The Menu

Once upon a time, in a land called BC (before children), a seemingly semi-intelligent, young woman often went to the grocery after a long day of work, completely unprepared. She would wander up and down aisles, see something that looked good, and grab it thinking, "we can have this one night," only to get home and not be able to remember all the sumptuous dishes she vowed to prepare...

I can't tell you how many times I used to stand in front of a cabinet basically full of food, wanting to make something for dinner, but one or two key ingredients were missing . It was at that instant, I would immediately turn to Financial Guy and say, "There's nuthin' to eat. Let's go out." Not wanting to disappoint his wife and not missing her "I really don't know what I'm doing in the kitchen" food, we would jump in the car. What we found was that we were spending a load of cash at the grocery and yet still finding ourselves eating out-- a lot! When Financial Guy and I had been married a couple of years, we were having dinner at my friend Amy's house. I was intrigued by a menu she had on the counter. She had every night of the week laid out and I was in complete awe.

One would think, being a teacher by trade, that I would be good at making plans such as this, but it had never even crossed my mind! Amy is a dietitian, so it only made sense that she would do this. Her menu said things that Julia Child would have given her approval over, whereas 'steamed broccoli' is about as chef-like as I get. Finally, I asked her about it. She told me she always made out a menu for the week with an accompanying grocery list, so she would have the things she needed to make dinner. DING DING!! I started the next week and never looked back.

Some people put their menus together for a week or a month at a time. I base ours on when we get paid (twice a month), because that's when I do the bulk of our grocery shopping. A lot of people also base their weekly menus on what's on sale for the week. I do the exact opposite. Starting with the night we came home from Amy's, I made out a menu based on what we did have, then made a grocery list of things we needed to complete the meal. This is the way I still roll, today. The beauty of a menu is even though I technically have dates assigned to the meals, it's not concrete. However, much like going out to eat, I can't exactly go to a fast food place and order filet mignon. We have to stick to what's on our menu. :) If we end up going out unexpectedly or getting invited somewhere for dinner, I simply roll any meals left to the next menu.

Every week, I scan the circulars that come out in the paper (or online) to see what is on sale. If there's a good deal on something, especially if I have coupons for those deals, then I'll purchase it in the "off" weeks between my major shopping trips to stock up. That way, when I make out my next menu, I use the stocked items I have in the pantry.

Two things of note:

1) I do all of this on a budget. We are big Dave Ramsey fans and are committed to the Baby Steps.
2) There are several websites that do a phenomenal job at making their readers aware of weekly/daily deals at true brick-and-mortar stores and Internet sites. Some of my personal favorites are Faithful Provisions and the Money Saving Mom.

So if you haven't, get your menus and grocery lists made out! Your wallet will thank you for it. :)