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Jul 7, 2014    |       14 comments

Meal Planning = My Secret Weapon

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This seems so obvious to state that I debated whether or not to even write a post about this. But I had mentioned that I was going to examine my grocery spending habits and using the money envelopes has forced me to do that and I’ve gained a bit of insight along the way.

One thing I have discovered is that: meal planning is my secret weapon for spending less and saving more!

Here’s a couple scenarios of how failing to meal plan can cost money (and these are totally rhetorical examples….certainly nothing that’s happened in my real life. heh)…

  1. It’s Wednesday evening, 5pm. I just go the girls from their childcare provider, and have exactly 1 hour to make, serve, and eat dinner before husband has to leave for a meeting (I have never mentioned this, but husband is a freemason and he has meetings on Wednesday evenings). I get home, have nothing planned, no time to thaw out meat or cook a freezer meal, and end up going with “plan B” (which, lately, has been a $5 Hot and Ready pizza from Little Ceasers).
  2. I like to compile my grocery list for the week by checking out the local sale ads. It is not unusual for me to go to multiple stores during the week (I usually hit Sprouts for produce on double-ad Wednesdays, Walmart for my staples, and Albertsons or Frys depending on the sales). I always try to buy things on sale, so I’m really building my grocery list around sales rather than meals. But if I neglect meal-planning, then I’m grocery shopping “blind.” I have no idea if we’ll necessarily have the ingredients for XYZ meals for the week at home. Then I have to make even more trips to the store to pick up forgotten items, or we end up with another $5 Hot and Ready when I realize we don’t have the items necessary to cook!

In the first scenario, my lack of meal planning costs me extra money in the form of eating out when it wasn’t planned. As nice as it is to not have to worry about cooking for a night, I’m SICK of these $5 pizzas. Yes, it’s a good deal. But I want to save that money for a “real” meal out, instead of having it wasted on a rushed dinner lacking in prober nutrition.

In the second scenario, my lack of meal planning costs me extra money in the form of time and groceries! I have to make another trip to the store, or I end up caving and telling husband to go grab a pizza. Have I mentioned I’m sick of the pizza?

Meal planning saves me all these headaches.

How I meal-plan

First, I take a look at the items we already have.

  • Check your fridge to see if any food is about to turn. Do you have broccoli on its last leg? It needs to be a meal component asap!
  • Note other fridge items that can often be used in foods. Do you have milk, butter, chicken stock, cheese, etc? These ingredients can be used in sauces or for a roux of some kind.
  • What items are in the freezer? I actually keep a list of items in my freezer. Everything from pre-made freezer meals (when I make extra portions of food and freeze it – commonly lasagna, eggplant parmesan, and enchiladas), to fruits or veggies, to meats and other miscellaneous food items (e.g., butter, bread, yeast, etc.)

Second I look at sale ads.

  • Are any items for sale that I commonly use? This can be non-food (e.g., shampoo, soaps), but might be food items too. We eat a lot of chicken, for example. Even if we don’t necessarily need chicken, I might buy some if it’s on a good sale. I always try to buy stuff on sale rather than spending full price (and I keep track of prices so I know the sale is actually a good deal, because sometimes the “sale” prices are not actually a good deal!)

Third, I look at my recipe list.

  • Are these foods (things we already own and things currently on sale this week) components of meals that my family loves? I keep a little list of commonly used recipes. Sometimes I draw a blank when planning meals, so I can pull out the list of tried and true dinners and get some easy inspiration.

Now I start planning my meals! I will usually plan about 5-6 days and fill-in with freezer meals that are already prepared, leftovers from the week, or an “eating out” night. I try to plan so that food about to turn gets eaten first, and I make extra of some things to cut down on prep time later in the week. Here are some examples:

  • If we’re having pizza on Monday and calzones on Wednesday, I’ll make extra dough on Monday so it just has to rise/bake on Wednesday.
  • If we’re having grilled chicken and veggies on Tuesday and chicken and broccoli pockets on Thursday, then I’ll cook extra chicken on Tuesday so on Thursday all I have to do is make and bake the pockets.
  • If we’re having roasted chicken on Friday, I’ll plan another meal that uses the leftover chicken (like chicken enchiladas, chicken tortilla soup, chicken tostadas, etc etc. – the possibilities are limitless!

I find that by doing things like this (that cut down on my prep-time for dinner), I am more apt to stick to the meal plan and not rely on take-out. Anything that can simplify my life (particularly around dinner time) is a winner in my book!

 

What do you do to cut down on the rush around dinner time and make life easier? Do you meal plan, and if so, have any tips? What are some of your favorite fast and easy dinner recipes?

Jul 7, 2014    |       9 comments

Race to 20K

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I pre-scheduled this post since we just got back to Tucson late last night. I’ll try to pop in later with an update from our travels!

I keep making, and changing, our debt-repayment plan of action. It has become such a regular thing for me to change up the game plan that last time I even added the disclaimer “subject to change.” Haha!

Well, here we go again!

I have been stewing over the game plan for awhile. I keep coming back around to the fact that I prefer to pay off the car rather than the student loans (regardless of the difference in interest rates). The problem, of course, is that my minimum student loan payment is so high (over $1,000/month) and deferment ends in February so I’m scared of getting stuck with BOTH the super high student loan, in addition to my hefty sized car payment ($415/month).

In addition to that, I’ve got to be honest. I’m loosing the power of focus. I’m starting to take on additional monthly expenses (gym, extra monthly savings, and something else I can’t reveal yet but will be discussed in the weeks to come), and have been fantasizing over starting a savings fund for a house down payment (don’t worry – its not happening yet, but it doesn’t stop me from fantasizing!). Basically, I’m wanting to split my goals into a ton of different things (instead of focusing solely on debt-reduction).

This is a debt-reduction blog. Not a savings, or an investing, or a lifestyle blog.

The problem is that I have a LOT of debt. It will take me several years to pay it all off in full. And I have admitted before that I believe we will start splitting priorities before the debt is gone (e.g., buying a home before the student loans are completely gone).

So while I still have momentum on my side I want to switch gears. I’m going to finish paying off the license fees first (and put that chapter of our lives behind us). But after that, I’m going to tackle the car. Once its gone, I’d feel more comfortable about starting a house down payment fund and splitting my goals between student loans and other “life” things. I owe about $20,000 on the car (last debt update here). At this point, it seems like it could take 9 months to a year to pay in full. But then again, I managed to pay off over $10,000 in credit card debt (plus other minimum debt payments) in just a little over 3 months. And now I have the benefit of not having those pesky credit card bills every month eating up my income. So we’ll see.

I’m calling it, “the race to 20K.”

Wish me luck!

Note: Some have asked why I would want to pay off the car before the student loans, particularly given the discrepancy in interest rates. Paying off the car will mean we’re free of any consumer debt (only remaining debt would be student loans). Additionally, my student loans have no actual “asset” associated with them. The car is an asset so once its paid we will own something with a monetary value associated with it (as opposed to my loans….which, even when paid in full, have no monetary value on their own).

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