Dinner Calendar

I've had some questions about what I use for a dinner calendar, and this is what mine looks like:

As you can see, I usually follow a template, a certain kind of food on a certain night. It's obvious we eat Mexican food A LOT (it's my favorite!), usually on Tuesdays, and Pasta Night is Thursdays. It just helps me pick recipes to make sure we're not eating the same thing ALL the time, although there are some favorites that come up pretty often. This is my no means set in stone, we certainly don't eat every single thing specified on every single day. You'll notice that there are no days that say "Eat Out" or something like that, and we usually eat out once a week or so. 

There is a lot of room for flexibility, and we always have leftovers, sometimes a meal will get knocked down simply because we don't feel like eating it that night. The only 2 consistent things on this calendar that are almost 100% of the time set in stone, are Sunday meals (I use the crock pot pretty much EVERY Sunday) and Monday night Soup Night. This is something that we put into place because a can of soup is less than a buck and in an effort to consistently save money (and to have enough money to eat out once a week) we eat canned soup. John LOVES this because he's a major soup eater, but me, not so much. Usually my soup is Top Ramen or a can of Chili. John has never turned a soup down, and when I don't feel like cooking he'll more often than not say "Soup Night?" with a hopeful little-kid expression on his face.

Anyway, most of our meals have several shelf-stable ingredients in them that I buy in bulk at case-lot sales or at Costco, so side dishes and special dinners get thrown in based on what's on sale that particular week at the grocery store. I usually get to Costco about once every 2-3 months and Winco once a month after I've made my calendar and have a basic list to shop for. Then we'll just stop by the local grocery store when we need a few fresh things, usually milk (I only cook with powdered milk, we don't actually drink it) and fresh fruit.

Taking half an hour once a month to plan ahead, then going to the store as few times as possible in a month definitely saves us time and money. One of my favorite things to do is grocery shop, and I LOVE a good sale... it's hard for me to say no. This way I'm comfortable going Costco with a list, and NOT dropping a small fortune on bulk items (we've all spent a good $300 at least once in our lives at the magical world of sample ladies...) , and gives me a game-plan each week (I don't spend 20 minutes every day trying to think about what we are going to eat, then having to run to the store to buy things we don't have to prepare it).

PS - John still wants another plug for Soup Night!