This has been a life saver for me and I wanted to share it with you!!
Dining out was one of the biggest areas I noticed in our budget that we could afford to cut back. In one month, earlier this year, our spending on dining out was $500 for one month!!! It seems high when you think about it but the average household eats out at least once a week and with a family of four the bill is usually around $75 each time. Add in a few fast food trips and quick stops for lunch during the work week and it really adds up fast.
I am a very busy person and also don't always feel like cooking after being gone at work for 9 hours. I knew that in order to be successful at saving money by eating in, I would have to plan meals and be prepared with food ahead of time or we would be ordering pizza....again.
*Sigh, how in the world am I gonna pull this off?!?*
Thank God for E-mealz!!! This website was recommended through Dave Ramsey's site as an easy and affordable way to stay on track with monthly menu planning. Once a week E-Mealz publishes a new menu depending on the plan you choose (there are several plans based on store and the amount of people you're cooking for). I chose the Family Plan for any store. It is published in .pdf format every Thursday and I simply print it out. On the second page is my grocery list broken down by meal number. If I decide I don't want to cook one of the meals, I simply cross out those items. I've only been doing this for a short time but so far I love it. It works well with my freezer cooking methods and has been saving me time and money over the past three weeks. Not to mention I look like I'm organized and actually know what is going on - You gotta love that!!! Even better bonus: The meals and recipes are provided by moms with kids so they are all edible and not weird, and also healthy.
Click on the link below to check it out for yourself and sign up. The cost is $1.25/week billed quarterly at $15. Try using the promo code "DAVE" to save $2.50 off your first three months.
Hi, and welcome to blogging! I'm so glad you linked up to my party! I'd never heard of e-mealz, but I'm definitely going to check it out.
ReplyDeleteI know you're new at this, so just so you know, when you add your link to a party, it's proper blogging "etiquette" to put the hostess' link or party button in your post ;)