Mom plans meals for entire year to save $

[dyna]

Unless DH has already told me what he wants for supper I don't plan nothin till he home from work to many times food got thrown out because HE did not want that to eat that week.

We do keep food here tho an often stock piled foods.....rarely is any food bought that is not on sale even then bought with coupon an dh shops on senior day to save a few more pennies.

Chips is something we have hard time stock piling....we tend to eat those just to eat them.

DH will be switchin shifts in a couple months hopefully then i can do more of a menu

 

[Honeymooner04]

I could never plan for a year in advance. Just not my style. I make a plan for the month and come up with something for everyday and only buy what's needed for one week at a time. Stockpiling just doesn't work for me too much. We eat mostly from scratch so other than buying extra meat when it's on sale we don't do too much stockpiling. I do double a lot of meals and then freeze them, then the next month when I'm planning that months menus I look what I've got stashed frozen in the freezer and add those to days where I know we'll be busy with something.

 

[charming23]

Yikes planning a menu for an entire year would not work out for us. With schedules constantly changing and not knowing what is on sale and waht is fresh it would be next to impossible.

I do plan out for the week with the notion that life happens and things might change. Like I had planned on baked potatoes topped with turkey chili and salad but with it being my first day back at school and having classes almost all day long I am opting for something easier like grilled cheese with homemade tomato soup that I made last month and froze. So we will have the other meal tomorrow night.

 

[fakereadhed]

As long as I plan the day ahead and use what I have on hand we stay well under budget. Few and far between are the days were the family's in the mood for something and I go buy specific ingredients. Now I look for recipes that include what I have that I bought in bulk or on sale. No need to micromanage myself a year at a time! That would drive me nuts.

 

[JustAGirl]

Some of you are so judgemental and negetive for no reason . So what her family likes hamburger helper? Who are you to say its "bad" food. They are all skinny and look healthy . Why the healthy brigade? The point wasnt about what foods she chose for her family its the fact that she planned the whole year out. I bet alot of you eat things I would find downright disgusting. I see alot of you "foodies" salivating in the food threads . How would you feel if you're sitting in DW and Im watching you scarf down a hotdog or a mickey bar like you're disgusting and filling your bodies with bad foods. Concentrate on yourself and your own families. Im sure plenty of you smoke and drink booze among other things. Get over yourself seriously

 

[DawnM]

You know.....this was written about 8 or 9 years ago, so I doubt anyone could do it for that little anymore....I was thinking even her menu might be closer to $300 now.

Dawn

I really liked this one! Her meals were things for the most part that we would eat here. I don't exactly think I can pull off $200 for the 4 of us, maybe I'll try $400 and see where I can skim back from there.

 

[wdwfan16]

Some of you are so judgemental and negetive for no reason . So what her family likes hamburger helper? Who are you to say its "bad" food. They are all skinny and look healthy . Why the healthy brigade? The point wasnt about what foods she chose for her family its the fact that she planned the whole year out. I bet alot of you eat things I would find downright disgusting. I see alot of you "foodies" salivating in the food threads . How would you feel if you're sitting in DW and Im watching you scarf down a hotdog or a mickey bar like you're disgusting and filling your bodies with bad foods. Concentrate on yourself and your own families. Im sure plenty of you smoke and drink booze among other things. Get over yourself seriously

It is easy to plan the who year out when you are doing HH and hotdogs that can be made in 10 minutes. Try doing that when you are making scratch meals and she will not succeed. Roasting a chicken takes hours. How does she know that on 9/14 that she will have time to roast a chicken?

 

[CuteAndFluffy]

: Get over yourself seriously

Excellent advice. Advice that can apply to almost anyone in any situation. Such as someone indignant about people expressing opinions.


I think people are well within their rights to look at what this woman has done and say "You know what, that may have saved her a lot of money, but I believe in feeding my family healthier and less processed food so that wouldn't work for me." Others who don't have the same dietary concerns may think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread and adopt her menu verbatim.

A real feat would be planning for a year, saving 50%, not requiring hours of prep, getting in appropriate servings of whole grains, vegetables and fruits every day, and keeping it flexible enough to work with seasonal sales/availability and the ever-changing family schedule.

 

[TxRabbit]

I like this one better:

http://www.budget101.com/Ebooklet/EBooklet_Fam4.pdf

There are principles of planning that I find to be very helpful here. Thank you for posting this.

 

[deerhart]

Some of you are so judgemental and negetive for no reason . So what her family likes hamburger helper? Who are you to say its "bad" food. They are all skinny and look healthy . Why the healthy brigade? The point wasnt about what foods she chose for her family its the fact that she planned the whole year out. I bet alot of you eat things I would find downright disgusting. I see alot of you "foodies" salivating in the food threads . How would you feel if you're sitting in DW and Im watching you scarf down a hotdog or a mickey bar like you're disgusting and filling your bodies with bad foods. Concentrate on yourself and your own families. Im sure plenty of you smoke and drink booze among other things. Get over yourself seriously

Most hamburger helper meals have a significant amount of sodium in them. Usually between 750mg+ per serving (which is half a cup). Hot dogs also have a high sodium content.

 

[dvcnewgirl]

I couldn't plan a whole year at a time. But I do offer free, printable 1 week menus with complete grocery lists and recipes on my blog. I just posted the 26th menu today, so that's 6 months worth.

Here's a link to them. I need to add the newest 4 menus to this list, but there are 22 there to choose from.

ETA: I just added links to all 26 menus with grocery lists, so you can see them all from that page now.

I just started reading this. It is great!

 

[TxRabbit]

We went to Charlie Brown SteakHouse one night and a family ordered steaks so rare i swear i could hear it mooing. It was absolutely disgusting ,pink and left blood all over the plate.

Oh! I'm salvating at the thought of that lovely rare steak!! My fav...but we're having chili tonight, if I get off my bum and cook it...

 

[Padme]

Thank you for the info from Budget101! I really like a lot of those ideas. Make ahead mixes and recipes using them are something I've planned to try but never have.

As far as the woman planning for a whole year, it would not be practical for me to plan that many meals in advance at this stage of our lives. My children are all teens and involved in different activities so things can change at a moments notice. Plus with my work, I never know from day to day how tired I'm going to be.

However, I may have been able to (roughly) plan a year in advance when they were small and I was a SAHM. Even then there would have had to be room for adjustments as needed.

For now, I plan about a week at a time, making use of my stockpile and what is on sale. I try to be creative and not have too many similar things, but sometimes it happens.

For instance, in a week with hamburgers, I usually also plan tacos for sometime later in that week. Only because I buy lettuce and tomatoes and they wouldn't get used up with just one night's meal.

For those who think her meals don't look all that healthy, can I ask what type of meals you make? I'm not being snarky but actually want to know what you cook. Any healthy recipes you'd care to share? Can you honestly say that you never pick up fast food or something similar when you are running short on time?

I try to cook healthy meals for the most part but sometimes life gets in the way. We don't really do hot dogs here, but sometimes when we're out at a baseball game or something, the kids will get them. Once in a great while things just don't go as planned and we've ordered sandwiches or cheesesteaks from the pizza place. And occasionally we've ended up at a Wendy's or Burger King just because that's what was convenient at the time. For those who only eat healthy, how do you work around those situations? Of course, I usually pick a salad or something at fast food places but what do you do to avoid ending up there in the first place? Sometimes the best laid plans....

Oh, and as far as the Hamburger Helper, I make my own homemade version which uses fresh veges and cheese. Much better than the box stuff but the kids actually like it. The same goes for cheeseburger rice. It's not the healthiest meal I make, but it's better than box and quick. I don't think having these things once in awhile is all that bad.

Is there anything else on her menus that seem really unhealthy? Without actually seeing how she prepares these meals, it's hard to judge the nutritional value. You could say you're having a shrimp dish and think it was a completely healthy choice. And it would be if it was a stir fry with fresh veges. Fried shrimp or shrimp covered in a heavy butter/cream sauce, not so much. But I'm of the opinion that even those wouldn't be so bad every so often.

As with everything in life, everything in moderation.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

Don't be ridiculous. Steaks do not have blood.

Also, filling a child with the excessive salt and nitrates is terrible. A vitamin suplement doesn't make up for crappy food.

 

[missenmickey]

I have been following the Eat At Home blog since the first weekly menu. THe site has a lot of great, easy recipes as well as weekly menus. My family loves the soups!! I am a big fan of recipes that don't use a ton of ingredients and are easy to make. I look forward to my Eat At Home emails every day!

 

[TheRatPack]

We plan for the whole month...but it's just because I despise grocery shopping so the less I have to do it the better LOL I have to take the kiddos along to help push buggies and we usually do the dry stuff one day and then all the cold/freezer stuff the next.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

I did not look at her menu because Im not interested in it . I made my comments based on the comments I read here which is hamburger helper and other foods are crap foods and my point was stop judging the woman! Everyone has diffrent tastes and eat what they like. I dont like veggies to be quite honest and neithier do my kids. They are skinny,active and get supplements. What some may not like others will not have a problem with it . I dont care what anyone feeds thier family . My concern is MY family. I just dont see why people have to belittle the woman for feeding her family hamburger helper. If that is what they like than that is what they like.

We went to Charlie Brown SteakHouse one night and a family ordered steaks so rare i swear i could hear it mooing. It was absolutely disgusting ,pink and left blood all over the plate. They were feeding that nasty crap to thier kid too but I didnt say eww thats disgusting because i know that i may find it gross but they obviously didnt. I swear it was the gross ... and they ate it with zest

Obviously your kids don't matter, if you don't care about them getting healthy food.

As for the blood see earlier post. Your statement showed ignorance re. meat products.

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

OT, Ratpack, your sig. picture always makes me smile!

 

[wovenwonder]

Her menu selections are for the most part horrible! I hope someone has stepped in and taught her something about nutrition for her family before she planned out her menu's for 2010! I stopped reading after I got to the day they had BLT's, Macaroni & Cheese, & French Fries for dinner.

 

[momx2]

I couldn't plan a whole year at a time. But I do offer free, printable 1 week menus with complete grocery lists and recipes on my blog. I just posted the 26th menu today, so that's 6 months worth.

Here's a link to them. I need to add the newest 4 menus to this list, but there are 22 there to choose from.

ETA: I just added links to all 26 menus with grocery lists, so you can see them all from that page now.

Tiffany,
I just wanted to tell you I love your webpage and have taken many recipes off of it. Love, love, love the Baked Potato soup!!!

Back on topic, I couldn't do a year. I can do 2 or 3 weeks worth, but that's about it. And I do that many meals worth and plug them in where they work.