Creating Time in Your Week - Meal and Grocery Preparation

Creating Time in Your Week - Meal and Grocery Preparation 

Another task that I find is a significant focus of my week is groceries and family meals. I did a rough calculation in my head one day, and more than 25 hours of my week goes to preparing meals, planning meals, grocery shopping etc., so it was well worth my investment in streamlining whatever I could.   

Some things that have worked well for me for saving time that will hopefully help you too include the following: 

- I started saving recipes in an online database called Paprika. I think it cost about $15 to buy on the Apple app store. There are lots of different options out there. Paprika is great because when I find a recipe online or someone sends me a web link, I can save it straight into the app. All recipes are saved in Paprika alphabetically, and I can also assign them to categories to make them easier to find. I have created a helpful database of ideas I can draw on when I struggle to decide what to cook. 

- We moved all our grocery shopping online about six months ago, and it is the best!!!!! I can't speak highly enough of it. Over the time we have been using it, we have seen the whole process go from strength to strength as the companies have invested more into it throughout the pandemic. The food is well picked and fresh; we have barely any issues with unavailable or damaged stock, and substitutions made are generally OK. This week, even a refund on a damaged item took me about two minutes to request through their online bot. It is so nice not to have to take our 3yo and 4yo into a supermarket for a big shop each week and not lose half a day of our already busy week to loading up, shopping and then unpacking the groceries at home.  

- In terms of meal planning, I typed up a grocery list of all the frequent items we buy and printed it out to annotate each week. On the left-hand side of this list, I have each day of the week listed, and I write down a rough plan of meals to know what we need to buy. I also use saved grocery lists in our online platforms for regular items to speed up the ordering process each week. 

- Last year, we bought a standing freezer. We purchased it at a clearance centre, a lot cheaper than the new price as it had a few dints on it. The freezer has been great as it enables us to do a lot more batch cooking. For example, when I cook spaghetti bolognese, I do a big batch in the slow cooker that lasts four or five meals. I have been able to use my slow cooker to batch up all sorts of meals in this way – pulled chicken, pulled pork, Mexican beef, soups. 

- We bought a cheap whiteboard at Kmart, which my husband put up in our pantry. On the left side, we have listed all the days of the week, and we add recurring things that happen each week there. In the middle, we screwed on two wooden drawer tidies to hold bills, whiteboard markers, and other odds and ends. On the right-hand side, we write down all the things that need to get bought in the next shop. It is so handy that we both keep track of what has run out. 

- I also watch the rewards app for the supermarket we shop at and access all the special offers, discount codes and rewards vouchers that I can. It all helps to keep our weekly spending down!