Meal Planning

I have never been one to plan meals ahead. My husband used to consider himself lucky if I even remembered to take meat out of the freezer that morning for dinner. When I was working I had tried meal planning, and it just didn't work out for us. Mainly, because my husband didn't care for that meal that particular night of the week. 

This time I decided to try it again, but basically I came up with 13 meals for the next 2 weeks (left one night for either leftovers or take out). If he doesn't feel like a certain meal one night, we have everything we need to make all 13. First I decided what meals I wanted to make for the next 2 weeks. I wanted to change things up, because I feel like we are always eating the same 5-6 meals over and over again. I made a long list of a variety of meals (after scouring Pinterest all day for different meal ideas). Then I choose 13 meals off that list for the next 2 weeks (the list has about 50 meals total). 

Next I went through the fridge, freezer, and pantry to see what we had on hand. Then I looked through each meals' ingredient list, and made a grocery list of everything we needed to make those meals. After making my list, I went through my coupons to see what items on my list I had coupons for (who doesn't like saving a buck or 2 on something they already intend to buy).  

Next came the actual grocery shopping (if you can do this without kids, I highly suggest it). My kids were acting like I gave them crack before entering the grocery store (not really bad, just super hyper and crazy). We went through the store and got everything we needed for the meals I had planned (aside from 1 thing the store didn't have), and all of our basics that we needed. Luckily I got out of there in an hour and I saved $12 with my coupons. 

So here is our list of meals for the next 2 weeks to feed the 4 of us (I will add my grocery list at the end, note that my grocery list was not everything needed for the meals, as I had stuff on hand already).