September Meal Planning & Organizing. Plus Free Printable.

             

  We have decided to make so big changes for September. Starting really with a Budget. We've never done a budget before. I did some searching around to try and help us get going. It seemed like a lot of savvy mums out there do budgets for their families. Not just budgets they organize everything. But we'll get to that later. So the real issue is we hemorrhage money each month and don't really know where it goes. That's what next moth will hopefully tell us. Spend as we normally do and see if you stick to the budget and see where we are overspending. 

           One other big change we made is monthly meal planning. We have a weekly meal menu most weeks and it keeps shopping down. But, I have now switched to planning meals for the month. It comes with lots of changes. We now have a CrockPot meal night, a pasta night and soup night. In an effort to keep cost down and be healthy we are only having meat 3 times a week. We will see how this goes as all three of my boys love meat. So first I plan what meals we will eat throughout the month write then down on my monthly planner. The next step is to Get a huge 'master' shopping list together. This includes everything from your recipes and everything for breakfast lunch and snacks (which I don't plan). It is a whopper of a list. Then I go through and Highlight all the things I can buy in the first week. So pretty much everything not fresh and all the CrockPot meals (as I prepare these on Saturday and Freeze. Post to Follow) We have started shopping at MySupermarket . It is a great site for seeing which shop is the best price each week. (UK only) I buy everything on the master list the Saturday before the first week. Sort it all and put it away. The next step is to do your weekly lists. This is for everything fresh that won't keep needed for weeks 3-4. Fill in your weekly menus and shopping lists and stick them somewhere everyone can see so they know what dinner is each day. I like to keep my master list and month plan in my Filofax (which holds everything) on my desk so I can look back when I need too. My next task is to organize recipes. :)


Here is a printable of my menu planning kit. Enjoy! 

Thanks,