Let's jump into the new year discussing one of my favorite topics ever, FOOD!! With new year resolutions being sworn left and right, I am sure most of us are hoping to be more healthy and spend less. In my household, I literally see rotten money being thrown away. Food that goes bad or last minute stops to pick up something I forgot consume my budget. I pick up a Sunday newspaper in the hopes that I will save the coupons, research easy recipes to use these coupon-saved items and then actually follow through and make the meal for my family. Sometimes this all goes smoothly and I feel like super-mom. Most of the time there is some stage in the process that doesn't go according to plan. Does any of these sound familiar? You forgot the coupon, the coupon was expired, you forgot an item from the recipe, the store was out of an item, you didn't have time to clip, plan, or go to store, you made a recipe and the children refuse to eat it, your meal gets burnt or overdone due to distractions. I could go on forever where meals have given me grief!
Is this how it is with any of you? What are your issues with food in your houses? Did you discover some amazing system that gets you to a grocery store, get a great deal, make the meal that your whole family enjoys and not waste food or money?
Here is my pledge for 2013. "Food should be consumed, it shouldn't consume us"!!
Alright while I have gotten some good ideas from Facebook and comments there, I am hoping hear some voices here! One tool that I can always fall back on in the food category is Kraftrecipes.com! They have a ton of really easy recipes using mostly Kraft and their affiliates ingredients. Bonus there would be that you can find them at any store and you usually can find a coupon to accompany them as well.
ReplyDeleteI love shopping at Woodman's ... they have a plethora of coupons taped to the shelves ... many the ones from the paper so you don't have to cut out!! Though there are always more out there to be clipped!!!
DeleteTwo words... Trader Joes! Purchased four complete family meals with extra produce and milk for only 44$! You can't beat that. I also feel like even their cupcakes are healthier than regular ones. Picked up the vanilla buttercream cupcakes because they are amazing!
ReplyDeleteI have a spread sheet I use to list all the meals for 2 weeks. It then has all the grocery areas listed & I go through each recipe and jot down the ingredients!! Then I go through my coupons & star the items I have coupons for!! Lastly...I only take a certain amount of cash with so I'm not tempted to buy "extras!!" I also have our menu board so I know (and Jas knows) what is coming up and then we're not tempted to order out, though we do plan for those days!! Watch Groupon for a Tribune deal too...I have Sundays only for 2 years...it was $10!!! Made that up in the first couple weeks of clipping!!!
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