In my household, I'm the one who does most of the grocery shopping and all of the cooking. I work from home, so technically I have more free time to shop and cook, although my husband helps with the shopping when he can. As someone who was raised by a mother who made everything from scratch, shunned processed foods, and kept a garden, my core beliefs about food are that it should be good and good for you. I prefer my salad dressings and spaghetti sauces to store-bought and it hardly takes me any time to prepare them. My husband, on the other hand, is the one who manages the budget. His ideas of food mainly relate to how many frozen burritos can one get for $6. His favorite phrase is "buy one, get one free." As you can see, we have very divergent ideas about how to feed our family.
He's right, we need to watch our bottom line, but I want to be right, too. I want to be sure that I am feeding my family wholesome and tasty foods. Would we ever see eye-to-eye on the issue of feeding our family? That's where meal planning comes in.
I started meal planning seriously after the birth of our second child so I wouldn't—amidst all the nursing, diaper changes, and shuttling back and forth to preschool—forget to feed my family. Or, so I'd at least remember to go grocery shopping for actual food and not just diapers and coffee. But I soon discovered that even though meal planning was helping me to organize the three meals per day that I was preparing, it also helped us stick to our budget. Yes, it's nice to always have an answer to the question, "What's for dinner?", but making our wallets happy was the real benefit. I could still shop for the produce I wanted, but I only bought exactly what we needed. A container of plain yogurt was used for a cool, cucumber tzatziki one night and embellished with honey, figs, and granola for breakfast the next day. The five apples and 10 apricots were eaten up in a week. The roast chicken was dinner, then became sandwiches, and eventually, the carcass made into soup. The bag of mesclun lettuce was made into the salads. The milk went into cauliflower soup one night and mashed parsnips the next. Very little was thrown away, and nothing was left to spoil, forgotten in the back of fridge. Because I had planned every meal and knew exactly which ingredients I needed to prepare them, that meant that I was shopping wisely—healthfully, deliciously, and wisely. My husband could definitely support that. Crisis averted.
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Comments: 26
I'm more of a have everything on hand kind of person and cook by the seat of my pants every night. This ends up with an odd collection of stuff to use up at the end of the week.
Congratulations on averting the marriage/food crisis and that you came to an agreement as well.
As for saving money, I am good at coupons and don't mind cooking from scratch or semi scratch.
Great featured article.
Congratulations on it.
DUH what part of growth-hormone did he not understand. (grin)
I agree. Teach a course, write a book, spread the word.
My hubby is the same way if I let him do the grocery shopping it would be alot of instant stuff,when he cooks it's take out..But I'm converting him slowly when I met him he was helpless in the kitchen..That is one of the main reasons I invite my children to cook with me so they can learn..When there friends come over they love it !!;Alot of there parents don't let them help,and can't even crack a egg..(some of them high school boys)We all need to take the time to teach our children so they can survive on thier own when thier ready and not be prone to fast dish's and take out a real wallet buster.
Great article :)Congrats on the feature :)
Gary Vincent
www.AgelJobs.com