No Mom Talk Mondays: The Grocery Game

Life is going to change real fast! In a week, I’ll be going to back to work while still trying to manage a household.  I’m already struggling and I can at least grocery shop during the day and start dinner at 4:30pm. I’ll be surprised if this house doesn’t crumble once I return to work.

In university, I used to love grocery shopping. Pushing a cart down those aisles represented my newly attained freedom. I was no longer eating from Mom and Dad’s fridge. I could eat what I wanted when I wanted. Bring on the kraft dinner! Bring on the garlic fingers! Bring on the Reece’s Peanut Butter Puffs! Bring on the freshman fifteen!

Slowly, my enthusiasm for grocery shopping started to diminish once I started shopping with Dan. He would tell me that I should be eating healthier. (WHAT?! Living off canned and boxed food isn’t healthy? Shuddap!). Not only were we attempting to buy more real food, we also had to be concerned with price (why do you think I was buying Kraft Dinner, huh?).

Now that we’re a family, grocery shopping has become akin to a chore.

And once I go back to work, it is only going to get harder to accomplish.

So, I’ve decided the best way to solve my problem is to get organized and make a game of it.

Step One: Get Organized!
In other words, I need to start meal planning. Give each day a theme. We don’t need to stick with the same recipes weekly, but having a place to start will make planning meals so much easier.

Here’s what I’m going with:

  • Monday: White Meat (most likely, chicken)
  • Tuesday: Casserole
  • Wednesday: Pasta
  • Thursday: Vegetarian
  • Friday: FUN (ie: Pizza or Tacos)
  • Saturday: Red Meat (most likely, beef)
  • Sunday: Slowcooker
  • Backup meal if we want a change: Fish
With this outline, I can quickly go through and plan a meal for each day, jot down a grocery list and make a quick grocery run on the weekend.
Perk: Leftovers!
I’m hoping that with this plan, we’ll at least have leftovers for lunches on Mondays (after Slowcooker Sundays) and Wednesdays (after our casserole night).
However, this brings up a concern of mine: work lunches. I absolutely dread going back to eating pb&js each and every day. I would love to be able to think up some quick and easy (and ideally healthy) bagged lunches to bring to work. Any suggestions?
Grocery Game!
What? You don’t think meal planning sounds like fun? Well, you, my friend, are sorely mistaken. You see, planning a meal and making a grocery list has all the fun of a weekly Sudoku puzzle or a level of Angry Birds. You see, we’re on a budget. And my goal is to spend only $100 a week on groceries (which would actually bring us slightly under budget). Each week will be a challenge to see if I can spend no more than $100.00 on those weekly necessities.
Think I can do it? Me neither.
At least I’m a keener!

View from my Fridge.
I used today’s blog post as a prompt for my Project 365.
This post is linked up with Courtney’s No Mom Talk Monday. If you want to take a break from talking about the kids, go check it out


Laura (@LauraORourke) is a photographer who lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. A wife to Dan and a mother to Cameron, she spends her free time blogging and reading. Her blog finds its home at http://miraclesofamily.blogspot.com. Her photography can be found at http://www.olalaphotography.com.

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