Plan like your life depended on it.

It was my volunteer shift for Pizza Thursday!!! at our school today. I love Pizza day and how our school implements it. Every kid gets pizza, no one's left out, no parents have to feel ashamed that they can't afford a pizza lunch once a week. It's run through our school council, fundraising, and volunteers. The kids love it, the pizza is deelish, the company that brings it does a fab job of organizing our order by classroom. It's a well executed plan, with the great perk that the tasty tasty pizza leftovers come home with the volunteers. Yum 😋

The prompt for day 22 (and yep I'm catching up again) of YNAB's 34 day challenge is a MEAL PLAN. These things can be terrifying, combative, complicated, emotional and HUGELY successful when you're out of the trenches. But coming from someone who's run a super-successful meal plan for their fam jam, it's not as easy as a Mary Poppins finger-snap....and can be more like a Thanos snap so treat yourself kindly and with patience on the meal plan learning curve. So my meal-planning involves my family, two adults, two kids (both of whom eat like mad and are growing like vikings, neither is choosy eater or has ever been and honestly I have considering moving us to the country and starting a chicken and potato farm because holy heck the eggs and taters we go through!). 

When they were new and smaller, I went back to work after my maternity leave. That's right, I left my little babies in care and only when we were well into small child and toddlerhood did I leave work to become our full-time household manager. My husband, love him I do, had and has no mind for food prep or cooking and is intimidated by it. So when we were dual-income, small kids in care, 9-5 family - a meal plan was absolutely a must. This was pre-YNAB days for us too. I was winging it all over the place! But I did know how to cook, just basics, and food prep didn't scare me. Running out of time would stress me out like nobody's business so on weekends the mister would be on kid-duty 100% and I would be on make all the food for the week duty. And it worked for us! meals were simple, healthy, freezer and wallet-friendly - I came to associate my time preparing the meals with time for myself. I didn't need to overly challenge myself, I'm not a fancy person - Better Homes and Gardens everyone's mother and grandmother had is literally my favourite cookbook. I accounted for leftovers, worn-out days (hello! breakfast for dinner!), tiny human preferences - yep I made baby food myself or adapted recipes for my little ones and lunches for my husband and I to take to our jobs. For four years I ran my meal-plan and looking back my only regret is that we were not using YNAB then so I can't account for what we saved, but I can account for the stress and time saved. I can account for the massive amount of learning I acquired in time-management and home cooked foods. I can appreciate the treat that going out to eat is. Considering I was coming from a place of never really wanting a family, and living a pretty fancy-free lifestyle only accountable to myself with my motivation solely pointed at my career at the time, my adaptation to the needs of my family is a big success in my life and brought my a lot of happiness!


Things are different these days. I'm home - obviously lounging around in marabou kitten-heeled slippers and satin gowns. 

OH that's not me! That's Jean Harlow....sorry, no. The wheels fell right off our meal plan train when I took on being a full time at home parent and partner. But it was actually a good thing for us and me.

It was a complete perspective shift, not going to lie. "Stay-at-Home Mum" was never on my list of life choices. Police officer, olympic cyclist, pony...these existed as options for what I was going to be when I grew up. The weirdly intrusive societal pressures and expectations an individual faces when they do stay at home is quite real, not just lazy liberal whining. What people thought were throwaway comments would be triggers for me and cause doubt, harmful negative self-talk, with bouts of depression and anxiety. While it ultimately has been a good thing, it's not an easy or easily accepted choice in these modern times. I have gained skills in time management, child development, education, finances, nutrition, organization, peer support, health, community-building, household repairs, small animal welfare, and empowerment. Dude...if I wanted to lounge in my silks, I've earned it!

So let's get back to meal plans, we don't function with one now but between our grocery budget, our dining out budget, and our wants to be successful as savvy spenders - the costs of nourishing the family (between $700 and $850 CDN per month) is under control with room for treats. I don't coupon, I shop sales, we don't do Costco, we do love Canada's new Food Guide!, we rarely buy junk food because everything tends to be a disappointment compared to my homemade versions - everything from fish 'n chips to Starbucks' Cranberry Bliss Bars to crêpes to Bakewell tarts to burritos  it just goes on and on. My pro-tip DON'T ever shop when hungry, that just leads to trouble.

Thank YOU Hyperbole and a Half

I will continue my 34 day challenge catch up in another post, as this one took on a life of it's own reflecting on food, family, strategies and life ❤️