Menu Planning and Real Life

Between the need to be frugal and the desire to serve balanced meals, I aim to put a home-cooked meal on the table six nights out of seven. Though I wish my kitchen didn't look like a war zone afterwards, I still enjoy cooking. To reduce the stress of the daily dinner decision during the week, I create a weekly menu plan.

How closely I follow my plan depends on:
 1) if I remember to thaw my meat
2) how tired I am at 4:45 p.m.
3) whether I am stocked with the necessary ingredients.

Though I might switch to an alternate dinner plan about 30% of the time, having a plan is still enormously helpful. It's much better than having to generate ideas and choose what to cook each day. If what I've planned won't work, I often just look to the next day's menu and cook that if possible.

Since I'm somewhat of a variety freak, Asian and Mexican foods are usually interspersed with standard American fare.  When I'm looking for new ideas, I like to consult Menu Plan Monday, at orgjunkie.com, which usually includes a couple of new recipes well worth trying.  Here is a sample weekly plan:

• Monday: Penne Pasta with Italian Turkey Sausage in Red Sauce
• Tuesday: Sesame Crusted Chicken, Quinoa, Green Beans
• Wednesday: Burgers, Pea and Carrot Salad
• Thursday: Chicken Fajitas, Pumpkin Cornbread Muffins
• Friday: Pizza
• Saturday: Broccoli Shrimp Alfredo, Tossed Salad

There are more menu plans on my blog here (which include some links to recipes).

Are you a person who craves variety, or are you the type who prefers tried-and-true dinner options?

-Written by Julia Baurain

The topics of saving, investing, budgeting, couponing, bargaining, and planning dominate any frugal living or financial peace conversation. Although all have their place while trying to wisely manage God- given resources, even the economically prudent folks out there rarely, if ever, discuss how one’s health can impact today’s budget or tomorrow’s retirement.

Since a full-fledged article on this subject is too boring and time consuming for both the author and the reader (that laundry won’t wash itself!), a list free of cumbersome statistics will have to do. Plus, I heart listing. So here’s a little food for thought …

A few things random thoughts:

1. There is not enough soap, Clorox, and hand sanitizer in the world to overcome the infectious organisms residing in my son’s school building, a MOPPETS classroom, a gym locker room, a McDonald’s play land, or Walmart; therefore, I understand that some illnesses, especially acute in nature, are essentially unavoidable. 
2.  I also know that life happens, and for reasons beyond human comprehension, people are sometimes handed some unexplainable life-altering and life-ending diagnoses. Many of these situations come with hefty treatment expenses. Not even Dave Ramsey himself could construct a middle class budget to withstand the financially crushing costs that accompany rare cancer treatments or traumatic injuries. 
3. llness and disease affect quality of life, family dynamics, and relationships. Money is less important than all of these (in my opinion). 
4.  I am neither a frugal living expert (I do occasionally pay for convenience. Gasp! How else would I find the time to write blog posts?) nor a professional financial planner (I didn’t ace the financially literate quiz just in case you were wondering). 

 Simply put, poor health costs money …

1. America spends a lot (A LOT!) of money on healthcare related expenses. More specifically, America as a whole spends a lot (A LOT!) on chronic diseases. The big dogs of chronic disease, heart disease and stroke, diabetes, and lung disease, account for $760 billion (BILLION!) of healthcare spending annually. Click here if you are interested in a little more data. 
2.  Co-pays, deductibles, and medication necessary for chronic disease management undoubtedly strain a personal budget.
3.  Obesity increases the risk for developing many chronic diseases, and the occurrence of obesity is rapidly increasing. Find more on this here. 
4.  Obesity is preventable and reversible in nearly all cases. Preventable and reversible do not mean easily accomplished, however. 
5.  Preventing chronic diseases by living a healthy lifestyle now can possibly save you thousands of dollars in the future. Factoring in quality of life, relationships, longevity, and financial implications, investing in your health could have much greater long-term returns than a 401K. On average, a person with a chronic disease spends five times more on healthcare annually than a person without a chronic illness. 

Put simply, a healthy person is not going to be burning through the retirement savings or monthly income as quickly as one with a chronic illness. Things for moms to consider …

1.  Habits, healthy or unhealthy, learned by children will likely extend into adulthood. Teach your young kids what it means to be healthy now before any avoidable chronic health concerns arise. However, I am giving you no promises that this will withstand the ever so popular Ramen noodle/frozen pizza/Mountain Dew diet that every college student resorts to, but it’s worth a shot. 
2.  As parents, we always have the final say in what our young children eat. Given the choice, a three-year-old will choose chicken nuggets, fruit snacks, apple juice, and ice cream every time. 
3.  Think twice about good deals. Just because a bargain shopper can walk out of a store with 16 boxes of Pop Tarts, a case of hot dogs, and 100 packets of Kool-Aid for $1.56 doesn’t mean it’s the best overall deal for her family. 
4.  More fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables. More whole grains. Less sugar. Less fat. Less sodium. 
5.  Juice and soda are loaded with calories. Calories that aren’t burned are stored (a.k.a. fat). 
6.  Get moving! There are plenty of free ways to be active. Physical activity doesn’t have to break the budget, but if a family gym membership helps to get the whole family moving, it might be a very worthy short-term and long-term investment. 
7.  Lead by example! It’s difficult for a child to decipher the mixed message that you send when he is handed a bowl of carrot sticks while you are eating chocolate. 
8.  No sugar + no fat = no fun …. so find a little balance. Save the special treats for bribery special occasions. Birthdays and Halloween are special occasions, but so are tantrum-free trips to the grocery store and putting toys away without prompting. 

 What tips do you have for investing in your family’s health?

 Katie Sindelar in our MOPS group is a registered nurse and certified diabetes educator.

Tomorrow’s topic: Frugal Living

Hey, everyone. I hope you’ll be able to make our meeting tomorrow, as Mark & Precious Blowers will be speaking on the topic of frugal living. This is a topic I’m always trying to get new ideas on, as the cost of everything keeps going up, but my husband’s paycheck does not!

So come ready to learn about ways you can save money. We’re also doing a special creative activity that will be quite delicious!

What are some of your tips for how to live frugally?

-Mindy

Menu Planning

Do any of you do menu planning? I’ve done this off and on for the last several years, even before I had kids. I’ve found that the times that I do, it makes my life a lot easier. Otherwise, it gets to be 5:00 and I’m looking in the fridge trying to figure out what I can put together for supper. It helps me in grocery shopping as well, because I can plan around what I have in my pantry and what I need to buy. Generally, I try to stick with meals that use mostly ingredients I tend to have on hand. If I see something on sale, then I’ll plan out a few meals using those items.

I do a half a month planning at a time. That’s what I’ve found works best for me, but most people I know do a week at a time.

I don’t know about you, but I love looking at other people’s menu plans to get ideas for my own. I’ve shared some of my plan for the second half of October below. Later on, we want to share some menu plans for other moms in MOPS as well, so if this is something you do and you’re willing to share, let me know.

A couple things to note with how I do my plan:

• We mainly do leftovers for lunch, so that’s why there’s not a lot of lunch items listed.
• Breakfast is something I’ve just recently started to try and plan for (rather than just doing cereal all the time), so I’m only planning out a few days a week for now.
• I have a hard time thinking of side items, so my plan is usually just the main dish for supper, and then I figure out a vegetable, fruit, or bread to go with it.
• My plan is pretty flexible, especially since when my husband is gone (and he travels a lot for work), I tend not to cook very much. The leftovers last a lot longer when he’s gone, and my kids can be happy with bread and jelly and fruit for lunch if I don’t have anything else to give them.
• If I don’t make something on the list (and there are quite a few of these below, due to Jon traveling and sick kids who didn’t want to eat), I just move it to the next menu plan.

So do you plan your menus? What’s on plan for this week? (For another take of how menu plans can be helpful, check out this post on MoneySavingMom.com.)

Breakfast
Amish baked oatmeal
Banana muffins & yogurt
Scones
Blueberry smoothies & toast
Apple pie slow cooker oatmeal
Cereal
Yogurt & Fruit

Lunch
Stew
Grilled cheese sandwiches & fruit
Cheese & crackers, fruit
Tuna sandwiches, fruit & carrots

Supper
Waffles
Shepherd's Pie
Steak & vegetable kabobs
Pizza (ordered out)
Baked potatoes & toppings
Vegetable beef soup & bread
Mexican Lasagna
Garbage Potatoes
Chicken Pot Pie
Goulash
Cheeseburger soup
Cheesy Potatoes
Pancakes

-Mindy

Mom’s Night Out

Tomorrow night is our Mom’s Night Out—U.F.O. Night (UnFinished Object). We’ll be meeting at the church from 6:30–11:30 p.m. for anyone who wants to join us. Bring your unfinished objects or projects and have some fun while you get something done at the same time! Come whenever you can during that time, and if you want, please bring a snack to share. I’m hoping to get some work done on my kids’ scrapbooks!

- Mindy

Reading Lists and Games

We hope you were able to take lots of good ideas home from Sue’s talk at our MOPS meeting last week. As promised, we’re posting some website and book ideas that give book lists for children, as well as some simple reading games you can play with your kids.

Websites:
• Guys Read
• READKIDDOREAD.com
• Kids’ Reading List at Oprah.com


Books:
• The Read-Aloud Handbook by Jim Trelease
• Literacy Play: Over 300 Dramatic Play Activities that Teach Pre-Reading Skills by Amy Cox & Sherrie West
• The Eentsy, Weentsy Spider: Fingerplays and Action Rhymes by Joanna Cole & Stephanie Calmenson
• The Complete Book and CD Set of Rhymes, Songs, Poems, Fingerplays, and Chants by Jackie Silberg & Pam Schiller
• 201 Questions to Ask Your Kids by Pepper Schwartz
• 7 Keys to Comprehension: How to help your kids read it and get it! by Susan Zimmerman & Chryse Hutchins

Plot Potluck

What You Do:
1. Start the story with your own idea or ask for a topic from your child. Young children love to be the subject of stories, so beginning with something personal is a great launching pad. For example, you could start with: “Once there was a little boy named Luke who lived in a giant, purple castle.” However you begin, once you’ve created the first sentence, it’s time to pass the torch: let your child create the next sentence of the story. Continue on, back and forth, until the story is complete.

2. While this activity may be difficult for both of you at first, over time you’ll find that the ideas come easier and you’ll become better storytellers in the process. Even more importantly, you’ll be helping your child develop key pre-reading and writing skills, learn the natural flow of a story, and hone critical language skills.

3. Be sure to offer encouragement as you go along and help ensure that the story has a solid beginning, middle, and end. Most of all, let your hair down! If you come up with creative and descriptive contributions, your child will follow your lead. Don’t be afraid to dabble: fairy tales, fables, tall tales (outlandish explanations of how real-life things were made/animals acting as humans, usually with a lesson or moral at the end), mysteries, and stories inspired by real-life experiences are all great fodder for this game.

4. Consider recording some of your family’s creations for posterity. Your son or daughter will have a lot of fun reading them a few years down the road, and by then, they won’t even need your help!

Illustrate a Famous Book

What You Need:
• Picture book • Paper • Pencil
• Crayons or markers • Stapler, string, or brass clips


What You Do:
1. Pull out an unfamiliar book and sit down somewhere comfortable with your child. Without opening the book, look at the cover. Ask your child what the picture makes him think of. What’s happening in it? Looking only at the picture, ask him to predict what he thinks the story will be about.

2. Now tell your child you’re going to read him a story, but just this one time, he won’t be able to look at the pictures. Instead, ask him to use his imagination, and come up with images in his mind while you read.

3. During the reading, stop periodically and ask questions. For example, “Why did Sally go outside when her mother said not to?” Try to incorporate questions that require kids to make predictions as to what will happen next.

4. Once you’ve finished the book, tell your child he’s going to illustrate it! Now’s the time for discussion. While adults can often remember what happened in a story long after they’ve finished reading it, this is a skill that young kids need help developing. Give your child some prompts. Ask what happened first and then let him draw it. Ask what happened next, let him draw it, and so on. As he finished each picture, help him by writing some text below his illustration, using the words your child used when he retold it to you.

5. Bind the story and make a cover. If he likes, you and your child compare his version to the original and see what’s different. Don’t forget to take your new illustrator’s creation over to grandma’s house for some well-deserved bragging! He’s earned it.

- Mindy

Next MOPS meeting is tomorrow!

Tomorrow is our next MOPS meeting. We hope you’ll be able to join us as Sue Kroesche talks about instilling a love of reading in our children. Sue is my (Mindy’s) mother-in-law, and she’s been a teacher and librarian for years. She read out loud to my husband and his siblings every night until they went to college, which are some of their fondest memories from growing up. I think she’s pretty cool and am excited to hear what she has to share with us!

Don’t forget that we’re taking pictures of everyone tomorrow, plus we’re having our book exchange. Bring any books, both children and adults, that are in good condition and you can exchange them for some that are new-to-you.

We’re also starting our free table this week, so if you have anything you’d like to give away, bring it in. Just remember that any items still there at the end of the meeting need to be picked up or they will be donated.

And lastly, please remember to bring your completed background checks.

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow! - Mindy