April 16-30 Family Meal Plan

April is half way done. Can you believe it? That means that we are that much closer to a moving truck showing up at our house. I am not ready. At least our dinners for the rest of the month are planned.

I think I'm going to attempt grocery shopping today because it's suppose to rain all weekend. I have a hair appointment Saturday morning and I really don't want to get caught out in the rain grocery shopping with freshly straightened hair. So I may shop today. I need to make a grocery list first.

I am anticipating a larger grocery bill because there are other things we need for the house. I was able to carry a meal or two over from the last dinner menu so maybe that will balance some things out. We shall see. I'll share my grocery haul and answer some of the questions I received via email in the video. Thanks for watching those! 

If I look a little sleepy in the video (or on snapchat) it's because my husband is in training for his upcoming promotion and that has left me pretty busy with the kids solo. Moses has been sleeping well but he's still not sleeping all night. Pumping is literally draining the life out of me but I will push through like all the other Mamas out there. There is a blessing in being tired and that is how I push through the tough times. I'll share my philosophy on that in another post.

Happy Friday, Mamas! Do something special for yourself this weekend (after you go grocery shopping)! 😉

Monthly Meal Plans & Grocery Hauls Coming SOON

If you're a friend of the blog's on Facebook then you may have been asked to take a survey about what you'd like to see more of here on the blog. First of all I just want to say THANK YOU to everyone that took the survey.

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated. The number one thing that people said they wanted to see more of was food. Mainly - the monthly meal plans that I did once upon a time and the grocery hauls to go along with them.

So, here's how it will work. On the first of every month I'll post our menu for the month. It will either be broken down by the week or I'll post the entire menu calendar style. I'll also share my grocery list and shopping plan.

Once my shopping is done I'll share my haul on Youtube. Subscribe to my channel now so you never miss a haul or anything else that I may randomly put on my channel. :-)

I'm not sure if I'll do all of my shopping once for the entire month (because now I have more kids and I'm not sure if that's realistic), weekly or if I'll try a grocery delivery service (because those seem like they might be Bae).

Whatever I do I'll share it here and give you my best tips and tricks for feeding a family of five on a budget.

Stay tuned - April's menu will be up soon! Can you believe it's almost April already?! 2016 is not here for games....

Back to School Tips & Hello Fresh Giveaway

Back to school season is in full swing. Savannah's teacher called me last week to schedule our meet and greet before school starts in a couple weeks. We met her once before during the PreK Kinder event they had for all of the new students back in April.

The event was informative and gave all of us a chance to meet the teachers and get a feel for the school. I'm so excited for the upcoming school year. Savannah grew up so much during preschool last year and I know she's going to handle PreK like a boss!

Over the Summer I made sure that we kept learning. I didn't overdo it though because my other mission for the Summer was to make sure the kids played outside as much as possible. Now that we are about two weeks out from the start of the school year I have been transitioning the kids back to our regular schedule.

I thought it would be helpful to share how we're getting ready for back to school season as a family.

Get back to bed on time - Over the Summer I allowed the kids to stay up past their bedtime a few times a week. The weather is so hot here that they can only play outside first thing in the morning or later in the evening. Playing in the evening was great but it did put them in bed much later than they are use to. Last week I started implementing their regular bedtime. My goal is to be out of their rooms with bedtime stories and prayers done before 7:30.

Plan your meals - The evenings go so much smoother when you don't have to figure out what you're having for dinner. You know I'm a fan of planning my meals for the entire month. If that seems overwhelming for you start by planning your meals a week or two at a time.

Implement quiet learning time - If you haven't been having some type of focused learning time over the Summer create some time for it before school starts again. 

Attend Open House - This one is a must if your little one is heading off to school for the first time. Before school actually starts Savannah would have had three different meetings with her teacher. If your child's school is offering an open house or "meet the teacher" event, go! It will make everyone more comfortable on the first day.

Join the PTO - Okay, so this one is optional but since I'm all about being involved I'm going to suggest joining the PTO. You don't have to be President or hold a position on the board. Sign up to be a member and when your schedule allows volunteer at your child's school. There are also opportunities for behind the scenes volunteer work too. For example, Sav's school is holding a luncheon for all the teachers and they have asked PTO members (and parents who want to help) to bring in different items for the luncheon. I signed up to bring drinks because I'm not available to volunteer in person that day.

Create a family calendar - I know most of us plug appointments and places to be into our phones but I love the idea of a family calendar that everyone can see and have access to. It doesn't have to be fancy at all. It's a great way to share doctor appointments, extra curricular activities, school functions and family events. I also use this calendar with the kids everyday during our morning routine, they love it.

Be consistent with routine - Try to be consistent with your daily routine the week's leading up to school starting. Whatever your family's regular schedule is try to stick to it as much as possible.

Back to School/End of Summer Party - I love giving myself a reason to throw a party for my family. Have you ever thought about celebrating back to school season? We plan to make a big deal out of it by going out to dinner as a family and letting Savannah choose the restaurant. We'll talk about going to school and what she's excited about learning the most. We'll also give her a little back to school related gift. It'll be something small like a school supply kit with her favorite characters on them.

So, those are some of my tips for getting ready for the back to school season. I wanted to do something special for my readers because I know how hectic back to school season can be for Moms. I am giving away this Hello Fresh gift card to one lucky Mama. As you might remember from my Mama Boxes unboxing I received this gift card in my second trimester box but I want to pay it forward and give it to a Mom that might need a little help getting a healthy meal together for her family.

If you have never tried their service this giveaway is for you! (please read the giveaway details in the box below) Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

May 2015 Meal Plan

Hello, May!

I can not believe it is already May. This is a busy month for us. School registration is next week, Savannah's social calendar is full of birthday parties and we have so school activities this month. Not to mention Little Mike is quite the runner and climber these days so I have been very busy chasing him.

This is my first monthly meal plan in a couple months. I didn't realize that people were enjoying them as much as they were. I appreciate all the feedback that I received on instagram. As promised, here is a meal plan for the month of May.

I hope it helps you as much as it helps my family. This time around I included links to some of my favorite recipes. Click here  or on the pic below to get the version with the links. If these monthly calendars are helping you please let me know in the comments!

Have a great weekend!

Monthly Meal Planning: February 2015

It's almost February which means it's almost MY BIRTHDAY!!! (screamed like Oprah)

Since so many of you said you would attempt planning out your meals for the month starting in February I decided to go ahead and share our meal plan early in hopes of encouraging you to stick with it. Remember, you don't have to grocery shop for the entire month like I do but you can plan your meals.

Having a meal plan for the month frees up so much more of my time during the week. I don't have to spend time thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner. All budgets and families are different but if you are a weekly or bi-weekly shopper I encourage you to still give this a shot. Even if you keep your same shopping schedule I bet you'll experience a sense of relief knowing that you've already selected your meals for that month.

So who's still planning to try this for February? Feel free to share your meal plan with me on Instagram using the hashtag #ChicFEBMeals. Don't forget to tag me as well, @chicsahm!

How I Plan a Month of Meals

The monthly meal planning post got a nice response. Thank you to everyone that commented here and on IG. The feedback was great and I enjoyed hearing everyone's responses. A few of the main comments were:

• "I could never do a monthly plan."
• "Do you really do this?"
• "It seems like a lot of work."

The answers to these questions are:

• Yes, you can.
• Yes, I do.
• It kind of is but not really. I'll share how I do my planning and maybe it will help you. 

This is our January dinner meal plan. I do not normally type it up and make it look all fancy. That should make someone out there feel better. On the last day of every month I sit down with the previous month(s) plan and I begin to create a new month of meals.

Step One -Make a Calendar/Chart

The first step in my planning process is to draw a calendar on a piece of notebook paper. If I run out of space I flip the page over and put the last few days on the back. Normally my squares are always too big. I'm pretty sure that someone more artistically inclined can make a better looking chart.

Anyway.

Once my chart is made I label the days to reflect the calendar for that month. Easy, right?

The "X" means we've already eaten that meal.

Step Two - Fill in the meals

The next thing I do is fill in all of the Sundays. Sunday meals are important to me so I square those away first. Next I think of any days that will be busy for us. If I know in advance that we have long days of errands or appointments I automatically plug-in a crockpot meal on those days.

 Then I look at my previous plans to see what meals my family really enjoyed and what meals they didn't like as much. I always take into consideration that on Fridays I don't really ever feel like cooking so I try to put my "easy" or "fun" meals there.

After that it's just a matter of using some of the meals they enjoyed from the previous month(s) and finding new recipes to try on Pinterest. I also really love AllRecipes and the Food Network.

Don't forget to throw in a couple "Eat Out" days or days where you can expect leftovers.

Step Three (Optional)

Transfer your meal plan to a prettier calendar if you'd like. Make your grocery list based on the meals you've planned. I also make a weekly produce list at this time too. I put the weekly list in my purse so I always have it when I'm ready to stop at the store.

This whole process might take me about two hours. It really depends on how often I get asked to make a cup of milk or a snack while I'm trying to get it done. I haven't gotten to that point in my life where I save things like this until after they've gone to bed so I do this during the day.

So. It's not that much work and yes we really do follow the plan. As you can see we skipped Prime Rib night but we'll be having it one day this week. The plan always seems to work itself out even if you have leftovers you weren't expecting or if you skip meals due to your taste for that day.

I hope this answers a lot of your questions. Please let me know if you need me to clarify anything. I always respond to the comments.

Do you feel like you could try this out now? Oh. And by all means give yourself more breaks than I do. We're just not eating out much these days to save money. Gotta love a saving season!

Monthly Meal Planning

Back in December I decided that I was tired of making multiple trips to the grocery store. It seemed like every visit resulted in us getting things we had no intentions of buying prior to our trip. Which means that we ended up spending more than we intended too.

Then eventually at some point during the month I would wonder, "Where did all of our money go?". I know where it went. Right to all those extra little things I felt like we needed. Impulse buys.

In an effort to save money and stop spending so much of our extra money I started making a meal plan and shopping once a month. I still go to the grocery store once a week for milk and fresh produce. The difference is now I go by myself with a very short list. There's no one with me asking for Oreos or "tiger chips" (Cheetos).

So on the the last day of every month I sit down and make a menu for the entire month. I only plan dinners. My husband takes leftovers for lunch and the kids and I will have something here. We'll either eat leftovers from dinner, a salad or something else quick and kid friendly like sandwiches. 

What I love about meal planning is it takes the guess work out of what we're eating everyday. What I dislike about meal planning is that I literally cook everyday except for the one or two days I schedule a dinner out or eating leftovers. Pushing through my exhaustion and laziness did help in a big way in December. We only ate out twice in the entire month of December. Once for our wedding anniversary and we drove through Chick-Fil-A one day while we were hanging out. To give you an idea of how much we use to eat out -- On any given week we would probably visit Chick-Fil-A for lunch at least 2-3 times. Resulting in about $15-$20 per trip and that would be on the low end. Whenever I get a salad it's more than that.

Needless to say that was about $60 a week that we were spending on eating out. Not good. Creating a meal plan helps me to see what we're eating too. I cook everything from scratch. Everyday. (the black beans do come from a can. Sue me.) I try to create a mix of the soul food my husband loves with healthier options that I need and fun foods that the kids like.

I'm still working on getting it down to a science. The relief that monthly meal planning has given me is life changing. No more random grocery store trips. 

Do you plan your family dinners for the month? Have any tips for me?