Wishing you all a glorious weekend!
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I hope this gives you some ideas about why menu planning is an important first step to saving money one your grocery bill. And I am sure there are many more reasons, but this should at least get you thinking about giving it a try.
So now that I have convinced you to give menu planning a try (wink) let's talk about how to get started. First you need to decide what type of plan will work for you family. You can plan just dinners or you can plan three meals a day and snack. Of course there is everything in between as well. You can plan a week or a month at a time. If you are new to menu planning I would strongly suggest you start with just a weeks worth of dinners. This is a smaller tasks and one that I just know you can succeed at. Once you get the dinner menu planning down, adding in other meals will be a snap.
In order to make planning you dinners easier you need to think about a couple of things. First what does the family calendar look like? This is important because you don't want to plan to cook a roast if you are flying in the door from Johnny's violin lesson to scarf dinner and fly out the door to Susie basketball game. You are setting your self up to fail and we truly don't want that. So with calendar in hand plan quick or crock pot meals on nights that are busy and save the roast for a night you will all be able to enjoy it. Next you will do well to have a list of your family's favorite dishes. Your tried and true recipes are the ones you want to put on your meal plan. Beginning meal planners should NOT fill their plan with all the mouth watering recipes they have been clipping and dying to try. Sticking to what you family knows and likes will make success well within reach. Once you get the hang of meal planning you can add in those new recipes, but I strongly suggest adding just one a week. Nobody wants to eat a week's worth of somewhat strange or disappointing meals. Familar meals = comfort food. that's a good thing to remember.
Now in order to save the most money, you will want to add meals to your menu plan that you already have in the house. This is what I term SHOPPING FROM YOUR PANTRY. So if you have a chicken in the freezer put roast chicken on your menu. Remember to then add a second meal that uses up the leftover chicken - think soup, casseroles, pot pie. Keep adding meals using up the food you have in the house. If you still have days without meals, grab your store's flyer and see what's on sale and fill in the remaining meals. Hopefully you will be able to plan 7 dinners with what you have in the house and what's one sale. If not, no fear. You will still have saved money and time. Work your plan and enjoy the savings and peace that a menu plan can bring.
As most of you know I post my menu plan here. It is also on my fridge. I love that everyone knows where it is so no more having to anwser "what's for dinner?' and if I get called away Sarah can easily and successfully take over dinner.
As a little gift for all of you, I thought I would share my menu planner. It has a place to plan breakfast, lunch and diner to the week, as well as a column for your shopping list and baking list. Enjoy!
We will talk more about building your pantry and grocery shopping in future posts.
And so for my contribution this week: another pair of socks! I didn't get to try two at a time but at least one sock is done and the other has a toe, well sort of. This is a simple pattern I contrived myself. My first attempt to really write a pattern and it, or at the the first one, turned out just the way I wanted. We'll see on the second if what I wrote down, is really what I did.
Thanks to the library and some good friends I have a stack of books to read. America's cheapest Family was lent to me after I taught a class on how I feed my family of 5 on $80.00 a week. I'm always looking for ways to pair down the spending and increase the living! Can't wait to delve into this one.
Another friend lent me, or should I say I absconded with, The Backyard Homestead. Oh dreaming of my little slice of heaven on earth, a little farm with oh so much going on. Well, I am hoping to add a little bit more reality to that dream, pigs I hope. A few fruit trees would be nice too.
Easy to Love Difficult to Discipline was recommend by another Yarn Alonger, is that what we call ourselves? We've been having some rough spots around here as of late and thought I'd at least thumb through this book and see if it offers any insight.
And of the little one, The Princess in the Forest. We are big fans of Sibylle von Olfers! Love, just love her books.
So looking at the list above, if you don't hear from me for a while you can bet I'm curled up in front of the wood stove with my knitting, pile of books and a cup of tea. Ok so even if it only happens in five minute bursts it sounded lovely. And a girl can dream.
Don't forget to join in the fun and share what your knitting and reading. We'd all love to know.
Wishing you all a glorious weekend!
These were such a quick and fun project. And there is something so special about having your afternoon tea and biscuit on a special little mat. We have also taken them to the ski mountain to have our lunch on. trying to keep some of those nasty cold germs away.
And while we're talking about lunches at the ski mountain, here are the little snack baggies I sewed up. They are great for packing everything to a sandwich to cookies. You can find an amazingly easy tutorial for these little baggies here.
Hopefully, next week I'll be back with some progress on the quilt. I have a quiet day coming up ~ I think.
This week on the needles is the same pair of socks. At least this is the second sock and it really is almost done! These socks have been really fun to knit. They are the first pair of toe up socks I've knit and the first time I use the magic loop technique. The next pair I am really going to try to knit two at a time. Need to do a little research first.
As for books, I just finished Made From Scratch. It was a very fast and enjoyable read. I was hoping to learn a little more, but this book really is for the beginner. Not a problem, the writer style is down home comfy. I thoroughly enjoyed her tales of success and disaster on her way to learning how to homestead. the reference section in the back looks quite good as well.
We are starting The Willoughbys as a read aloud. And the Tomten books are for Bekah!
Don't forget to hop on over to Small Things and join in this week's Yarn Along. Or at least be inspired to knit and read ~ it's so much fun!
Wishing you all a glorious weekend!
My project for this week and a few more I'm sure is my Colorblock Quilt. The top is done except for trimming the two sides. Then to sandwich the top, batting, and backing and baste. I'll admit this has me a little nervous. This is my first quilt other than the little doll quilt I made Rebekah for Christmas. And I know I have been putting off working on it, because I'm scared I am going to mess it up. So wish me luck. Hopefully, by next week I will have gotten beyond this step and will be machine quilting it or even putting on the binding.
You are going to melt all the ingredients except the vitamin e together. I like to use a glass measuring cup and place it in a simmering pot of water. You could also put the measuring cup in the microwave. If using the microwave set it for short periods of time 15-20 seconds and check it often. When everything is melted add the vitamin e.
Carefully pour into your tubes or pots. Wait for the lip balm to cool and solidify. Your lip balm is ready! Easy peasy.
Wishing you all a glorious weekend!
Inspired by so many of you these last few weeks crocheting little hearts, I thought it was time to attempt crocheting myself. Thanks to a few little pointers from a friend and this wonderful tutorial, I think I crocheted a few not so bad looking hearts! I strung them a long a crochet chain and they are gracing my large kitchen window. I am pleased but I wont tell anyone I crochet yet. I'm making a few more for little Valentine's Day surprises. Hopefully practice will make them better.
On the knitting needles are the socks from last week. I had to frog and start again. I should have known better than to knit such a pattern while chatting at the ski mountain. I need to remember to bring a project that doesn't involve so much counting.
I did manage to finish Rebekah's little purse from last week. It came out wonderfully and she loves it. An added bonus. I think I will be making a few more of them changing the size and style a bit. I would love to make on with a zipper closure to keep my colored pencils in.
Also off the needles are Hannah's toastys. Then knit up so quickly and the Cascade Superwash 220 was wonderful to knit with.
Beside crocheting for the first time, I also knit me first icord! How cool and simple! As a relatively new knitter I try to learn a new technique with each pattern. Icords scared me. I had visions of knitting tiny tubes on four double pointed needles. Well boy was I wrong and I'm glad I found this little video.
As for reading I'm still enjoying Casting Off. I really haven't had much time for reading. Rebekah has been asking to read the Snow Children over and over. And I know we will be reading it a lot today. We are having a doozy of a snow storm - predictions of up to 20 inches! So hopefully there will be lots of reading and knitting and of course shoveling out and snowball fights!
