Saturday, April 30, 2011

Menu Planning How To - Final Step

So, you have your two lists.  Items your family loves, and new things to try.  First, figure out if you'd like to start with a weekly plan, or dive in and try an entire month.  Let's look first at a weekly plan.

How does your week look?  For myself, my daughter has a dance class one night of the week that creeps into our dinner hour.  I love my crockpot (will do a future post on this!) and I make sure that her dance night I have either a dinner in the crockpot, or later in the month, that it is a re-heat and serve day.  My kids (especially the littlest) like to eat rather early.  When we get home there is NO time to prep.  I need to have a dinner that is quick to get on the table.

Now that you have figured out your busy days, do you tend to have a free day or two where you have time to prepare a meal?  Jot down a meal on that day that takes you a bit more time where you won't have the stress of trying to squeeze meal prep in.

You now have perhaps two days figured out.  A meal for a busy day and a meal for an easy day.  Take a look at your favorite list, and pick four more off that list and jot them onto your calendar.  You now have six days covered and one left to fill.  Fill that last spot up with a new dish to try (I like to make new meals on a day where I have more time as I'm not as familiar with the recipe).  As always, this plan will be different for each family.  For myself, I usually eat at my parents home one night a week, and only need to fill in six dinners at home.  Perhaps your family likes to do a pizza or take out night?  Figure these all into your weekly plan.

Are you wanting to make the leap to a monthly plan?  Last month (April) was the first time I gave this a go, and I loved it.  Obviously it is similar to planning a weekly meal plan, however, at the beginning of the month, I ensured that the meals I prepared,  I made double of.  The remainder I froze, and at the end of the month, I had essentially no meal prep.  Because there were four weeks in the month, eating items in the fourth week we had eaten in the first week, did not seem like we were always eating the same thing.  As things changed over the course of the month (an unexpected night out for instance), I'd write down on the May calendar, items that were unused in our freezer from April that I could transfer over.  I like that we are entering May with a few items at the ready.  At a glimpse, week 1 and week 2 were all different items.  No repetition.  There were also probably two new dishes we tried.  Week 3 and week 4 had 'leftover' meals from the first two weeks, but also with a couple fresh meals (just to keep interest up). 

Any questions? Do you have a meal plan now written down either for the upcoming week, or month?  I'll do a post tomorrow with the final step - creating your grocery list. 

This may all seem a little time consuming, but the end result is worth it.  Less effort in the kitchen on a daily basis, and more money saved at the grocery store! 

Our first week of May will look like:

L/O frozen macaroni - homemade with sweet potato hidden inside (I enjoy fooling the kids) ;)
Chicken Fingers & fries with salad
Spaghetti
Pizza - my daughters 4th birthday dinner choice!
L/O Burritos
One night dinner out

How 'bout yours?

Friday, April 29, 2011

Menu Planning How To - Step 2

Yesterday we left off with you having created a list of your families favorite meals.  Since I first made my list back in the winter of 2010, I have kept it on the side of my fridge.  Somewhere easy to find, and not able to get lost.

Here's the second part of the plan.  Write down a list of meals, or types of food, you would like your family to try.  These might end up being total bombs, but you never know unless you try.  By experimenting with new food, my family and I have found new favorites to add to our list. 

For myself this month, I have added on a couple vegetarian options, and a meat dish we don't normally eat (ham).  My hubs loves meat, but I'd like to incorporate a few 'lighter' dishes into our weekly fair as well. 

Here's what I've added in:

Soybeans & Rice
Homebaked beans (& hotdogs/some type of hopefully healthy sausage for the kids)
Ham, potatoes & steamed veggies

You don't want to come up with a whole bunch of ideas and feel lost figuring out how to use them.  Throwing in just a couple curve balls into your family routine is a good place to start.

What new things will you incorporate?

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Menu Planning How To - Step 1

It's almost the end of the month, and that means a whole month of needing a meal plan is ahead.

When I first went on maternity leave with my son, I started doing weekly meal plans.  I found these useful, and I did notice it cut down on our bills, but they are nothing like having a  meal plan for an entire month. 

Over the next few days I am going to post up how I go about making my plans.  I hope you'll play along!

Benefits of a Meal Plan

I only make my meal plans for dinner.  I find our lunches to be alot of the same (sandwiches, Annie noodles, snack plates) and don't require much forethought.  Dinner however, when the kids have reached "witching" hour, having a meal plan is a gift.    Having a meal plan takes away the need at 3 pm to think as you stare into the fridge "What am I going to make for dinner?".  It's right there, in my case, on your calendar. 

Meal planning also eliminates alot of trips to the grocery store.  I tend to only go once a week, where otherwise I may have gone two or three times. 

My husband is anaphalactic to dairy, and as a result we don't eat out at many restaurants, but I would go so far as to say, if you meal plan, you would probably be more likely to eat out less often. 

Convinced?  Let's get started!

Step 1

Grab the cookbooks you find you use most frequently, a pen, and some paper.  Go through those books and make a list of all the meals your family loves.  Utmost importance to me were meals I knew my kids would eat without a fight.

The first list I made looked like this:

Fajitas
Burritos
Stir Fry
Cacciatore
Chicken Strips & Fries (I make my strips from scratch)
Chicken Burgers
Curry Stew
Pizza
Peanut Chicken
Spaghetti
Chicken Pot Pie
Chicken Noodle Soup (also from scratch)

Alright, I'm going to stop here and come back tomorrow with what to do next.  Please share your favorite dinners in the comments.  It is always nice to get fresh ideas! ( that is a hint for what's to come!).

Question from Amanda on my Sobey's post:  How often does Sobey's do the BOGO deals?  Can anyone help answer this?  Thanks!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Fill 'er up!

Many of the grocery stores also feature their own gas bars, and offer discounts for filling up your car if you are a member.

Safeway - 5 cent per litre discount with grocery purchase (I believe the purchase needs to be over $35). There is an expiry date to use it by however.  With groceries purchased in April, I have until mid June to use the discount.

Co-op - You earn 3 cents per litre in grocery money each time you fill up and present your member card. 

Superstore - is there a gas discount or do you get dollars to shop?

Myself personally, I live near a Petro Canada where I use a Petro Canada card to get discounts. After earning 18 000 points I qualified to receive a 5 cent per litre discount card. I now save a couple bucks everytime I fill. This is the easiest and most convenient option for me given the proximity of Petro Can to my home. Part of saving is taking into account how far it would require you go in order to get the savings. If you need to drive an extra 20 minutes to a particular grocery store for a special deal, are you truly saving once you factor in your gas and time?   For example, there is a new bulk grocery store in the NE, but after factoring in the time it would require for me to get there, I realized I can probably find equivalent deals closer to home, and even if I pay a bit more, I probably end up saving just as much in gas $.

Where do you fill up?  Do you take advantage of grocery store gas bars & associated savings?

Monday, April 25, 2011

Let's talk about Sobey's

I'm not a Sobey's shopper.... yet.  I've been thinking the past few days about how I only check out the Safeway & Superstore flyers.. never Sobey's or Co-op.  I think this is for two reasons.  The first being that in my mind, Co-op & Sobey's are two of the most expensive places to shop.  Second, because they carry very few non-dairy options for my hubs.  However, my girlfriend lives in an area of the city where an IGA was converted to a Sobey's.  It is walking distance from her home, and is the most logical place for her to get her groceries (plus she probably doesn't have any strange associations to the store like I do).

I think my perception has to change.  She has been posting some Sobey deals up on my Facebook page, and I must say I'm impressed.  I did some research, and a Sobey's card is just as easy (and free) to sign up for as a Safeway card. 

Here are the awesome BOGO deals at my local Sobey's this week:

Boneless Pork Loin Chops
Breyers Icecream
Kraft Cracker Barrel Cheese
Navel Oranges
Renees Gourmet Cooking Sauce
Raisin Bread (I normally make my own bread, but for $2.99 for one loaf, and you get one free, I think I'll try their Raisin Bread out!)
Goldfish
Quaker Quick Oats
Astro Yogourt
Chicken Breast with back attached

These are just some of the awesome deals and freebies.  Now of course, some may still be cheaper elsewhere.  For instance, I bet that Goldfish are still a better deal bought at Costco.  But I don't think you can go wrong with the Pork Chops, the Chicken, the Icecream, Cheese, or Quaker Oats.

I think one more plastic card and flyer will be added to my shopping regime.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Flyers - Where to find them Online & Preparing to Shop

Updates to the post are found in red.

Every week I go through the online flyers for the stores where I shop, to see what great deals can be found.  If you are a Safeway sale shopper (this is key - Safeway is the most expensive unless you only buy their sale items) you can find the flyer here.  Superstore - here.  And occasionally Costco will post them here.  As mentioned, I have found Wal-mart to be most expensive, and as of yet, I don't check their online sales. 

Here are the deals I have found this week for my family:

Safeway

Royale Bath Tissue - Double Roll or 24 Roll $5.00 Limit of 6.  Superstore was $9+ and regular price at SF was almost $12. 
Mangoes - 5 for $5
Axe Body Wash for my Hubs - $2.99  Superstore around $5, and regular $5+ at SF. 
Colgate Toothpaste - BOGO This deal applied to all types, even the kids line.

Superstore

Dole Pinnaeples - $0.87 (On sale these are 4/$5 at SF, and usually around $1.25 each at SP).  Obviously others too thought this a great deal.  Large chunk cans were already sold out. 
Listerine - $4.49 (I have a coupon for $3 off.  Paired with the sale I will only pay $1.49).

In order to ensure that the Safeway deals, are in fact deals, I shop first at Superstore and write down the comparitive prices.  For the Bath Tissue, I will also be checking the price of buying the item in bulk at Superstore.  The Safeway deals last until April 28th, so I have some time to figure it all out. 

In the past by shopping this way, I have learned:

  1. Tostitos on sale at Safeway are still $0.03 more per bag than regular price at Superstore.
  2. Eggs are cheapest at Costco costing $0.08 an egg - they are $0.19 & $0.20 cents an egg at Superstore & Wal-mart.
  3. Milk is cheapest at Superstore.
Have a great week shopping!

Today at SF I saved $73 by buying sale items in bulk!

Friday, April 22, 2011

A Better Way

I have been a stay at home Mom since September 2010, but have only been a one income family since January 2011.  We were rolling along merrily when my husband and I looked at eachother in March and asked "Where is all our money going?".

I have flirted off and on with PearBudget, and with monthly meal planning.  My first step in figuring out where our money was disappearing to, was signing back up on PearBudget  (great site & free for the first month as a trial.  After that it's a cheap monthly fee of only $4.95).  Taking all of  our expenditures from March and inputting them into PearBudget, I was shocked to see we had spent over $1000 on groceries.  For a family that consits of four people, two of whom are quite wee, that number was my "a-ha" moment. 

The following is a note I posted on Facebook a few days ago about ways that I went about reducing that number over the month of April.  We are now a week away from the end of the month, and I'm proud to report that we have saved around $350.  I hope to reduce those numbers even furthur in May. 

Changes I've Made

  1. At the beginning of the month, I made a meal plan for the entire month.  I doubled each recipe I made at the beginning of the month, and then at the end of the month, for the most part I don't have any food prep.  I just re-heat and serve.  I particularly like that I don't have to think about what to make for dinner.  If for some reason a meal doesn't work out for that particular day, I take a meal from a few days later and switch them.  Because the "repeat" meal is so much later in the month, it doesn't feel like we are always eating the same thing.
  2. I am making my bread from scratch.  It is a multigrain whole wheat loaf.  Most bread at the store averages close to $5.  I buy my multigrain cereal from Amaranth and $2 worth makes about 5 loaves.  I make 2 loaves once a week and can usually get it done while my daughter is in school.  It doesn't take as much time as you'd think!
  3. We are storing all our grocery receipts so that at the end of the month, we can see exactly what type of food we were buying, how much, and how much we saved.
Grocery Shopping

  1. I now shop at Costco, Safeway & Superstore.  I shopped once at Walmart, but only found a few items to be cheaper.  I will be buying our Lil'Ones Yogourt there however.  Superstore doesn't carry it, it is $5.77 at Safeway, and only $5.09 at Wally World.  I'm lucky that I live in the middle of all these stores so I'm not driving out of my way to get to any of them.
  2. Other than a few items, it is generally cheaper to buy items at Safeway when they are on sale.  BUT, you need to watch the sales.  Sometimes items on sale are actually the same as the regular price at Superstore.  Which brings me to...
  3. Pay attention to flyers.  I now look at the Safeway and Costco flyer each Sunday to see what that weeks deal is.  For instance this week at SF, you can get 3 boxes of crackers for $6.  Superstore you would still pay over $2.  This is a steal.
  4. I stock up on when something is a great price.  I now have about 9 boxes of cereal stored, 9 boxes of crackers, toilet paper, Ketchup, Onions, pasta etc.  No sense buying these things at full price if I can store them and get them for cheap.
  5. I also (eek) use coupons.  Websaver.ca is a great source, as well as save.ca  I have found it difficult to use save.ca but have had no issues with websaver.ca
  6. Don't forget to use rainchecks.  They were out of my husbands Soy Milk at SF on the 10% Tuesday (1st Tuesday of the month).  I got a raincheck and said I would have bought 8.  I now use that raincheck and buy 2 each time.  I get the savings for the entire month now.
These are just some of the changes I've made.  I'll be updating this blog frequently.  Keep checking back in and please share your own tips!  If you'd like to also post on this site as an author, please let me know.  Thanks!