Meal Planning: Phillips Style

I recently posted a picture of our meal planning board and it has created quite a frenzy of activity on my facebook page and with friends that I actually see in real life.  So, I thought I would blog about it.  First and foremost, I have to credit Joel with doing most of the work on meal planning in our house.  He is the one that typically will sit down and fill out the calendar.

We have a white board monthly calendar that we use to fill it out.  I am sure you can pick up a very similar thing at a store like Target, but I got mine free from MOPS. (Actually, I just saw a nice one through Fathead)   It used to hang from a 3M hook that I put on our fridge, but I decided to take that down and hot glue a magnet we didn't need anymore.  (It was a hockey schedule, so it was a big magnet, but I didn't want to throw a nice magnet away, so we found a way to reuse it.)

Joel has a list of recipes/meal ideas on the computer that are tried and true.  Some months, when he has more time, he'll also sift through cookbooks to get some new ideas.  He then just fills the board up.  We only plan the main dish and we only do it for dinner.  I have my go-to lunches or we have leftovers for lunch--no need to plan for those at our house.  I also tend to have frozen veggies in the house that I just throw with whatever meal. Also, some of our meals we hardly need sides--like stir fry or casseroles--all the food groups are included.

We also have a few standing dates most months.  Like the first Wednesday of the month, we put down WND, which means Wednesday Night Dinner.  Our church hosts a community dinner the 1st Wednesday of the month September through June.  We also go to small group on the first Friday of the month and that is potluck style.  Finally, we have days labeled LO--that stands for Left Overs and are days when Joel is on-call.  IF we have left-overs that is typically what I fix.  Or, I will do another easy meal like spaghetti, grilled cheese, mini pizzas, chicken nuggets, etc.  (Easy, fast and very kid-friendly.)  Many months Joel and I also try to either do one night out or a date night for just the two of us.  (Although to be budget friendly sometimes the meal out will be breakfast or we won't go out at all that month.)

Here is a picture of our white board:

Reasons we like to meal plan:
1. I don't like to cook.  There I admitted it--I actually really dislike it, but lets face it, it is necessary for me to cook with Joel's schedule.  So because I don't like to cook a meal plan prevents a) having the same three meals that I can make every 3rd  night and b) that we don't have to wait for Joel to get home to even begin cooking.  Because this brings me to the second reason we plan.
2.  Part of cooking that makes me dislike it is just coming up with so much is coming up with an idea for dinner.  If we don't have something planned ahead of time all of a sudden it is 4:30 or 5:00 and I have super hungry kids, which means they are also crabby.  I then need to think of something and hope that I have all the ingredients on hand.  Also, it probably means that we will have a vegetarian meal (not that, that is bad), but most of our meat is frozen, so it requires time to thaw.

1 and 2 ensures that Joel typically comes home to a almost ready meal and doesn't have to stop at the store on his way home.  Although, I have to give Joel even more credit.  He tries to plan bigger, more time-consuming prep meals on days he thinks he'll be home on time or on weekends he doesn't have to work, so he can cook.  He likes to cook, but just can't always because of his schedule.

3.  It also helps with grocery shopping.  We make the meal plan first and then I get a grocery list from it.  If I am on top of it, this means I only have to go to the store once for a large shopping trip a month and then perhaps one or two more times for a few items and fresh produce.

Finally, I think there are one thing to remember about us--.
We are pretty laid back and that is one reason we love the white board.  We are flexible with our meal plan and we aren't rigid with it.  If we don't feel like having what is on the meal plan, we can easily switch (which is way reason 3 is helpful--I have ingredients for almost all the meals for a month).  I know this is one reason my friend gave me for why they don't plan.  I say, be flexible.  Don't worry if your meal plan says tacos but you feel like pizza.  Do it and then just do tacos another night.

I know a month seems like a long ways out to plan, but remember reason number 3--it really helps with the grocery bill each month.  It also helps with our flexibility since we have quite a few options to switch around too.