A few years ago we found ourselves in an unhealthy, expensive food pattern. Most days I forgot to even think about dinner. Home with 3 small children for me meant taking one moment at a time and not looking too far ahead. That would leave my husband calling on his way home from work asking if I had taken anything out for dinner and me falling silent! 🙁 This was followed by either a last minute trip to the grocery store where you buy more than you need and don’t catch good sales, or some version of take out/ eating out. These habits are not very healthy and are very costly.

As a solution we decided to try planning our meals out ahead of time (our dinners), and shopping accordingly. We started with a master list of meals that we like, with some being quick and easy, some requiring more cook time, etc. We have added things to our list as we find more things we like and that suit our busy time schedule. It is not high tech, it is literally a shopping list piece of paper on the side of our refrigerator.

Meal Planning Meal List

• Italian Wedding soup
• stuffed peppers
• chicken french
• bbq chicken
• tuna casserole
• salad night
• beef barley soup
• tacos
• hamburger stroganoff
• Quick & Easy Mexican Chicken Fajitas

You can also check out From Our Kitchen for some of our house favorites.

To read the rest of my article on how we save money and pounds meal planning, please head over to Hip Homeschool Moms.