Cheat sheet for menu making

This will be our first year homeschooling our twins and we are SUPER excited about it. I am not used to feeding them breakfast and lunch throughout the year because they have always eaten at school, so we sat down and came up with a cheat sheet for my menu making.

We started with the items they like to eat for breakfast and focused mostly on foods they can make themselves. Part of homeschooling for us is teaching them independence and self sufficiency. Instead of simply adding cereal I asked them for specific types, this way it will be easier when I do the grocery shopping and I will not need to guess what kinds they want.

We then added lunch items. Again, focusing on items they can make themselves. For lunch we will make a schedule and we will take turns making lunch for everyone. Doing it this way will cause less mess in the kitchen, teach them life long cooking skills, and show them how to be part of a giving family.

Last but not least we added snacks. My number 1 tip for snacks is to divide them up into snack baggies as soon as you get them home from the store. That way if someone (you included) needs a snack they can grab a bag instead of being tempted to mindlessly eat out of the box.

From this list I create a menu that is hung on the fridge each week so there are no surprises. The kids know what to expect and I am not having to stress each day about what to make.

At the end of the day when you are feeding an army the trick is to plan ahead and get input from the troops.

Here are pictures of our list and one of our menus. I would love to hear some of the items you add to your list.

Back to school with a big family

Up until 2 years ago back to school shopping was a piece of cake. I only had 2 kiddos in school and it didn’t seem like a big deal to wait until the middle of August when we got their school supply lists to start our shopping. Then Monkey and Bear went into kindergarten and holy moly… all of a sudden I went from 2 supply lists to FOUR! I almost had a nervous breakdown. I hadn’t saved or planned or anything. To say we scrimped by that year would be an understatement.

Now I have a plan… instead of waiting until the supply lists come out in August I start shopping in June. That way I buy a little bit at a time (we get paid twice a month) and I don’t have to scramble by waiting until the last minute. I start with the items I know they will be expected to have… pencils, paper, folders, dry erase markers, backpacks, lunch boxes, ice packs, scissors, crayons, glue, etc. Then I pay attention to coupons and back to school sale ads in our local sunday paper. I also use an app on my phone called Flipp to get our local sale ads.

So far this year I have purchased new lunch boxes for each of the kids at Walmart for just 6.99 each and new back packs for Monkey and Bear at Walmart for 10.99 each. Thankfully Butterfly and Monster don’t need new ones.

I also purchased a lot of the essentials from Office Depot using their Back to School Deals. In this picture there are 6 pencil boxes, 6 pairs of scissors, 6 mini staplers, 4- 100 count index cards, 9- 24 count Crayola crayons, 9 sharpies, 6- 4 count papermate pens, 9- 12 count pencils, 9- 3 count erasers, 1- 10 piece math kit, 1 three hole punch/ruler, and 1 three ring binder pencil pouch. My total was $42.26 and and my savings was a grand total of $166.76! The only thing you will want to watch out for here is you are limited to 3 of each item. I took Butterfly with me and gave her cash to pay for her cart full of supplies so you will want to take an older child, your spouse, or maybe even a friends if you need more than 3 of each item.

If you have any great ideas on how to save on back to school shopping I would love to hear them!