Jan. 21, 2009 - Long Term Menu Planning
I just finished reading about menu planning in the latest issue of "The Homeschool Minute". Menu planning is something that I really enjoy doing. In the beginning I would plan meals for the week but then I started planning for the month and found that I really liked that.
First, I would print out a monthly calendar page from www.donnayoung.org (Don't you just love that website?). Using my list of meal/dish ideas, together with input from my husband and kids, I begin filling in the days. Not every day, mind you. I would leave days open to be filled in with anything from sandwiches to leftovers to eating out. I would spread the more demanding meals out over the month and fill in with simple ones. The time consuming meals would also be planned on days that I would normally get to stay home or at least had little to do outside of the house. Since I sought after the input of my family, each person would get their requested meal(s) sometime during that month. Planning this way also allowed me to have a really good meal (which may cost a little more) one evening and then follow with a more economical (cheap!) meal the next. This helps me with the grocery budget without anyone feeling deprived of good meals! I will also add that I PENCIL in the meals on my calendar pages since life does happen and things do have to be changed. I love to plan but I am also VERY flexible.
I enjoyed this monthly planning so much that I eventually began quarterly planning. Crazy as it sounds, this year I am tentively planning for the entire year! I have printed out all 12 months of calendar pages from the donna young website and have them in my "Household Management" 3-ring binder. Now of course I have not planned every meal for the year and don't really intend to, exactly. Having the entire year to *work with* allows me to get in a wide variety of meals. We can easily get stuck in the rut of Mon-Spaghetti, Tues-burgers, Wed-... and that is exactly how I used to do it. While there is nothing at all wrong with that, I began to tire of the same old thing all the time, week after week. There just wasn't enough variety. When I sat down and listed all the things we like to eat, I saw that there was no way to plan only for a week. So the weekly plan became two weeks, then a month,... It just grew! I do *tweak* my menu A LOT because, again, life happens. If money is tight one week due to an unexpected expense, I erase and redo. If I see a really good deal on chicken breasts when I had planned on pork chops, I erase and redo.
This might sound a little obsessive but it's really not! It's not much different than planning the school year. We plot our course and purchase the books. For the most part, things somewhat go as planned, but because homeschoolers are a flexible people, we add and delete things along the way in order to make it work. 
I hope someone has gotten some ideas that might work for your family. Thanks for listening!
Comments
Feb. 8, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by CCJJsMama
Hi!
Guess what? I NEVER heard about Donna Young until I read your post! What an AMAZING resource! I added it to my Favourites immediately.
I also like to plan my meals, as it takes so much stress out of my shopping trips, makes our days more relaxed, because I know what is happening, and like you said, everyone gets to give their input, and there's less complaining. Everyone gets to have their favourite at some point in the month.
I can see that I could easily plan for the year also, or perhaps do at least 3 months of a good variety of meals, and then rotate them through the year.
Thanks for the ideas, and it might just help me get back on track with my planning!
Oh, and for the Donna Young resource!
God bless!
Bia
www.biaswonderyears.blogspot.com
Feb. 11, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by birdie1977
I love to have things organized. Thanks for sharing this info. It was of great help:)
Feb. 28, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Haflingerhorses
Wow, I can only hope that hanging around with you via blogging that your "obsessiveness" will be something one can catch. I can't think of a better thing to be obsessive about - planning your families meals. I've tried to do something similar for a few weeks at a time, but I've certainly not gotten obsessive about it yet.
Obsession Never Sounded So Good,
Antoinette
