menu planning template - Stuff Parents Need

Do you plan out the meals you are going to have in a typical week? I have been doing this for at least the past 5 years, and I find it to be an extremely effective way to save money at the grocery store, as well as to save my sanity at 5pm every day when I wonder what we should have for dinner.

So what does my menu typically look like? It is usually on a lined piece of paper, with the days of the week written down the left side of the page and the meal selections under each day. I try to leave room for my grocery list on the right side of the page. It gets the job done, but it looks really messy!

Lobotom e is a company that has put out a notepad that will save me a bit of time each week when putting together my menu and shopping list. It is called Feed Me, and check out how it is set up. It makes perfect sense to me!

While I am finding the Feed Me notepad to be very easy to use, I do have a few suggestions for improvement:

I am personally used to using something that is 8 1/2 x 11, and while I don’t think I have to have something quite that big, I’d like to see the pad grow just a touch in size.
I’d like to see a magnet on the back of the pad so that it can go on the fridge. Alternatively, I’d like to see the back of each paper be sticky, so that the paper can be stuck on the fridge, the wall, or any place where it can be easily seen throughout the week.
I’d like to see Saturday and Sunday given separate categories. I plan meals for those days the same as I do for any other day of the week!

If you are just starting out with meal planning, or if you are a seasoned pro who would love to have a handy list to make it even faster, this is a nice choice! Lobotome also has a whole range of very cool notepads designed to help keep you sane in other aspects of your life. I’m really intrigued by the Pack Me notepad, for example, which is so helpful any time you need to go on a trip. I usually re-create the same basic packing list every time we go anywhere, which is stressful and inefficient. It would be great to just pull out this packing list and start checking things off! I also like the Sit Me notepad, which can help you quickly fill out important information for a babysitter, and help you get out the door and go have fun faster!

Buy it!: Lobotome notepads are available for $9.95 each, but they also have package deals such as the 10 pack of different notepads for just $59.95.

Win it!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win the notepad of your choice from Lobotome! Organization is on the way! Hooray! The contest will run until April 18th at 11:59pm EST when a winner will be selected via Random.org. The winner will have 48 hours to respond to winning notification before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States. Limit one entrant per household, please.

Mandatory entry: Tell me which Lobotome notepad you need the most, and choose wisely, as the winner will get his/her selection for this entry!

My answer: I’d definitely want to get the Sit Me notepad next!

Additional entries:
1. Sponsor love: “Like” Lobotome on Facebook
2. Blogger love: “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook

Be sure to enter my other current giveaways, found on the sidebar of my homepage.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary product for review purposes. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

I’ve talked before on this blog about what a challenge it is to cook at home every day. We are on a fairly tight budget, so eating out often isn’t really an option. But that doesn’t mean that we magically have time to plan our meals out every week and prepare them nightly while also trying to feed Darah and start her nighttime routine. Even though I try to make a menu for the week, I often will leave a crucial ingredient off of the grocery list, which throws everything into a downward spiral and Tim heads out the door to pick up takeout or we just turn to our boxes of cereal. I’ve also run into the problem of planning a pretty decent menu, and getting to the store only to realize that some of my key ingredients are either unavailable or ridiculously expensive (our Kroger is seriously lacking in the produce and cheese departments, as well as the specialty meats).

I wanted to tell you about a really cool online meal planning service that helps remedy every problem but the actual food preparation (sorry, the computer can’t do the cooking for you!). emeals is a menu planning service that plans a week’s worth of dinners for your family. And get this; the meals are based off of what is on sale at your local grocery store, which will save you a nice little bundle each week! Woo hoo!

Just log into emeals, print your recipes and your shopping list. You don’t have to do any planning at all! It even tells you what the price of the items you are buying should be. I really love that feature. I know that if you can plan a menu based on what is on sale at the store that week, you are money ahead. But I have NO TIME to sit down with the flyer and come up with a list of dishes that use all the bargains! emeals does that for you. Brilliant.

I had the opportunity to try out E-Mealz for a month. I loved it, though I would like to see some of the meal options be just a bit healthier. You can check out a sample menu here to get a sense for if E-Mealz offers the types of food your family likes to eat. They actually offer some low-fat menus, so those may have been a better fit for us. I would also suggest that E-Mealz send email reminders to subscribers when the new grocery list is available. With all the chaos in my home, I forgot to check in with E-Mealz twice during the month, which bummed me out. Other than that, though, I think this is an amazing service and I would highly recommend it for folks who need to save money by eating at home, but who are also short on time.

Buy It!: E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families costs as little as $1.25/week. Imagine how much time and money you will save…$1.25/week is a total steal. Also, if you use the code SAVEMONEY at checkout, you can save an additional 10% off your first purchase of a meal plan!

Win It!: One lucky Stuff Parents Need reader will win a three month subscription to emeals. Get ready to get some of your time back! Woo hoo! The contest will run until July 7th at 7:59pm CST when a winner will be selected using Random.org. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is selected. Open to residents of the United States.

Mandatory Entry: Tell me which emeals plan you would select if you win!

Additional Entries:
1. Subscribe to Stuff Parents Need by email, RSS or Google Friend Connect (one entry, total, even if you subscribe multiple ways)
2. Follow E-Mealz on Twitter
3. Follow Stuff Parents Need on Twitter
4. “Like” E-Mealz on Facebook
5. “Like” Stuff Parents Need on Facebook
6. Tweet about this giveaway (only one extra entry for this)
7. If you are a blogger, add my button to your blog and leave me a url so I can find it!

Be sure to check out all my other current giveaways on the sidebar of my home page!

Disclosure: I received a complimentary subscription in order to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are strictly my own.

Menu Planning Got Even Easier (Lobotome GIVEAWAY!!!)

Emeals Meal Planning Service Review