Just Another Manic Monday

I've decided to post on "the crazy"since that really does seem to be what makes the most sense to me.  How's that for a wacky concept.  So, let me start by telling you about my day yesterday.  Now, the process I'm about to describe to you lovely readers is supposed to be a weekly event.  You may understand why it doesn't alway happen after hearing it.

In an effort to save time, money, and keep my family healthy, I like to plan a weekly menu based on:

1) the weekly sale items at our local grocery 2)"pool" of a month's worth of recipes my family likes 

3) coupons.  Here's our menu board thanks to one of the genius' on Pinterest.com:

There's a clothespin for each day and they hold a meal card.
The pockets on the right hold the rest of the 30+ "pool" of recipes;
bottom: meals not yet made this month, top: meals already made this month.

Here are close-ups of the meal cards:

The meal is on one side

The shopping list (minus staples I have on hand) is on the other side

So, the process begins with a trip to our local grocery store's website to see what's on sale the current week; I focus mainly on meats and veggies since we're trying to eliminate processed foods.

Then I choose meal cards from the bottom pocket on our menu board that use food items that are on sale and make my grocery list.  I also check to see if there are any staples we're low on or out of in the fridge/pantry as well as toiletries and cleaning supplies.

Once I have my list, I try to find coupons for those items only.  I subscribe to couponmom.com

They will send you lists of sale items for your local store(s) including Target! (you must hear this in your head like the Target lady from SNL. If you have no idea what I'm referring to, go here).  

Next, I search the "coupon database" on coupon mom.com to find coupons for items that aren't on sale.  Now, you may be asking yourself "where are you getting the coupons themselves?"  Well, I sometimes use printable coupons, but I mainly use coupons from the newspaper.  I subscribe to our Sunday paper, save the coupon books with the date I received them written with a Sharpie marker, and file them in order by month in a large poly expandable file.  The sale/coupon lists on coupon mom.com will tell you which coupon book to look in by title and date received to clip only the coupon(s) you're going to use immediately.  That's right, I don't sit for hours clipping coupons anymore!  There are detailed descriptions and instructional videos on how to "coupon" all over the internet, including couponmom.com.  Depending on how organized I am this process can take anywhere from an hour to an entire morning as it did yesterday.  By the time I had my list and "coupons for today"ready to go, it was lunch time.  ALWAYS eat BEFORE going grocery shopping!!  So I finally get to the store with my list (in order of the aisles at my store), and my envelope labeled "Today's Coupons"on my mini clipboard, and my bin of reuseable grocery bags.  Yes, I have a bin for my bags and yes, my husband makes fun of me, but the cashiers and bag boys think I'm awesome so <pppbbbbllllttttt> on you, hubs!  Here's a pic of my bin, which keeps my bags organized and helps me remember them!

While my prep took a long time the actual shopping trip went very quickly, making the prep worth it.  Plus, I now have everything I need to make our lunches and meals for the whole week without having to figure-out what I'm making each night.  I'm not a huge fan of cooking and not having a plan is the number one reason we end-up dining out so often.  Which of course means lots of extra fat and calories and lots of cash spent.  NOT buenos!

The rest of my afternoon consisted of the "post shopping" debacle of putting the groceries away.  In my slightly OCD/Monica from "Friends"method, this does not mean simply putting cold stuff in the fridge and everything else in the pantry.  While this IS essentially what I do, I am addicted to (in addition to several other useful, but expensive products) Tupperware.  Most of my pantry is organized using Tupperware's Modular Mates (can you hear the choir?) and I use their "Fridge Smart" containers for fresh fruits and vegetables in the fridge.

Fridge Smart

Modular Mates

             

I also try to cut up/store fresh fruits and veggies in an easy-to-grab fashion to encourage healthy snacking.  These are, of course, stored in other various Tupperware containers :) You would be surprised at how long it can take to transfer dry goods, and fresh food into afore mentioned containers.

By the time that step is complete, its time to start dinner.  Yesterday the hubs happily grilled our salmon so all I had to do was prep/season the fish and steam some fresh veggies to go with it...whew!  Then there's making sure our kid(s) get cleaned-up and in bed at a reasonable hour and MAYBE a while to "pin" on pinterest.com and watch some t.v.  This particular day I went to bed pretty late, but got up at 3:30 to take my parents to the airport.  Luckily we didn't have anything planned early on Tuesday so I was able to come home and go back to bed for a little while.  Tired yet?  Yeah, me too :)