everybody's doing it!

weekly meal planning!

Sunday: (yes i start on sunday. not monday)

It was supposed to be chicken and fried rice, but that seemed like too much work in my state so i made enchiladas instead

Monday:

welcome to moes!

Tuesday:

brinner, french toast, eggs, and bacon

Wednesday:

chicken and fried rice

Thursday:

twice baked potatoes with cheese and broccoli

Friday:

we did pizza and movie a week early, so maybe panera bread, i'm not seeing many leftovers being around.

the check out lady at harris teeter was very interested in the notebook carry with me every week.

it isn't a special notebook, just a spiral bound jonas brothers notebook.

it's jonas brothers because, jonas is convinced that they are his personal brothers and insist on buying things with their image on them. (thankfully so far its a lunch box, 2 notebooks, some pens and pencils he found at big lots and his yearly christmas ornament)

anyway, back to my notebook.

i love grocery shopping

i love coupon clipping

and i love list making.

so take a guess at what this notebook is for.

every friday night, i sit on the couch with this notebook, all my coupons and my mac with my coupons sites, the harris teeter sale ad, and various recipe site open.

i make a list of meals on the front of the paper on the back i again write out each meal, but i then write the items i need for each meal. i then make a 'general list' of things we regularly buy plus maybe a splurge, (like if ice cream is or pop is b1g1)

if i have a coupon for an item i mark it, if the coupon can be doubled i mark that too. and if the item is going to be free, well it gets a star!

i don't stick to brands on many things. bread frequently changes do to sales, my only stipulation is that the first ingredient is not 'bleached flour' which oddly is in many 'wheat' breads. salsa also changes with the sales. we only buy raw sugar, but again the brand changes. and our coffee..well we are coffee junkies so we are really picky about what we get, coffee is one thing i will splurge on (within reason of course!) some coffees are just better than others. we love caribou coffee, but right now we have dunkin donuts. why, caribou coffee was 11 dollars a pound, and dunkin donuts (with my coupon) was 5.

for the past 5 years, i have had an average savings of 60 dollars at each trip to the grocery store.

i tote my coupons everywhere

i even took them to disney with us. they cut our denny's bill in half, and the coupon mark found for the sizzler made our breakfast buffet less than 3 bucks a person.

i frequently spend less than 2 dollars, on 20 or more dollars of grocery's.

it always stuns the cashier and the person behind me in line or next to me at self check out.

now i didn't explain all this to the check out lady, i just told her it was the weekly meal list with the grocery and coupons to match. she just nodded and said "smart" when she was done ringing up my coupons and saw that my bill cut in half, she was more impressed.

i dont think i could do this with out my notebook. (i used to do it on the computer and print it off, oddly it was a little more difficult)

it keeps me organized and its the only thing i am good at organizing.

i am very good at saving my family money (especially through grocery shopping), i am proud of that.

i'm a stay at home mom, who stinks at cleaning! i'm good with the laundry, but everything else i'm pretty terrible at.

money is the one thing i am good with (yes mom and dad, it's my money now so i'm great with it!) so i manage it the best i can to make up for my lack in ability at that other thing... :(

tom is the opposite, he is great at the cleaning, but not so great with the money. he is not irresponsible by any means, but he always has to ask 'hey, do we have money for...' or 'oh no! did we pay...?!'

its just not his thing.

but it is my thing.

i'm glad i can contribute in some way! haha