More challenges

So, yesterday, we covered cleaning/organizing.

Today, I thought we would talk about cooking. This one, I think I can get a handle on if I try, but there is the key word: try. The reason for my reluctance to try is that I think that cooking is a terrible job and I hate it. Eating, I love, but cooking is for the birds.

We go out to eat several times a week. This is not good on the budget and is probably not as healthful as eating home cooked food at home.

So, I have identified the problem. I don't like to cook, but eating out is expensive.

Here is the solution as I see it:

1. I need a meal plan.
2. I need a grocery list for my meal plan.
3. I need to discipline myself to actually cook what is on my meal plan so that the food is ready at the desired meal time.
4. I should get started on this right now.

This leads my to my next challenge which is couponing. I really like to get the receipt for my groceries and look at the bottom where it says "You saved $xx.xx today". I love for that number to be really high. What ends up happening, though is that I only buy what is on sale or what I have a coupon for and not so much of what I need. Then I wind up with the pantry filled with strange things that don't go together to make a meal. If I buy only from a list, I end up spending nearly $15,000/year on food, which I blogged about in the beginning of my blog. (I don't know how to link to that specific post, or I would do it here.)

Also, snacks and meals other than dinner? I'm not such a good planner of those either.

So, I'm going to get started on my meal plan for next week RIGHT NOW.