Meal planning

Meal planning.

 

If you are anything like my family and I, we waste a lot of money on food each week. I don't know how many times I've had to toss out meat or vege's because I hadn't used them and they sat in my fridge for the week or weeks, all of course with the intention of using them the next day but never did. (Hence why the meat wasn't placed in the freezer!). On top of this we ate out or had take away on those "just can't be bothered, my kids are driving me nuts" days, which seemed to be more and more common.

One month I added up the money we spent on grocery shopping (which included toiletries and household items) and it turned out to be a respectable $1100. Then I added up the meals that we ate out and the take aways and that very same month we spent another $1200 on food. This was shocking. A total of $2300 on food for the month!

I decided things had to change so I made meal plans for the week and did my shopping online to stop impulse buying. I made double size recipes so we could eat the same food two night in the row (spag. bog. always tastes better the second day anyway, right?) or so we could freeze to eat at a late date. That way we had no excuse on those days we just couldn't be bothered cooking.

It worked. We brang our food money spending right down.

Except now things had started to fall by the wayside. Dinners are back to last minute planning. We haven't eaten out as much which is great so at least that changed, but we are still wasting a lot of food. In addition, my meal planning never went beyond dinner.

So last week I got some extra motivation when I walked into a kikki K store www.kikki-k.com and saw their meal planner sheets. I didn't buy them 'there and then' because I'm a 'look in more stores first' type of shopper. Retailing at $9.95 I thought that was pretty good for a year worth of meal plan sheets.

I noticed in the Target 'Back to school' catalogue www.target.com.au they had a meal planner very similar except that it had space for a shopping list, so I ended up purchasing that meal planner. Target's retailed for $9.95 too so both stores offered great value.

Now I haven't used it yet and I may start off slowly.

Maybe with the weeknight dinners first then lunches etc but it's a start. I'll go back to online shopping because that not only saved a lot of needless buying but it was also a real time saver- and I probably should add, headache saver as my two children are a nightmare to shop with!

Children's coat stand.

Mr 3 1/2 is starting school this year and I was looking for a way to store his hat and school bag in his room rather then it hanging around in the kitchen or hallway. I had previously bought a coat stand from a large department store but it turned out it didn't have the sturdiness needed for toddlers who think that everything in their room can be used as a toy. It was wooden and light and just wasn't suitable. Lucky it was cheap so I didn't waste a lot of money.

A weekend trip to Ikea www.ikea.com I came across exactly what I was looking for. This Krokig Clothes stand is colourful and is cleverly designed. It is mostly made out of of steel with plastic hooks. The base is quite heavy so shouldn't tip to easily. The whole stand weighs 7.5kg and I think most of that would be in the base. It was easy to assemble. The hooks are adjustable, simply arrange the hooks and tighten the top knob to keep in place.

http://www.ikea.com/aa/en/catalog/products/40174507/