September Acres

I am not a huge list maker.  I make a grocery list - which often gets let at home (anyone else?) - other than that I am hit or miss. I like post-it notes and use them in my Home Management Notebook for my "to-do's". I use  index cards  for making lists sometimes.  I have never quite gotten into using my phone or computer for my lists.  No matter where you keep your lists, they are a key to keeping organized.   Try making lists to keep yourself (and your family) on track for some of these tasks: Groceries - Saves money & time.  If you don't lose it! Errands  -Saves money & time.  And driving around in circles. Cleaning/Chores  -  Clean Mama  has some wonderful printables (some free) to help keep you on track. Gifts  - Saves money & time. Holiday Greeting Cards  - Keep track of who you send cards to each year and who you receive cards from if you'd like. I do keep this kind of list e...

Well, it seems as though I forgot that Lent started in February when I was doing my February Menu Plan.   Which explains why I had hamburgers on the menu for Friday night - a no meat night - or as we call it around here "Fish Friday". It is widely known that Catholics must abstain from meat on Fridays during Lent .  We try to follow that here at September Acres.  So I have switched around my menu for this week so we'll have salmon for dinner.  This past week was a bit tricky since I just realized my error Thursday night.  Now, don't judge me but I headed out to Safeway Friday afternoon and found the fish stick aisle and purchased our fish.  LM had a basketball game so it was a nice, quick meal to put together before the game.  It's been a couple of years since we've had fish sticks - LM was thrilled but my husband was just reminded of his childhood when they had fish sticks every. single. Friday. night. Thirteen kids means there's not a lot of lob...

After much trial and error, I have discovered that doing a monthly meal plan works best for me . I only have to sit down once to create a meal plan - not four or five times. I have an idea of what we're doing the entire month which works out perfect for a busy schedule. I can shop ahead - if I plan on making chicken alfredo, chicken enchiladas & grilled chicken in a month I can look for larger packs of chicken, which are often less per pound than smaller packs.  I like to shop every two weeks and knowing what my plans for the month are help me stock up when things are on sale. I use a calendar for my meal plan - I like to be able to see each day on the calendar and I enter what we are having for dinner as well as any activities going on that day.  And I always write in pencil because I usually end up changing at least a couple of days during the month. Here's what my February looks like: Cheesy chicken vermicelli  & steamed broccoli  ...

As with so many other American families, we lead busy lives that sometimes mean we are out of the house during meal times.  I strive to have all of us home at dinner time each day but as LM gets older and we all get busier sometimes it doesn't work out that way.  When we are home (4-5 nights per week, usually) I like to know what I am preparing for dinner.  That's where the menu planning comes in.  Here's what I do: Make a monthly plan .  I used to make a weekly plan and I never quite got that right or really enjoyed it.  Once I switched to a monthly plan I saw more success and enjoyed the process much more.  Of course, we have changes here and there but it's a pretty good system. Write it down .  I use a calendar I print out from Printfree .  There are probably a million ways you could write down your menus but this works for me.  I print out the month I need and put them in a 3-prong folder (now's the time to get one, wi...

As part of our 'no spend (controlled spend) February' ( see what we did last year )we are also trying to 'eat from the pantry' - or use up all the things I have bought in the past.  There's a good bit in there for our family of 3 so I think we can do it, with the exception of perishables.  Even canned goods have a 'best by' date so they don't last forever.  It also gives me a chance to really see what I have in the pantry. To get this started I went through the pantry and cabinets to see what kinds of goodies I had accumulated and made a list.  I went through the freezer as well - frozen doesn't mean forever, either. Looking at my list I did a meal plan for the month of February.  We have a hockey tournament one weekend so that means I won't be cooking much so I have budgeted for any eating out we might do.  I have also made a list of anything I think I might need to get me through the month - we are out of garlic pepper, for example, so I w...

 Or what we had for dinner last night.  It seems like the whole country is in the grips of a heatwave.  The last thing I feel like doing when the weather is like that is cooking.  It's even too hot to grill out which is my go to method of cooking in the summer. My first thought is : 'let's go out'.  Well, most of our budgets can only handle that so long and going out to eat just isn't a good thing every night.  My husband is not big on salads for dinner since he eats them for lunch a lot so that idea was out for me. When I was doing my meal planning I knew it would be hot this week so when I saw 'Manwich' on sale I came up with the idea for sloppy joes one night.  I bet we haven't had sloppy joes in 5 years, maybe longer. Since they just cook up on the stove top it really keeps the kitchen cool.  And when you cook your corn on the cob in the microwave it still stays cool.  I just cook the corn in the husks for about 6-8 minutes for 3 pieces....

One thing I am trying to do better this year is menu planning. I do it pretty casually, I'd say. Monday morning I write down on a sheet of paper what I plan on cooking that week based on what I have in the house. Kind of backwards really (unless the goal is to eat from the pantry like we did in January). Then if I am missing something I will run to the store. I usually shop once a week and then sometimes need one more run to the store for milk & other perishables. I would LOVE to be one of those people who goes to the grocery store once ever 2 weeks. Do any of you go to the grocery every 2 weeks? I'd love to hear any tips on how to do that consistently. I am sure it's pretty easy to do but I find myself heading back out because I have forgotten something (even with a list I forget at least one thing). We were at a party on Saturday night and some of us ladies were talking about grocery shopping (who would have thought that this would be our topic of conversation at a p...