Meal Organization

Update: I counted and we haven't been to Walmart in 17 days!! That is unbelievable to me!!!!

I told y'all a few weeks back that I was trying to come up with a way to not go to the grocery store as much.  I also wanted to have ideas for dinner so I was worrying about what was for dinner that night.  I am not completely done but I have started this and it is working out well. 

Step One
Look for a whole bunch of recipes.
I went out on the internet and found a whole bunch of recipes that I wanted to try.  I looked on Pinterest for most of these.  I combined those recipes with some that are our favorites and came up with a list of about 15-20. 

Step Two
Make a list of ingredients.
Once I decided on recipes I typed up a list of the ingredients I needed for each recipe.  For example if one of the recipes were peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips (no we don't eat this for dinner but its just an example!!), it would look like this:

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches/Chips
Peanut Butter
Jelly
Bread
Chips

I did this for every single recipe I wanted to make. 

Step Three
Decide on what meals you want to cook for however many weeks.
I made a calendar in Word and decided what meals I wanted to cook on which days.  I wanted to buy enough groceries so we wouldn't have to make our "big" grocery trip but once every three weeks.  I included the days I knew Josh would be late so I could make easier meals that night. 

Step Four
Make a grocery list
I looked back at the list of ingredients to see what I already had in the fridge/pantry and typed out my grocery list. 

Step Five
Go grocery shopping!!!

We had a lot going on the first week so I don't think I made a single meal.  But since life has slowed down a bit I have made a few of these meals and it has helped so much having a plan!  Some days I don't eat exactly what is on the calendar for that day, but I choose one of the meals that I know I have all the ingredients for. 

I think this saves us some money too because we aren't going to Walmart numerous times in a month.  Because you and I both know that if you go to Walmart you can NEVER stick to your list.  I did go to Publix once since then but that was to buy fruit and some veggies. 

I will post some of my recipes soon.  I want to try them out first to make sure they are good before sharing them.