Dear Pink ::
Yes, we too at the Think Household are trying to address the Budget Beast. Other than staying home and not buying things we are really trying to eat out less. When we renovated our kitchen last year we got in a very bad habit of eating out. And even when the kitchen was finished we still ate out A LOT. (I didn't want to mess up my fabulous kitchen of course, duh) So this January I pulled out a book my mother lent me awhile ago. Hopefully after reading this post she won't want it back. (Sorry Mom!) It's called Managing Your Meals by Winnifred C. Jardine.
She lists menus for every meal for an entire year.
And then she has the shopping lists for that week.
The back is full of the recipes. The meals are nothing fancy, but they are, according to the author, nutritious and economical. I figure they are much better than our eating out has been. I am not much of a planner but so far this has really inspired me to cook at home. I use the menus as a guide and change things out that we like or that I have a recipe for that I have wanted to try. It is just a great jumping off point. (I am also using my 99ยข iphone app "Shopper" and am loving it. It can sort my list by the aisles in my grocery store. I can email a shopping list with pictures to Mr. Think on his way home from work. I keep lists going for all my favorite stores. So awesome)
After I have sang the praises of this book, it is actually out of print. Bummer. But there are a few copies at Amazon and half.com. Keep a look out at Goodwill too. I saw one there once and I am kicking myself that I didn't pick it up. Or maybe an eavesdropper has a similar book they can share with us.
Taming the Budget Beast one meal at a time :: Think
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