My New Must Have...

OMG. I think I just found something that would make my two week meal planning so much faster/efficient.

I was random blog grazing this afternoon and came across this:

You can buy the magnetic weekly meal planner note pad (for 25 weeks) and a magnetic shopping list pad (50 sheets). I yelled out to Tony who was in the other room that I found something I HAD to have. His response:

"How much is this going to cost me?" <--He knows me too well.

Lucky for him the meal planner pad is only $16.99 and the shopping list is $10.99. I'm so pumped about this because my meal plan list is usually my shopping list but it will be SO great to see exactly what I need for weekend breakfasts, snacks, and desserts. This is taking my planning and budgeting to a whole new level because I can try to eliminate some of the last minute stops to the store for a Saturday afternoon lunch! As a teacher, I think I love this so much because it is a lot like a lesson plan book where you see your week at a glance. When you plug it all in you know exactly what you need to prepare and you know what your days will look like. If you want to purchase it go here.

Here is something I got from a meal planning site that explains why it's so great to meal plan. I can vouch for most of these reasons.

See, while weekly menu planning for non-families is a rare topic around the blogosphere, it’s just as monumentally helpful for post-collegiates, office workers, struggling singles, and young couples. It even offers extra benefits, mostly involving time management. Like:

• You’re saved from 8pm post-work dinner freakouts, because dinner is ALWAYS planned.
• Ingredients are guaranteed to be on hand.
• Cooking goes much faster, since you go in knowing how to prepare a meal (by instinct or through print-out recipes).
• You eat healthier, as home-cooked meals are generally much more nutritious than calorie-laden takeout or heat-and-eat dinners (Hot Pockets, Hungry Man, etc.).
• Grocery shopping goes waaaaay faster. You go in knowing exactly what you want, and don’t have to blow an extra half-hour wandering around. Case in point: last night, using my weekly menu plan, I did all my shopping in 59 minutes, door to door, WALKING. In that time, I hit two stores, the further of which is about a half-mile away. Woo!
• Extra trips to the grocery store are mostly eliminated.
• You can plan for leftovers for office lunches. This is huge, personally speaking, because turkey sandwiches get tired 40,000 times in a row.
• You always have food for those bag lunches (the night before, no less), saving you $30 per week, or around $1500 per year.
• For budgeting purposes, you can pretty much estimate the cost of your bill to the dollar.
• There’s less food waste, because you’re buying only what you need.
• It allows for variety during the week, since you’ve got all the ingredients on hand anyway.

Let me know if you decide to get one of these or give weekly meal planning a try! Happy Friday and Happy Planning!