Meal Planning

I like to think that I have great ideas to be more efficient, save money, organize my life, etc. The problem isn't the number of ideas, I've got lots of those. The problem is the execution. See, I came out of the womb being "organizationally challenged" - we'll say more of a "free and creative spirit." I'm really thankful for my five years in a job in Corporate America that really put the squeeze on me to figure out how to get myself organized. Let's just say I had some patient bosses and coworkers that allowed it to say five years on my resume and nothing less.

No longer being in an 8 to 5 office job, my "workplace" is now my home. I really do want to be a good steward of what we have and thus want to be a good "Operations Manager." I was in Marketing, not in Operations, for good reason. However, this is an important and necessary role for my family, and I'm up for the challenge... with God's help!

There is a website I frequent called Money Saving Mom and she has great resources on all sorts of things, including meal planning. She's been at this for quite some time, so I've adjusted the bar a bit lower for myself to ease into this and have some staying power.

The key for me is to not get too stifled by having it all mapped out in advance. I like to be creative and not boxed in (as noted above) and could easily throw in the towel if I feel like it's too restrictive. So, I'm going to try to tailor it to me a bit and see how it goes. My sister-in-law and I have a race to ask each other almost daily "What's for dinner?" I hope to have some sort of answer for her most days with the help of a little calendar and some planning.

If any of you have tips or suggestions on things that have worked for you or others you know, please do pass them along. I hope to be able to share with you the process for our family and maybe others can learn from my mistakes and successes.

Here goes nothin...