A Brief Update

In my last post I talked about my goal to start menu planning and couponing. Well, I am happy to say that almost 3 weeks later, we have stuck to it. The first week I made apple dijon pork loin, hamburgers, and tomato basil soup. We ended up having leftovers from all of those. The second week I made ranch chicken and salisbury steak. We were supposed to have spaghetti that week, but our church ended up having a spaghetti dinner for a fundraiser on Wednesday, so we moved it to next week. So far this week we have had shepherd's pie and tilapia. I am actually quite excited that this has worked. I hope to post some pictures and recipes soon, but most of the pictures aren't on my computer yet, and I only have a few minutes.

As far as couponing is concerned, I am quite pleased with how this is going, also. I went to Kroger the other day and saved 41% plus got a $5.00 gift card. This ended up making it closer to 46%. I feel like I am slowly learning the tricks of the trade. It takes quite a bit of time, but I think it will become quicker now that I have everything organized.

I hope to figure out whether the menu planning actually saved us money at the end of the month. Our problem right now is that we are still eating out quite a bit, and we aren't always cheap when we do. The other problem is that when you first start couponing, you have to build-up your supply of staple items when they go on sale. This adds extra costs at first. It will be interesting to see what happens. I was telling a friend the other day that I have really made it a game (I know I'm weird). If you know me, you know that I am very competitive. It helps make it fun, and I think it also helps me stick with it.

Couponing and Menu Planning?

So, I may be late getting on board the couponing and menu planning train, but I've finally decided to try it. If you know me and my husband, you know that we LOVE eating out. I can't really explain this love, because I also LOVE to cook, and my husband likes to help me in the kitchen. Perhaps it's the fact that I hate cleaning up after cooking.

Anyway, over the last few months we have decided to cut back on our food budget. This equals less eating out (which can prove to be very difficult when working with a bunch of college kids at church). However, I am also guilty of cooking fancy meals that end up costing as much as it would if we had eaten out. In an effort to combat these problems, I contacted a friend of mine that is amazing at couponing. She sent me a powerpoint that she has used to teach people at her church how to coupon effectively, and I am slowly learning the tricks. Let me just say, it is not easy! It takes a lot of diligence and time. However, if you know me, you also know that I love solving puzzles. To me, this is all a big puzzle to solve each month!

Another method that I am now trying in order to save money in our food budget is menu planning. This is completely new to me. Honestly, I am starting off easy. I am only planning 3 meals per week. The other nights we can either eat leftovers, find something else around the house to cook, or those will be the times that we eat out. Also, I am not being super strict about which nights we eat those 3 meals. I think the key to me sticking to the menu plan is going to be allowing it to be flexible. If I am successful with 3 nights per week, perhaps we will increase it next month. The advantage that this is giving me is that I can make less trips to the grocery store which equals less impulse buys, and I can plan ahead for using the coupons that I discussed above. I can also plan ahead meals that don't cost an arm and a leg to make but are still good and maybe even healthy.

So...all of this will start on Monday with Apple Dijon Pork Roast...which though it sounds expensive, it really isn't. Feel free to ask me how this is going. I'm looking forward to it, and hopefully I will blog more often to tell some of the recipes I use, and how it is going.