Grocery Budget Overhaul

Maybe I should really call it a "lack thereof" budget when it comes to food. The last year has been a real struggle finding new ways to prepare foods without milk or soy ingredients for the sake of our one year old. My trips to Whole Foods have been extremely expensive and self-indulgent to cope with our change in diet.

After reading The Grocery Cart Challenge Blog, I feel recharged to get not only our menu, but our budget under control. If she can feed her homeschooling family of 6 on $60 a week, surely I can cut our budget down from...um...about $150 a week.

My biggest struggle? Continuing to eat mostly organic foods. In fact, in true lack-of-a-budget fashion, I signed up for Milk delivery...again. I'd cancelled it about a year ago because it didn't seem like it was cost-effective. THAT is why I usually don't answer the door from noon to 5 p.m. each day, I just can't handle it! The milk is good, hormone free and fresh, but it makes me committed to a certain amount of milk each month. I cannot be held responsible for salesmen at my door during lunch.

I can admit that my biggest problem with meals is the lack of planning. Each day I toil over what to make and we are ALL getting bored with my meals. We own a house with my parents (extended family philosophy) so I often cook for my dad (mom is on Slim 4 Life, so she is very strict with her food); he's terrible about eating a variety of foods (in fact, he does NOT eat green vegetables). I've somewhat catered his meals to what he likes, but from now on I'm going to have to stick to a meal plan that works for our family; that means that 1) he can eat what I make, including the hidden veggie purees or 2) he can nuke some nasty canned crap in the microwave ;) As for our breadwinner, my husband, he's usually pretty good at eating whatever I make, so I don't worry much about him.

I found a great resource online to plan our meals: www.mealsmatter.com
It's a free tool for menu planning, creating shopping lists, finding recipes. It's free because it's paid for by the California Dairy council. Did I mention it's AD FREE?!

With this site, I can add my recipes to my cookbook and click and add it to my menu. I can also create shopping lists.

My goal? Create weekly menus that include all three meals. I gleaned that from The Grocery Cart Challenge--she is a homeschooling mom of 4. Without a plan, it's easy to break the budget buying items that "might" be eaten for breakfast, lunch and snacks. With a plan, it's much easier to avoid overspending.

I'm wisely starting my weekly plan next Monday, December 15th. This will give me time to get some of my recipes typed in, a grocery list printed and organize the fridge, freezer and cabinets to get to know what we have "stocked." I'm also hoping to help integrate my kids into the whole plan--checking for food we already have, contributing ideas for meals, maybe even volunteering to cook? ;) Okay, they are still rather too young for that, but I can dream of the future, can't I?