Thanks to Flylady I have finally conquered menu planning.

Sorry if this is long.

It took my husband’s early(forced) retirement two years ago for me to realize carry outs, fast food and frozen pizzas,were the meals of the past,so I began the baby steps.

First I cleaned out the large freezer,kitchen fridge/ freezer older fridge/freezer along with pantry  cabinet and tossed freezer foods that couldn’t be identified,expired can good etc,and wrote down what was left(beginning of my inventory lists).

Second..I sat down and listed all  regular/holiday meals/desserts/baked goods etc I knew we enjoyed, I then divided that list into Separate lists,Spring/Summer-Fall/Winter-Holiday/Special occasion meals-Dessert/Baked Goods etc, I put these lists in sheet protectors, and put them in my CJ behind my meal planning section.

Third..I pulled every recipe for all the meals,desserts etc,be it on a card, cookbook, piece of paper etc and recopied them onto 4×6 cards which were then put into 4×6 photo pages, and placed behind the appropriate list. Pat on back tossed all recipe cards pieces of paper and donated recipe books.

So Wednesday(today)my meal/errand planning day, when I put my load of laundry in this morning I double checked the inventories of big freezer and older fridge/freezer,(all in basement)I then did the same for the pantry and kitchen fridge/freezer, from those lists I planned  my meals looking at the fall/winter meals,writing out each day meals, on a sheet of notebook paper,I place the meals plans and any recipes I may need(that I put in a 4×6 photo page),and put it in Control Journal,I create my grocery list on what I need for meals and restocking(we do shop Costco for a lot of our food/needs)and what is on sale at grocery store Bonus this week our grocery store has major baking sale going on so I pulled out Holiday baking lists and added those items to this week’s grocery  list,to complete my shopping planning I check the utility/bathroom inventory to see what I might need,and add those items, since it’s the first of the month I purchase all Birthday/anniversary cards for the month,those are added,and any other items/errands that need to be done.

So in less then 30 Minutes I have my meals/desserts for the week planned along with other needed errands for the upcoming week,the list is placed in Control Journal ready to go on Friday our day for errands.

Meal/errand planning has saved us in so many ways.
Thank you Flylady