Meal Planning 101-A Week of Whole-Food Recipes

Life gets crazy. Heck, I am a stay-at home wife right now (no kids, just a golden retriever), and I feel like my life gets crazy. We all have things that get in the way of eating well and being frugal. I know how tempting it is to just pick up a pizza, or to go out to eat. We still do that occasionally. It's okay, for us, once in a while, but we can't do that often because of our budget. I do know that while I was single, I blew a large portion of my money every month on eating out. Cooking at home is one of the easiest ways to save money, trim a budget, encourage family togetherness and conversation, and to make sure you know exactly what you are eating. Restaurant portions are massive-way more than we need to eat. They are loaded with fats and oils, and you really never know what is going into your food. I don't like that to happen to me very often. So I have made it my mission to cook at home. You can see my earlier post on budgeting and eating well on a budget here. Today, I want to focus on meal-planning.

I don't do this perfectly all the time. But most of the time, I choose a day of the week (usually a Saturday, but because of being sick this week and Easter this weekend, I am doing it today) and plan our meals out. I am not a super-stickler. Sometimes I change the order of meals around, and sometimes I pitch an idea the day of and end up eating pizza. It happens. When I do take the time to plan meals, make a grocery list, match up any possible coupons I might have, and set a budget, I am able to eat healthier, be less stressed, and enjoy the fact that I am not scrambling to figure out what to make for dinner every night.