Menu Planning- Or At Least Trying To…..

So as I do my daily blog surfing I constantly see posts featuring “Menu Planning.” At first, I thought it was a ridiculous idea and figured it was impossible for us because some days I feel like hot dogs for dinner and others I want lasagna. But how can one plan ahead for a whole week and then stick too it? I figured it was a waste of time to read and ponder, until this week. My husband and I decided to cut what we can from our budget, specifically groceries and eating out.
Yes, I am a stay at home mom, but I do not enjoy cooking. I have no patience for it and I like to pop things into the microwave, stove, or crockpot and be done, or my favorite is calling my husband and asking him to pick up dinner. Well I am working on changing and saving so this week I decided to really think about this “Menu Planning” concept. I think it can really work and save us money, but I am going slow about this process.

So here is what I am trying. My husband and I raided our cabinets, fridge, and freezer and made a list of all the possible dinners we could make. I was actually really surprised at how much food we really have. We made a list of about 15 dinners that we could put together as we had all the ingredients. Then what I will do is on Wednesday when our local grocery flyers come out I will see what is on sale and that is what we will be eating. So if ground beef, lettuce, and cheese is on sale then we will have tacos and so forth. Also, after grocery shopping I will add to my possible dinner ideas what I bought. Now every day when I am thinking about dinner I will just go to my list and pick something and cross it off when made!

I am very proud of myself for trying this and hopefully we can stick to it. I think it works better for us to just keep a running list of dinners that I can just cross off when I make or if I use the ingredients on something else. As far as sides go I definitely do not have a problem there. We have a million cans of vegetables, boxes of Mac and Cheese, and mashed potatoes, because for some reason I always think we need them and buy them. At least now I hope to avoid throwing away rotten unused food and hopefully using up some of my stockpile of staple items!

Let me know what works for you for dinners. I need all the help and suggestions I can get!