Okay, I made these last week before my death defying trip to the grocery store, but what with the near death experience and all, the leaking roof, the subsequent discovery of and exhaustive online research into the Evil Ice Dam, sewing all those damn (damn cute, that is) cloth napkins, and totally changing my look, this post just kept getting put off until...today!
Fact A: Weekly meal planning saves me time and money at the grocery store. Also, my husband gets dinner ready on my 3 work days and a list of the week's meals keeps him from calling me at work and asking what he's supposed to do for dinner.
Fact B: Grocery shopping once a week with a comprehensive list saves me time and money at the grocery store. We live out in the middle of the country and the store is a long drive and closed on Sundays so forgotten items are a royal pain in the ass--not to mention dangerous in certain weather conditions mentioned above.
Problem A: I seem to always lose the meal plan sometime in the middle of the week--right around when I return to work and my husband needs it, thus negating much of the benefit of creating a meal plan in the first place since neither of has any short term memory left.
Problem B: I'm always rushing around the kitchen on my shopping day (Thursday during Huck's nap) trying to make the meal plan and the grocery list so I can get to the store and I invariably forget to put certain things on this list.
Solution: I just spent a small amount of time on the computer making 2 blank list templates. I hope they will bring me more joy than I have ever known before and serve as a catalyst for world peace.
The first template is a Weekly Meal Planner that begins on Thursday--my first day off from work and when I plan for the week and do my grocery shopping for the next 7 days. We usually cook Thursday-Sunday and leave leftovers and easy meals for Monday-Wednesday when I don't get home until 6:00pm and Stephen gets dinner ready with a busy toddler on his hands and no backup. I used some colored paper I had so it will be bright and hard to lose. I printed 3 lists to a horizontal page and cut them out.
The second template is a Weekly Grocery List. I went through the fridge, freezer and pantry and put everything on the list that we buy weekly or every other week. The staples, if you will. I put it in order of the grocery store layout--produce, meats, bread, organics, dairy, dry--and included lots of blank spaces where I felt like I'd need them the most. I don't buy many cleaning and paper products so those will just get added onto the back or in the margins when I need them. I printed 2 lists to a horizontal page and cut them out.
I punched a hole in the top right corner of both sets of lists and put them all together on piece of ribbon. I wanted to put them on a metal ring but I tore the house apart and couldn't find one. The lists will hang on the side of my fridge.
Mine are pretty work-a-day but if you wanted to go the full Martha you could use fancy recycled paper, clip art, or rubber stamps to dress them up.
Here are my new lists...
Now my Weekly Meal Planner has a place to live and won't get lost. And the bulk of my Weekly Grocery List is already finished. I can just tear off a sheet each Thursday as I head to the store, cross off the things I don't need and add a few extra items based on the meal plan.
I'm not usually quite this anal efficient but I really wanted to solve my Thursday scramble.
Maybe it'll come in handy for you, too. And if you like the idea and want to save yourself the time it took me to create them, just email me. I'd be happy to send you the Word Documents I created and you can modify them to fit your own needs.
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