I used to be the type of person who goes to the supermarket almost everyday to shop for the ingredients of the dish I decided to cook that day. I never plan ahead when it comes to cooking but in my defense, I was unemployed and have the time to kill.
Since I got myself working in the retail world now, working hours are a bit different with the office hours; I normally finishes at 6 or 7pm. That means, I don't have much time to think, shop for ingredient and cook. Also, I decided to bring lunch to work as eating out (lunch) everyday gets pretty expensive after a while. I would rather put that amount of money into my funds for my future new Michael Kors handbag I'm eyeing on now. All these made me realized or actually gave me no choice but to plan dinner menu ahead according to my working timetable.
I wrote my dinner menu on the notepad I got from work at the moment since I just started this habit. I am planning to have a monthly dinner menu print out but I'm taking baby steps at the moment writing down weekly dinner menu. First I wrote down the days and put a star next to the day denote my day off and a capital 'L' to indicate my late shifts. Then I fill in with the dish I wanted to cook.
Ideally for the days I have work the next day, I would plan the dish that normally have enough left overs for lunch. For example, lasagna or fried rice. Then for the days that I have day off the next day, I would cook something like steak or fish with salad that don't have left overs. As for the days I finish earlier than usual, I would cook something that takes longer to make like chicken pie or beef stroganoff. As for the late shifts, I don't have to cook!
This actually helps a lot with money saving! Not just the lunch money but grocery shopping money too. Having dinner menu plan ahead, we know what to get during the grocery shopping time especially when there's sales on, a bonus because you know what you need instead of impulse buying.
So for the versatile dinner menu, I always write down a note on the notepad when I think of a different dish or when there's new recipe I want to try. I like choices so I would try not to repeat the dinner menu too often.
I know it's not hard to figure this habit out but I don't think many out there is having this dinner menu planning habit. I hope this post would inspire some of you out there. Think on the bright side, it's a food money saving and more shopping money :p
Love, Carol
