Meal Planning

We've been doing our meal planning for about 2 months now and it's going so well. Since we actually stuck to it, I figured I'd give you an update!

When I last wrote about meal planning, I mentioned I was using the program Plan To Eat. But I stopped using this program after my 30 day trial. The only reason I quit is because I didn't want to pay for a service. I found a free app on my Kindle called "Pepper Plate". I love it. I can update it on my laptop and it automatically syncs to my Kindle. Quick and easy!

One of my biggest worries with meal planning was that we wouldn't be able to afford to try new recipes since we have a pretty strict budget of $75/week. I have been pleasantly surprised because we have been able to try at least one new recipe each week. Sometimes it's more. Sometimes we can only afford to get half of the ingredients and then have to get the rest the next week. We've made trying new recipes a priority and honestly, it's become a fun bonding time for us to sit down together and pick out a recipe to try.

Meal planning has done wonders for our bank account, too. We're excited about cooking at home so we rarely dine out. We really only go out to eat once a week (or more if we're invited out by friends!)

We started out kind of rigid and stuck to the menu to the letter. That got difficult because you just never know how a night is going to go with a toddler. If he doesn't have the patience to wait an hour for dinner to cook, I switch it up and make something quicker, saving the longer recipes for the weekend. Then there are also weeks where the entire house gets the stomach flu and we don't eat a thing in the refrigerator. Flexibility is key!

All in all, meal planning will definitely be something we're going to stick with. Now that cleaning schedule I also wrote about in the past? That hasn't fared so well ;)