Reduce The Hassles and Cost of Preparing Meals
By kathy77
@kathy77 (7486)
Australia
March 11, 2007 11:49am CST
Time and money are in short supply for my family of four. To make it easier and cheaper to prepare meals, we devised the following system. We wrote down all the meals we liked and incorporated them into a two-week menu plan called plan A. We then made up another two-week menu plan and named it plan B. We listed all the ingredients we'd need to make each meal. When we shop for groceries now, we take a list of the ingredients for the main meals listed in that plan and we buy only what we need for the two weeks. The next time we shop for groceries we use plan B.
We now have many hassle-free nights as we don't have to decide what to make for dinner, and we know that the food is going to be in the kitchen. We save a considerable amount of money on groceries as we are not buying impulsively or buying things we don't need. Less food perishes too as it doesn't get pushed to the back of the cupboard!
5 people like this
9 responses
@lordwarwizard (35747)
• Singapore
11 Mar 07
Hey, this is one interesting idea!
But for me, my Mum does the cooking so she gets all the headaches of deciding the menu. She would love it more if we simply dictate it but our favorite response is - "Anything is fine".
I think she would get very excited if I tell her about your idea. :P
@byfaithonly (10698)
• United States
11 Mar 07
I used to do this all the time, when I had all 4 children at home I had no choice but to do anything and everything to save time and money. Afraid now it's just the youngest and I with both on different scheduals we don't do it anymore.
It does really help though and there were even times when the older boys got home before me and because they knew what was for dinner that night they would even start it.
1 person likes this
@NatureBoy (493)
• Singapore
12 Mar 07
Its always good to come up with a shopping list. And its really good that your family has managed to come up with this plan. I think it works pretty well, everybody can get what they like to eat. Cool plan. Maybe I can try it out. Thanks for sharing Kathy.
1 person likes this
@kgsaravana (169)
• India
12 Mar 07
Just eat natural foods & fresh vegetables and fruits. So we can reduce both the time and cost of preparation . And at the same we can maintain our health condition also.
@abbey19 (3106)
• Gold Coast, Australia
11 Mar 07
What a great idea Kathy! You are very organized in your family. I find, like you, that I throw a lot of food away (usually fruit and vegies), because it goes off before we get round to using it, and I hate waste. Our kids have all left the nest now so there's only the two of us - but we still throw stuff away, so I am going to implement your system and see if we can make it work. Save some money too.
@rossdcurran (151)
•
11 Mar 07
This sounds like a great idea to me. I have my name down for a flat and just might use this method. The only thing is were quite impulsive buyers and dont know if we would keep to the list.
1 person likes this
