Jared came home the other night wanting to discuss ways to cut back on our food budget. With grocery prices increasing along with our boys appetites, it's time to take action.
As you can imagine, feeding a family of 7 when 5 of them are boys is a bit pricey. I like to make things from scratch and enjoy new recipes but, like most, I get into a rut. We buy a lot of processed foods from Aldi for the kids. Jared and I eat the old Weight Watcher's Core plan 90% of the time. The problem is we end up eating the same thing over and over.
I'm wanting to feed the kids a healthier menu all while having some sort of plan vs the "what's for dinner" debate.
I started doing some research online for meal planning websites. Christi suggested E-mealz. It's definitely top of my list. My only concern is how particular my spouse and eldest are. I really like that you can shop store specific and they have Aldi listed. The Aldi list feeds a family of 6 one homemade meal a day for a week at $72.50. That's impressive.
Another website I found was Families With A Purpose. This one requires more work but ultimately is free and I pick the recipes that go in our binder vs having recipes provided for me that my family may or may not eat. I would use AllRecipes and the weekly ads to pick my menu and grocery list.
Between my insistence on eating healthy and the added issue of feeding all 7 of us for all 3 meals 365 days a year, you can see why I feel the need for some help.
I have a few friends that post meal ideas once in a while on their blogs. I usually scan them but rarely try out the recipes. This is obviously a discipline and will take time to create a habit, but if I'm going to be a good steward of our money in this area, this is a must.
I would greatly appreciate any tips, books, or websites you've used or heard of. I'll keep you posted on my progress.
4 comments:
I am going to look into becoming an extreme coupon person to feed the family. I need to get into the $500.00 worth of food for $7.00action!
You should start a garden! It is a great learning experience for the kids, fun for you, and exercise too! I add additional beds to my yard every year. Less yard to mow, more food for us, and great opportunities to get the kids to work. You need to come and see what we have done. I even have a greenhouse now!
We had great plans for a garden this year. A friend of ours said he LOVES to build raised beds but doesn't like to maintain them :) Unfortunately we haven't been able to get our schedules together. We just need to bite the bullet and do it ourselves. Neither of us are gifted in that area so we don't really know where to start. I tried a garden year before last and it was an epic failure.
We must get together! You'll have to come to Lawrence to see what we have done with our yard. I do Lasagna gardening. AKA the "No Dig" method. It is SO easy. They are raised beds, but you just put newspaper down and layer right on top of the grass. I'll email you some pics of what we have done.
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