I like a plan. An agenda. A schedule. A timetable. All of these words make me happy. Basically, I feel that way because I like to be in control. I like to know what’s going to happen. I want to know what to plan for and what kind of wardrobe I’m going to need. When I travel, I like to research the restaurants and activities beforehand, to make sure we eat at the most delicious places and see all the cool stuff. I like to know where I’m going, who I’m going with, what time we’re leaving, and oh, you have an itinerary? You shouldn’t have! Welcome to my happy place. Take my schedule away: what’s going on?!? What kind of unit you running around here!?

Margo’s agenda: take naps.

It’s cool guys, I’m getting help.

I realize that all aspects of life cannot be planned. I haven’t found those aspects yet, but I’m sure they exist. JK guys. Again, I’m getting help. In all reality though, something that we strive to plan for at our house are the meals. This means we can stick to a mostly balanced meal plan and not spend thousands of dollars on take out. Usually on Saturday or Sunday we talk about what we want to eat and look at how much money we have. I make a menu on an index card and then a list of ingredients. And then Aaron does! the! shopping! I’m not sure how I tricked him into going to two different grocery stores and sometimes the farmers market for me, but it works. I still get to choose what we eat and plan the menu, and he gets to exercise some “control” over how much money we spend on food. The love potion I brew must be strong.

Here is what we’re eating this week:

Monday: Spaghetti with meat sauce
Tuesday: Green salads with shredded grilled chicken, croutons, boiled eggs, vinaigrette
Wednesday: Turkey Stew and focaccia
Thursday: Turkey Stew leftovers / Grilled Tuna Salad Sandwiches
Friday: Greek Nachos
Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday are gluten free and have options to be dairy free. If you’re into that.

How to prep for this:
Boil your eggs.
If your meat is frozen, make sure it’s thawed and then brown your beef (spaghetti) and grill your chicken (salads)
Make croutons
Chop veggies for stew
Make mayo for tuna salad
Bake focaccia bread for sandwiches/to serve with stew

Our grocery budget for all this was right at $100 and that includes several things like peanut butter, milk, coffee, granola bars, raisins, etc. that aren’t a part of this list. Meal planning can be hard but it’s definitely worth the time and effort: you know what you’re eating and it helps you stick to a budget. It takes a while to get the hang of it, but honestly, we eat the same things all the time in a rotation. If you have a few meals/recipes that you don’t mind eating frequently, you can use those and it’s not much work to get the hang of things.

You got this!