Yo, What's fa dinna!?!?

So with times being so tough and all of the uncertainty of the future of our country's economy has all of us trying to save money any way that we can. I have recently really gotten serious about my couponing and that has really helped. But a couple of weeks ago, I really took a look at mine and Cooper's lifestyle and really tried to figure out a way to save more money for us. Well I was really astonished at how much we spent on food. We would either go out and grab from a restaurant or we would swing by the grocery store on a daily basis to pick up whatever we wanted to cook that night. Now, when you are talking about cooking for two, sometimes its more economical to just go and pick something up, especially if you are doing a daily grocery store visit like we were. That just gets so expensive.

When I really got to thinking about how I could help us to do better with that, the solution was so clear. I started to think about my Pinterest addiction and how many different, good recipes I see every time I get on there. It kind of made me think I was crazy for not really utilizing that tool that I have right at my fingertips! Then, I started to think about how I could really plan everything in advance and only make one trip to the grocery store per week. This really has to be planned out well though because everything I make has to be "Cooper Approved" because he is such a dang picky eater! 

At this point, I decided the best thing for me to do would be to plan out the complete menu a week in advance (Um, Hello Carrie, people have been saying to do that forever... I know I am stubborn). I honestly thought that it just sounded time consuming and difficult.... really something I just didn't want to spend my time on. But then, when I gave it a go, I realized it is actually quite simple! 

First, I went through all of the yummy things on Pinterest and I made a list of the items I thought Coop would like. Then, from that list I picked out the things that used a lot of the same ingredients (Because I hate spending so much on all the ingredients of something when you only need "1 tsp" or something and then the rest goes bad!) So, after I went through and narrowed it down, I downloaded this great weekly dinner planner, filled it in, and there ya go! 

http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2011/09/meal_plan_printable/

As I listed each days menu, I also put in the shopping list of things I would need. Some of them have very short lists because I already have some of the stuff leftover from this week or it comes from a different day's shopping list. 

Last week was our first week to try this and it was AMAZING!! Cooper and I only spent $100 total on everything needed for food this week. It was so great because most of it yielded leftovers or a few leftover ingredients that could serve great for lunch! It really made our lives a lot easier too because we weren't wandering around at 6pm every night worrying about what we were going to have for dinner or having to go pick it up. It was all right there, planned out for us, all ingredients in the fridge ready for us to cook! What a great feeling! I can't believe I didn't do this sooner!!!