I do a weekly meal plan based on “theme nights”. Monday is soup night, Tuesday is pasta, Wednesday rice and beans and so on. Weekends are left open to be creative if I feel like it or if I need to use up extra pantry items. This definitely helps with decision fatigue but still allows enough variety within each theme night to change it up from week to week. Also since weekly meals are usually based on the same key ingredients it eliminates a lot of extra food waste as I know I can use it the week after if needed. Love your channel, thanks for all the great tips! 😊💗
You have no idea how much your tips have helped inspire changes in my home. I have 2 teens and sometimes they would eat what I was going to use in a dinner because I hadn't told them my plan. So now on the fridge I have notes for my planned dinners for them (which helps so much with that decision fatigue), suggested meals they can make for themselves and where to find those items in our kitchen and a shopping list for us to all add to when we use up items. This has helped us so much!
I didn't plan it this way, but we've kind of fallen into having the same thing on the same day each week for most days. Weds and Thurs are currently floaters and don't have regular meals assigned. Normally at one of those days is a leftover day and the other one is something simple or some random meal we've been craving. The advantage to having a weekly rotating menu is our shopping is simplified and we don't have extraneous one-off ingredients lying about the pantry. You'd think we'd get bored of it but it actually gives my family a feeling of stability. The only one I'm getting bored of is spaghetti bolognese on Sunday. We've been doing that for 25 years now and I have to change up my plate a bit these days =D (ie, I'll just have veggies or something with my spaghetti rather than the bolognese sauce).
I started meal planning mostly because I was sick and tired of trying to figure out what to have for dinner every night. We keep it on the refrigerator with a magnet and my husband likes to be able to just check what's for supper. I like to be able to check whether I have to take something out of the freezer.
Another great video on the books. I always love your tips that make my life easier. I’m like you, I just don’t want to put too much thought into what to eat everyday. I like make a list too of our favorites to keep me from wondering off into the land of Pinterest and usually don’t come up with anything new that I want to cook. Take care sweet lady! 🌼
You are so hilarious! 😂 I have always meal planned bi-weekly just because that’s when my husband gets paid, so we work around his schedule. BUT I have never thought to go ahead and meal plan for the whole month! I think I could use this tactic, but we live 45 minutes from a grocery store, so shopping bi-weekly just works better for us, but I think I may go ahead and meal plan for the whole month from now on! I also only meal plan for dinner because like you said you want more variety. Another thing I do is if I plan a meal for a certain night and my husband is like, “hey let’s go out to eat” then I move that meal to the next available date, esp if I have the food already purchased. Great video!!
I have heard of decision fatigue, but I never associated it with meals. I can definitely see myself fatigued (annoyed etc!) , trying to come up with meals each night. I'm going to give this a try. Thanks for the tips.
Groceries are going to keep going up because of the price of fuel to transport goods and also costs other resources going..ie paying grocery workers $15/hour costs or heating the store ect. I also plan monthly because of how I cook! Like its cheaper to buy a 10 pound bag of potatoes for 2.99 at Aldi. I know, as a family or 8, we will get 4 to 5 meals with potatoes. Same with like a 10 pound bag of chicken thighs at Walmart for 54 cents per pound. I can divide them into four 2.5 pound bags of chicken for 4 meals. I can get 2 meals out of 5 pound bag of pinto beans that are like 75 cents a pound at Walmart. Like chili and burritos. So I try to plan my meals around the starches I keep on hand and the meats I find on sale. I buy a box of 5 dozen eggs. Cheaper than buying them 1 dozen at a time. And we will eat at least 5 dozen, sometimes 10 dozen eggs in a month lol.
We have adapted a fixed groceries budget & purchases revolves in normal & discounters. In Germany we have option of few discounters so it quite easy. Your tips is good as some time we over run the budget.
Today is Thursday night here in England. I am going to try this, jotting down now so I'm prepared for Saturday morning. 3 weeks until April, not too bad I guess. 😅😁
I am trying out the monthly meal plan. I was doing it weekly but it was a battle every week to figure it out 😂 I think it took me the same amount of time to plan one month of meals that it did to plan only a week
Hello I just found your channel and am enjoying it greatly ! I wondered what you did on the days of your meal planning that are empty. I see a few days with no meal plan included. Thank you
I meal planned about fifteen years ago. It didn't work so well because my husband would derail it by deciding to get something from any fast-food place, after I had started cooking. I gave up after a while because I couldn't get any input from him except 'Hamburger Helper'. I hate that but that is what he likes. I am the only plant based person in the household so now I plan for me and let them choose what they want. I will cook for them, but they need to understand that some thing take time. My husband still doesn't seem to understand that I need enough notice for some of his foods for defrosting. I batch cook for myself and freeze much of my food to last a while. I'm going to start meal planning for myself and leave the others to their own devices. Less stress for me. :). Besides , my food costs less than theirs. I also don't use sugars or oils. I use fruit to sweeten and use water or home-made veggie stock to sauté. Sometimes it is nice being retired and having a little extra time for food prep. :)
I plan weekly. I take my little list, hop in my car, go to the grocery store, put 7 meals plus all the ingredients it will take to feed my face into the grocery cart, pile my stuff on the conveyer belt, pay cash (yes the green paper with US Presidents),and I get just enough to last approx. 8 days. I add an extra day because if it snows, I'll be screwed. I typically fast 2 meals a day and eat just supper so I truly load up because by 4 p.m. this white girl is aggressively attacking the fridge. I go to the grocery store as I said once a week and that is the only time I leave the house, other than that, I stay home where I belong. I am looking forward to the state of Virginia finally getting a clue and opening up everything so I can return to church, then I'll get to leave the house two times a week as opposed to just once. That's all.
Hello, good morning Jennifer! I also do a monthly meal plan, it is less stressful, more efficient, and it works best for me since I do a main grocery haul once a month. Have a wonderful and happy Sunday!😊💖
I do a weekly meal plan based on “theme nights”. Monday is soup night, Tuesday is pasta, Wednesday rice and beans and so on. Weekends are left open to be creative if I feel like it or if I need to use up extra pantry items. This definitely helps with decision fatigue but still allows enough variety within each theme night to change it up from week to week. Also since weekly meals are usually based on the same key ingredients it eliminates a lot of extra food waste as I know I can use it the week after if needed. Love your channel, thanks for all the great tips! 😊💗
I love the theme idea!
For my sloppy joes, I use a can of green jackfruit and add some Bone Sucking Sauce to it, warm it up and put onto vegan burger buns.
You have no idea how much your tips have helped inspire changes in my home. I have 2 teens and sometimes they would eat what I was going to use in a dinner because I hadn't told them my plan. So now on the fridge I have notes for my planned dinners for them (which helps so much with that decision fatigue), suggested meals they can make for themselves and where to find those items in our kitchen and a shopping list for us to all add to when we use up items. This has helped us so much!
Alyse thank you so much for saying that! You kind words mean a lot to me.
I didn't plan it this way, but we've kind of fallen into having the same thing on the same day each week for most days. Weds and Thurs are currently floaters and don't have regular meals assigned. Normally at one of those days is a leftover day and the other one is something simple or some random meal we've been craving.
The advantage to having a weekly rotating menu is our shopping is simplified and we don't have extraneous one-off ingredients lying about the pantry. You'd think we'd get bored of it but it actually gives my family a feeling of stability.
The only one I'm getting bored of is spaghetti bolognese on Sunday. We've been doing that for 25 years now and I have to change up my plate a bit these days =D (ie, I'll just have veggies or something with my spaghetti rather than the bolognese sauce).
I started meal planning mostly because I was sick and tired of trying to figure out what to have for dinner every night. We keep it on the refrigerator with a magnet and my husband likes to be able to just check what's for supper. I like to be able to check whether I have to take something out of the freezer.
I started meal planning once a month!!! You are right it is so much easier!
Yay! I am so excited for you Stella. I love doing it monthly!
Another great video on the books. I always love your tips that make my life easier. I’m like you, I just don’t want to put too much thought into what to eat everyday. I like make a list too of our favorites to keep me from wondering off into the land of Pinterest and usually don’t come up with anything new that I want to cook. Take care sweet lady! 🌼
Thank you so much Christy! Have a wonderful week! ❤🤗
You are so hilarious! 😂
I have always meal planned bi-weekly just because that’s when my husband gets paid, so we work around his schedule. BUT I have never thought to go ahead and meal plan for the whole month! I think I could use this tactic, but we live 45 minutes from a grocery store, so shopping bi-weekly just works better for us, but I think I may go ahead and meal plan for the whole month from now on!
I also only meal plan for dinner because like you said you want more variety.
Another thing I do is if I plan a meal for a certain night and my husband is like, “hey let’s go out to eat” then I move that meal to the next available date, esp if I have the food already purchased. Great video!!
I have heard of decision fatigue, but I never associated it with meals. I can definitely see myself fatigued (annoyed etc!) , trying to come up with meals each night. I'm going to give this a try. Thanks for the tips.
Groceries are going to keep going up because of the price of fuel to transport goods and also costs other resources going..ie paying grocery workers $15/hour costs or heating the store ect. I also plan monthly because of how I cook! Like its cheaper to buy a 10 pound bag of potatoes for 2.99 at Aldi. I know, as a family or 8, we will get 4 to 5 meals with potatoes. Same with like a 10 pound bag of chicken thighs at Walmart for 54 cents per pound. I can divide them into four 2.5 pound bags of chicken for 4 meals. I can get 2 meals out of 5 pound bag of pinto beans that are like 75 cents a pound at Walmart. Like chili and burritos. So I try to plan my meals around the starches I keep on hand and the meats I find on sale. I buy a box of 5 dozen eggs. Cheaper than buying them 1 dozen at a time. And we will eat at least 5 dozen, sometimes 10 dozen eggs in a month lol.
I usually only do weekly meal plans but I am going to give the monthly planning a try for March. Thank you!!
Yay! Vegan! ❤
We have adapted a fixed groceries budget & purchases revolves in normal & discounters. In Germany we have option of few discounters so it quite easy. Your tips is good as some time we over run the budget.
Tip # 39 for saving your money, look for items that are marked down 50% or more to really save money.
Today is Thursday night here in England. I am going to try this, jotting down now so I'm prepared for Saturday morning. 3 weeks until April, not too bad I guess. 😅😁
thank you. I rarely meal plan thank you for sharing yours. 💕NonnaGrace
Thank you I just smash the 👍before I even watched the videos of yours always
I am trying out the monthly meal plan. I was doing it weekly but it was a battle every week to figure it out 😂 I think it took me the same amount of time to plan one month of meals that it did to plan only a week
You are so funny. Glad I found you.
Hello I just found your channel and am enjoying it greatly ! I wondered what you did on the days of your meal planning that are empty. I see a few days with no meal plan included. Thank you
I didn't realize 🙂 I like this video a lot. The idea is speaking to me
I meal planned about fifteen years ago. It didn't work so well because my husband would derail it by deciding to get something from any fast-food place, after I had started cooking. I gave up after a while because I couldn't get any input from him except 'Hamburger Helper'. I hate that but that is what he likes. I am the only plant based person in the household so now I plan for me and let them choose what they want. I will cook for them, but they need to understand that some thing take time. My husband still doesn't seem to understand that I need enough notice for some of his foods for defrosting. I batch cook for myself and freeze much of my food to last a while. I'm going to start meal planning for myself and leave the others to their own devices. Less stress for me. :). Besides , my food costs less than theirs. I also don't use sugars or oils. I use fruit to sweeten and use water or home-made veggie stock to sauté. Sometimes it is nice being retired and having a little extra time for food prep. :)
Good Morning - I had to re-upload this video. The music was too loud. It should be better now.
Great video!!! Congratulations on hitting 14,000 subscribers!!! Janel in NJ
Thank you Janel! I hope your staying warm in NJ!
I plan weekly. I take my little list, hop in my car, go to the grocery store, put 7 meals plus all the ingredients it will take to feed my face into the grocery cart, pile my stuff on the conveyer belt, pay cash (yes the green paper with US Presidents),and I get just enough to last approx. 8 days. I add an extra day because if it snows, I'll be screwed. I typically fast 2 meals a day and eat just supper so I truly load up because by 4 p.m. this white girl is aggressively attacking the fridge. I go to the grocery store as I said once a week and that is the only time I leave the house, other than that, I stay home where I belong. I am looking forward to the state of Virginia finally getting a clue and opening up everything so I can return to church, then I'll get to leave the house two times a week as opposed to just once. That's all.
Great info, but I missed something. Why do some days have no meal listed?
Those dates we are all not all together due to work schedules. We eat leftovers or quick meals on those days.
Hello, good morning Jennifer! I also do a monthly meal plan, it is less stressful, more efficient, and it works best for me since I do a main grocery haul once a month. Have a wonderful and happy Sunday!😊💖
Same to you!!! Have a wonderful week!
There are 10 days w/nothing written for meals. What happens on those days ? Leftovers?Or........... 🤷♀️
I think she repeats any of meals.
@@hilo5901 that makes sense. TY. 🙂
Honestly I have no idea how it’s March already hahaha loved your tips!!
I know right! Have a great week Emily!
I don't know who needs to hear this
"Save to invest! You're saving a day off work"
Best quote of the year!
Yes! well said I have been saving and making plans to start growing an extra income stream. Any guides on how to invest yet?
@@James-ye2ee it is a great idea investing,I make $3,000 weekly from my investment that has been a boost to my general income.
@@joeybordeaux7718 wow that's awesome!
How do you make such profits any tips?
This actually isnt that hard . its just about adapting to it and getting the hang of it lol.