How to manage food, time and budget

On April 11-12, 2015, VTsIOM interviewed 1,600 people. One of the questions was about healthy eating. Statistics showed that 36% of respondents try to eat healthy food. 20% do not think about the quality of food and eat what they can afford. That is, one in five eats inadequately. His diet depends on the size of the salary and the prices in the store. Agree, an unimportant approach to nutrition?

Healthy eating is an investment of money. You invest in the future.

There are no data for 2016 yet, but even from a comparison of 2014 and 2015, everything is clear. For example, beef has risen in price by 56 rubles per year. Red fish in 2014 cost 450 rubles per kilogram. In 2016, the fillet of red fish already cost 1,000 rubles per kilogram.

I have been working remotely since last summer. After two months of working at home, I was stuck with cooking. The question "What to cook for dinner?" loomed already in the morning. In addition to dinner, I thought about lunch, because going from home to a cafe is irrational. There were no problems only with breakfasts. Constant trips to the store have increased the cost of food at times. I realized that something had to be done about it.

To optimize the food budget and eat well and healthy, I borrowed an idea from tourists.

For any trip, tourists make a layout. This is a complete meal plan for all time. It is counted to the gram. For example, dinner will be considered as follows: (300 g of buckwheat + ⅓ cans of stew + 2 pieces of bread + tea + 20 g of sugar + cookies) × 6 people. Therefore, they buy 2 kg of buckwheat, 2 cans of stew, a loaf of bread, sugar and two packs of cookies. And so for every meal.

The layout relieves the head. You don't have to think about what to cook for dinner today.

It is convenient to schedule meals as often as you go to the store. I do this once a week. On the weekend, the whole family sit down to plan. Everyone expresses their wishes. Children ask for pancakes, pancakes and so on, the head of the family - a steak. I know that healthy foods should be included in the weekly menu: fish, cottage cheese and meat.

I distribute all wishes by days of the week. Useful alternates with unuseful. It calms family members. They know that if there was fish today, then tomorrow there will definitely be pancakes or cheese cakes. I fill in the remaining empty cells as I wish.

When I have a clear plan for the week, I go to cafes less on weekdays. I know what I have for dinner today, what products I bought for this and how much money was spent. If I eat in a cafe tonight, dinner will be gone. I have other groceries scheduled for tomorrow. Therefore, I take into account in the plan even possible meetings with friends.

The meal plan is disciplined. You eat better and eat less on the side.

I make a plan based on the schedule of all family members. If I have an evening meeting, I do not plan stuffed cabbage or pancakes for this day: most likely, I will not have time to cook and will have to eat dumplings. On the day when my son is training, I definitely cook meat for dinner. Otherwise, raids on the refrigerator will be made until late at night.

I don't plan anything but soup for the weekend. So I leave the freedom of choice to the household. We can go to friends and have dinner there or go to a cafe. I deliberately plan out my meals. This enlivens the menu and relieves the hostess.

When I have a plan, I schedule cooking times on my own schedule.

Initially, I made the menu in plastic pockets. She wrote out the dishes on cards and inserted them into the pockets of the business card holder. When planning a menu, just insert a borscht card into your lunch pocket. A new dish appears - get a new card. The color of the cards helped to navigate the dishes. Yellow ones are side dishes. Orange are the first courses.

Now the cards serve as a reminder that I can cook. I go through them when I make the menu. It is more convenient to do this on paper. Here's my menu template.

It is more convenient to attach a menu on paper to the refrigerator and fill it out faster.

When the weekly plan is drawn up, it is the turn of the shops. You look at the weekly menu and write out the food you need. For a casserole - buy cottage cheese, for the first - meat on the bone, cod - for a fish day. A list is formed from these products. It is designed for exactly a week, so you can't buy anything extra in the store.

When I went without such a list, I bought fresh meat and fresh fish at the same time. Since it was impossible to eat it fresh right away, it was necessary to put something in the freezer. Thus, I overpayed for freshness, when with the same success it was possible to buy immediately frozen.

Lists of products on paper are inconvenient. You forget at home, and you go to the store on your way home from work. If another family member comes to the store, you need to check whether he took the list.

I switched to electronic lists. The programs on the phone show the list to another family member. If one has bought and marked - the product is removed from the list.

Programs are synchronized with the computer, so it's quicker to score a complete list through the computer.

It is convenient to go to the big supermarket once a week. This saves time because you do everything in one go. You choose what you have planned. You pay for freshness if the product is on the plan for the next three days. Buying fresh fish on Saturday to eat it on Thursday is a waste of money.

Going shopping after work can make it harder to follow your plan. The nearest store may not have the fish that you have planned for this day. Or the quality of the meat confuses you, but according to the plan today is steaks. In this case, the set of products for dinner dictates the assortment of the store.

Small analytics showed that it is more profitable to shop in large stores.

The most expensive thing is to run into the store after work. A hungry brain buys food randomly.

Weekly planning made life easier. The family eats fish more often and is not resentful. Extra time was freed up because they stopped going to the store every day. Thinking about what to cook for dinner does not distract from work.