You have probably found yourself often pondering this question, either alone or with others. What is for dinner, or what do we want for dinner? This may very well be considered normal, because let’s be honest, what do you think about when you hear the term “home economics”? Does this bring thoughts of a cliché image of a sultry “Suzie home maker” pin-up from the 1950’s? Whether or not that is a good thing is defined by your own personal perception, but it’s completely irrelevant because all home economic skills are, is the ability to maintain the sustainability within a home. One of the biggest pit falls of reaching financial goals is a lack of home economic skills, like determining what’s for dinner. Many individuals lose more money going out to eat, or spontaneously purchasing food on a daily basis, than they do from splurging on entertainment or toys. I have developed a simple system for determining what’s for dinner, and creating practical grocery lists, so that I don’t get sucked into the dinner time financial pitfall.
Step 1 Make Your Delish List
The delish list is just a list of all your favorite dishes, meals, and recipes. Spend a fair portion of time on this step, and try to put every one of your favorite meals on the list. All you’re doing is naming off food titles, do not worry about writing down the entire recipe, ingredients, or cooking instructions
Step 2 Taking Inventory
On a separate sheet, write a list of all the ingredients from all the dinner ideas of your delish list. This ingredient list is considered a working database of your kitchen’s inventory. These are the items that will be in regular demand within your household. The information from this inventory list, will aide you in developing a practical grocery list, so you know what you’re going to buy and help prevent unnecessary spending.
Step 3 Create a Plan
Take your delish list from step one, and separate your meals into several categories based on your personal preference. You could categorize your meals by:
· Food group
· Meat type
· Nationality (Italian, Mexican, Thai, etc.)
· Or creative means
This is the preparedness portion of the “what’s for dinner” system. Take out a calendar that will be hung in your kitchen for this specific reason. Take your work and personal schedule into consideration as you begin to assign categories to days of the week on your calendar. Depending on your work/personal lifestyle, you may plan specific nights each month where you would go out to eat, or order in. This system is not meant to restrict a lifestyle, but rather plan accordingly so that there are less financial head scratching moments where you ask, “where did all my money go this month?”
Each day you list a category, you will know what you have for dinner choices for that particular day, and since you made a long delish list, you still have some variety to choose from the next time “pasta” day rolls around. If you are planning a larger meal for a particular day, you may want to push your kitchen schedule to make room for “leftover” day.
The delish list is just a list of all your favorite dishes, meals, and recipes. Spend a fair portion of time on this step, and try to put every one of your favorite meals on the list. All you’re doing is naming off food titles, do not worry about writing down the entire recipe, ingredients, or cooking instructions
Step 2 Taking Inventory
On a separate sheet, write a list of all the ingredients from all the dinner ideas of your delish list. This ingredient list is considered a working database of your kitchen’s inventory. These are the items that will be in regular demand within your household. The information from this inventory list, will aide you in developing a practical grocery list, so you know what you’re going to buy and help prevent unnecessary spending.
Step 3 Create a Plan
Take your delish list from step one, and separate your meals into several categories based on your personal preference. You could categorize your meals by:
· Food group
· Meat type
· Nationality (Italian, Mexican, Thai, etc.)
· Or creative means
This is the preparedness portion of the “what’s for dinner” system. Take out a calendar that will be hung in your kitchen for this specific reason. Take your work and personal schedule into consideration as you begin to assign categories to days of the week on your calendar. Depending on your work/personal lifestyle, you may plan specific nights each month where you would go out to eat, or order in. This system is not meant to restrict a lifestyle, but rather plan accordingly so that there are less financial head scratching moments where you ask, “where did all my money go this month?”
Each day you list a category, you will know what you have for dinner choices for that particular day, and since you made a long delish list, you still have some variety to choose from the next time “pasta” day rolls around. If you are planning a larger meal for a particular day, you may want to push your kitchen schedule to make room for “leftover” day.
