Weekly Meal Plan 9/22/16

As promised, today I am posting my meal plan for the week. It’s in the form of a handy, down-loadable PDF, so you can print it out and use it, if you would like. I am not including recipes at this time, but most of the meals can be found via a quick Google search. I also plan to add recipes as I make some of the meals, so they will be available in the future.

As you can see, my meal plans are fairly simple, and don’t generally include super-complex meals. I like to keep things as healthy as I can though, so I try to include all the basics in every dinner. Some weeks I’m more adventurous, as time permits. This week is basically pretty quick stuff, with the exception of the lasagna. I do try to make something special at least once a week. Sunday’s lasagna is that meal.

Of course the days are not set in stone, and if something comes up I always feel free to move meals around so that something more simple can be whipped up on an unexpectedly busy day. You should feel free to do the same. Never let yourself get tied down to the schedule (unless you want to be). Start on any day you like and switch stuff around as much as you need. Most of all, have fun!

Well that’s about all there is too it. If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask, and I’ll try to answer them for you.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Take on Meal Planning

Today I thought I would share a bit about how I plan meals for the week. I’m honestly pretty new at the whole meal planning game, but I can already see how much easier it makes life. Knowing what I’m making for dinner all week allows me to make sure I buy everything I need on my weekly shopping adventure. It also makes it a lot easier to remember to take the necessary meat out of the freezer on time. It does take a little time once a week to get it all planned out, but I think it’s a lot less time than I was spending in front of the cupboards hemming and hawing over what I was going to make that night. The boys also seem much happier with dinner now since I can plan ahead and get ingredients to make more unique meals. Really, this does seem to be pretty life-changing. I won’t say that it's going to last until it actually has, but I really hope I can follow through for the long term on this one.

So on to how I actually do my planning. When I first started meal planning I set every day with a theme (Italian, sandwiches, Mexican, etc), but I found that was too limiting for me. After some experimentation and thought I decided it was better to keep it simple. So now I have it set up on what meat we’ll be eating, and the days don’t matter. I plan out seven meals, look at my upcoming schedule and then plan the best way to put those meals in order. At this point we’re eating chicken twice a week, fish or vegetarian twice a week, and beef or pork the remaining three days. This works well at our household, but it’s easy to adapt to suit your personal tastes. Don’t eat pork? Just drop it to beef twice a week, and have chicken three nights a week. Easy peasy. It really can be adapted to work with any meat restrictions, or dislikes by just switching things around a bit.


In our household dinner almost always includes a starch, and I insist on vegetables or fruit every night (and throughout the day). I’m not a big fan of washing dishes, and we don’t have a dishwasher, so I usually try to use as few pans as possible. That means we have lots of one-pot-meals that have all those components included. This isn’t always possible, but I try for it when I can.

So with all that in mind I sit down and dive into my cookbooks and recipe websites for inspiration. Often I have some things bookmarked to try and I’ll start there to see if any of those ideas will work for the coming week. Once I get through those I move on and try to find other interesting recipes. I usually include a few meals that I can make up as I go along, or that I already have memorized to keep things simple for myself.

Once I have all our dinners laid out I check what I have in the pantry and the freezer/fridge and I build my shopping list for the week. I usually do all of this on Thursday, since Friday is typically my shopping day. Included in the shopping list is anything we might need for breakfast and lunch that week.


Breakfast is simple in our household. Most days we all have a smoothie, with banana, protein powder, frozen fruit, vanilla yogurt, and OJ. Occasionally I will make something more exciting on the weekends, and I try to plan ahead for that as well. Spontaneity does happen sometimes though. Lunch is also pretty simple; leftovers and/or snacks. Snacks include; fresh fruit and veggies, boiled eggs, meat, cheese, nuts, crackers, granola bars, etc. I try to keep most meals healthy, easy, and quick since I have a lot to do in a day, and there are things I’d rather spend those hours on. At least where breakfast and lunch are concerned. I usually invest a fair bit of time into dinner.

So that rounds out the how of my meal planning. Tomorrow I'll post my meal plan for the week, and my shopping list to illustrate how it ends up looking most weeks. I hope these posts help get you started on meal planning in your household and that you find it as useful as I have.

Thanks for stopping by! See you tomorrow!

Inspiration From the Past

About eight years ago I got my first Android phone and with it I discovered the joys of Kindle. It revolutionized the way I read and opened up a whole new world of books that I could read. Free books were plentiful, and the selection of free books has grown exponentially since then. One of the first free books I got for my Kindle app was The American Frugal Housewife, by Lydia Maria Child.

Though this book is nearly 200 years old, it is still amazingly relevant today. Included in its pages are tips for frugal living, recipes, and many anecdotal stories to illustrate the points Child is trying to make. I have read this book several times over the years and I have always found it inspirational.

It is interesting to discover that things were really very similar nearly 200 years ago. Wealthy people still set the standard and the poor tried to emulate them; often at the expense of their well being. Child uses many anecdotes throughout the book to illustrate her point, and those stories really could be from today. Most of the stories are examples of people misusing their money simply to look good to their neighbors. She always points out how that never works, and how the people are far less happy in the end because of it. I must agree with what she has to say, having made many of the mistakes she illustrates in my youth.

I highly recommend reading the book for several reasons beyond the tips it gives on frugal living. One, it’s free, and free is good if you’re trying to be frugal. Second, it’s a wonderful history lesson, and one you can often relate to. Though in some cases the language is difficult, and there are lots of words that have been lost to time, it’s still a fun read, and it gives a great deal of insight into how people lived in the early 19th century. Being an avid reader that was more than enough reason to read it, but you will have to make up your own mind. If you decide to have a look, the Kindle edition is free and the dictionary function of your Kindle (or Kindle app) will help with those strange words. It is also available on Project Gutenberg for those without access to Kindle.

I have tried to institute many of the recommendations from the book and around the web into my lifestyle, but have rarely been successful. Frugal living simply doesn’t come naturally to me. I continue to try though, and when I need a bit of help I turn to Ms. Child for support, and she always delivers.

This blog is dedicated to my attempts at frugal living, and all that entails. Some days that might be the latest great tip I have discovered for saving money, or maybe just my weekly meal plan, or talks about homeschooling (not exactly frugality, but it’s a big part of my life, so there you go…). Really, this blog will cover a wide range of topics that I find interesting and I hope you find them interesting as well, maybe even a little bit helpful.

I hope you will join me on this journey and find inspiration along the way. Have a great day everyone!