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The whole thread is about budgeting, and you're looking at a program with a monthly fee to make meal plans? Get a pen and sign up for a pinterest account, or head over to GWS! Here is pretty much how my wife and I make meal plans: try a new recipe every week, cycle through recipes that are cheap, easy, and nutritious. SAVE WEEKLY LISTS THAT YOU LIKED A LOT! We also pick recipes that we can use similar vegetables for (we cook 99% vegetarian since my wife is). This makes it less overwhelming to shop, and keeps our cost down. Then figure out your staples, bread, milk, dry goods, etc. This week looks like an expensive shop for you, at least I hope. I see bottles of BBQ sauce, Mayo, whipped cream, etc that all add up to quite a lot I bet. That is fine, we usually have one shop every 1-1.5 months where we have to get things like olive oil or sauces or whatever to round out the pantry or re-fill staples. Sample meal plan for us for this week: 1 - veggie sausage and pepper sandwiches, kind of a splurge night for the sausage but offset by using sauce from the previous week and veggies we had in the fridge + a salad 2 - Pasta night with homemade sauce - pasta (get the cheapo kind if you want, we get Dreamfields because its pretty good), + olive oil, fresh tomatoes (cheap cheap cheap), garlic, lemon juice, broccoli, spinach, and basil, + leftover veggie sausages 3 - sweet potato hash with onions, bell peppers, beans, spices, avocado, whatever - you can do anything we this. We had quesadillas, but you can do it with rice, in a burrito, top a salad with it, toss it with scrambled eggs. Homemade pico and a chipotle sauce on the side (again, way cheaper than buying salsa or sauces). 4 - another "mexican night" which means chopped up bell peppers, cabbage, avocado, salad greens - thin previous nights dressing with olive oil and add cilantro for dressing 5 - Garbanzo bean wraps - healthy amount of oil, garbanzo beans and garlic and red pepper flakes and fry until crispy. toss in a tortilla with salad greens, chopped up bell peppers, cabbage, whatever else. also great in salads as an extra topping, or with brown rice and stir fried veggies. again, use the chipotle sauce or leftover greek yogurt to make a tzatiki. 6 - probably a big salad night or leftover night since we have pasta in the fridge, the leftover sauce, garbanzo beans, sweet potato hash, and additional fresh veggies. This is pretty much every week with some variations. The key for us is to plan meals that use a lot of the same components. This also saves you time because you can prep them at the beginning of the week if you're smart (we're not). And there's almost always leftovers for lunch straight out of the pan/cutting board, or a lunch is easy to make because of rice/greens/pasta in the fridge plus a combination of whatever we have on hand from the week. The other reason we cook like this is because I'm not a vegetarian, so I can add cooked chicken or whatever to any of these meals for an extra protein boost. Hope that helps, and hope things are going great with the kiddo  .
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Mar 11, 2015 05:37
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First thing that catches my eye is you bought a LOT of fresh produce. Are you really going to be eating it all before it starts to bad or get gross? If not, you've just wasted a bunch of money. Second thing that caught my eye is Knyteguy posted:Try not to get offended if I don't reply for awhile or something since I may not have an answer at the moment. This is an odd return to that almost-antagonistic tone you were taking a few months ago. Is that baby stress getting to you? I don't think there's any shame in that, but I think it's worth noting that your tone is drifting back towards "we've got this all under control guys." Try to be patient before you declare yourself a budgeting success. edit: Also there is no upper limit to the attention span of BFC denizens anyhow.
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Mar 11, 2015 05:53
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Hawkgirl posted:This is an odd return to that almost-antagonistic tone you were taking a few months ago. Is that baby stress getting to you? I don't think there's any shame in that, but I think it's worth noting that your tone is drifting back towards "we've got this all under control guys." Try to be patient before you declare yourself a budgeting success. Also to point out that you swore that $300/mo was more than enough for groceries, and now you are quoting $190/2 weeks and calling it great progress. It may be great progress on overall nutritional value, but it's a step back on your budget, as you are going to have to make up that extra $80/mo from somewhere else. Seconding not paying a fee for meal plans. It is not rocket science, and there are hundreds of free resources. Will also echo the sentiment that declaring victory now is exactly how you had your last major setback. You still have not demonstrated that you can stay on budget for a minimum of 3 months, and everything went all to hell (again) after the baby came, so the "stay the course" and "let's wait and see" approach seems the most prudent.
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Mar 11, 2015 10:40
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There are plenty of free websites where you can put in what you currently have in your fridge/pantry and it'll produce recipes based on that.
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Mar 11, 2015 15:24
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KG, You have yet to have a series of 3 truly successful months in a row. I count your month where your son was born as a success because to call it anything less would denigrate the birth which is something I can't bring myself to do. You need to create a budget and stick to it(pot calling kettle, amirite?) Every month, you guys go over on this, or that, and say "oh it will be better next month", but guess what? It's not. Come back to the thread. Stop wasting money for someone to plan your meals for you. My wife and I spend 4-5 hours a week planning and pre-cooking freezer meals for ourselves that usually last us well into the next week. I know life is busy with the baby and such now, but I am sure you and your wife can still find the time. Come back to the thread. You're not out of the woods yet.
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Mar 11, 2015 16:20
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DogsCantBudget posted:Stop wasting money for someone to plan your meals for you. DogsCantBudget posted:11. Why do you have a housekeeper? Didn't you imply that you are a young person? Don't you think you'd be better off in life cleaning now and saving the housekeeper expenses for when you are 60 and actually need one? DogsCantBudget posted:Dog Duty/Poop Schoop: Wife has decreed this must be done, next month this drops to 55ish Wow.
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Mar 11, 2015 16:33
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I'm going to buck the trend and say if you're actually sticking to the paid meal plans, it's worth $10/mo or whatever. You'll save 10 times that by not giving in to restaraunts/takeout and you'll be eating healthier. Yes, ideally you could plan your meals yourself for free, but if it's something you're genuinely going to stick to in the long run it will save you money and be better for you. Maybe in a couple of months when you get into a routine with the baby and your wife is back to work you can revisit it, but I don't think it's a terrible idea. But if you're paying $10/mo to have these meals planned for you AND you're still eating out quite a bit, then yea, knock that poo poo off. For what it's worth, my wife and I have the hardest freaking time with meal planning. We both work and have a 3.5 year old and 4 month old, so it's Pretty loving Hard™ for us to get any energy to put into planning/cooking. My only saving grace is that I'm dieting and eat a lot of the same poo poo all the time so the staples are covered for breakfast/lunch. And please don't abandon your thread, you were just getting started and still have an enormous mountain of debt looming over you.
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Mar 11, 2015 16:36
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Yeah I don't think it benefits anyone to pretend that willpower isn't a finite resource that should be spent thoughtfully - you don't have to take on everything all at once. Make sure the planner actually reduces your costs by more than $10, but I think it's fine.
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Mar 11, 2015 16:44
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Droo posted:Wow. Sorry to Derail, but Droo, you still can't get over ~100$ a month(between those 2) which is 1% of our take home income? Really?
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Mar 11, 2015 16:59
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DogsCantBudget posted:Sorry to Derail, but Droo, you still can't get over ~100$ a month(between those 2) which is 1% of our take home income? Really?
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Mar 11, 2015 17:03
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DogsCantBudget posted:Sorry to Derail, but Droo, you still can't get over ~100$ a month(between those 2) which is 1% of our take home income? Really? Laziness is laziness. Justify it however you want.
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Mar 11, 2015 17:08
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DogsCantBudget posted:Sorry to Derail, but Droo, you still can't get over ~100$ a month(between those 2) which is 1% of our take home income? Really? Sorry to derail, but DogsCantBudget, you can't get over ~$10 a month which is less than 1% of their take home income? Really?
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Mar 11, 2015 17:51
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Iron Lung posted:The whole thread is about budgeting, and you're looking at a program with a monthly fee to make meal plans? Get a pen and sign up for a pinterest account, or head over to GWS! Do you have kids? I'm guessing you may not. I think $10/month for a meal planning service that you like and is a time saver is a totally reasonable thing to spend money on.
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Mar 11, 2015 18:23
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Bugamol posted:Sorry to derail, but DogsCantBudget, you can't get over ~$10 a month which is less than 1% of their take home income? Really?
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Mar 11, 2015 18:41
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Hm alright thanks for the food input and ideas. I think we'll stick with the meal planner for now. With the rigid plans it'll be difficult to eat out or eat junk food, plus I'm at a bit of a weight crisis here (office job) that I need to take care of. Health is my biggest reason here; helping with the budget would be a secondary (but important) benefit. I've failed in the past tracking calories, so I like that this just tells me what to do without thinking about it and keeps me within my goals. I'm going to end up with Diabetes or something if I don't make a change and that's going to cost far more than the meal planner ever will. If for some reason we aren't using the meal planner then I'll cancel it for sure. If we have the discipline to stick with it it'll save us money though. dreese I'll definitely be willing to revisit later on. In fact I'll have a whole bunch of two-week plans (with grocery lists) in my email that I could simply print and reuse (need to buy a printer) and that'll keep things fresh. I think DCB was just trying to give some helpful input. Dogs I consider February a success. We were under budget as a total, even if there was some individual categories we went over on. Plus we cut our utilities bill by $40 which won't be felt until later this month. I understand the sentiment but again I need to take steps for my health now too. Hawkgirl I'm not apathetic and I think I'm less stressed now that the baby is here than before. The waiting and "impending doom" was tough for me to bare. Now that he's here it's actually really nice. Yesterday I was really stressed out though and maybe that was coming through. I can't identify why I was so stressed. Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 00:17
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Knyteguy posted:I'm at a bit of a weight crisis here (office job) that I need to take care of. Weren't you going to start biking?
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Mar 12, 2015 00:24
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Knyteguy posted:in my email that I could simply print and reuse (need to buy a printer) Wait, what?
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Mar 12, 2015 02:57
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Cicero posted:Bike, bike. Bike bike bike. I was biking quite a bit there, but it became too much of a grind instead of fun. I don't really have the right clothes for it in the winter. Plus there's a lot of up hill and I was just being a sissy about it. I have however started doing daily walks with my mom, and a hike on Saturdays. Horking Delight posted:Wait, what? It sends some the weekly meal plans by email:  I can just get a collection of these (since it sends them every week, for the week) and mix and match when I have enough.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:06
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KG, you're paying ten dollars to be told to eat ice cream for breakfast and to smear some cheese on bread?
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Mar 12, 2015 04:45
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Robo Boogie Bot posted:KG, you're paying ten dollars to be told to eat ice cream for breakfast and to smear some cheese on bread? I planned "Work Breakfasts" to be ridiculously fast to put together (you can plan each meal by the amount of time you have, and whether you're available to cook at that time). So like on Saturdays the meals get more comprehensive since I put that we can cook and have more time. Hell it even accounts for leftovers for the next day and meets the calorie ranges. The value for me is the meals are pretty good and within the daily calorie range I want, and meet the macronutrients in the range I specify. Plus I haven't thrown down any money yet, so there's no harm in giving it a go until the trial is up, right? Knyteguy fucked around with this message at 05:41 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 05:28
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Robo Boogie Bot posted:KG, you're paying ten dollars to be told to eat ice cream for breakfast and to smear some cheese on bread? I tried out the free version, and it's complete crap. It seems to just randomly slap together different dishes into a meal, with no thought for ingredient portions (lunch called for 2/3 of an egg). There's no thought about how well the dishes go together, or about how many ingredients are reusable. And of course the meal cost is only based on the portions listed, but good luck buying 2 cubic inches of Brie and a cup of ice cream at a grocery store. The meal plan for a single day had me buying: fresh tarragon, chives, crab, 1/3 cup apple juice, 1/6 of a pear, blueberries, almonds, 1/6 of an apple, milk substitute, tofu, 1.25 mushrooms, 1/4 stalk broccoli, 1/4 bell pepper, and tofu for $5.59. And that's not including the ingredients I already have, including soy sauce, olive oil, peanut oil, vinegar, spinach, lettuce, onions, eggs, bread, oats, molasses, and various spices. There are tons of websites that will recommend healthy meals based on what you have in your pantry. With this website you'll wind up buying tons of specialized ingredients that will either go to waste (if you follow the meal plans) or encourage you to eat more (if the leftover Brie and ice cream is too tempting). I get that it's popular on Reddit and all, but did you bother doing any comparison shopping?
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Mar 12, 2015 05:47
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Knyteguy posted:I was biking quite a bit there, but it became too much of a grind instead of fun. I don't really have the right clothes for it in the winter. Plus there's a lot of up hill and I was just being a sissy about it. Let the hate flow through you, KnyteGuy.
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Mar 12, 2015 05:55
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in_cahoots posted:I tried out the free version, and it's complete crap. It seems to just randomly slap together different dishes into a meal, with no thought for ingredient portions (lunch called for 2/3 of an egg). There's no thought about how well the dishes go together, or about how many ingredients are reusable. And of course the meal cost is only based on the portions listed, but good luck buying 2 cubic inches of Brie and a cup of ice cream at a grocery store. The meal plan for a single day had me buying: fresh tarragon, chives, crab, 1/3 cup apple juice, 1/6 of a pear, blueberries, almonds, 1/6 of an apple, milk substitute, tofu, 1.25 mushrooms, 1/4 stalk broccoli, 1/4 bell pepper, and tofu for $5.59. And that's not including the ingredients I already have, including soy sauce, olive oil, peanut oil, vinegar, spinach, lettuce, onions, eggs, bread, oats, molasses, and various spices. Huh. So far the portions seem to be OK with a little bit of weirdness. I don't actually use reddit, I got it from here. http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3483424#post403381951 which lists swole.me (website) which lists the eatthismuch.com There's options to use up ingredients by manually adding meals and recipes that use ingredients (which scales). I'll grant that it's not perfect, but if it's good enough... it's better than getting lazy and ordering pizza and letting ingredients go to waste anyway isn't it? At least this way I have a plan I need to stick to. I dunno again it seems like it's worth a shot. I really like the meals so far. I had 5 cups of spinach today, a chicken breast, tomato topped bruschetta, and cumin rice. Besides that chicken breast I wouldn't really think to make that stuff. edit: ^ my internet is being absolutely awful tonight and I missed that. Good point.
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Mar 12, 2015 06:07
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Knyteguy posted:Huh. So far the portions seem to be OK with a little bit of weirdness. Maybe it's better with customization or in your calorie range. But I would keep track of that Brie and ice cream to see how much of it goes to waste or is actually used in this meal plan. You've been telling us for months how much food you have already prepared in your freezer. Why are the only options delivery and spending tons of money on new specialized ingredients?
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Mar 12, 2015 06:14
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in_cahoots posted:Maybe it's better with customization or in your calorie range. But I would keep track of that Brie and ice cream to see how much of it goes to waste or is actually used in this meal plan. You've been telling us for months how much food you have already prepared in your freezer. Why are the only options delivery and spending tons of money on new specialized ingredients? Possibly - I did tinker with it a bit. Plus we doubled everything to include my wife so that may help. Fair enough I'll watch to see if any food is getting thrown it. I absolutely don't want to let ingredients go to waste that always makes me mad. They aren't the only options of course, I just feel like I've tried so many other things that I've been unable to execute so far with both health and budgeting food, and I'm just kind of tired of so much time and effort not paying off. At least this is relatively easy.
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Mar 12, 2015 06:19
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http://emeals.com/ <---- this was recommended to one of the more tragic BFC stars, though I can't remember who. I used it when my kid was born and it was pretty good. I should also point out that it's cheaper than what you're using now and I don't think it ever suggested eating ice cream for breakfast. Do you have a blender? You realize you can make a healthy shake with yogurt, ice, fruits, and veggies, right? You could make it the night before. Store it in the fridge. Meal planning is a great way to lose weight and save money, but if you eat garbage, which always seems to cost more in the end, you're just going to end up feeling like what you're eating. Knyteguy posted:They aren't the only options of course, I just feel like I've tried so many other things that I've been unable to execute so far with both health and budgeting food, and I'm just kind of tired of so much time and effort not paying off. At least this is relatively easy. You seem to put a lot of time and effort into planning rather than executing. You have a problem, man.
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Mar 12, 2015 08:16
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^^In my experience, it's way more fun getting all the supplies together for a project and doing all the shopping and comparing and thinking than actually following through and finishing it. Also, if you think eating ice cream for breakfast instead of just having protien powder with water or at the most, milk, will make you lose weight, you're gonna have a bad time. That ice cream's gonna call to you from the icebox and the next thing you know you'll be standing there with the door open, chowing down on that poo poo. Take it from a former (and still fairly) fat guy. The best solution is to not have that poo poo around at all.
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Mar 12, 2015 11:00
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You completely dodged the question of "what happened to the weeks worth of food you've been claiming is in your refrigerator?". Have you tried ordering your groceries online and then just picking them up in the store? This would help you stick to a budget and avoid impulse purchases. There's a few grocery stores in my town that have this option and it's no extra cost.
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Mar 12, 2015 14:53
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Taco Box posted:^^In my experience, it's way more fun getting all the supplies together for a project and doing all the shopping and comparing and thinking than actually following through and finishing it.
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Mar 12, 2015 15:39
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Bugamol posted:Have you tried ordering your groceries online and then just picking them up in the store? This would help you stick to a budget and avoid impulse purchases. There's a few grocery stores in my town that have this option and it's no extra cost.
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Mar 12, 2015 15:39
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Taco Box posted:^^In my experience, it's way more fun getting all the supplies together for a project and doing all the shopping and comparing and thinking than actually following through and finishing it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhCPVgcOJJw
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Mar 12, 2015 15:55
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ladyweapon posted:Safeway has online shopping and they deliver for free. They list a charge under $150.00, but they perpetually send free delivery coupons if you place any order. You also get a $2.00-6.00(!) discount if you give a wider time frame, 2-6 hours I think, for them to deliver. I use it for my larger orders since I take public transit everywhere and carrying a lot of groceries is a hassle. It also has the advantage that you will know your total before you commit to buying. I would almost guarantee 99% of people are not going to try and put stuff back after they've been rung up at a grocery store, but it's totally feasible with an online order.
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Mar 12, 2015 16:30
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Knyteguy posted:It sends some the weekly meal plans by email: But... Why would you need to buy a printer? That's an example, I think, of the sort of "spend money to solve problem without considering any alternatives" mindset that's been pointed out as a problem you've struggled with in the past. Possible alternatives to buying a printer just to print several sheets of paper: Print it at work (you don't work from home all the time, right?) Ask your wife to print it at work (if you do this after she's working again) Go to the library and use their printer Write it down by hand (if you like the idea of making your own personal cookbook) and put in binder Save recipe on phone Go to fedex and print for like 10c/page Ask friends/family to print from their work That's just off the top of my head; I print things semi-regularly and I've always just used the work printer to do it.
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Mar 12, 2015 19:50
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Every now and then the cheap, monochrome Brother laser printer goes on sale for like $60 and it is a nice little workhorse. I have an HL-2240 from several years ago, but there are a lot of different model numbers that all look basically the same: http://www.amazon.com/Brother-HLL23...r+laser+printer If you don't already have daily access to a work printer (not sure why you wouldn't, but you've said in the past printing stuff at work isn't easy or something), I would buy something like that for your home.
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Mar 12, 2015 20:40
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For recipes specifically, gently caress printing. I find it way easier to just keep the ones I like enough to make more than once in a folder in gmail. Just email them to yourself, change the tag, voila. Recipes in your pocket!
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Mar 12, 2015 21:34
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Droo posted:Every now and then the cheap, monochrome Brother laser printer goes on sale for like $60 and it is a nice little workhorse. I have an HL-2240 from several years ago, but there are a lot of different model numbers that all look basically the same: Nur_Neerg posted:For recipes specifically, gently caress printing. I find it way easier to just keep the ones I like enough to make more than once in a folder in gmail. Just email them to yourself, change the tag, voila. Recipes in your pocket! 
SiGmA_X fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 22:12
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Nur_Neerg posted:For recipes specifically, gently caress printing. I find it way easier to just keep the ones I like enough to make more than once in a folder in gmail. Just email them to yourself, change the tag, voila. Recipes in your pocket! I bookmark them on my phone. When I cook something I'll turn my display timeout to 10 minutes, lean it up against the wall behind the counter and then get crackin. Works great. My brazilian cheese bread recipe has lived on this phone since the week I bought it.
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Mar 12, 2015 22:22
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Evernote's awesome for this. I clip recipes using 'Clip to Evernote' and it auto sorts into my categories. Then when I'm planning my meals, I just drag and drop the recipes into the appropriate folder which I have shortcutted. Then I delete and file the recipes I liked. For ones I really love, I actually transcribe with notes on alterations into my recipe book on Scrivener.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:07
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KG just a friendly reminder that your habit of spending money at the sign of any sort of problem or issue does appear to be cropping up here. Instead of just looking up free meal plans online and either putting them on your phone, or god forbid just writing them down, you've decided to spend $10/month + printer. I don't think a $10/month meal planning site is a bad idea at all, but you should be trying to use the free options first.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:22
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To be fair to Knyteguy, someone did recommend he put aside some discretionary and buy a printer.
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Mar 12, 2015 23:23
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