental Home and Christine from Frugal Fit Mom are great when it comes to keeping at a certain budget. But for a family closer to your size, Sarah from Our Tribe Of Many and Jordan Page are both great. Amy Maryon and Jamerrill Stewart are also two big families on here who do a lot of freezer/make ahead meals for their families.
I use Recipe Keeper to meal plan and I absolutely love it. I'm going on 4 years of using it to keep me organized and it is amazing!! I can transfer any recipe from a website. It can create a grocery list that I can edit. I can plan all my meals through the week! Coming from someone who is very disorganized and a chronic procrastinator this app is amazing!
I’m trying to get back into meal planning to keep grocery spending under control! Hoping to get back into monthly planning and shopping then just buying fresh items as needed. Please keep sharing your journey with this - I’m already stealing meal ideas! ☺️
We rotate meals out which is so helpful, then I try out one new recipe a week which means minimal new ingredients being purchased. (If we love the new meal I’ll add it to the rotation) I buy the same staples at Costco, Azure and Amish stores and that covers the basics. We also raise chickens for eggs and buy milk/cheese from farmers. Breakfast: oatmeal, boiled eggs, egg muffins, sourdough English muffins, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, yogurt, fig bars, fruit, granola, muffins (I will make large batches and freeze) then we have sourdough pancakes every Sunday morning. Lunch: leftovers from dinner, if we had none it’s a sandwich of tuna or chicken salad or snack plate. (Occasionally we will make mini pizzas on our English muffins or tortillas) Dinner: I rotate about 20 meals including- beef stroganoff, tacos, pasta bake or lasagna, butter chicken, garlic Parmesan chicken and potatoes, meatloaf and sides, Thai chicken stew, honey garlic chicken, hamburgers with sweet potato fries, chili (regular or white) soup (chicken noodle, potato, chicken curry, lentil, veggie, tomato just to name a few) homemade pizzas, taco casserole, pot roast, beef stew, stir fry, beef and broccoli, shepherds pie. We do $600 a month for 6 of us and all organic etc. Saving money by buying 1/2 cow for beef, bulk shopping, cooking from scratch, dry goods from Amish and veggies from local CSA or misfits market in the winter time.
Everyone is suggesting budgeting tips and I've found the Growing Slower blog "How Much Should You Spend on Groceries?" post to be the most helpful and realistic for pricing.
Really enjoyed this! I started budgeting and meal planning about a year ago and have found that planning the whole week is great but I only buy 3/4 days of fresh ingredients as we often have leftovers that go to waste if not eaten later in the week. I then move one of the planned meals to the following week and add in a leftovers night
I literally couldn't survive (nor could my children, HA!) without meal planning! I only have 3 kids but my youngest has a crazy list of food allergies which makes meal prep so much harder! Nothing pre-packaged is safe so I have to make EVERYTHING from scratch. I find something that really helps is to have theme nights.....for example, we pretty much ALWAYS have Taco Tuesdays. It's a favorite of the family and easy to make allergen free. Also, nights when I know we have extra-curriculars until rather late (so I'll have limited cooking time), I either do a crockpot meal or pre-make a casserole (although there aren't too many safe casseroles when you can't have dairy) so all I have to do is pop it in the oven (or I can leave instructions for a kid or hubby to do it if I'm gone with another kid). I also usually plan a leftovers night to help get rid of the uneaten stuff before I hit the grocery again.
I have found that once you plan out a week at a time it is fairly easy to stretch it to a month. Repeating favorites such as biscuits and eggs every Monday helps follow a budget because it is easy to count how much you need because you count how days you will eat it. Then you are not just buying for "just in case" or back up food. Also buying a month at a time gives you plenty of food in case you have company ❤
I did a similar thing this week, using up freezer stuff so I can defrost our extra freezer. Also went through the pantry and tossed old stuff and looked at what was needing to be used soon. Made my whole meal plan around this! Such a good thing to do seasonally.
Instant Pots are wonderful for meal prepping. I make up a few larger meals like chili, beef stew, chicken with rice and veggies then we have them for the week. So everyone has a choice and no one is unhappy. Make a few fresh meals here and there like grilled dinners or pizza night, soup and sandwiches to keep everyone from getting bored. Good luck!!!
I meal plan on Google calendar. I made "meals" it's own calendar label. It's nice when you have to move meals to other days or add in a leftovers day, etc.
Not sure if this would help you with your meal organization, but growing up we had the same breakfast for each day of the week. I know one day was cereal, another bacon, eggs, toast. I'm sure there was pancakes and french toast in there somewhere. We are all in our 50's now and just had this conversation during Thanksgiving this past year. We all agreed that our favorite was Fridays when we had cinnamon toast (cut on the diagonal) that we would dip in hot chocolate! Was a no brainer for my mom as she knew what we were having (all staples) each day, as did us kids.
Watch Jamerell Stewart. She has a large family meal prep channel. She makes a lot of freezer meals and is starting a “group” you can sign up to do with her by Jan 20th.
Thanks for sharing!! Rosie in the background was the cutest!! 😍 And I appreciate your rough draft because I need them... and I’m sure I’m not the only one!! 🙌🏽🙋🏻♀️ #enjoyed this video!!
We have been meal planning for the last two years and our budget has improved significantly. We don’t break it down by each day we just write out 5 different breakfast, lunch & dinner options and then we just pick off the list. I found that if we had a meal written down for that day everyone wanted something else on the list. It gives us some flexibility in what sounds good for that day but we know we have the ingredients.
I use a white board to write down meals so everyone knows what we are gonna have each night. For breakfast and lunch I don’t put a specific breakfast and lunch I just write down 7 breakfast and 7 lunches and witch ever meal works for the day! Good luck! Your doing great just using what you have!
One week at a time is what my mom and I do! I think it’d great bc you always have fresh produce to snack on! But I have heard that once a month works well for bigger families. Like Jamerelle (I think that’s her name) she always does batch cooking and such but she has a lot of storage. Just do what works for you!
we typically shop every 10 days. but always shop the pantry first! we have some special diet needs, so it's not Jordan Paige's $100 per person per month, but we could do better than we already do. the kids get their own breakfast and lunch (homeschool family) and the oldest often spends his own money on take out (bad habit, he knows, we know, but it's his money, he's almost 18). We often get leftovers from when we eat sunday dinner with my husband's parents. I don't mind our costs at the moment because we are careful about not letting things go to waste and part of it is convenience food because of my lack of energy to cook (fibromyalgia). What I currently need to do is reviatlize some recipes and come with some newer favorites because I rotate through very few meals. Tacos, spaghetti, sometimes pork steak and potatoes of some kind, chili, very rarely stew, chicken and rice. My kids will not eat beans. And they don't gravitate towards hot dogs and peanut butter either. We eat lots of fruits and veggies though. Anyway, great start! Can't wait to follow along! Oh, and there's a total of 6 of us in our family.
Do you have any group buying/co-op type options near you? We do a produce buy once or twice a month that's called The Good Food Box and because it's a large group of people ordering the prices are lower than if we went to the store. One easy breakfast we do is steel-cut oats cooked in the crockpot overnight. Sometimes we put apple in or raisins or peaches and pears. But you set it the night before and it's warm and ready to eat when you get up. It's also super affordable for large families.
This is great! I'll share what works for me - I plan dinners for specific nights and usually make double so we have leftovers to use for lunches or stick in the freezer for a quick dinner another time. For the other meals I will plan to cook a hot meal maybe once a week and then just keep the stuff on hand for quick breakfast/lunch/snacks for the other days - then the kids can choose (collectively, I do not take individual orders) whether they want X or Y. We try to stick to $150 per week for our family of 6, on average of course some weeks we stock up at Costco and some weeks we're just getting dairy/produce. Also, smitten kitchen is a great resource for fuss free family friendly recipes.
ready made foods especialy snacks aimed at kiddies and toddlers are REALLY expensive compared to the ingredient cost , sometimes it is better to get say sharing size chip bags and portion out into bowls /snack cups , cookies too (I buy when they are on specials so the spend stretches out ) but best tip is to encourage them to eat fruit as snacks, as it gives them fibre, vitamins, minerals and fills and rehydrates them and as I found out from reading Quench it helps hydrate them better than plain water .
One way to streamline is to have a rough guide for each day of the week that doesn't change unless you are traveling or it's something special. It's harder for you as you have to provide lunches and suppers whereas most of us make sandwiches or our kids get school lunches 5 days a week. I would simplify either lunches or suppers to soup and sandwiches, or omelets and salad. Then the main meal has a set theme for each day E.g. Mondays pasta; Tuesdays chicken; Wednesdays risoto, Thursdays hot dogs and chips; Fridays pizza; Saturdays roast dinner and Sundays take out. Obviously choose your own basic food for each day and add salads and sides.
Loved this. Thanks for sharing. Would also love to see a frig/freezer/pantry cleanout/organize video. Thanks. (You look lovely in this video by the way.)
I really like watching Jamerrill Stewart for meal ideas. She has great ideas for the crockpot. Also the Minimal Mom for meal planning and budgeting. She is so sweet and wonderful! I intend to try some of her organization ideas.
cook batches of different sauces from base ingredients e.g. you buy mince in bulk cook it and then make half into bolgnese style sauce with canned tomatoes garlc and basil/tablespoon of pesto and the other half into chilli style stew with beans and bell peppers . I like buying frozen sweetcorn kernals and garden peas as stock items as well as frozen chopped spinach because you can add a handful or two to rice or sauces to add more vitamins, minerals and taste for very little cost . I invented 'HULK ' rice when my four were little (twin mom too) basically fry some chopped onions add a little garlic , grated ginger/pinch of ground ginger , some finely chopped tomatoes then sweetcorn kernals , washed rice and some frozen chopped spinach , season to taste . kids can have it with a little butter, natural yoghurt or on its own . Adding florets of broccoli or cauliflower to the pasta water when your boiling them saves time , you just make a cheese sauce on the side whilst its cooking, when pasta's done drain and put the mix into a deep oven dish pour over the sauce then top with grated cheddar breadcrumbs from old bread , cook until golden , serve the hungry horde and relax.
I have been meal planning for 16 years with my daughter and it has made it amazing for saving money. Plus, I make meals in advance and freeze them. Another thing is to only shop once a month, and get everything through an on the go type of service that takes it to the car, less chances of over spending on the budget.
My meatless recipes for February are: Bean and kale soup Cauliflower street tacos with a side of beans Vegan southwest pasta salad Pinto beans in the slow cooker and corn tortillas
I planned similarly before I had my son. I wanted to be more organized and have frozen meals on hand! I made a Google spreadsheet categorized by type of food (meat, veggie, misc) and I keep it to remind myself what's in the pantry and freezer. Things always get buried in there! It's so handy when I'm planning meals. I just add or delete items from the spreadsheet as needed! Also, since it's on Google I share it with my husband so he can edit it too. I can look at it on my computer or on my phone. Now I don't have 3 Costco sized bags of veggies floating around.
Great video! I try and do this too, even though I am only shopping for myself. I think, what do I already have in the fridge or freezer, and I've come up with some pretty creative (ie, weird) meals to accomplish that. I also have to tell myself, not every meal needs to be the most delicious, wonderful thing...I can have PB&J sandwiches and I'll be just fine. I remember also growing up, my mom would do things like a Baked Potato Bar which basically meant - make baked potatoes and then clear out the fridge and pantry with little bits of this, that or whatever and everyone creates their own "loaded" baked potato. It was a great way to use up little bits of things that are not enough for a meal, but you don't want to waste either, and there were 6 kids in my family so like yours, the grocery budget was key. Plus, I remember as kids we thought it was fun to be able to make our own thing and sort of make our own creation. Great video, thanks for the good info!
Yes! I do think we tend to feel like everything needs to be a culinary masterpiece and it just doesn’t! My mom made us a lot of basic and simple lunches and we loved them!
Your hair looks lovely like this! 😊 We do a similar routine for meal plannng...if I’m not on top of it, our spending can really get out of hand for our family of seven! With so many people in the house, a budget friendly meal vs a quick grab and go meal can be a HUGE difference in cost.
What I've been doing is cooking things ahead of time and freezing it. (Example we do taco tuesday. So I make a bunch of hamburger with taco Seasoning. Then I will bag them into bags per meal.) That way when we are hungry for certain meals we just pulled the ingredients heat and serve.
Currently in the process of tampering down our grocery budget this year as it has gotten crazy during the pandemic. Thanks for such great advice and making this mama not feel so alone in the crazy grocery struggle.
Why am I addicted to these types of videos when I'm 22 with a family of 0 😅
I watch all kinds of things that don’t apply to me but I I find fascinating 😂 I get it!
Chelsea King learn it now while it’s easy!
I watch too and I am single with no kids. LOL
At first I thought you said you were 22 with a family of 10, lmao. I had some questions. 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
I'm 28 with no children. I literally watch some family youtubers the moment they come out!!
A long time ago, I started keeping a notebook for meal planning. If I needed a recipe through the week, I'd jot it down in the notebook. I kept recipe notes, grocery list, cleaning recipes etc inside. Nothing organized, just random things that came up during the week.
When my son got married I passed an old notebook to my daughter-in-law. I thought she might find having meal plans handy plus it had many of my son's favorite recipes, etc. I was worried she would think an old house keeping notebook was an odd hand me down but she accepted it graciously.
When the next child got married, I was approached and asked if I had any more. It turns out my DIL loved that old hand me down and had not only used it consistently but had often told others what a great gift it was.
I've gotten fancier and neater over the years because I know it is now a much anticipated gift in our circle.
Not only does meal planning benefit your own family currently but it can become something to be treasured by others!
K2Z this is so cute!!! I love that!
I absolutely love this!! I do pretty much the same thing! I try so hard to keep it super organized. But now, I'm going to try and do what you said. I call mine, my foodie book lol. I have one of all my stuff while I'm writing my cookbooks. I love pretty notebooks. Thank you so very much for your idea! You started an amazing tradition!💗💞😊💝
Wow! What a great idea. My little ones are 2 and 7 months and I'm definately going to start this. Thanks for sharing!
I love this! In my country, its tradition to pass along a recipe book to the oldest daughter. But not everyone enjoys baking and cooking. But a personal take on budgeting, meal planning, and generally managing a family is so practical and valuable. I think I might start this new tradition for my family!
I love this story so much!
Sarah from Our Tribe of Many has some great systems in place for keeping the food consumption under control. My favorite is that she has a rotating schedule of breakfasts, lunches, and snacks. I starting implementing it with my 2 kids and it’s so nice that all of us know what the plan is for that day - no guessing or scrambling. I change a few snacks around depending on what they’re actually eating and the season. Good luck with everything.
Diana Kempson Yes I Agree, Sarah has a great system in place and explains it well in her vlogs.
Love love love that channel!
I’ve been following her for awhile and am finally going to try her method out. That’s awesome that it’s working for you with only 2 kids.
Love Sarah and her ten kiddos! I love her ideas!
Good job Angela!
Rosie’s hello wave in the back, so sweet ☺️
She loves to make an appearance in any video she can 😉
Right? She's so sweet!
Our tribe of many and Jordan Page got me on my grocery kick! We now have a set budget & have worked on becoming debt free with the money we save! We have been 6months of thoughtful, intentional shopping & will never go back!
A-men! Those two mamas helped me so so much! And Jordan's $100 per person per month worked in our currency and the amount we earn here in our country! We increased it to $120 person per month because of some dietary requirements but we are still very happy with how much we save. And for meal planning - we do it super easy - I just figure out 3-4 meals I can do for the week and when one is gone, I cook the next (we're just three people, we are slow to eat through stuff).
Ashley Donaldson I watch Jordan page too don’t have any kids just their for the money saving advice 😂😂
A couple things we do to help is: choose 1 breakfast idea for the week (ex: muffins. I make a big batch on the weekend, and we have with fruit all week. Frozen waffles and fruit, etc.) Then on Saturday I make a big breakfast. Most Sundays I have the kids by myself before church so we do super simple granola bars, fruit, milk. It helped us streamline our morning a little. Also we switched to a schedule for days of the week and types of meals. So, Monday is pasta, Tuesday tacos/Mexican, Wednesday slow cooker, etc. It helped me when I was in a rut and the week just looked like a big empty page and was overwhelming to fill.
Yeeeees please make this a series! Planning and hauls together would be great!
Can i say something you are the best woman on TH-cam seriously thank you for your kindness I’m watching you everytime and sometimes i re watch your old video You makin me feel happy every time I watch you 😭💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕
Prep your crock pot the night before and put it in your fridge. Then in the morning all you have to do is pop it in the slow cooker and turn it on in the morning.
We try to stick to the $100 per person per month idea but I like to buy organic and natural food which is just more expensive. But I think that is a good place to start and then adjust it for your specific circumstances.
Samantha Shourds if there’s room in the fridge 😬
WHAT such a good tip!! 😅😅😅
Okay, but can we get a hair tutorial? I am in love with this look!!
Yes! I’ll include it in an upcoming day in the life or something!
I agree, it’s beautiful!
What helped me cut my grocery budget in half was to realize that overconsumption & too many choices applies to food the same as it does to an overstuffed closet. We wear 10% of our clothing 80% of the time. Is that the quote? We don't nearly the amnt of meal & snack options as we think we do. Pick your family's top 8-12 supper recipes. Put them on rotation. Turn leftovers into lunches. Pick 1-3 sweet & 1-3 savory snack options. Make a big batch of pancakes or waffles + boiled or scrambled eggs for 3 days worth of breakfasts every week. Then there's only 4 breakfasts to think of. Oatmeal 2× a week. Only 2 left. Every few weeks switch it up. But, keep it simple! Your family can eat well without it being expensive.👍
i have no idea why i find meal prep videos so entertaining, but i love them. there's something almost soothing about watching people organize LOL
I love playing “spot the Rosie” in your videos!
me too! she is so precious!
I love all the Minimal Mom’s meal planning resources. They are easy to customize and she is all about saving money!!
I should make my husband watch this. He has no idea what goes into mea planning ecery week!! Taking inventory of what we have, looking at the calendar for the week, trying to plan a mix of healthy meals and easy meals. It’s so much work!
I struggle meal planning lunches. Granted I only have 1 child & my husband eats at work. I would love to see more of this. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Angela. Meal planning is key to helping my family not only stop wasting food but also saves us sooo much money. I love meal planning & sharing tips! For someone who doesn’t meal plan often you did great! I’m so glad I found your channel & subscribed.
You know what I also would love to see in this serie - a week of your breakfasts / lunches / dinners. Oh and I love grocery hauls, esp as I dont live in the US. I find it so interesting to see what you guys have on offer
I have a selection of healthy basics that I keep on hand for help-yourself breakfasts and snacks. I will occasionally make something for breakfast or snacks, but if I dont have time or dont feel like it, we still have several healthy options to choose from. And with this system, we can each have what we feel like that day. For lunches I use a monthly lunch rotation of easy meals, so that we can keep our homeschool day rolling without lunch prep throwing us off. If my kids dont want to eat the option for the day, they can have leftovers or a snacky lunch that they make themselves. For three of the suppers of each week, we have the same kind of thing every week, so I dont have to plan those. They are things like 1)Something to grill 2)nachos or frozen pizza 3)snacky supper with movie night. So all I have to plan for dinners is 4 a week and I use a monthly template with meal "guideline suggestions" to help me know where to start (like soup/salad or skillet meals or oven meals or crockpot meals, etc.).
I really like the app Out of Milk for planning my grocery list and keeping track of what's in my pantry! I also like to keep separate Pinterest boards within "Food" for meals I've tried before and are go-to's, and another for meals I want to try. It helps so much to quick meal plan!
I love watching grocery hauls/ meal prep videos for inspiration and seeing how other moms of big families buy and budget.... Our Tribe of Many is a great channel for monthly budgeting/ meal preps and their family is just awesome to watch! Sarah actually monthly shops and breaks down pricing from the stores she shops and most of it she has on pick up service! Definitely a good one to check out💜💜💜
This is.pretty much how I meal plan. I see what I have, decide what I want to make and plug in the holes. I put my list on one side of paper and my plans on the other. Then when I at the store if i feel like I'm forgetting something i have my meals on the other side and I can glance and see if I can think of what I'm forgetting. Also keeping a running list on the fridge of things we run out of helps those mid week stops at the store
Congratulations on 100,000 subscribers! I am one of them. Greetings to you and your wonderful family from Europe!
My tip is to build in 2 leftover days per week when you're meal planning . It's really helped us stop wasting food!
Homeschooling Mom of 4 here and I had come to the same realization with our grocery budget that you did in about Sept. of last year, and have been just doing weekly meal plans since. It has really made such a difference in our budget & my sanity around getting dinner ready in the middle of busy days. I always try to plan the weeks meals around what we already have on hand, and just by doing that we have cut our grocery budget down by 20% without even changing any other shopping habits! Jordan Page (she has a large family too!) on You Tube has given me lots of ideas and inspiration in this department. She recommends $100 per person/per month is at least a good baseline number of where to start for grocery budgets. We do spend a little more than that, but it was a helpful place to start when you’re trying to get things under control :) God speed in your efforts!
It will feel so good to get back to meal planning!
I have been loving Jordan Page's ideas on her TH-cam channel if you haven't checked her out.
Things that really help me plan:
1. Make a list of main dishes you regularly make, organized by meat, use this when planning.
2. Plan meals when you are hungry, everything sounds delicious! ☺️
3. Try themed nights (soup, Mexican, pizza, Crock-Pot, etc.)
4. Make double (or triple) when you are cooking and stick one in the freezer for another night. It takes minimal effort to make extra, bit you get double bang for your time!
We are only a family of 4, but I've been working towards meal planning and budgeting more. I have been planning dinners for a few months now which has helped cut back unnecessary groceries. I am also planning on meal prepping my husband's and my lunches for the week and then my children will be cooked for. Breakfast...that's a free for all! I love seeing your meal planning and some good meal ideas. I'm very big on trying new recipes lately.
I think you shopping the pantry and your fridge/freezer is such a great way to us what you have in hand! I love this style video, please do more of these videos because it does help me as well as a mama of 5 come up with ideas and also stick to a budget.
Rosie taking a sip of water and waving the background! Too cute!!
Q&A : How do you handle your mental health? How do you keep going when I know you must get overwhelmed and tired like all of us. 💕
I just revamped our budget/meal planning this month too! This is my goal: one month Costco haul at the beginning of the month with small weekly or every other week add ons for produce or whatever else we may need. I’m also going to pick out 12-14 meals at the beginning of the month that we will rotate twice during the month which should help grocery shopping be easier!
Danielle Chesnut we do this exact thing! I’m the crazy lady walking thru Costco with my calculator so I don’t go over my monthly Costco budget 😂
Danielle Chesnut I was just thinking of doing the same thing! I just dont know how to start and i know the first Sams Club trip will be pricey.
Mom of seven here. We have a set breakfast menu. It makes morning so much smoother and some of the older kids can pitch in and help if needed too.
Monday - frog in the hole (toast w/a fried egg in it)
Tuesday - muffins and smoothie (you can change the type of muffin and smoothie so there is always variation)
Wednesday - hot cocoa, biscuits and scrambled eggs (this is the kids favorite day)
Thursday - Oatmeal and hard boiled eggs
Friday - toast and tea (herbal teas are the kids favorite)
Saturday - pancakes and bacon (daddy is home for this bigger breakfast)
Sunday - bagels and cream cheese
I am a seasoned meal planner, why am I watching this, lol :-D I think you're doing great! All the right things in the right order. Make an inventory. Figure out what you need. Look at your schedule. Find recipes to use up what you have. Make meals your family actually eats. My only tips would be to remind you that the period you plan for is unrelated to shopping schedule (either way, you plan to use items you haven't bought yet). I believe most countries publish a "national standard" of what is considered "reasonable" expenses in various categories, you could look it up and see how you fare. Meal planning in Google Calendar works even without any additional apps. Do you need three hot meals per day, or could either lunch or breakfast, or both, be simplified? And finally, have you looked into reusable alternatives, for diapers, paper towels, etc?
Love this! I meal plan monthly. My favorite cheap, easy and meatless meal is mac and cheese, roasted green beans and candied carrots.
That sounds delish!
Anything with beans is delicious! And if they are the bulk of the meal, they are a great substitute for meat. Breakfast for dinner items make a great meatless meal ideas - muffins, pancakes, oatmeal.
I enjoyed your "preschool style" meal planning! TFS! ☺️
For your upcoming Q&A: How/where did you find a church for your family? I remember that on The Sister Show, you talked about how you were struggling to find a congregation where your family truly felt welcome. I'm glad you finally found one. 🤗
We do one week grocery meal plan. Same day every week is grocery shopping day, usually thursday so that we have tons of food in the fridge so that we're less likely to eat out over the weekend! And then to stay on top of our budget we write out each meal, then ingredients needed and then crucial last step (!) is to add an estimated price next to each item so that when you're at the grocery store you know what your budget is for every single item! It seems excessive but it works and it forces you not to go over board and over spend!
I’m so happy to see this! I’m a Mom of 2, but trying hard to get the grocery budget under control. I’ve been watching Our Tribe of Many’s channel and have gotten some great ideas as well. Thanks so much for the inspo!
Great Job Angie! We keep a budget bc we are a military family. I went through and further edited out normal purchases and established there were areas I could further remove. We love food and enjoy being liberal with purchases but it adds up so fast, especially when choosing organic and cleaner options. Wishing you a healing heart as you grieve you grandma! 💖
Angie, get the Cook once eat all week cook book. It's pretty good! I'm loving all the recipes!
Gabriela Lopez I just got that! Excited to save time, sanity, and money!
Meal planning is essential to keep a lower food budget. I think it's amazing to get 7 kids to eat the same thing at meals ! Enjoy your videos. Blessings to you and your family.
I love watching these types of videos to get inspiration for meals! It's just my husband and I but we always tend to eat the same things. I would love to see another video on how you will organize all your meal ideas!
I have been using the app AnyList for a few months now. It is a great way of recording your shopping list as you go along during the week and when you meal plan. As you go through the store you can knock the items off your List as you find them. It also organisés automatically your list into sections that generally reflect the store layout.
A good rule of thumb is $100 per person per month for a grocery budget. That doesn’t include toiletries and diapers - just food and drink.
Easton Lane agreed.
I love meal planning (especially when taking into account what's already in the house and the grocery store's weekly discounted items) - it's just SO satisfying!
I started meal planning 2 months before the yr ended its the best decision I have made. We are a family of 5 , only eat out sat. I go shopping Friday. I plan the menu according to the activities of the month. 1 day of the week I have the same thing, their favorite plate.Kids get a whole cooked breakfast sat only . During the week ,2 days are cereal the rest we alternate . For dinner if I have veggies to cut or meat to season I do it the night before when the kids are asleep. They eat breakfast at home, lunch at school dinner at home. After dinner you get hungry they get 1 type of veggie, granolia , fruit , yogurt, or a sandwich. Last important thing I changed we all have flask we only drink juice or a can soda at dinner the rest of the day is water except in the morning its milk , orange juice, or water . The hard part is sticking to your plan.
I started buying 1 for now, 2 for later, of certain things that last a long time and eventually I’ve built up a small stockpile and cut the cost of groceries weekly. And it’s only by adding $5-$10 every week, or every other week. And i typically only plan 4-5 meals, and eat leftovers the other days. It helps to cut the costs
Hooray for meal planning!
I have been doing it since I got married 8 years ago & am actually terrified of the idea of shopping without a plan/list! Wild! Lol
For me, having general structure to the week helps, e.g. soup on Sundays, meatfree Mondays, helps with ideas & variety, as well as nutrition. Always make one meal I can double for freezing (even if it is just freezing cooked mince that I can flavour differently next time - a head start ingredient of some kind), that way I slowly built up collection of useful frozen foods which I can rotate through regularly without taking up all my freezer space. Keeping an inventory of my freezer also helps keep tabs on what needs using, on top of the pantry & fridge.
Look forward to seeing how your method evolves with time & what works for you guys!
YES KEEP DOING THESE VIDEOS!! I’ve noticed that when I started doing weekly grocery videos, it actually helps me with trying to stay on budget because it’s like accountability.
Thank you for showing your process, it has been difficult for me.....never been a meal planner and just buys more food...to understand the families that quickly and seemingly easily have all their meal plans set up, sometimes for a whole month! That is an overwhelming task for me to even think about tackling. I think seeing how you must wrote down what you had and your inventory items....looks doable for a week at a time. Thank you!
Good start! Another saving grace is BATCH COOKING.....might be more challenging with ten and the quantity already being cooked, but it is basically always cooking leftovers, or when in the kitchen cook another favorite
Meal to be served later in week. I brown turkey meat in two pans and each pan has different seasoning: one spaghetti sauce one taco seasoning so there is both pasta night, taco night. I have huge containers of sliced peppers, carrots, celery for hummus. At least Costco pre roasted chicken are economical, and they can be turned into many meals. We make huge pots of chile and vegetarian baked casseroles. Hard with kids is the junk food at breakfast and snacks...but, one day ay a time!
I agree with Diana's comments re rotating meal plan - and do the same here in my family. I do know that things stay more under control when I designate at least one meal for leftovers - for us, it's Wednesday evening - with Sunday evening being a close second. For the other evenings - we have a couple of non-meat meals - one of which is Thursday evening - which somehow became our chili/soup/chowder meal. Friday we do a large meal - and a crockpot something on Saturday. This leaves only - 2-3 meals to go - which can be a fish something, a kids' choice - which is an easy peasy meal - hot dogs or some such, and a casserole something which may or may not involve pasta, rice, or some other grain. Lunches - we have a hot sandwich lunch, a hot soup and half a sandwich, a salad or salad sandwich, a cold sandwich - like a cheese sandwich meal, a leftover casserole - I freeze any leftovers after we portion up any leftovers and freeze those. If need be - those aare sandwiches/etc. that I can freeze. Breakfast - 2 cereal breakfast days - one hot, one cold, 2 egg something days, 2 homemade bread/waffle/pancake days, and 1 something special breakfast - like doughnuts/coffeecake. Snacks are usually fruit, but may be vegetable. Vegetables are added to lunches, dinner. Desserts are a once a week thing except for fruit which is w daily.
I always love to have a glimpse of Benjamin. He is such a cute baby. 👶
You DID hit 100K, yay!! CONGRATULATIONS! 🎉 I just commented the other day that I really wanted to see your channel hit 100K - I’m so super excited for you, and truly think you deserve every single subscriber! 😊
Stews and casseroles always stretch your dollars and are a good way to clean out the fridge. When my kids were small I always had a pot of soup on the go so when they wanted a snack or came in from school they could just warm up a bowl. Also surf the weekly grocery flyers to see what the deals are and base your meal plan accordingly.
To take the guess work out of monthly meal planning, we have a themed supper every week: freezer meal day, Mexican day, Italian day, breakfast supper day, new recipe day, pizza day, soup day. It also helps with our budget because i know what i can buy in bulk of because every week we'll have some kind of pasta so i stock up on it when it's on an awesome sale. Or same with mozzarella cheese because we have pizza every week.
I also hate cooking on Sundays and so meal planning helps me avoid that. I always keep a stash of freezer meals in the freezer for this day or if days go wonky. That keeps the temptation of eating out away thus saving money
Amanda from The Fundamental Home and Christine from Frugal Fit Mom are great when it comes to keeping at a certain budget. But for a family closer to your size, Sarah from Our Tribe Of Many and Jordan Page are both great. Amy Maryon and Jamerrill Stewart are also two big families on here who do a lot of freezer/make ahead meals for their families.
I use Recipe Keeper to meal plan and I absolutely love it. I'm going on 4 years of using it to keep me organized and it is amazing!! I can transfer any recipe from a website. It can create a grocery list that I can edit. I can plan all my meals through the week! Coming from someone who is very disorganized and a chronic procrastinator this app is amazing!
I’m trying to get back into meal planning to keep grocery spending under control! Hoping to get back into monthly planning and shopping then just buying fresh items as needed. Please keep sharing your journey with this - I’m already stealing meal ideas! ☺️
We rotate meals out which is so helpful, then I try out one new recipe a week which means minimal new ingredients being purchased. (If we love the new meal I’ll add it to the rotation) I buy the same staples at Costco, Azure and Amish stores and that covers the basics. We also raise chickens for eggs and buy milk/cheese from farmers.
Breakfast: oatmeal, boiled eggs, egg muffins, sourdough English muffins, chicken sausage, turkey bacon, yogurt, fig bars, fruit, granola, muffins (I will make large batches and freeze) then we have sourdough pancakes every Sunday morning.
Lunch: leftovers from dinner, if we had none it’s a sandwich of tuna or chicken salad or snack plate. (Occasionally we will make mini pizzas on our English muffins or tortillas)
Dinner: I rotate about 20 meals including- beef stroganoff, tacos, pasta bake or lasagna, butter chicken, garlic Parmesan chicken and potatoes, meatloaf and sides, Thai chicken stew, honey garlic chicken, hamburgers with sweet potato fries, chili (regular or white) soup (chicken noodle, potato, chicken curry, lentil, veggie, tomato just to name a few) homemade pizzas, taco casserole, pot roast, beef stew, stir fry, beef and broccoli, shepherds pie.
We do $600 a month for 6 of us and all organic etc. Saving money by buying 1/2 cow for beef, bulk shopping, cooking from scratch, dry goods from Amish and veggies from local CSA or misfits market in the winter time.
Everyone is suggesting budgeting tips and I've found the Growing Slower blog "How Much Should You Spend on Groceries?" post to be the most helpful and realistic for pricing.
Really enjoyed this!
I started budgeting and meal planning about a year ago and have found that planning the whole week is great but I only buy 3/4 days of fresh ingredients as we often have leftovers that go to waste if not eaten later in the week. I then move one of the planned meals to the following week and add in a leftovers night
I literally couldn't survive (nor could my children, HA!) without meal planning! I only have 3 kids but my youngest has a crazy list of food allergies which makes meal prep so much harder! Nothing pre-packaged is safe so I have to make EVERYTHING from scratch. I find something that really helps is to have theme nights.....for example, we pretty much ALWAYS have Taco Tuesdays. It's a favorite of the family and easy to make allergen free. Also, nights when I know we have extra-curriculars until rather late (so I'll have limited cooking time), I either do a crockpot meal or pre-make a casserole (although there aren't too many safe casseroles when you can't have dairy) so all I have to do is pop it in the oven (or I can leave instructions for a kid or hubby to do it if I'm gone with another kid). I also usually plan a leftovers night to help get rid of the uneaten stuff before I hit the grocery again.
Great video! My husband and I are working on reworking our budget/ grocery shopping to find what works best for us. It’s definitely a process.
I have found that once you plan out a week at a time it is fairly easy to stretch it to a month. Repeating favorites such as biscuits and eggs every Monday helps follow a budget because it is easy to count how much you need because you count how days you will eat it. Then you are not just buying for "just in case" or back up food. Also buying a month at a time gives you plenty of food in case you have company ❤
Also make double recipes whenever possible to freeze for later in the month
I did a similar thing this week, using up freezer stuff so I can defrost our extra freezer. Also went through the pantry and tossed old stuff and looked at what was needing to be used soon. Made my whole meal plan around this! Such a good thing to do seasonally.
Instant Pots are wonderful for meal prepping. I make up a few larger meals like chili, beef stew, chicken with rice and veggies then we have them for the week. So everyone has a choice and no one is unhappy. Make a few fresh meals here and there like grilled dinners or pizza night, soup and sandwiches to keep everyone from getting bored.
Good luck!!!
I meal plan on Google calendar. I made "meals" it's own calendar label. It's nice when you have to move meals to other days or add in a leftovers day, etc.
Not sure if this would help you with your meal organization, but growing up we had the same breakfast for each day of the week. I know one day was cereal, another bacon, eggs, toast. I'm sure there was pancakes and french toast in there somewhere. We are all in our 50's now and just had this conversation during Thanksgiving this past year. We all agreed that our favorite was Fridays when we had cinnamon toast (cut on the diagonal) that we would dip in hot chocolate! Was a no brainer for my mom as she knew what we were having (all staples) each day, as did us kids.
Love this! My mom would make us cinnamon toast too! It was definitely a favorite 💗
Watch Jamerell Stewart. She has a large family meal prep channel. She makes a lot of freezer meals and is starting a “group” you can sign up to do with her by Jan 20th.
Thanks for sharing!! Rosie in the background was the cutest!! 😍 And I appreciate your rough draft because I need them... and I’m sure I’m not the only one!! 🙌🏽🙋🏻♀️ #enjoyed this video!!
We have been meal planning for the last two years and our budget has improved significantly. We don’t break it down by each day we just write out 5 different breakfast, lunch & dinner options and then we just pick off the list. I found that if we had a meal written down for that day everyone wanted something else on the list. It gives us some flexibility in what sounds good for that day but we know we have the ingredients.
I use a white board to write down meals so everyone knows what we are gonna have each night. For breakfast and lunch I don’t put a specific breakfast and lunch I just write down 7 breakfast and 7 lunches and witch ever meal works for the day! Good luck! Your doing great just using what you have!
One week at a time is what my mom and I do! I think it’d great bc you always have fresh produce to snack on! But I have heard that once a month works well for bigger families. Like Jamerelle (I think that’s her name) she always does batch cooking and such but she has a lot of storage. Just do what works for you!
we typically shop every 10 days. but always shop the pantry first! we have some special diet needs, so it's not Jordan Paige's $100 per person per month, but we could do better than we already do. the kids get their own breakfast and lunch (homeschool family) and the oldest often spends his own money on take out (bad habit, he knows, we know, but it's his money, he's almost 18). We often get leftovers from when we eat sunday dinner with my husband's parents. I don't mind our costs at the moment because we are careful about not letting things go to waste and part of it is convenience food because of my lack of energy to cook (fibromyalgia). What I currently need to do is reviatlize some recipes and come with some newer favorites because I rotate through very few meals. Tacos, spaghetti, sometimes pork steak and potatoes of some kind, chili, very rarely stew, chicken and rice. My kids will not eat beans. And they don't gravitate towards hot dogs and peanut butter either. We eat lots of fruits and veggies though. Anyway, great start! Can't wait to follow along! Oh, and there's a total of 6 of us in our family.
When rosey came by and waved- made me smile. What a sweetheart :)
I love these kinds of videos and I love you regardless of what you film so this is just a dream combo 😍
Do you have any group buying/co-op type options near you? We do a produce buy once or twice a month that's called The Good Food Box and because it's a large group of people ordering the prices are lower than if we went to the store. One easy breakfast we do is steel-cut oats cooked in the crockpot overnight. Sometimes we put apple in or raisins or peaches and pears. But you set it the night before and it's warm and ready to eat when you get up. It's also super affordable for large families.
Great video! Love seeing how you budget and meal plan for your family!
This is great! I'll share what works for me - I plan dinners for specific nights and usually make double so we have leftovers to use for lunches or stick in the freezer for a quick dinner another time. For the other meals I will plan to cook a hot meal maybe once a week and then just keep the stuff on hand for quick breakfast/lunch/snacks for the other days - then the kids can choose (collectively, I do not take individual orders) whether they want X or Y. We try to stick to $150 per week for our family of 6, on average of course some weeks we stock up at Costco and some weeks we're just getting dairy/produce. Also, smitten kitchen is a great resource for fuss free family friendly recipes.
ready made foods especialy snacks aimed at kiddies and toddlers are REALLY expensive compared to the ingredient cost , sometimes it is better to get say sharing size chip bags and portion out into bowls /snack cups , cookies too (I buy when they are on specials so the spend stretches out ) but best tip is to encourage them to eat fruit as snacks, as it gives them fibre, vitamins, minerals and fills and rehydrates them and as I found out from reading Quench it helps hydrate them better than plain water .
I'm the oldest of 10 and I am in charge of meals and the kitchen. And I've been wanting to meal plan for a while and this really helped me!! 💕
One way to streamline is to have a rough guide for each day of the week that doesn't change unless you are traveling or it's something special. It's harder for you as you have to provide lunches and suppers whereas most of us make sandwiches or our kids get school lunches 5 days a week. I would simplify either lunches or suppers to soup and sandwiches, or omelets and salad. Then the main meal has a set theme for each day E.g. Mondays pasta; Tuesdays chicken; Wednesdays risoto, Thursdays hot dogs and chips; Fridays pizza; Saturdays roast dinner and Sundays take out. Obviously choose your own basic food for each day and add salads and sides.
Paprika app is amazing for sharing meal plan 😊 and sharing grocery list, my husband and I have been using it for several years and love it
Loved this. Thanks for sharing. Would also love to see a frig/freezer/pantry cleanout/organize video. Thanks. (You look lovely in this video by the way.)
I really like watching Jamerrill Stewart for meal ideas. She has great ideas for the crockpot. Also the Minimal Mom for meal planning and budgeting. She is so sweet and wonderful! I intend to try some of her organization ideas.
cook batches of different sauces from base ingredients e.g. you buy mince in bulk cook it and then make half into bolgnese style sauce with canned tomatoes garlc and basil/tablespoon of pesto and the other half into chilli style stew with beans and bell peppers . I like buying frozen sweetcorn kernals and garden peas as stock items as well as frozen chopped spinach because you can add a handful or two to rice or sauces to add more vitamins, minerals and taste for very little cost . I invented 'HULK ' rice when my four were little (twin mom too) basically fry some chopped onions add a little garlic , grated ginger/pinch of ground ginger , some finely chopped tomatoes then sweetcorn kernals , washed rice and some frozen chopped spinach , season to taste . kids can have it with a little butter, natural yoghurt or on its own . Adding florets of broccoli or cauliflower to the pasta water when your boiling them saves time , you just make a cheese sauce on the side whilst its cooking, when pasta's done drain and put the mix into a deep oven dish pour over the sauce then top with grated cheddar breadcrumbs from old bread , cook until golden , serve the hungry horde and relax.
The Meal Plan from The Minimal Mom sounds so simple and easy to stick to!
Your videos lately have been so interesting😍
I have been meal planning for 16 years with my daughter and it has made it amazing for saving money. Plus, I make meals in advance and freeze them. Another thing is to only shop once a month, and get everything through an on the go type of service that takes it to the car, less chances of over spending on the budget.
We use the Cozi app...it allows my husband and I to have the same calendar, grocery list & menu
We use plan to eat- but I do like to have the menu out so my kids can see what’s coming up and not ask me 1000x a day ;)
My meatless recipes for February are:
Bean and kale soup
Cauliflower street tacos with a side of beans
Vegan southwest pasta salad
Pinto beans in the slow cooker and corn tortillas
Paige Young Roasted butternut squash and garbanzo beans tacos are delicious too! Add some pepper and onions 😍
I planned similarly before I had my son. I wanted to be more organized and have frozen meals on hand! I made a Google spreadsheet categorized by type of food (meat, veggie, misc) and I keep it to remind myself what's in the pantry and freezer. Things always get buried in there! It's so handy when I'm planning meals. I just add or delete items from the spreadsheet as needed! Also, since it's on Google I share it with my husband so he can edit it too. I can look at it on my computer or on my phone. Now I don't have 3 Costco sized bags of veggies floating around.
Great video! I try and do this too, even though I am only shopping for myself. I think, what do I already have in the fridge or freezer, and I've come up with some pretty creative (ie, weird) meals to accomplish that. I also have to tell myself, not every meal needs to be the most delicious, wonderful thing...I can have PB&J sandwiches and I'll be just fine. I remember also growing up, my mom would do things like a Baked Potato Bar which basically meant - make baked potatoes and then clear out the fridge and pantry with little bits of this, that or whatever and everyone creates their own "loaded" baked potato. It was a great way to use up little bits of things that are not enough for a meal, but you don't want to waste either, and there were 6 kids in my family so like yours, the grocery budget was key. Plus, I remember as kids we thought it was fun to be able to make our own thing and sort of make our own creation. Great video, thanks for the good info!
Yes! I do think we tend to feel like everything needs to be a culinary masterpiece and it just doesn’t! My mom made us a lot of basic and simple lunches and we loved them!
Your hair looks lovely like this! 😊 We do a similar routine for meal plannng...if I’m not on top of it, our spending can really get out of hand for our family of seven! With so many people in the house, a budget friendly meal vs a quick grab and go meal can be a HUGE difference in cost.
What I've been doing is cooking things ahead of time and freezing it. (Example we do taco tuesday. So I make a bunch of hamburger with taco Seasoning. Then I will bag them into bags per meal.) That way when we are hungry for certain meals we just pulled the ingredients heat and serve.
Currently in the process of tampering down our grocery budget this year as it has gotten crazy during the pandemic. Thanks for such great advice and making this mama not feel so alone in the crazy grocery struggle.
I love love love this video!!!! I would love to have more videos like this and also maybe with your recipes and you making them.😊
Im a single 23 yrs old GROW(ing) woman and this video is helpful even for me!
Yes, pls do more of these. Great video. ❤❤❤❤😊😊
Fried rice or breakfast for dinner is great for easy, no-brainer meatless dinners! Always a win with my two year old too.