Week 10: New Level of Organized

I apologize for such a late post on this tenth week of 2014! Things have been getting a little crazy with mid-terms and papers coming up, but I'm take a few minutes to stick to this New Year's Resolution of mine :)

The New:
Okay, so since I started Financial Peace University in February, I have been much better at not spending money willy-nilly. To get even more on top of it, I decided to plan out every meal for the month, and then stick to it! I know this may sound a little overboard, but it has solved my problem of trying to figure out what's for dinner 20 minutes before I get so hungry I feel like I could pass out.
Plus, it saves a ton of time when I'm making my grocery list every week because I have all the food right there, so it's much easier to know what I need for the upcoming week.

So here are my basic strategies:

• Make lots and have leftovers for lunch. Whether its chili, enchiladas, spaghetti, soup, stir-fry, whatever, it's delicious and super easy to heat up the next day for lunch.
• Meat every 3 days. This was something I started about a year ago because I watched a documentary that compelled me to do so for my health. As a result, I lost about 5 pounds and have kept it off. In addition to that though, it saves me a chunk of money every week. Meat costs much more than other proteins such as beans or whole wheat pasta.
• Highlight the extra meals and use them next month. Sometimes, leftovers last longer than expected or you opt for a PB+J because you just don't feel like cooking. If you highlight the meals you skipped out on, it makes it much easier to see them and implement them into next month's planning.
• Don't skip even one meal, unless you will be out of town (as I will be next week). Even if it seems silly to plan out breakfast for every morning, you might be surprised to find that it will save you time from trying to decide.
• Eat healthy about 80% of the time. This is much easier to do if you break it down to 21 meals a week, and plan to eat healthy for 17 of them. 

The Evidence:

Here are my calendars, as proof :) the different colored high-lighters are just for aesthetic purposes, and nothing more. Also, you may be able to see that I abbreviated leftovers as LO. 

The Verdict:

As if I were not raving about it enough at the beginning, this small addition of some organization has been extremely helpful in keeping me on track in my budget and in eating relatively healthy. Sure, it does take some extra time at the end of each month, but I think in the long run it is definitely worth it. 

Also, it is relatively simple to get started. All I do is pull up a blank calendar from Microsoft word, fill in the days, and record a breakfast, lunch, and dinner for each day. Super simple!

Are you already doing something similar? Tell me about it in the comments!