Two Weeks

I’ve made it over two weeks into my 30 day meal prep challenge! I have to say though, I think I’m going through some fast food withdrawals…I’d give anything for some French fries right about now! However, so far the meal prepping has been very successful. In this update, I wanted to share a few of the things I’ve noticed over the past weeks.

Grocery Shopping

One of the reasons I started this challenge was to spend less money on food. I was spending my regular monthly budget on groceries plus buying food out when I didn’t feel like cooking. Instead, I wanted to stick to grocery shopping only and eliminate any extra food spending. I also wanted to decrease my grocery spending with some extra planning ahead (sale ads, coupons, etc.). That last goal, has been the challenge for me. I tend to scan the sale ads looking for the best deals on grocery items that we tend to use frequently and I find myself making extra trips to the grocery store just to buy things on sale, even if I don’t plan on using them right away. While this is not always a bad thing, if you don’t have plans to use the item anytime soon, it may be worth waiting until it comes on sale again instead of spending the extra money now just because. It’s the sale mentality.

With preparing more meals and snacks at home, I also find myself running out of things more quickly than I used to, such as bread, eggs, onions, etc. I, again, end up making extra trips to the store to grab these necessary items, and that’s when impulse shopping can take over. Over these next two weeks, meal planning will be key to preparing my grocery list and eliminating unnecessary grocery trips. All these extra trips are eliminating the savings I would have had from eliminating convenience food spending.

How many are you cooking for?

Meal prepping for yourself (or 2 people) versus a whole family is vastly different. My household only has two people, so when we cook a meal there are lots of leftovers. That means the ability to make multiple meal prep lunches/dinners that will last maybe half the week. When cooking for more people, it will take more planning and effort. It could even mean doubling your recipes to make sure there are leftovers, or cook dedicated meals for your lunch preps. We just tend to meal prep with whatever is leftover from our dinner.

Have options

One of the things I noticed, is it can get tiring eating the same thing every day for lunch. I like to switch it up. To remedy this, I usually like to have 2-3 meal options available at any time to choose from. That way I won’t mind eating the same meal again if I’ve had a day in between to eat something else. Or even easier, on days you want to switch it up, go ahead and make a sandwich instead of the full on meal. Add some chips or carrot sticks on the side and you’re good to go!

There is still two more weeks of meals to go, so I’ll check in with another update when we reach day 30!

 

Go back to the beginning of the meal prep challenge: 30 Day Meal Prep Challenge or check out the last blog post, where the meal prep challenge is completed: 30 Day Meal Prep Challenge – Complete!