Monthly Meal Planning: Part 1

This is part one of a three part series on Monthly Meal Planning. 

I'm sure it doesn't come as a shock to anyone who knows me that I meal plan. I love the organization of it, the creativity in balancing the meals with the budget, and the simplicity of not having to run to the grocery store every other day (although Owen has been trekked along in his stroller many a time to Trader Joe's right before dinner-time...). I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination on meal planning, or keeping a budget, but this has been something the Lord has put on my heart to do in order to love and serve my family. So, before I even begin, take what works for you from this (if anything) and expect that in months ahead I will be editing these posts as I rework things myself!

To start off with, I was never the girl growing up who everyone thought would be a cook. Or a homemaker. Or a meal planner. Well, perhaps the meal planner as it fit with my need for organization, but other than that I was completely disinterested in anything to do with the kitchen. I remember one occasion in which I burned rice so badly it had to be thrown out. If it wasn't microwavable, Ashley didn't even attempt it.

Once I got married, I was excited to now cook for my little family of two. We received a "What to eat?"  magnet pad for a wedding gift, and I put it up the first week back from our honeymoon. Those first few weeks, or months, were an interesting trial period as I transitioned into making more than prepared freezer meals for my new husband, and tried to stay within a budget for the first time in my life. I honestly feel as though the new wife of nearly two years ago and the wife and mama of today are completely different women. I love to cook now, and meal planning has gone from an annoying must to ensure I didn't only buy cheese at the store to something I look forward to doing each month.

Why monthly?

For the majority of the past two years I have done weekly meal planning. This has been great, but I found over the past several months that I tend to spend a lot more money the first half of the month on food, and scramble trying to stay in budget the second half - typically having to resort to many nights of beans and rice and other staples which are always stocked in our house. I decided to try out monthly meal planning (something I initially scoffed at in all honesty) and last month was the first time since Owen was born that I was actually able to stay within budget without playing money Tetris on Mint too much.

Actually, monthly meal planning has seemed to be much easier than weekly for me in several ways so far. The first of which is that it takes the guess work out of deciding each Saturday what to eat for dinners (Andrew and I go through our weekly schedule each Saturday so we can sync up and know what's up ahead for each of us individually and as a family, something that has proven massively beneficial and we can really tell when we've neglected this routine). I use a monthly calendar and also have a list of meals that Andrew and I have tried and liked and basically just fill in the boxes!

Another massive benefit of planning monthly is that I can allocate dinners and budget far better when I can see the entire month in view. I have a rough estimate of how much each of the meals cost, and which typically include items that we keep on hand, and this allows me to spread out the more costly meals throughout the month rather than only at the beginning. Additionally, monthly meal planning allows me to have more of a routine in when and where we buy our groceries which has been so helpful in building relationships with the employees at the grocery stores we shop at weekly. In fact, at the grocery store a few blocks away from our house where we do our weekly shopping, we have gotten to know one of the employees fairly well and are excited to continue to build that relationship.

So far my routines have been:
Trader Joe's  - once a week
Whole Foods - once a week (trying to make this twice a month)
Costco - twice a month (trying to make this once a month)

Check back for Part 2 of Monthly Meal Planning - some of our weekly meals, staple recipes, and must have's for our house!