Budgeting Your Family Food Dollar You Need A Back Up Plan

By: Susanne Myers.

You already know that planning your meals ahead of time saves money and time. That is why your menu is all laid out for the week. But, everybody runs into a glitch in their plans every so often. You end up staying at work a lot longer than planned and have just gotten a nervous call from your daycare provider requesting that you come get your little sweetheart now, please, as they are locking up. You are seriously frazzled at this point.

Dinner was all planned for tonight. That is, if you had been home on time, as planned. You would have slid that Lemon Baked Fish into the oven and dinner would have been on the table at 5:30 just like you planned. But, instead, you are rushing through the fast food drive-thru for something to feed your hungry family. You know it's not going to be nutritious, but your plan has failed and you were not prepared.

Your best-laid plans are an ideal. Certainly, you hope that nothing interferes with these plans, but something always does. Planning for a disruption isn't something we very often do successfully. The Boy Scout motto "Be Prepared" may be your solution to this problem. When the inevitable happens and your menu plan is messed up, you need to have a back-up plan prepared and ready to put into play.

If your weekly menu plan fails because of an interrupted schedule, you need a quick-reference recipe finder. This is something that would give you a "grab 'n' go" meal idea for a night that didn't quite allow enough time for your wonderful meal plans. When things start falling apart during the day and you just know you'll never be on time to put your roast in the oven, your mind starts to go astray right along with your day and your meal plan. The more rushed you feel, the more likely you are to drive through the fast food place and then your meal, and your budget, really suffers. Time to regroup. Let's try these three steps to create a back-up plan.

FIRST STEP: You'll want seven of your family's favorite recipes, preferably meals with few ingredients, but healthy ingredients. Your back-up recipes should be good and nutritious so that you don't lose all the health and budget advances you've made so far in your menu planning system. Try to stay with mostly one-dish meals as you're already rushed for time when you turn to this back-up meal. Now, just write each of the seven recipes on individual index cards.

SECOND STEP: Your recipe cards should be placed somewhere conspicuous, perhaps in an envelope tacked or taped to the back of the pantry door, or stuck on a bulletin board. Now when you're running behind schedule and your meal plan has been disrupted, you can quickly grab one of your "go to" recipes and put together a quick and easy meal that you know your family will enjoy. When the recipes are handy, your family can even be called on to easily take a recipe and start the preparation as you finish the shopping.

THIRD STEP: Now that you've chosen your recipes, you'll need a quick-reference guide that's easy to use. Take a piece of paper and list the recipe names on it. Then, next to each recipe, you'll want to make a list of ingredients, omitting the pantry items you normally have, such as salt, milk, flour, and the like. This list will be kept either in your car or your purse so that when you're running late you can stop at the grocery store and quickly pick up what you need to make one of your quick and delicious "back-up" meals. You don't have to waste more precious time wandering through the aisles of the grocery store trying to figure out what to make for dinner. You've already done the brain work!

If having a back-up meal plan seems like a lot of extra work, it's worth it. Once you choose the recipes, copy them on the note cards, and make a permanent grocery list, you can sit back and relax. Now, the very next time you get frazzled because you're not going to make it home in time to start your delicious, planned meal, you'll be glad you developed this quick "go to" meal plan. No more greasy take-out bags thrown on the table in front of your hungry family. You can still have a nice, hot nutritious meal with just a little preparation.

The next time your dinner plans go astray, you'll go zipping through the grocery store aisles with your little list and arrive home in time to create a quick and easy nutritious meal. Give yourself a pat-on-the-back. You can feed your family healthy, satisfying meals, even when your plan is disrupted. Because you've got a back-up plan!

Article Source: http://yourfinance.co.za

About The Author
There are always plenty of Guidelines To Follow For Your Family Food Budget, but one of the best is simply Cooking With Frugal Recipes. Plan your menu this week around some frugal dishes and watch the savings grow!