I was just realizing today that with this many people in the house I have had to come up with a way to plan our meals and shopping trips that is a little more involved than most families probably do.
First I sat down and wrote out all the meals I want to cook for our bunch. I have actually done this several times. I keep a list of these meals in my organizer, so if I think of a new one I can add it any time.
Then I assigned a theme for each day of the week. For example, I make sure hubby gets mashed potatoes and gravy at least once a week. Tuesdays are the easiest days to make this meal for me, so everything made Tuesdays must go with taters and gravy. Monday is chicken night. Wednesday is Mexican-ish. Thursday is date night since the children spend the night with my parents. That meal is always up in the air. Friday is quick night (either spaghetti or a casserole of some kind). Saturday can be more involved and/or take longer to cook. Sunday i like to use the crock pot or do something relatively quick and easy.
I sorted each meal I want to make onto one of those days. I made sure each day has four meals assigned to it, doubling the favorites, such as pork chops.
A little tweaking of the order was necessary to keep from having things too much alike too close together (such as BBQ ribs on Saturday and BBQ chicken the next Monday.)
Since each month is actually 4 1/2 weeks long (except February of course), I came up with three alternate meals to fill in.
Towards the end of each month I fill out a calendar for that month with meals, taking into account Holidays and where the end of the month falls in relation to the first. We do our shopping on Fridays, so if the last day of the month falls on a Monday, for example, i need to plan for the first few days of the next month also.
I do the same for breakfast and lunch with the child assigned to cook that meal deciding what will be served.
I have made a permanent inventory of everything we ever buy while grocery shopping. Since we do most of our shopping at Walmart, this includes a lot of things that aren't food. I made the inventory in the order of our house so that one walk through without backtracking will cover the whole thing.
Most weeks, I go through the house with my computer in hand and check if we have enough of each item to get through the week. I correlate this list with the menu calendar (if we are out of pasta, for example, but pasta isn't on the menu, i don't bother including it on the shopping list. The only exception is a couple of quick emergency meals i like to keep on hand for who knows what. i.e. spaghetti with canned sauce.)
For the first trip of the month i do the above with the exception that I figure what we need of each item for a whole month. This means I count up how many pounds of hamburger, sausage, etc. we plan on using.
If Hubby is doing the shopping that week, I organize the list in roughly the same order the store is organized in and then print it.
Unfortunately, Hubby has had gout attacks lately which makes it very difficult to get through the store. Add to that the fact that it takes 3-4 baskets to buy a months worth of food and he has decided, reluctantly, to let us do the shopping sometimes.
When the children and I do the shopping, I open 4 Word documents in addition to the one i have the shopping list in. I write one of my oldest children's (12-20 years old) names at the top of each document. then I drag and drop items onto each list so that I end up with 5 lists. Print.
At the door to the store i hand out the lists and pair the olders with a younger child each. They go one way and start the food, i go the other and pick up the none food stuff we need. By the time I get to the food side of the store, they are usually just about done. I do a quick check, help find anything they can't find, then we check out. (This takes half an hour on mid month trips. An hour and a half on the first).
Since we have been doing this, my children have learned to read labels and price tags, waste less food (it really makes an impression when you wheel five carts up to the register just how much food we eat!), and they have come up with ideas of how to save money on food. I am quite pleased.
By the way, with eleven people in the house, we spend more on food than we do on our mortgage payment. No kidding!
First I sat down and wrote out all the meals I want to cook for our bunch. I have actually done this several times. I keep a list of these meals in my organizer, so if I think of a new one I can add it any time.
Then I assigned a theme for each day of the week. For example, I make sure hubby gets mashed potatoes and gravy at least once a week. Tuesdays are the easiest days to make this meal for me, so everything made Tuesdays must go with taters and gravy. Monday is chicken night. Wednesday is Mexican-ish. Thursday is date night since the children spend the night with my parents. That meal is always up in the air. Friday is quick night (either spaghetti or a casserole of some kind). Saturday can be more involved and/or take longer to cook. Sunday i like to use the crock pot or do something relatively quick and easy.
I sorted each meal I want to make onto one of those days. I made sure each day has four meals assigned to it, doubling the favorites, such as pork chops.
A little tweaking of the order was necessary to keep from having things too much alike too close together (such as BBQ ribs on Saturday and BBQ chicken the next Monday.)
Since each month is actually 4 1/2 weeks long (except February of course), I came up with three alternate meals to fill in.
Towards the end of each month I fill out a calendar for that month with meals, taking into account Holidays and where the end of the month falls in relation to the first. We do our shopping on Fridays, so if the last day of the month falls on a Monday, for example, i need to plan for the first few days of the next month also.
I do the same for breakfast and lunch with the child assigned to cook that meal deciding what will be served.
I have made a permanent inventory of everything we ever buy while grocery shopping. Since we do most of our shopping at Walmart, this includes a lot of things that aren't food. I made the inventory in the order of our house so that one walk through without backtracking will cover the whole thing.
Most weeks, I go through the house with my computer in hand and check if we have enough of each item to get through the week. I correlate this list with the menu calendar (if we are out of pasta, for example, but pasta isn't on the menu, i don't bother including it on the shopping list. The only exception is a couple of quick emergency meals i like to keep on hand for who knows what. i.e. spaghetti with canned sauce.)
For the first trip of the month i do the above with the exception that I figure what we need of each item for a whole month. This means I count up how many pounds of hamburger, sausage, etc. we plan on using.
If Hubby is doing the shopping that week, I organize the list in roughly the same order the store is organized in and then print it.
Unfortunately, Hubby has had gout attacks lately which makes it very difficult to get through the store. Add to that the fact that it takes 3-4 baskets to buy a months worth of food and he has decided, reluctantly, to let us do the shopping sometimes.
When the children and I do the shopping, I open 4 Word documents in addition to the one i have the shopping list in. I write one of my oldest children's (12-20 years old) names at the top of each document. then I drag and drop items onto each list so that I end up with 5 lists. Print.
At the door to the store i hand out the lists and pair the olders with a younger child each. They go one way and start the food, i go the other and pick up the none food stuff we need. By the time I get to the food side of the store, they are usually just about done. I do a quick check, help find anything they can't find, then we check out. (This takes half an hour on mid month trips. An hour and a half on the first).
Since we have been doing this, my children have learned to read labels and price tags, waste less food (it really makes an impression when you wheel five carts up to the register just how much food we eat!), and they have come up with ideas of how to save money on food. I am quite pleased.
By the way, with eleven people in the house, we spend more on food than we do on our mortgage payment. No kidding!
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