{Meals for a Month, Part II}

Ok, so did everyone get their master list and recipes together? Did you try to schedule your meals on a calendar? Are you ready for the next steps? If you missed Part I, you can read it here.

(Letterpress Recipe Cards & Box by One Canoe Two)

Once I got my recipes together, I decided that I wanted to actually have recipe cards for each. This way, hubby can have exact instructions in case I have to work late or for some other reason, can’t get dinner started. There are several options online for recipe cards. I’ve seen some printable cards on Etsy.

(Stand Mixer Recipe Cards by Winifred Studios)

However, I used the free printable cards on Skip to My Lou. They have it set up perfectly! All you have to do is enter your ingredients and instructions and it puts in on the card for you to print. You can find them here.

So, I have my menu and my recipes, now it’s time to make the shopping list. I did this on a new tab in my Excel file that contained my menu. On my shopping list I had 3 columns, one for quantity, one for the item, and one to order the items by how they can be found in the store (you have to know your store pretty well for that last one). Then, I went online to the coupon sites that I frequent (couponsurfer & coupons.com) and printed off the coupons for the items I needed. I also went through my coupon organizer to see if I had any coupons there too (I actually ended up throwing all of them away because they were expired). I’m not very good at the coupon thing yet but that’s a goal of mine…..I’ve got to get our grocery bills down! Once I gathered my coupons, I noted next to the item on my list that I had a coupon and how much is was for. Once I had my shopping list complete, I placed a number in the 3rd column that indicated the order in which the store has these items then I did a sort to get all the like items together. Lastly, print your list and get to the store!

Qty	Item
1	Contact Solution (Coupon $1/1)	1
1	Milk	2
1	Dozen Eggs	2

I did my grocery shopping tonight and it went super quick with the way I organized my list. I got to the store and back in about an hour so I think I’ll be sticking with my shopping list format!

I haven’t quite decided how to display my menu and recipes cards for each week’s meals but I’ll definitely share once I do! For now, they are on the refrigerator….who knows, they may end up staying there.  ;)

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