Meal Planner

[nowweare6]

Hello All: I'm very new here but wanted to share a website that I love. Its thescramble.com It is a weekly menu plan including grocery list. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I think it is one of the reasons I think I might be able to homeschool next year. I hate processed convenience food and need to stick with a budget. I have been using this service for about 7 months and it has changed the way we eat. I really enjoy it because it is whole healthy food that is easy to prepare. It includes side dishes and you can set it for allergy/diet restrictions. I have even lost weight since starting it! I love knowing each morning what I'm making at dinner. I'm never tempted to call the hubby to pick up pizza! Anyway, I just thought I would share it with you because I know a lot of us run around feeling like a chicken with our head cut off! Check it out!

[gracelikerain]

thank you so much for posting this!!! I need all the help i can get in the kitchen!

[Mom2Monkeys]

That's a great one!

Here's a couple more helper sites. I use this first one and it's an amazing help!

www.motivatedmoms.com - daily planner that lists household tasks to be completed and a Bible reading to read the Bible in a year. AWESOME!
www.chorebuster.net - helps equally assign chores to all family members-- you enter the chore, its difficulty level or gross factor, and it hands out a fair share to everyone.
www.chorewars.com - great for those with older kids! It's a computer game -- the way to win is to get your chores done!

[wisdom4us]

That's a great one!

Here's a couple more helper sites. I use this first one and it's an amazing help!

http://www.motivatedmoms.com - daily planner that lists household tasks to be completed and a Bible reading to read the Bible in a year. AWESOME!
http://www.chorebuster.net - helps equally assign chores to all family members-- you enter the chore, its difficulty level or gross factor, and it hands out a fair share to everyone.
http://www.chorewars.com - great for those with older kids! It's a computer game -- the way to win is to get your chores done!

Cool! Can't wait to check it out - thank you!

[nowweare6]

Yeah: I wish I was like some of my fiends who keep their house clean, home school, and develop their own meal plans....but alas...! I used to say that at least I was a fun mom but now as I'm getting older that may be fading as well ! There are a lot of great resources on the internet. I think it comes down to what kind of meals fit your families needs and what type of organization do you want. Hmmmm sounds like the two weeks I spent on the net trying to pick out our curriculum!

[JoyousBlessings]

Tamara,

Thanks for sharing those sites! I am especially excited about looking at the first and second one. Anything that can help me get more organized is always welcome. Thank you and have a wonderful day!!

Oh, and thanks to the original poster for the meal planning site. That looks great too!

Catrina

[dale1088]

thescramble looks pretty neat. I may give a short subscription a try. My problem is picky eaters. I've checked out frugal shopping blogs before and it seems the food they advocate is inexpensive, yes, but my kids won't eat it. And I'm somewhat of a chef myself (at least in my own mind) so I don't like boring/bland/cheap food either. We were at a Crown Financial class last night and the leaders of the class said they only spend about $250 A MONTH on groceries. For a family of four! I have no idea how they do this. I see articles all the time about saving money at the grocery store, but I have never met anyone who actually does it! I'm going to have to pick her brain, but I have a feeling that I wouldn't like many of the things she says - like buying inexpensive cuts of meat on sale and milk on sale. I buy both of those organic. She also mentioned that she doesn't plan meals, she goes first to the store and gets what's on sale, then figures out meals with what she has. That'd be a big shift for me.

[nowweare6]

Amy: You and I seem very similar. I like to cook, my kids aren't picky anymore b/c I dangle dessert in front of them and they don't get it unless they have eaten the stuff they like and tried the stuff they don't! We feed 6 3/meals per day. I wish I could spend as much as the person from you study but we enjoy fresh produce, fruits and more whole foods. I refuse to trade health for a lower grocery budget. I have worked to buy what makes sense at SAMS and job a Cubs b/c it is one of the cheaper stores in our area. I buy as much of my produce from Sams/Costco as I can. They have the large portions that I need like boxed spinach and greens much cheaper than the store. I think on average I spend 150/week. My boys are growing and I go through a ton of food just keeping them full! When I said that I was saving due to the meal plan, I think it is for primarily 3 reasons: because I have a list I stick to it and spend less, her menus are whole and simple with not much ingredients(many come from the staple section) I usually just add a salad and maybe crusty bread to a meal, and because I have a plan I'm not tempted to impulsively eat out. Good luck working on that budget!

[water2wine]

Along these same lines I do something that has really been a life saver for us and that is bulk cooking. I can take two days and be done cooking for 3-4 months. So every day I just take it out of the freezer or the night before put it in the refrigerator to thaw. The nice thing is no preservatives and you can make things that really taste very good. Just another idea for those who do not want to cook every night. Here is a website that has a very good program with recipes and a chat group as well as a program that will help you scale up any recipe to bulk cook. http://www.30daygourmet.com/ Other thing I do is make mixes ahead in bulk, like brownie mixes and corn bread mix. Things that you might buy on the shelf of the store but no preservatives and huge money saver. A good book for that is Make-A-Mix. These two things have really helped me be much more organized as well as save a ton of money on cooking. It works out to be a significant money saver because you can buy in bulk and cook it all up to freeze. It's also an incredible blessing to not have to cook for three months and I always do three months at a time for that reason. Just another idea that might help as well.