Planning a Weekly Dinner Menu for Your Family

Mean Planning Template

Why plan ahead?   

• It Saves Time - at the grocery store because you have a shopping list and at home because you know exactly what you are cooking every night.
• It Saves Money - You buy what you need and what's on sale.
• It Saves Waste - You use everything up that you have in the fridge and freezer.
• It Reduces Stress - Saving time, money and waste in itself reduces stress.

What you'll need

• Your calendar or schedule
• Access to your fridge, freezer and pantry
• Grocery store weekly flyer, online or paper copy.
• Recipe cards or cookbooks.
• Note pad & pen
• Attitude - Put on your Domestic Diva crown!

Here's How

Using the template that I have designed, fill in the top line of boxes Monday - Sunday with your families plans for the week around dinner time.  Will you be eating out, working late, coming from an after school activity? Is it someone's special day?  This will establish what kind of meal you need to prepare, from none at all, a crock pot meal you can start in the morning, a freezer to oven meal or a special treat for someone.  Ask the family for requests, then try to work them in, if not this week, then next. If someone has a birthday, make their favorite

Next, check in your freezer to see what main ingredient you have in terms of meat, fish and vegetables.  Same goes for the fridge, what needs using up? Write this down in the boxes provided.

Decide on meals you can make with what you already have and fill in the appropriate daily meal plan box by choosing which day it makes sense to make that meal.  

Weekly Flyer

How many more meal ideas do you need? Check your local grocery stores weekly savings flyer (available online and in paper print - offers usually run from Wednesday thru the following Tuesday).  Look for savings in the fresh meat, fish and produce sections first.  Try to vary the type of protein each day by selecting a meat or fish not already featured on your weeks menu.  

Family Treasures!

Still need meal ideas? Go through your recipe cards or cookbooks for inspiration or to be reminded of a dish you haven't made in a while.  Once you have decided on a meal for each day, check your pantry and fridge for any other ingredients you will need to make them.  Now you plan is complete, write your grocery shopping list.  Add additional items you need (see grocery list below)

Reminder to get foods out of the freezer!

Share with your family What's for Dinner by posting the weekly menu on a dry erase board in the kitchen.  

Tips for a speedy supermarket trip

• Never leave home without : Your list, Re usable bags, Your Loyalty card
• Write your shopping list in the order groceries are displayed in your store, or like with like.
• Shop the edges of the supermarket first - Deli, Meat, Fish, Dairy, Fresh Fruit and Vegetables. Buy the essentials first before moving into the aisles, so you won't be so tempted to buy unnecessary products.
• Stock up on sale and BOGO (buy one, get one free) deals, for items you use regularly, if you have room in your budget.  
• Download your grocery store app and link it to your loyalty card to get e-coupons for further savings in store.  
• Let your children know before going into the store, that they can earn a treat at the end of the trip, if they have behaved and have been helpful.  
• Consider letting them choose the cereal or cookies for the week. (Albeit from a list of products you approve of). Give older children their own list of items you know they can find and reach.

Grocery List - Check weekly flyer for sale items

Donate Your Summer Paperbacks! Buy Cheap Textbooks!

Summers Paperbacks

Would you like to find a new home for the books you read this summer and buy cheap textbooks? Rather than putting your summer paperbacks on your (already full) bookshelves, take a moment to consider if you will ever read them again. Gently used books are in demand, if you can just find the right home for them.  

When asked most people would suggest:

• Selling them online.  
• Exchanging them with your friends.  
• Donating to local Hospitals, Hospice and Assisted Living Facilities
• Donating to Thrift Stores and Charity Shops
• Donating to local libraries

For a far reaching solution, you might be interested in

An organization that sells used books online in order to donate books worldwide, raise money for literacy programs and libraries and recycle books keeping them out of our landfills.

“Better World Books uses the power of business to change the world. We collect and sell books online to donate books and fund literacy initiatives worldwide. With more than 8 million new and used titles in stock, we’re a self-sustaining, triple-bottom-line company that creates social, economic and environmental value for all our stakeholders.”

Textbooks: Save up to 90% when buying used textbooks. Plus get free shipping!

"With about 60,000 textbooks on our website, reducing the price of each and every one of them is a serious undertaking. Fortunately, we had the great foresight of building an advanced AI to do the number crunching for us, and bring you the best new and used textbook prices on the web.

But that's not all, even the smallest book order you place with us helps unlock reading materials for schools around the globe who otherwise wouldn't have them."

They offer free shipping, world wide, to buyers and donors alike.  Just fill in the information to download a free shipping label.

The numbers are impressive.  As of August 2014 they have donated over 13 million books, raised over $18 m and re used or recycled over 140 million books!

Check out their website to find out how it all began and the different ways you can share your books and make a difference!

http://www.betterworldbooks.com

Are you getting the best deal from your service providers who maintain your yard, pool, pest control and cleaning?

How much should you be paying?

We all did the leg work once, when we researched, interviewed and hired our service providers, but when was that?  How do you know you are getting the best bang for your buck? Taking a moment to review each service and the cost, not only ensures that you are getting the best deal, it lets your providers know that they need to be competitive to retain your business.  

Talk to friends and neighbors, to see if they would happily recommend whomever is working for them.  Call the competition to get quotes.  You have the option to go back to your vendor and ask them to improve their price and/or include additional services.  Its not a personal thing, it’s business. If you can reduce your monthly yard service charges, you have the option to spend the savings upgrading your plantings.  Your landscaper still gets your money, but you get more for it!

With your pest control service, are you getting a discount for paying for your annual contract up front? Why not? Better your money in your bank than theirs.  Compare how often they visit and if they charge for additional calls between scheduled maintenance to deal with a problem.

Hire a service and keep your sanity?

How about the housework?  Compare the cost of a cleaning service (who provide all their own cleaning products) to a single housekeeper.  Often times a service is more flexible if you need to change your cleaning day.  

When I had four children at home all the time, I really appreciated weekly help with all the cleaning and laundry, in fact I couldn't have done it on my own.  I told my husband, it made me a better mum. If I had had to clean the house from top to bottom to see it messed up within 15 minutes of the kids getting home from school, we would of had less harmony in our home and more yelling!  I needed someone who could spend the day at my house, so between us, we could get through all the laundry cleaning, organizing and ironing.  

As our children grow, so our needs changed.  I no longer have to change five beds and five sets of towels, only one, so I no longer have a housekeeper, but if I did I would be on a bi weekly schedule for sure.  I would also consider a cleaning service now, because they send two or three people and they are in and out in a couple of hours tops.