Meal Planning Update

We are half way through the last week of our month long meal plan and it has gone amazingly well. It has been so wonderful to not only know what is for dinner but to also have all the necessary ingredients on hand. Who knew a little organization could feel so good?

We have stuck to the plan pretty well, only changing a few things around when we realized that Sunday is too lazy to cook vegetarian, and swapping different meals within the week just because we felt like it.  Also, when we made Chili, the leftovers lasted longer than expected and we replaced Taco night with Chili taco night.  We are being really flexible yet sticking to the essentials of the plan. The only time we ate off the plan was last Friday when my in-laws unexpectedly picked up dinner for us. It is hard to say no to free food, especially on a Friday night when we were feeling lazy.

With the organized menu, we have increased our vegetables intake which was one of my goals.  Lots of salads and steamed veggies with dinner, and I am getting super into sweet potatoes. I mashed one today and ate it with a sandwich at lunch time. It was amazing! We have also ramped up our use of the bread maker, as I've been making tonnes of buns, loaves of bread, and weekly pizza dough.  Home made bread and buns are cheap, easy to make, and taste delicious!

In terms of cost savings, we actually spent more on groceries this month than we normally do. I think it is a case of spending more on the front end and over time it will be cheaper for us.  We bought some staple items that we won't have to buy monthly (a 10kg bag of flour, 2 jars of yeast because they were on sale, etc.), and my freezer is currently a stockpile of meats that will last well into February.  Just based on the amount of food we still have, I am predicting that February we will spend less than we normally do.

The plan for next month is to repeat the meals we had in January, accommodating for the minor adjustments we made.  I think this is a plan that will stick for us!