Fall already… where did the summer go? If you’re anything like us at Budget Maids you will be wondering what on earth happened to this year as the countdown to Christmas and the holiday season begins…
We’re all about offering you quick and easy cleaning tips and advice on this blog, but one idea you might like to consider in addition is menu planning. Menu planning can free up a lot of your time, not to mention saving you money so we always recommend it.
Here’s our guide to menu planning.
- Start with your family’s likes and dislikes. It’s no good planning to make lots of curries if your family doesn’t like spicy foods. List the favourite dishes and add in one or two from your recipe collection, just to mix things up.
- Think about your week ahead – if you have a busy week coming up, you’ll need meals and recipes that are very quick and easy to do, ready-made burgers and buns for example, ready cooked chicken or omelettes with salad.
- Why not involve the whole family? Ask your husband if he’d like to cook a dish (if he doesn’t already!) or your older kids, and ask for any meal requests.
- Write down all your planned recipes and meals for the week, including breakfasts and lunches. If you want to be really geeky, you could put the meals and links to the recipes on a shared calendar so the whole family can see it.
- Are there dishes that can be made in large quantities – such as stews and casseroles? These are great because you can make up huge batches and store them in the freezer.
- Now list all the ingredients you need for each dish, and check this against what you already have in your store cupboards.
- Shop for the ingredients, sticking strictly to what’s on your list as this will help you keep shopping bills to a minimum.
Here at Budget Maids we provide cleaning services in Arlington, a maid service in Vienna or cleaning services in Falls Church and surrounds, cleaning services in Olney and Oakton and more. Why not give us a call today and let us help you with all your household cleaning tasks so you can get on with menu planning and more?
