Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

As frequent Workerette readers know, I've learned over the past year that having a menu plan for each week - at least for family dinners - can help me keep things organized, healthy, and on a better budget around here.  If you haven't already tried meal planning, I highly encourage you to give it a shot.  Start out slow if need be; while some folks plan every meal, and even snacks, for their households, I've found just dealing with dinners works best for me.  I also try to keep it flexible.  If you've got a fairly well-stocked pantry, you'll still have plenty to fix up if you plan for one meal without realizing you didn't have the ingredients for it.  (Kind of like I did with pancakes last week.  I used the last of the milk and eggs for something else and it wasn't time to go grocery shopping yet.  Oops!  Frozen pasta to the rescue!)

With all the recent talk about stagflation, inflation, recession, economic stimulus, job cuts, unemployment and the like, we Workerettes need to do all we can to keep an eye on the budget - and groceries are one of the easiest ways to make changes.  Even if you're not a "coupon queen", shopping the sales and making a menu plan off of what you've already got can help you stretch those dollars further - whether you're a single gal, a working mom, or an empty-nester starting a second career.

Yesterday was grocery day and we found some great deals - so here's my menu plan for a re-stocked fridge and super stocked pantry.  I hope it gives you some ideas! 

• Monday: leftovers (from weekend Crock Pot meals)
• Tuesday: Pancakes (yes, I bought eggs *chuckle*)
• Wednesday: Cubed Steaks & Veggies (Hubby's been itching to grill - and I won't argue!)
• Thursday: Minestrone (using up some of my freezer stock)
• Friday: Fish Sticks and Veggies
• Saturday: Egg and Sausage Burritos
• Sunday: Baked Chicken & Pasta (using some more of my freezer stock)

 As you can see, it helps me a lot to have some meals or sides pre-made in our 5-quart slow cooker.  Since I have a smaller family it's easy to have things made in advance, and we have healthy homemade meals instead of expensive (and overly processed) freezer meals from the store.

If you've been inspired to start meal plans this year, I'd love to hear about your journey, so please leave me a comment.  And don't forget to visit OrgJunkie for more menu plans (and other fantastic organization ideas)!