Creating a Home Management Binder- Part 3: Grocery Shopping

I use coupons to shop. I LOVE coupon shopping. I stock up when I can on what I know I will use, and I fill in the rest every week when I grocery shop.

When I am creating my weekly menu plan, I rely heavily on what I know I need to use up. Some things, like pasta (that will keep forever) won’t go on my plan more than once or twice. More perishable items like salad will be on the menu for several days so that we can try to eat it before it goes bad. (A bag of salad can take too long to consume with just the two of us!) I also rely on the grocery sales for that week to determine what I will focus on cooking.

After my menu plan is in place, I pull together my grocery list. In order to make sure that I’m not running to the store all week, I gather my grocery store matchups, my list from the fridge where I jot down items that are running low or gone, and my menu plan for the upcoming week. I start to condense all of this onto the shopping list printable that I like to use. (I do usually take my list of grocery store matchups shopping with me, because I don’t want to write down all of my little coupon notes on my grocery list- it takes up too much space!) Once I have everything written down, I evaluate whether or not anything can be removed. Do I really need everything on here? Did I forget that I already have some of these items in my stockpile? Sometimes I need more than I had realized, and I reevaluate my menu plan to use up something that I already have or make something that costs a little less. Just a note here: in my binder, I have my menu plan and grocery shopping combined. I like to alternate the pages in this section, placing a grocery shopping list behind each menu plan. At the beginning of each week, I do post the menu plan on our fridge so the husband can see what he is in for each day! :) I usually toss the grocery list when I’m done shopping, but I like to hang onto my old menu plans for inspiration when I can’t think of meals to make!

Something I feel is important to note here is that you can’t buy everything with coupons. I think that sometimes people are discouraged from shopping frugally when they have a certain way they want or need to eat. For example, I strive to cook with whole foods. This isn’t always easy, or feasible, or even affordable, but every small choice makes a difference. I struggle with food allergies, and a lot of what I can’t have is processed food. This has been a blessing in disguise! I have to cook real, actual food, as we all should! Yes, it increases the grocery bill when I choose a smaller whole grain loaf of bread over a loaf of processed white bread that costs 70 cents, but it is worth it to me. And take heart! You can build things into your stockpile that will help you out as you try to be frugal and healthy. There are even coupons out there for organic products! Natural food stores and distributors have to stay competitive just like everyone else. For example, I get Muir Glen organic canned tomatoes for cheap or free all the time! I am steadily building up my stock of these whenever they go on sale, and they are a staple in many recipes. Every little bit of bad food that you eliminate is a good step for your family. Don’t feel like you have to get everything on your list at Trader Joe’s, especially when you are on a budget. Slowly replace your staples, and you will see your grocery bill decreasing, like every other couponer!

Like I have talked about before, lowering my grocery budget is a goal that I have this year. So is increasing the health factor in our food, although we do pretty well right now! I’ll keep sharing some of the good deals I find on products that are good for you! You don’t have to eat boxed macaroni and cheese to be an extreme couponer! Yay!

How do you complete your grocery shopping each week? I hope you enjoyed these tips, and got some encouragement to be frugal and still eat well!

Creating a Home Management Binder- Part 2: Menu Planning

I grew up in a home that always had a homemade dinner every night, with the occasional pizza and soda on a Friday evening. I don’t ever remember eating fast food, or something from a package, or store-bought cookies. I’m not saying this to sound stuck up. I am simply thankful that my mother took the time to hone her own domestic skills, and also to teach them to us. I believe that her “old-fashioned” homemaking ways were a great gift to me and my siblings, and to our future families. I know now that lots of people have to learn to cook and plan meals once they get married or move out on their own.

Menu planning became more of a habit for me when I was working in the group home section of the agency I am employed at now. When you are feeding about a dozen people every meal, it’s important not to just “wing it.” Once I started creating meal plans for work, I found that I really liked it!

Planning your meals ahead of time has several benefits that make it worth the extra half hour it might take to sit down and create a schedule.

1)      It allows you to eat what you have. When you take time to prepare a menu plan, you can focus on using the items you already have in your pantry, freezer, and stockpile that need to be used up. This cuts down on waste.

2)      It saves you money. When you have a plan in place, you can build your grocery list from that. When you have everything that you need to complete a meal every day, there is no need to keep running out to the grocery store and picking up those last couple of items for dinner.

3)      It helps you track your family’s eating habits. Writing down what you are going to eat not only keeps you from ordering pizza too often, it helps you see patterns in what you are feeding your family. Do you eat starchy potatoes and carb-loaded pasta too often? Do you need some more variety in your veggies? Looking at your eating habits on paper can help you change them.

4)      It saves you time. You can altogether stop asking yourself, “What should I cook for dinner tonight?” or “What do I feel like eating?” When you have planned ahead, you can spare yourself the extra stress. You will begin to look forward to trying new things rather than always falling back on your same old casserole. Another way that menu planning saves time is by allowing you to look ahead and use your time wisely. Are you having pizza at the end of the week? Why not make your dough and stick it in the fridge when you have an extra few minutes. Fajitas? Chop your peppers and stick them in the freezer until you’re ready!

Creating a meal plan doesn’t have to be a focused activity, either. Throw some ideas onto paper while you’re sitting in front of a movie, or when you see something that looks good while you’re browsing through a magazine.

Try your best to stick to your plan, since the whole point is to streamline your life. But allow for flexibility. I know sometimes we are invited over to dinner at someone’s house, or late work schedules don’t allow me time to cook no matter how much I’ve prepped ahead of time. Sometimes in life, ordering a pizza on your way home is just the best option. That’s ok! When you are disciplined most of time, you don’t need to feel bad when your plan just isn’t working for you at that moment. Give yourself some breathing room. When I skip a meal on my menu plan, I like to rearrange and pick the meal that has the most non-perishable ingredients and move it to the next week. The key here is to still use those ingredients at some point in the near future to prevent waste.

Now that I have shared how passionately I feel about planning meals ahead of time, I’d like to share the form I use to plan my meals. I searched for a printable plan that I liked, and although there are some great ones out there, I couldn’t find one that worked for me. So I took matters into my own hands, and this is what I came up with! I wanted a menu plan that only planned my dinners in detail, but still gave me some space for breakfast, lunch, and cooking ahead. Feel free to print and share, but PLEASE give credit where it is due, and link back to my blog! Thanks so much for sharing your time with me today! I’m looking forward to building binders together!


*I was having some trouble making this link click through, so to print my Weekly Menu Plan, copy and paste the link to your browser! file:///H:/Home%20Management/The%20Modern%20Girl's%20Guide%20to%20Proverb's%2031-%20Meal%20Plan.htm

Creating a Home Management Binder- Part 1: Make it Beautiful & Functional!

I am a binder person. I love any excuse to categorize things into a well-categorized, pretty-colored notebook. Take my wedding, for example. You know what was more exciting to me than the ring, the proposal, or telling everyone the news? My elaborate, detailed Wedding Planning Binder, which of course matched my wedding colors. I need help, I know. (The most romantic moment was when my fiance said those words I longed to hear after the wedding….”This was a lot work, baby. I don’t know what we would have done without a wedding planning binder!” Yep, that’s why he is meant for me!)

But, although you may not want to become quite as neurotic with organization, I would still encourage you to consider creating a home management binder. As we talked about on Friday’s Featured Female, a wise woman “looks well to all the ways of her household.” What better way to know what “all of the ways of your household” are than to create tabs and sections for them?!

Now, I don’t know about you, but I get excited about using new things that are pretty. Pens, spreadsheets, plastic bins, office supplies- you name it! If it’s cutesy and functional, I want it.

The first thing you’ll want to do is select a binder that will be functional. It can be cute, too, but functional is definitely the most important. Ask yourself how sturdy it will need to be - will you be lugging this around with you all the time, or will it sit neatly on your desk? Does it need to be a zip-up binder- will you have scraps of paper and receipts tucked away? This is what you need to know before you spend money buying the prettiest notebook on the shelf!

Next, I like things that are adorable. It makes me want to use them more. Target has super-cute binders from Greenroom that I love. I didn’t choose this one, because I wanted inside pockets and a place to insert a cover sheet. But I am looking for a great excuse to buy one of these! 

Finally, you will need dividers. To determine how many you will need, you will want to decide on your categories. Everyone will have different sections that they deem important. For example, since I do not have children, I obviously don’t need a section for keeping up with my kid’s appointments and homework. (This is why I’m not a huge fan of pre-made organizational tools! I like to be able to use every part of what I buy!)  Be thinking about your categories, because I will soon be talking about each of my sections! I will also be showing you some great printable worksheets, both from my own work and from other very organized ladies across the blogosphere!

To give you some ideas, here are the sections of my Home Management Binder:

1)      Meal Planning and Grocery Shopping

2)      Cleaning and Organization

3)      Our Home Finances (I have a few different tabs in this section!)

-Bill due date schedule

-Debt payoff

-Medical debt payoff

4)      Stockpile Inventory

5)      My Wishlist

6)      Home Decorating

7)      Car Maintenance

8)      Christmas Planning

9)      Birthdays

10)  Addresses

I would eventually like to add a section for Vacation Planning! These are the sections that are functional and important for our tiny family! I’d love to hear the sections that you are using or plan to use! I hope you join me in creating an organizational tool to help you “look well to all the ways of your household!”

 Here is my binder!