John and I are starting a new 4-week meal plan today. We already cook most of our meals at home, but we aren't really organized about it. For example, if we bought a box of hamburgers to have hamburgers one night, we would often times end up eating them for multiple days in a row. We don't tend to keep the fridge/freezer regularly stocked, so we often default to what we have on hand.
John: "What do you want for dinner?"
Me: "Uh...Well, we have hamburgers. So...hamburgers?"
It is really easy for me to eat hamburgers three days in a row.
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| A burger on the third day still tastes pretty awesome. |
A downfall of not having enough food on hand, is that we often only have half the ingredients for five different meals, so we can't make anything without going to the grocery store first. Living out of town, those trips eat into our budget with not only the cost of food, but the needless expense of gas and putting extra KM on the car. Also, when we go to the grocery store to pick up only one or two things, somehow multiple bags of chips, and/or candy, and/or chocolate end up in the cart too! Hopefully our new meal plan will equate to less trips to the grocery store and in turn less impulse buys in the snack aisle.
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| Hey! Who put you yummy things in my cart! |
Another bad habit of not having enough food on hand, is I tend to freak out if it is going to take to long to a) buy groceries and b) make dinner. On those occasions, it is just easier to pick up take out. So having a meal plan will hopefully curb our take out spending as well.
Our current plan is to:
Eat Healthier:
-Eat a variety of foods we already like, while eating more vegetables
-Eat vegetarian two times per week
-Eat less chips, chocolate, candy (treats)
Save Money:
-Only buy groceries we know we will need for the month
-No wasted gas/KM on impulse trips to the grocery store
-Home made whenever possible; use the bread maker to make buns, bread, pizza dough, etc.
With our freezer, fridge, and pantry FULL of food, we are going to try to stick to our plan for the next four weeks and see how it goes. I am so excited to not have to say: "What should we have for dinner?" I already know what is for dinner for the next 28 days! January 10th? Shake and Bake chicken legs with steamed broccoli, carrots, corn and a side of mashed sweet potato. Jan 23rd? Tacos. Mmmmmmm......
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