I’m at the point where I’m ready to get back into the swing of things and really embrace my “new normal” with KB here. The pain isn’t gone, but I’m tired of trying to wait until I feel healthy to get back to life. With that in mind, I wanted to put together the August Meal Plan. I’ve had a lot of people ask questions about my meal planning, and how we do it for $400 a month for everything (that includes diapers and dog food – usually).
First – you’ll notice that August 1st is at the bottom of the calendar. This enables me to still give each day it’s own block, even when the meals “bleed” into six weeks.
Second – how to choose what I have each day: I ALWAYS make my meal plan with my EC Planner right beside me. Days I know that we will be running around, so a crockpot meal is best, are the first meals I plan. Then I fill in with family favorites, or special holidays (like the Birthday Dinner). Since the 1st (my shopping day) is a Saturday, I picked an easy meal that is well liked by the family. That way I’m not stressing about what to fix, after I have spent 3-4 hours shopping and putting away food!
Third – the “special” meals: the 4th is a Birthday Dinner for a dear friend. She requested a specific meal. Also, you’ll see that each caterpillar has a “day”. On that day, they get $20 and have to decide how to feed our family. They have to plan ahead and present me with a shopping list, and they will do the cooking by themselves (except GO – she can request assistance, but she’ll start working on most of the skills). Once they can consistently feed our family for $20, I’ll knock it down to $15.
Fourth – how do I stop the caterpillars from eating all the food meant for meals? Simple – when we unpack the grocery bags – Otto and I use a sharpie marker to label EVERY item with the date it is suppose to be in a meal. For example: the sloppy joe mix will have the number 26 on the top of the can and the hot dog buns will have the number 7 on the bag. The kids know that if the day has already passed, and the food item is still there, it’s safe to eat it. So, on the 10th, if CW wanted a sandwich on a hotdog bun, he would know it was past the 8th and safe to eat. This has virtually eliminated my ingredients being eaten ahead of time.
All told, it takes me about 1 hour to prepare my calendar (the screenshot above) and to make my detailed shopping list. Then it takes 3-4 hours to grocery shop and precook the meat or put together the “casserole” type meals. So approximately 5 hours at the beginning of the month, then less than 15 minutes each night to fix the meals.
Any specific questions I can answer?
~Mummy Butterfly )i(
The C4 Tree 