Happy Monday my friends! When I shared our family’s weekly meal plan last week, I mentioned that our family is going through some lifestyle changes and cutting down our costs to live more frugal. For the time being, I’m a SAHM. This is rather unusual for me and will definitely take some time getting used to. It’s definitely been a change of pace for me.  Has anyone else gone from being a working full time mom to being a stay at home mom?  How did you get through it?

Meal Planning Systems

One system that hasn’t changed for me is my meal planning. Every busy mom whether you’re a working mom outside of the home or a SAHM, knows that good organization and having a meal planning system  saves both time and money in the long run and I’ve learned after many years of doing this, it happens to be very true when it comes to everyday meal planning. I’m sure many of us can agree that our family meal times are important to us. We all want to create that special family meal time and serve a wonderful meal to our family.

Having my meal planning stem in place on a weekly basis, not only saves me a whole lot of time, but also saves me a considerable amount on our family’s grocery budget. So this week, as I share in my Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Meal Planning ebook, I’m sharing how I’m using planned leftovers to save time, keeping my food budget under control saving money and gathering my family around the dinner table to create wonderful meal time memories. Won’t you join me?

Meal Plan

I meal plan at the beginning of each week. For me, it’s Sunday mornings when the house is quite and everyone’s still sleeping. I try and manage a decent frugal grocery budget and not go to the grocery store on a weekly basis unless we need dairy products like milk. Weekly meal planning saves our family money, reduces food waste, and keeps us from the urge to say, “Let’s eat out!”

Here’s our plan for the week.

My weekly meal plan and shopping list is completed and posted on our fridge:

Breakfast options:

(served with fruit)

French toast casserole
Pancakes
Waffles
Biscuits and Sausage Gravy
Cereal
Scrambled, Fried, or Hard-Boiled Eggs
Breakfast Burritos
Quiche
English Muffins
Homemade Bread
Biscuits
Muffins
Breakfast Cookies
Breakfast Potatoes
Mini Apple Pies or Turnovers

 Lunch options:

Sandwiches or Wraps (Tuna salad, egg salad, chicken salad, turkey salad, leftover meats, grilled cheese, blt, pb&j)
Quesadillas
Smoothies
Leftovers from dinner
Salad
Baked Potato
Homemade Pizza Pockets

Suppers Your Family Will Love

Need ideas for your weekly meal plan? It’s time for another weekly menu.  I enjoy menu planning because of  the simplicity it provides for my life. It enables me to decrease my grocery shopping excursions to twice a month and it allows me to  have more free time to focus on my family and home. For ideas in the weekly meal plan, we’ll be focusing on a variety of family meals. You’ll find the recipes on the weekly meal plan also available on my Recipe Index page with a grocery list included.