Menu Planning

I made this nifty little coupon/grocery list notebook last week.

  It's not perfect (construction wise, it worked GREAT at the grocery store though).

But it's getting close. I have tried finding a tutorial for one, but most of the ones I have seen don't quite have what I need. Simple being the most important thing...I just sorta winged this. An improved version may pop up in my Etsy ;)

So this brings me to menu planning.

With the school year already here for most of you, it's time to get out of the summer haze and start meal planning again!

I have always done some form of meal planning.

My mom always did it so it was the only way I knew to make a grocery list!

Menu planning isn't just a time saver, it's a money saver. Fewer nights of "oh well, let's order pizza" (also waistline saver). Planning in advance for crazy days makes life a little easier.


I whipped up a little something for you to print out and use to help you get started if you are lost when it comes to meal planning. After a while you won't even need a handy guide


Here's what I do :)


After perusing the sale ads, I list my meals. I try to base my meals on things I already have on hand and what is on sale.


Also remember to keep an eye out for pantry and freezer staples that are on sale. Keeping a well stocked pantry makes meal planning a cinch.


Plan ahead for busy nights. A slow cooker meal is always great for these kinds of nights.


Know your stores. I know almost exactly what everything costs at the stores I frequent, what is on "sale" at once place may actually be cheaper at regular price somewhere else.


Try something new. I try to add a new recipes every week or so. Plan to do your new meal on a night that you have time to cook.


Don't know how to cook? You are probably wasting a lot of money on eating out and missing out on a lot of fun! Ask friends for simple recipes, there are millions online too. Pick simple recipes (6 ingredients or less) or even slow cooker meals.

A little tip for the cooking-challenged. Watch  Rachael Ray. Seriously. She cooks like a real life person and her little tricks (trash bowl, gathering ingredients, etc.) help streamline cook times. I have learned A TON watching her.


Make meal planning part of your routine and start enjoying fewer stressful nights and have an answer for the "what's for dinner?" question :)

Coupon Organization - Evolution of the Binder

So it appears that despite my best efforts, I may be in danger of needing to shift into the "baseball card holder" method of coupon organization. Keeping the entire ad is annoying, messy and I don't like having to clip as I go.

I keep my pages of printable coupons together, and that's working great, but the ads are just out of control. So I went and clipped everything I had left (excluding only Qs I know I will never use) and just divided them among the sleeves with the date and ad type. 

So for now, this is my ghetto-fied system. It's just so much easier to clip the ads as I get them and stick them in the sleeve by date and ad type. I am still not sure if I really want them in individual little pockets, but for now this will have to work. This week it seemed to work great, my couponing took less time, so I guess we'll see. 

So this is probably the 5th time I have changed my coupon organizing, and I am pretty sure it will change 5 more times :) So how are you all keeping your Q's organized? My couponing is just taking a lot of time lately, so I would love some new tips :)

Coupon Organization - THE BINDER

The entire time I have been couponing I have avoided THE BINDER method of organizing like the plague.  I do not want to be one of those crazy looking extreme coupon ladies.  I feel like a binder will put a huge bullseye on me at the checkout that says, "scrutinize every coupon I have, I am trying to get everything for free" or "Beware, I have 25 coupons for all 25 of these cans of green beans, but wait, I also have 25 store coupons for them too".  It's hard enough getting through the checkout without feeling like you are ripping the place off, without looking like an "Extreme Couponer".

Anyways, as I have been using more printable coupons and taking time throughout the week to gather information and it has gotten out of control.  Sheets and sheets of coupons everywhere, clipped coupons in piles, stacks of inserts and then there are all the coupons that you get in the mail, etc...needless to say intervention was needed.

The Flylady recommends doing a journal type thing to keep your cleaning and household affairs in order so I figured I could do it all in one.  I keep my zone cleaning lists and weekly cleaning lists in plastic sleeves so I can just use a dry erase marker to check off what I have done. 

See?  When the week is done I just wipe it off and go to the next zone checklist and start over with my weekly checklist.  This way I'm not printing out stuff every week (save those trees!)

Ok, back to the point.

So my cleaning stuff needed a place and now my couponing stuff is going with it too.  Here is what I have so far.

 I stuck a little zippy bag in the front and have been putting the coupons I plan to use my next trip in there.  I still want to use my small accordion file so when I am ready to go they will go in there.

 All my printed coupons that I haven't clipped are in sleeves.  

Going to try keeping all my inserts together and clipping as needed.  We'll see how this goes.  I put the date on the insert on the front of each one.  This way when I visit my saving sites and they say coupon for ___ is in the 4/10/11 SS, I can grab it easily.

I'm still not sure how this method is going to work for me, but for now all my coupons are organized and in one place :)  However, I don't plan on lugging this thing to the store though...

So how do you all keep your coupons in order?