Tip Tuesday #4-Saving Time and Money

"Time is too expensive not to be spent on someone you love and regret costs more than anything."- Me

Two things I don't have enough of: time and money. One is a renewable resource and one is not, and yet the two seem to be inextricably entwined. Me giving advice on this subject is almost laughable. People visit my house or read my blog and make comments on how organized I must be. When I relay this to my husband, it makes him chuckle every time. I have managed to come up with a few tricks over the years that work for me though.
One of these is shopping only once a week armed with a meal plan and a list based on the plan. Afterward the plan can be posted on the fridge or other kitchen conspicuous area so the inevitable, "What's for breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc?" questions can be handled with a simple pointed finger reminder to check the meal plan. I like using forms so I made this one on my computer just for this purpose.

Feel free to print this out if you'd like. Click on the image, then click on file and click on print. At least that is how my computer does it. If you have a problem and want the form, leave me your email in my comments and I'll email you a PDF version.
You can save more money if you make this meal plan based on the weekly store specials. It can be hard to do this if you are cooking challenged as I am and blessed with picky eaters. There are websites to help with this and can really save a lot of money, though they do charge a fee for using their service.
Two good websites for this are

EZ Meals
This service plans your dinner meals for you based on the store you choose weekly sale ad.

The Grocery Game
This site will help you make the most of your coupons by telling you exactly when to use them. The website also has meal plan ideas based on the surplus you will build up when using the coupons.

There are lots of other sites out there as well, but if you just aren't motivated to use them or they seem cost ineffective to you, just shopping with a meal plan can save quite a bit of money and time by consolidating the "What should I make?" questions that pop up before each meal into a once a week planning session. If you're really froggy you can even learn about once a week or once a month cooking with a meal plan.
My daughter's stepmom Elizabeth has info about this over on her blog..

On a side note, there was a meeting of homeschoolers today that I got to teach the hummingbird lesson to. Things went really well and I think it all wet our appetite for an organized coop group. A group of us has been working on that since the end of last school year. Because we all use public school charters we are not allowed to be part of the local CHEA group because of church and state violations, or interpretations thereof. So here is another thing on my To-do list, along with the book I mentioned earlier which is what I have to go work on now.

PS This weeks Homeschool Blog Carnival is up at the Nerd Family!